Call of Duty Black Ops is Treyarch’s third installment in the franchise. You can use the “third times a charm” phrase when you talk about Black Ops, because this campaign is the most entertaining out of their previous efforts. The game takes place during the Cold War era in the 1960′s and takes you to a mix of different locations, such as Russia, Cuba, Vietnam and others. Some of the missions you come across in the game add a nice change of pace, and you never really feel like your in the same location all the time. Everything from diving and parachuting off snow capped mountains, to swimming through muddy waters, picking off enemies one by one. It’s those moments in Black Ops that make playing a special forces operative a lot of fun.
You will also come across some familiar faces and voices during the campaign. Viktor Reznov makes a return from the World of War game and has a pretty significant role. Also some Hollywood actors like Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, and even Ice Cube do some nice audio work for Black Ops. Not too mention some pretty historic figures make an appearance in the game that I don’t want to spoil, but it is a very nice touch and adds some extra realism to the game, as if you needed it.
The gameplay for the most part is your typical Call of Duty game. Like I mentioned before, swimming is a new gameplay element that was put in Black Ops. It was a nice addition, but it’s only in a couple parts of the game. I wish it had more underwater missions and objectives, because I enjoy that stealthy mechanic that the Call of Duty series brings. It also will put you piloting a Hind and raining down missles on unlucky enemies, which was a lot of fun in a sick way. The controls in every aspect were done just right. I think that’s one of the things we take for granted when playing Call of Duty. No matter if you like the franchise or not, you can’t argue that it is the best FPS as far as controls go. It’s the only FPS game I can think of that is a “pick up and play” for just about any type of gamer.
The story in past Call of Duty’s has usually been it’s weak point. But with Black Ops the story is pretty enjoyable. You play as a character strapped to a chair in a interrogation room, not sure why you are there. The entire game is mostly played as flashbacks between 1961-1968. As the story progresses you start to see why your there and who put you in this situation. I don’t play Call of Duty for the story, and I dont think I’m alone in that. But it was nice to see Treyarch trying something new, like bringing a educate story to the table. Especially after the mess we got with Modern Warfare 2.
Graphics wise I believe it looks a little toned down from Modern Warfare 2. Why this is I do not know. Maybe it’s just my imagination but the game just didnt look as crisp to me, if that makes sense. By no means is this a huge problem, and the game still runs at a beautiful 60 frames per second.
Overall, I really enjoyed Black Ops. It’s not perfect, but for me it was more enjoyable than World at War. It has a nice opening sequence and makes you want to continue the game and trying to find out what’s going on with your character. Certain parts of Black Ops do fall a little flat at times. But before you know it, it will kick back up to high gear and give you a few more thrills before it’s finally said and done. Treyarch did a nice job with the campaign and I look forward to what they bring to the table in their next installment to the franchise.
So it’s November and we have a couple of games to talk about this time around so instead of rambling in the beginning like normal, lets just jump right in!
So one new game that’s on it’s way here that isn’t in the normal first or third person shooter category is Shaun White’s new snowboarding game. Now I’m not normally a huge fan of the whole sports games category, but I was a huge Tony Hawk’s skateboarding series fan back in the PS1 days and Shaun Whites new game looks pretty awesome. It looks like it has a lot to offer and my favorite, a lot of customization. So if you’re a snowboarding game fan, look out for this one!
Next up we have a title that I think everyone has heard of, or at least heard of the series. Resistance 3 is due to be released sometime first quarter of 2011 and it looks good! There isn’t too much information out on this yet, but I think I might put this one on the maybe list. I haven’t bought any of the previous titles for the PS3, but I did play them and they’re well done, but it just doesn’t click with me like I’d like it to, but there are tons of hardcore fans of the series, so for all of you, keep drooling as you wait, because it’s almost here!
One game that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of press yet, but has some pretty big hype nonetheless is The Last Guardian. From what I can tell the big selling point of this game is supposed to be the world changing graphics, I mean people are just going crazy over what these graphics are supposed to turn out to be like. Now, maybe I just saw some older screenshots from early development, but from what I’ve seen, they don’t look as amazing as everyone’s saying, so I’m going to have to keep my eyes on this one as it get’s closer to holiday 2011 when this is due to be released.
Another title that has some extreme hardcore fans of the series is Metal Gear Solid Rising. Currently the release date is TBA, but it has been confirmed that it will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 when it does release. As usual, it’s looking like a pretty sick game and I’m not sure if I’ll end up purchasing this one, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, every MGS game is completely solid and I enjoyed every one that I played.
One more awesome looking game that’s due on February 2, 2011 is Killzone 3. Now I bought Killzone 2 on launch day even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the series and I even got every map pack that was released as DLC. I will say that as far as online play goes, I’ve had the best time playing Killzone 2 out of every other shooter that I’ve played online. I really like how they make it necessary for everyone to work as a team when playing online. I think it improves the overall experience a lot and I really would like to see more games make this happen, so due to just this fact alone, I might go ahead and pick this one up on launch day.
One last and final game that I would like to mention is DC Universe Online. When I first heard about this game and the whole idea that it was based off of I got so excited I literally hunted down every bit of information I could find about this game for about 3 days. Then after a while, I found that there is a monthly fee for this game. Now I really love the idea of having MMORPG games on the 360 and PS3 and would love to see tons more of these in the near future, but I haven’t heard anything about any new ones yet. I will say though that I really am not a fan of the strictly P2P games, I really like the optional F2P indefinitely, but yet give you the option to P2P for upgrades and level booster stuff.
So those are my opinions and well see what happens as it gets closer to launch day for all these games. I’m super excited for some of these and can’t wait to see how they turn out! I’ll catch you guys next month!
Wow can you believe it! Call of Duty: Black Ops has finally been released! It came out on November 9, 2010 and for almost all of the gaming population, this date has been engraved in their hearts and minds for years now waiting for this sacred day where this world changing game would be released! Now, the real question is, was it worth all this hype? Was it worth waiting in line to pick up your pre-order for 3 hours? Let’s find out!
The first thing I want to talk about is the brand new splitscreen multiplayer capability that has been introduced to Black Ops online. This allows two players to play on the same PS3 together and go online together and play side by side along with everyone else on the online universe. I think this is an awesome addition and even if you don’t like this option, it doesn’t effect you, so it’s for the people who want this capability.
Now, graphicwise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has better graphics in my opinion. Not to say that Black Ops graphics are terrible, because they are pretty decent considering all of the customization that is allowed, but the graphics are definitely lacking some from what everyone was expecting. I think it kind of reminds me of an updated World at War, which, for some people could be exactly what they were looking for, but I know for me personally, I expected more in the graphics department this time around.
One major disappointment I had with this game was the fact that there is virtually no sniping whatsoever. I think I can count on one hand how many times I’ve encountered a sniper while playing this game. I really think they figured if they discouraged sniping so much and made it just suck so bad that people wouldn’t camp so much. Well, I think this definitely helped, but there are still all kinds of noobs camping all over just like before and even with it being mandatory to purchase the noob tube if you wanted to use it, there are still a surprisingly large amount of people who like to wield this thing and that really gets under my skin.
The next and biggest complaint that I have about Black Ops is the spawn system. Now I think I can say that I’ve played enough online Call of Duty in my day to say that the spawn system in Modern Warfare 2 was the worst out of all of them, until now. I really think that it would have taken effort to make this spawn system as terrible as it is in Black Ops. MW2 spawn system was just messed up, Black Ops spawn system is completely screwed up in every way and basically just craps all over the game and really discourages me from wanting to even play as much as I’d like to.
For instance, in MW2 you would sometimes spawn near an enemy that was running somewhere. Now this in itself is a pretty poor spawn, but most of the time it gave you both a pretty fair showdown. Now in Black Ops, you will spawn at the same time in the same place as an enemy multiple times a game! This is just unacceptable in my opinion and this is by far my biggest complaint about this game.
On to the positive stuff in Black Ops. One major difference is all the customization included now. Basically it has brought a whole different aspect to Call of Duty that has never been seen before in any of the previous titles and in my opinion it is well done for the first attempt at it. Another big thing that was introduced along these lines are all of the stats that you now have access to. There are so many stats that are being kept for you, that it is quite possibly too many stats, but I’m not complaining, I think this is awesome and should be included in any future series releases.
One last major feature that was implemented in this release was the video recording and editing capability. This just can’t be explained in words how awesome this feature is. Fans have been making Call of Duty videos for years now and trying to get by using all kinds of custom mods and add-ons to get the shots they wanted for their videos, but now all of those mods have been made available with the purchase of the Black Ops game itself. I really can’t explain this in a couple of sentences, but I’m just going to say that this feature alone is probably my favorite part of Black Ops.
I think that’s about it for this one, overall Black Ops is a solid title and if you’re at all a fan of the series it’s a must buy, but if you really disliked the past titles, then I would say you should probably look elsewhere, it’s just another Call of Duty title with more, well, Call of Duty for you. Regardless of whether or not your a hardcore gamer, Black Ops has something to offer to you, whether it’s the campaign, the online multiplayer, or the return of Nazi zombies, I’m sure you can find something within this game to suit your fancy.
The gameplay for the most part is your typical Call of Duty game. Like I mentioned before, swimming is a new gameplay element that was put in Black Ops. It was a nice addition, but it’s only in a couple parts of the game. I wish it had more underwater missions and objectives, because I enjoy that stealthy mechanic that the Call of Duty series brings. It also will put you piloting a Hind and raining down missles on unlucky enemies, which was a lot of fun in a sick way. The controls in every aspect were done just right. I think that’s one of the things we take for granted when playing Call of Duty. No matter if you like the franchise or not, you can’t argue that it is the best FPS as far as controls go. It’s the only FPS game I can think of that is a “pick up and play” for just about any type of gamer.
play as a character strapped to a chair in a interrogation room, not sure why you are there. The entire game is mostly played as flashbacks between 1961-1968. As the story progresses you start to see why your there and who put you in this situation. I don’t play Call of Duty for the story, and I dont think I’m alone in that. But it was nice to see Treyarch trying something new, like bringing a educate story to the table. Especially after the mess we got with Modern Warfare 2.
