Call of Duty: Black Ops Initial Impression

 

Image by popculturegeek.com via Flickr

It’s November, and that can me only one thing, It’s time for another entry into the first person shooter series known as Call of Duty. Every year we are treated to another game in the series from alternating companies Activision, and Treyarch, and this year it’s Treyarchs turn with the subtitle Black OPs. If you visit most video game websites and browse the forums you’ll usually find that popular opinion favors the Activision titles more, however I am actually on the opposite side of this argument as I greatly enjoyed Treyarch’s World at War game which had great co-op and introduced the now famous Nazi Zombie game mode. So how does this one measure up?

The game has only been out a day at time of this writing and I picked it up after work last night so this initial impression is base on about four hours of gameplay, all of which is multiplayer as I have not even started the campaign yet. First thing I did after loading it up was try out Zombie mode split screen with my girlfriends son. We had a good time doing this for the first twenty minutes or so and then decided to try out another cool feature this game brings which is combat training, a mode in which you can play a replica of the online multiplayer but with bots instead of live people. This mode is great for honing your skill before trying out the real thing, and actually captures the feel of online play really well. A nice touch to this mode is it uses the names of those on your friends list for the computer controlled opponents, which leads to things that would never be possible like me killing my brother Wilddogg multiple times in a single match. The AI difficulty can also be bumped up as you get better as well.

After trying those offline modes it was finally time to try some online competition and earn those ever so sought after credits and xp, which are used for arming and customizing your character. The game says there are millions of players online but I found myself waiting at least five minutes to get into a lobby. However once in going from game to game was quick enough, except when wanting to change to another game type and then it was another five-minute wait. The waiting issues should be resolved with a patch or when more people buy the game which I’m sure won’t be long.

When all is said and done I am really happy with this purchase, and I haven’t even touched the campaign mode as well as the hidden games that I have heard about including a Zombie mode featuring Ex-Presidents. At this point the multiplayer seems to be balanced as people are still learning the maps and ranking up, which is a real pleasure when compared to playing Modern Warfare 2 where you have to hide inside structures and camp for fear of being sniped the moment you expose yourself. I’m sure in time people will find exploits and cheat in some way, if they haven’t already but for the moment I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. I recommend this game very highly for fans of first person shooters, there’s enough here for everyone to enjoy and I am sure there will be even more content released down the road if World at War is any indication.

Love to hear any opinions on this game as well, leave them in the comments area.

Halo Reach: Initial Impressions

The game that led me to re-buy an Xbox 360 has been out for a couple of days at this point, and I’ve put in a decent amount of hours on it, so what do I think so far? Well to be fair this review pertains mostly to the online component of the game as I have only played about an hour and a half of the campaign mode, but that is not unusual for me when it comes to first person shooters as I prefer the competition of online multi-player, and so most of this review will be based on that.

One of the coolest new features is armor abilities which replace the one time use abilities of the pick up items in prior games. These new abilities include jetpacks(need I say more), sprinting, a shield dome protecting those inside from outside fire, and a hologram you can send out to distract other players, and more. These abilities can be used as much as you want as long as you allow them the short time to recharge. The online in this game has more possible game modes than I have probably ever seen in a game.  Some of the modes that I can remember off the top of my head are Slayer which is your typical death match where the first person or team to reach the number of kills needed wins the match, you have a few different variations of capture the flag which involves storming the other teams base to take their flag and carry it back to your base. One of my favorite modes which I believe is new to the series is headhunters, in this game type every time someone is killed they leave behind a skull, and you have to collect as many of these skulls as possible and bring them back to a designated place which keeps moving around in order to score points. Another new mode introduced is called Invasion in which you must either take over or defend points from being taken over, and at the end of the round you switch sides to do the opposite, whoever takes over the most points during these rounds ends up winning the match.

Firefight mode which was released in last years ODST has been revamped including the ability to find others online to play with in matchmaking, which was one of the things I complained about in ODST where you were only able to play with those on your friends list. The forge mode from Halo 3 has been reintroduced in a grander scale with lots of customization, I have tried tweaking with it a bit even building myself a castle with towers which was pretty cool, however I have a hard time figuring out how to add objective based items but that’s just my stupidity when it comes to map editing. The game advertises that you can play through the campaign with people you don’t know through the matchmaking system, but this option is nowhere to be found when I look for it, so for now I have to just play with friends if we ever manage to all be on at the same time.

There is a lot of meat to sink your teeth into when it comes the multiplayer, but how does it all stack up? When I played with my brother for a few matches and a few of his friends we got our butts handed to us but I was actually enjoying it. However when I play matches with random folks I feel really alone, and it seems as though most people do their own thing and don’t believe in team work leading to many losses which when compared to a game like Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the total opposite with its squad based play. Another complaint I have about the multi-player system is the matchmaking feature which hasn’t been updated since Halo 2. Call of Duty has this part done right, you pick the type of match you want to play and it hooks you up with others that want to play the same type, where as in this game you pick certain aspects but don’t really get to pick the exact type so you never know what you’re going to end up playing though you can choose to vote it seems that most people are never on the same page when it comes to this as well.

In the end this game can be so much fun when playing with those you know or when you get matched up with people willing to communicate and work together, but most of the time you end up in lone wolf situations and I can’t help feeling like I should just go play Battlefield Bad Company 2 or wait to play this when friends are all online which makes a big difference. I do like the improvements to Firefight, and the armor abilities teach an old dog new tricks and help make old game modes seem new again, but in the end this is the same Halo we’ve been playing for almost a decade, for better or for worse.

Side Note: You will find that most matches you play there will be at least one or two people on either team who quit early into the match, and this game does not allow them to be replaced which can lead to an unfair advantage in a lot of matches. In most games in this genre if someone quits the game will fill the spots in with new players.

Here is a video showing off Multiplayer with Bugie’s designers

I Like The Way This Guy Thinks

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia recently spoke with MCV about the upcoming Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer and how some companies try to discourage people from buying used games by including one time download codes to play multiplayer, and charging extra for people who buy it used. His comments are to the contrary and make real sense to me, he basically says that if you build a good enough game, especially as far multiplayer goes and give it support than people won’t have a reason to sell the games to begin with. Like I said in an earlier post about Call of Duty Black Ops I really enjoyed Treyarchs World At War even more so than the Modern Warfare series, and they gave a lot of fresh good quality content to keep me playing for a long time. The only reason I had sold it was because my Xbox had broken, but even then I still played it when possible on my girlfriends son’s PS3. I was thinking about getting this game come November, but now it is no longer a thought, I am getting it, as I know it will be good and have the multiplayer support I’ve come to expect from this publisher, and I’m willing to support that. Below are quotes from the article which can be found here.

Image by Colony of Gamers via Flickr

“I want to take that in the other direction and bring consumers really great reasons to keep their games, rather than trade them in.

“Multiplayer is critical to the success of this series. It has such tremendous staying power – there are millions of people playing Call of Duty every day. It’s entertaining people on a magnitude that’s mind-blowing and we work really hard to make sure it’s supported for a long time.”

“The effort that goes into the multiplayer is a living thing – we have a team that continues to work on it for World At War. We’ve done that for a long time and expect to do so for this game.”

“We’re going to support the hell out of Black Ops. That will be our focus post-release: making sure we keep our fans engaged, and hopefully as a result, they’ll want to keep playing our game and won’t want to trade it in.”

“You won’t see that for Black Ops, the multiplayer comes with the game you buy – you don’t have to do anything else for that.”

Rumor: Sony Blocks PS3 Jailbreak Devices Via Firmware Update

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Figured it was only a matter of time until a firmware update would be put out, the following article is off of Kotaku.com

Well, that didn’t take long. Sony has just pushed out a firmware update for the PlayStation 3, with users reporting that it “breaks” devices like the PSJailbreak.

Able to circumvent the PlayStation 3’s copy protection and allow users to run games installed to a hard drive, a flood of these jailbreak contraptions have hit markets around the world in the last two weeks, along with a free, downloadable version for more tech-savvy users.

Gaming site eXophase claims that, since Sony released firmware update 3.42 earlier today, it has been able to verify that “all variants of the USB-hub emulating exploit (PSFreedom, PSGroove, PSJailbreak) are no longer functional”.

It’s far from the end of this war – many of the device’s suppliers claim that they in turn can update their devices to get around Sony’s future firmware – but for this week at least, it seems to be the end of this battle.

via Rumor: Sony Blocks PS3 Jailbreak Devices Via Firmware Update.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer Preview

Every year around Christmas time we get another Call of Duty game, usually alternating years we get a game from Infinity Ward, or Treyarch. This year it’s Treyarchs turn, and most people feel they make the inferior versions of the game, me personally I enjoyed World at War(especially Zombie Mode) a lot more than the Modern Warfare series, but I’m probably in the minority. Lately I’ve been kind of jaded with the whole thing and really wasn’t feeling too much interest in this game, that is until I saw this video which is available on the Xbox Dashboard.

Judging by that video it looks like they are doing so much to make this the best multiplayer in the series to date. They are adding a lot of customization to characters and emblems which is pretty much just for show, but a nice way to give players some individuality. One of the biggest changes is the addition of a currency system, you still earn experience through matches but now you also earn money which you can use to buy weapons and customize your characters in whole new ways. One of the newest features that coincides with the currency feature is a new mode that let’s you wager money in certain matches, this gives you a chance to earn big or lose it all, and adds a lot of excitement to an already heart pumping game. Another thing added is the ability to take on contracts, where if you complete certain requirements of said contract during a match you will earn extra money. They also added a theater mode, which is pretty much a copy of what Halo 3 offers where you can record and move around in a 3D spaces from previous matches, this is useful for showing off amazing kills, learning tactics, and creating Machinima. In this video they also show a new mode for people who maybe thought of getting into multiplayer but were a little intimidated by it, this mode lets players go against computer controlled bots in matches that mimic those you would find online. This Treyarch hopes will get those people to ease their way into finally getting into online multiplayer down the road.

Of course the video only goes into the multiplayer aspects of the game and does not cover the campaign, but I generally don’t play these games for their offline modes anyway. Overall I was very impressed by what they showed, and my interest in this series has been renewed enough where I’m seriously considering getting this game when it comes out this November.