Black Ops so far let down

[Sedriss]

Proper widescreen implementation should not be a feature, it should be a requirement. Widescreen monitors weren't exactly all the rage in 1999 but games like X Beyond the Frontier and Half-Life still supported them. There is no good reason to not support this new technology, it's a pretty straight forward implementation that other companies have been doing for the better part of a decade. I really don't see why you are defending them... unless...

Nice try Bobby Kotick, no one is going to agree with you on these forums.

LOL!!!! Omg dude Bobby kotick!!!!! you so funny..............*cough*

The reason i'm defending them is because people will give the game a bad rep because of no wide screen support. Really?????? My lord.... If the game didn't have dedicated servers like it said it would, ok then boycott. If it used a Ubisoft drm go right ahead. But you are gonna miss a game because you can't put it up on 3 screens???? Let me go get you some Kleenex then. What's next? Are people gonna cry when a game doesn't have the "it's meant to be played" slogan on the box? Or made using AMD hardware??? Please.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

It could be just me but it feels like I'm playing this game on XBOX 360. The sounds, gameplay, visuals and physics are outdated. The last COD I played was the first Modern Warfare and it looks like nothing changed since then. Same engine, same gameplay i.e. prone shooting. I'll play this one off and on. Games are getting a bit stale in general. BFBC2 makes COD:BO look like a joke.

I agree that the FPS genre and games in general could use a breath of fresh air in that department, and BF: BC2 does look quite nice even under DirectX 10.1. CoD4: MW doesn't hold up too bad today so it could be worse, at least we got lean and some FOV adjustment back.

 

[Dan_D]

It could be just me but it feels like I'm playing this game on XBOX 360. The sounds, gameplay, visuals and physics are outdated. The last COD I played was the first Modern Warfare and it looks like nothing changed since then. Same engine, same gameplay i.e. prone shooting. I'll play this one off and on. Games are getting a bit stale in general. BFBC2 makes COD:BO look like a joke.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 has some of the worst class balancing I've ever seen. The game is chalk full of "Recon" guys and "Medics". The Medics run around with light machine guns sniping people across the map with them and you want to say CoD:BO is a joke? Whatever........

There are things I like about the Battlefield games. None of what I've seen there is enough of an excuse to say that Call of Duty is a "joke." It's not a serious game to be sure. The kill streaks, rewards and some of the weapons configurations should tell you that much. But I'd rather that then get constantly Gustov raped, or shot across the map with an M60.

 

[Dan_D]

Well at least CoD4: MW is still somewhat pleasing to the eye. Could be worse.

It is. The game has aged fairly well all things considered. It's a good looking game and it runs smoothly. It's hard to ask for more than that. I think the larger part of the PC gamers complaints about graphics is the fact that we have gone through 4 major generations of video card hardware and at least two major processor families and still graphics in games haven't improved. It's hard for me to even justify a pair of GeForce GTX 580's when a single overclocked 5970 seems like more than enough. At least for single monitor use. Even at 2560x1600.

 

[ThumperSD]

Anybody else disappointed in the game? I havent bought it yet but have been hesitating as I get tired of FPS games after a couple months.

Was thinking of one day getting it for PS3 since most of my friends play it on there. Not sure if I want to buy it any more. I thought WaW is ok.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

LOL!!!! Omg dude Bobby kotick!!!!! you so funny..............*cough*

The reason i'm defending them is because people will give the game a bad rep because of no wide screen support. Really?????? My lord.... If the game didn't have dedicated servers like it said it would, ok then boycott. If it used a Ubisoft drm go right ahead. But you are gonna miss a game because you can't put it up on 3 screens???? Let me go get you some Kleenex then. What's next? Are people gonna cry when a game doesn't have the "it's meant to be played" slogan on the box? Or made using AMD hardware??? Please.

A game can get a bad rep for handling FoV and aspect ratio the wrong way? NO SHIT.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 has some of the worst class balancing I've ever seen. The game is chalk full of "Recon" guys and "Medics". The Medics run around with light machine guns sniping people across the map with them and you want to say CoD:BO is a joke? Whatever........

There are things I like about the Battlefield games. None of what I've seen there is enough of an excuse to say that Call of Duty is a "joke." It's not a serious game to be sure. The kill streaks, rewards and some of the weapons configurations should tell you that much. But I'd rather that then get constantly Gustov raped, or shot across the map with an M60.

I'll agree on the class balance in BC2, it's a fucking joke but issues like the Gustav and M60 have been resolved... then again nothing will resolve the issue of medics having machine guns. Still a solid game, fuck DICE for not keeping 2142 class structure though, it was perfect.

 

[Stiler]

It is. The game has aged fairly well all things considered. It's a good looking game and it runs smoothly. It's hard to ask for more than that. I think the larger part of the PC gamers complaints about graphics is the fact that we have gone through 4 major generations of video card hardware and at least two major processor families and still graphics in games haven't improved. It's hard for me to even justify a pair of GeForce GTX 580's when a single overclocked 5970 seems like more than enough. At least for single monitor use. Even at 2560x1600.

Runs smoothly? Upon startup I had TERRIBLE freezing every two seconds. I had to change things in the configs.

The game was defaulted at TWO gpu's and a SINGLE core processor, why on earth? I don't know.

Even after this, in-game it stutters a little when another players comes on teh screen in mp, it's a common problem and the forums are rampant with people having the fps drops and cpu spikes, etc.

I played the MW2 fine at high with no slowdowns on my OLD setup with a 9800gx2. I've upgraded since then to a 5850 and even though the game hasn't upgraded the performance is worse.

 

[Dan_D]

Runs smoothly? Upon startup I had TERRIBLE freezing every two seconds. I had to change things in the configs.

The game was defaulted at TWO gpu's and a SINGLE core processor, why on earth? I don't know.

Even after this, in-game it stutters a little when another players comes on teh screen in mp, it's a common problem and the forums are rampant with people having the fps drops and cpu spikes, etc.

I played the MW2 fine at high with no slowdowns on my OLD setup with a 9800gx2. I've upgraded since then to a 5850 and even though the game hasn't upgraded the performance is worse.

I meant in general. I haven't yet played Call of Duty: Black Ops. And honestly there isn't really any need for this game to run slowly. If it does then there are issues with the game itself. It shouldn't be any more demanding than CoD:MW or CoDMW2.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

It is. The game has aged fairly well all things considered. It's a good looking game and it runs smoothly. It's hard to ask for more than that. I think the larger part of the PC gamers complaints about graphics is the fact that we have gone through 4 major generations of video card hardware and at least two major processor families and still graphics in games haven't improved. It's hard for me to even justify a pair of GeForce GTX 580's when a single overclocked 5970 seems like more than enough. At least for single monitor use. Even at 2560x1600.

Stagnation on the PC side of the fence is what has really been bothering me the most. Until recent years I would always see something year after year (or close to it) which raised the bar further. It's still chillin' where Crysis left it in 2007, save Metro 2033.

I'm finding it more of a want than actually being in need of more GPU and CPU horsepower to really justify an upgrade myself.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

Crysis is still the best after 3 years I think.

 

[neokeelo]

can you select the refresh rate in the settings?

 

[Dan_D]

Stagnation on the PC side of the fence is what has really been bothering me the most. Until recent years I would always see something year after year (or close to it) which raised the bar further. It's still chillin' where Crysis left it in 2007, save Metro 2033.

I'm finding it more of a want than actually being in need of more GPU and CPU horsepower to really justify an upgrade myself.

I couldn't agree more. The boundaries used to get pushed but since Crysis was kind of a flop, the developers won't take any chances on innovating in either gameplay or graphics. They'd rather have something that can be ported to all the consoles and reach a larger consumer base. And sadly we've seen graphics stagnation for about the longest period ever. The only time frame where this was nearly as bad was during the hey day of the Quake 3 engine. We still got some regular improvements back then but sadly they were small and by the time the last Q3 engine based game came out the technology and graphics were pretty dated. Since 2007 nothing has matched up to Crysis's visual splendor, especially when the Natural mod and others like it are used. There is simply no comparison. They pushed the bar perhaps too far but now 3 years later it's time for gaming developers to go at least that far and scale the games back for consoles AFTER the fact, not before. The PC should drive innovation. Unfortunately these days the PC hardware is improving as fast as ever, if not faster, the software isn't because developers won't take chances. Progress is quite literally being held back by consoles. I wonder if we aren't literally looking at the dark ages of gaming right now.

 

[fireburster]

whats the coop? no story i hear but zombies and combat training?

 

[riggs58]

I couldn't agree more. The boundaries used to get pushed but since Crysis was kind of a flop, the developers won't take any chances on innovating in either gameplay or graphics. They'd rather have something that can be ported to all the consoles and reach a larger consumer base. And sadly we've seen graphics stagnation for about the longest period ever. The only time frame where this was nearly as bad was during the hey day of the Quake 3 engine. We still got some regular improvements back then but sadly they were small and by the time the last Q3 engine based game came out the technology and graphics were pretty dated. Since 2007 nothing has matched up to Crysis's visual splendor, especially when the Natural mod and others like it are used. There is simply no comparison. They pushed the bar perhaps too far but now 3 years later it's time for gaming developers to go at least that far and scale the games back for consoles AFTER the fact, not before. The PC should drive innovation. Unfortunately these days the PC hardware is improving as fast as ever, if not faster, the software isn't because developers won't take chances. Progress is quite literally being held back by consoles. I wonder if we aren't literally looking at the dark ages of gaming right now.

Agreed. I'm sure both ATI and nVidia agree as well, which is why they push multi-monitor and 3D Gaming features to hopefully get gamers excited and upgrade. Myself, i'm a single monitor gamer, and yeah, i just don't get excited over the release of a new GPU like i used too. A spiffy new GPU is only as good as the content you run it on; the fact gamers are playing ports of games from 5 year old hardware leaves little reason to upgrade to the latest and greatest unless a person really wants those niche features (Huge resolutions, 3D etc,)

 

[alpha-q]

Wow this thread has been highjacked 1 too many times. So does anybody have any updates. About the lag issues on codbo. And how is it on the consoles. Is it the same?

 

[Dion]

Crysis is still the best after 3 years I think.

People still think this? haha. One of the most unoptimized game engines I have ever seen.

 

[Dan_D]

People still think this? haha. One of the most unoptimized game engines I have ever seen.

We are talking about graphics capability and quality, not how fast it runs. Crysis runs slow. We all know that. Part of the reason for that is the way it looks. Nothing has really matched it in the 3 years since it's been out.

 

[Litfod]

People still think this? haha. One of the most unoptimized game engines I have ever seen.

They "optimized" Warhead, and it ended up looking like shit compared with the original. Feel free to develop an engine which is as technically complex* but runs more efficiently, no one else has managed it in the 3 YEARS since Crysis was released.

* technical complexity is not the same as art direction

 

[Climber]

I've played violent video games my whole life... irony is Climber is probably a meat-eater.~

I am. Bacon is great. But please, don't let my sarcasm be missed in the post!

 

[phide]

Crysis is still the best after 3 years I think.

I suppose.

!!!!...!!!!!...??????...????...???

One punctuation mark does the same job as six in a row, you know.

 

[Lateralus]

My 10 year old plays Halo or whatever with me all the time.

Just not after midnight on a school night....

Don't get me started. I know a 13 year old that was allowed to go to Gamestop last night from 8:00-12:30 and take today off from school to play the game.

I was not happy. Great reason to miss school!

Any parent that lets their Kid handle a 45 in the first place is a bad parent in my book. But that's a different discussion topic alltogether.

Wrong. I'd MUCH rather be around a kid who had grown up learning how to handle and be safe around guns than one who hadn't been exposed to them and never allowed to touch because they were taboo and locked up in a safe all the time. That only furthers their curiosity when the gun is left out on daddy's night stand or if they or their buddy find one that's not secured. And if they "play" with it without knowing how to handle it or what it's capable of, well...that's a tragedy waiting to happen. Education = gun safety. And the guy saying that all guns should be banned...don't get me started. Because guns shouldn't be used for hunting or recreational purposes. And I can't legally own one to defend my home and family, yet the criminals still get them despite the ban and use them. And I'm going to sit in my home with a baseball bat next to my bed hoping that if someone enters with a gun I can scare them off or crack their skull open before they have a chance to harm me or my family...right.

OK, rants over. Back on topic now.

 

[Shalafi]

Crysis is still the best after 3 years I think.

I agree with this post, if you look at Black Ops, it's nothing more than a reskinned MW2, which is a reskinned CoD4, there's no real difference in the games, they just squeezed a few more drops of blood from the same stone.

I would rather spend my money on a game that actually tries to go in a new direction graphically and gameplay wise instead of settling for being a half point reiteration in a series.

See, they know people WILL buy it, so they don't have any motivation to try to put out something better than what you have on your computer.

That's another thing, consoles are where they make their money these days, their games are optimized to run on CONSOLES, so us PC gamers get the shaft, but guess what? PC gamers are shelling out for the PC versions anyway, so why should they optimize the PC version to run better or look better? Half ass lazy ports sell just as well as they would have if they were fully optimized.

Every dollar that's being spent on PC games infected by consolitis is another nail in the coffin for pure PC optimized games.

 

[BobyTT]

This game is SOLID TORRENT. Nothing more.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

I couldn't agree more. The boundaries used to get pushed but since Crysis was kind of a flop, the developers won't take any chances on innovating in either gameplay or graphics. They'd rather have something that can be ported to all the consoles and reach a larger consumer base. And sadly we've seen graphics stagnation for about the longest period ever. The only time frame where this was nearly as bad was during the hey day of the Quake 3 engine. We still got some regular improvements back then but sadly they were small and by the time the last Q3 engine based game came out the technology and graphics were pretty dated. Since 2007 nothing has matched up to Crysis's visual splendor, especially when the Natural mod and others like it are used. There is simply no comparison. They pushed the bar perhaps too far but now 3 years later it's time for gaming developers to go at least that far and scale the games back for consoles AFTER the fact, not before. The PC should drive innovation. Unfortunately these days the PC hardware is improving as fast as ever, if not faster, the software isn't because developers won't take chances. Progress is quite literally being held back by consoles. I wonder if we aren't literally looking at the dark ages of gaming right now.

A good analogy, "the Dark Age of Graphics Advancement".

They "optimized" Warhead, and it ended up looking like shit compared with the original.

They optimized it by removing detail and overall scope. Expect Crysis 2 to expand upon that philosophy.

This game is SOLID TORRENT. Nothing more.

Another part of the problem.

 

[xdivenx]

Runs smoothly? Upon startup I had TERRIBLE freezing every two seconds. I had to change things in the configs.

.

Same issue here. It even occurs on lowest settings @ 13xx, which shouldn't be a problem for my 9800GTX.

 

[lostroc888]

Wow, so far this game has been a massive disappointment for me, it feels like I'm walking though oatmeal, it looks incredibly laggy even with a 50 ping, other players are jumping 10 feet at a time.... oh man

The part that makes me feel worst of all is that these bastards have my money and all I have is a game that makes me want to beat someone when I play it because it's so damn bad.

/rant

 

[Lateralus]

Wow, so far this game has been a massive disappointment for me, it feels like I'm walking though oatmeal, it looks incredibly laggy even with a 50 ping, other players are jumping 10 feet at a time.... oh man

Brings back memories of playing Rainbow Six over 56k dialup.

I'm hoping this game is good because I'm only interested in single player and kinda dig the Vietnam-era games (tired of WWII and modern day shooters are growing tiresome as well). I can deal with the COD engine if the gameplay is solid...

 

[BobyTT]

Another part of the problem.

I am glad i didn't wasted 60$ like i did with MW2

 

[SixtyWattMan]

I am glad i didn't wasted 60$ like i did with MW2

Yeah you guys he can't be wasting money, how else would he be able to but his $1000 CPU and $1500 in video cards... I hope you get banned from everything, especially these forums.

 

[Godmachine]

Runs perfectly fine for me , is far more tweaked and balance than MW2 ever was. The weapons feel better and are on even ground for everyone and not just twitchy 14 year olds after there 4th cup of coffee.

The only downside is the "hitching" in MP but that will be fixed soon I'm sure , unlike IW .. Trey gives a fuck about its gamers and WaW was well taken care off.

Also it feels like a WaW game even if its polished far more , if you didn't like that one you won't like this one.

And to the haters .. none of you liked CoD before this game came out and more than likely you still hate it so go back to BC2.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

People still think this? haha. One of the most unoptimized game engines I have ever seen.

Ah the fabled max settings and why all games are "unoptimized" if you can't run them maxed out.

What a load of rubbish, I doubt you even understand the idea of optimization, much less have any evidence to demonstrate that Crysis and the Crytek engines are unoptimized.

 

[BobyTT]

Yeah you guys he can't be wasting money, how else would he be able to but his $1000 CPU and $1500 in video cards... I hope you get banned from everything, especially these forums.

LOL i have more games on steam than you can possibly going to play your entire life. I just dont like to be rip off like it happened with MW2.

 

[krotch]

Black Ops a let down? Really? Man, I would have never expected it. Especially after the shitpile called MW2. I'm glad I decided to pass on this game.

 

[refraxion]

It could be just me but it feels like I'm playing this game on XBOX 360. The sounds, gameplay, visuals and physics are outdated. The last COD I played was the first Modern Warfare and it looks like nothing changed since then. Same engine, same gameplay i.e. prone shooting. I'll play this one off and on. Games are getting a bit stale in general. BFBC2 makes COD:BO look like a joke.

Looks miles better than COD4 IMO.

 

[artnsx]

maybe bluntman wrote something then edited it within the time limit before it add's the EDITED part to the post.

not sure if this was mentioned previously, but if this really did happen Mr bluntman is a ninja, isn't the time frame really small?

 

[Dan_D]

I got this around 5:00PM and I've been playing since about 5:30PM or so. I just finished up about 30 minutes ago. I played a few rounds of the zombie survival mode then jumped into single player. I'm running the game maxed out. I'm enjoying every minute of it. It's blown away all my expectations by far. It's a better game than Modern Warfare 2 was in almost every way. The single player story so far is much better and much more fun. The intensity that has become the hallmark of the series is continued here. People who don't think this game looks good haven't seen it run at max settings. It looks at least as good as the previous games in the series and better in some areas. Namely lighting. The variety of weapons seems good and there are some unusual choices, but I like what I've seen for the most part. Some weapons like the SPAS-12 which weren't represented properly at all are shown correctly here. The gun is semi-automatic. FINALLY as it should be. Other interesting choices are the HK-G3 PS1, CZ-75, and the HK-21. There are Vietnam era M16 rifles and more modern versions of the Colt Commando and M4 carbine. Character models are improved as well.

Another thing they did right was make guns like the MP5K without a stock much more difficult to control under fully automatic firing. I like it. It's a nice touch. Oh and best of all! They've finally added dismemberment to the game. I've been blowing people's limbs off with the SPAS-12 for the last hour or so. Sound effects now sound more correct for many of the guns but they lack the "loudness" they should have. So while the weapon sound effects are better than they were in the last couple games, they still aren't up to Battlefield Bad Company 2's standards. They are close to Medal of Honor's sound quality though. It too had fairly correct sounding weapons, but the sound effects lacked the impact and the "loudness" seen in BFBC2.

My only real complaint so far is that the weapons are not accurate for when the game takes place. So far what I've seen takes place between 1963 and 1968. Red dot sights, the MP5K, and the SPAS-12 didn't exist back then. Also variants of the M16 family like the Colt Commando and M4A1, M16A3/A4 type rifles shouldn't appear during this time period. Also there is an M16 Masterkey system for the Vietnam era M16 which isn't the Masterkey as we know it, but rather a more conventional cut down shotgun mounted to the M16. Also many scopes in the game are referred to as the "ACOG" despite being totally different and much more traditional scopes.

I'll get some screen shots up shortly. The game is running very well on my system and I'm enjoying it. I figured I'll play through single player tonight and probably try to start on multiplayer tomorrow.

 

[Commander FAT]

Any parent that lets their Kid handle a 45 in the first place is a bad parent in my book. But that's a different discussion topic alltogether.

I agree. The government should ban ALL guns.

or better yet kid gets mad at parents for taking away his video game, grabs 45 and kills them

Now THAT'S an example of a bad parent.

Aaaanywaaays.

I think Fail will be pleased to know that Black Ops does indeed have lean.

I got some PC multiplayer in today and there was some network goofiness going on. Felt like the game would skip here and there. I also had trouble with losing my key bindings. I also think one of my purchased attachments got taken away. I could have sworn I bought the reflex sight for the MP5K but later I found I no longer had it?

 

[BurntToast]

Black Ops fails. I would rather play COD4.

I'm going back to BC2! MOH is even better than Black Ops.

 

[Yossarian22]

I would be happy if this game turned out to be MW2 WITH Dedicated Servers, which is why i didn't buy or play MW2 on any system or PC.

The industry is in a sad place when all the consumers are willing to accept mediocrity as the standard. Dedicated was the standard for two and a half fucking decades. What's next, $60 for four maps? Give me a break.

 

[Shalafi]

I think Fail will be pleased to know that Black Ops does indeed have lean.

At least Treyarch knows how to balance a game for lean . . .

Dan wrote up a hell of a writeup, my friend bought the game, hopefully I can go see it run on his machine and get some impressions from it.

I'm probably not gonna buy it, anyone remember how fast the price on World at War dropped after release?