Call of Duty: Black Ops II

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well, color me surprised.

after having been disappointed by the last couple of CoD games, i was hesitant to purchase black ops 2. a lot of the gripes and criticisms of black ops 1 and more particularly MW3, were wholly justified. but, being the sucker that i am, i forked over $60 because i love me a FPS and i really enjoyed combat training in the first black ops (more on combat training in a minute). after having spent nearly a week with the game, here's my verdict:

campaign in short, it's a massive improvement over the last four CoD campaigns. i don't think it's stretch to say it's the best CoD campaign since CoD4. yes, it still looks dated (very dated, actually), but what it lacks in snappy graphics it makes up for in pure fun. all the trailers leading up the game led me to believe the campaign took place in the future. well, only about half the game takes place in the future. the other half takes place during the last days of the cold war. all the protagonists from BO1 are back and they all still speak like testosterone-happy alpha males (the franchise really, really needs legit writers who can write dialogue). however, the gunplay is what matters and that's where BO2 excels. first of all, you can customize your load out before you start every mission. it's a nice touch that allows you play your way. not all guns, attachments, camos, etc are available right off the bat (you have to unlock them like you do in the multiplayer), but it's a nice change. the campaign also gives you several choices in the game that will affect the outcome. this is practically unheard of in FPS games, so kudos to treyarch for mixing it up and bringing something new. each mission also has a series of ten challenges specific to that particular level. some of the challenges are fairly easy, but some are very challenging. and sometimes the only way to complete all the challenges is to replay the mission. the only part of the campaign i don't care for is the strike force missions (but that's probably because i suck at real time strategy games).

multiplayer ah, the great love-it-or-loathe aspect to all call of duty games. i haven't played any CoD multiplayer since MW2. i got sick of the glitching, camping, obsession with killstreaks, etc. BO2 isn't a drastic departure from the formula, but it's a least an improvement. scorestreaks have replace killsteaks which encourages more team play. smart move. the maps are much improved, in my opinion, from BO1. in fact, there's not a map i don't care for. the sound design is 1000 times better. where in BO1 it sounded like you were shooting pop guns and peashooters (pew pew pew), the guns in BO2 are hefty, beefy and actually have some bass. they sound great. not BFBC2 great, but close enough. i haven't experienced all the freezing on my ps3 that many others have noticed, but the lag is absolutely horrendous. rubberbanding is non-stop, hit detection is often spotty, and with 650,000 people online at any given time, i'm not sure why it can take five or six minutes to get a game started. but, despite it's flaws, it's the most fun i've had on a CoD multiplayer since CoD4.

zombies again, kudos to treyarch for not resting on their laurels and simply regurgitating past incarnations of this mode. sure, it's still zombies, but in addition to the tradition survival mode, you now have the tranzit mode and griefing mode. i haven't played too many zombie matches (i don't last long anyway when i do), but it's definitely fun and challenging.

combat training honestly, combat training, for me, was the best part of BO1. sometimes i just want to kick back, practice, own the AI, play with a friend or two and not worry about having to listen to a bunch of hopped up pre-pubsecent, vulgar kids. combat training was the main reason i bought BO2. unfortunately, combat training as we knew it no longer exists. you can still set up bots and play games, but there's not combat training progression. i was really disappointed about that. all the guns and unlocks are available right from the beginning, which isn't a bad thing, but part of the fun of multiplayer and combat training is the ever-present allure of unlocks. on the positive side, all game modes are available in bot games (free for all, team deathmatch, kill confirmed, domination, headquarters, etc). i really wish there were a combat training progression, but you can't win them all.

all in BO2 is without a doubt the best all-around CoD game since CoD4, in my opinion. there's plenty to admire and my hat's off to treyarch for making a concerted effort to try something new. given CoD's popularity they certainly didn't have to do it, but that fact that they did earns my respect. just hire some better writers next time.

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Buy this in few weeks and it will be fine. It's buggy and online is just a mess for PS3. CoD games get frequent updates and I'm sure they will have this sorted out in a couple weeks. So if you can avoid freaking out and melting down, read on.

1) If you gave this one star, you probably shouldn't have bought it (or didn't and are trolling). It is exactly what you expect from any CoD game.

2) The PS3 version online is jacked up in the first couple day. THIS IS NOTHING NEW FOR CoD OR ANY OTHER FPS. It is simply a continuing tradition of shooters not working right on release. A couple weeks from now, things will smooth out and the game will work fine.

3) Zombie mode is bigger and better. It is really fun and a great co-op mode. It's still not Left4Dead, but it does offer some replay and something for people that don't like being cursed at by ignorant people online.

4) The campaign has MORE to offer than any of the recent CoD's. I still don't like it, but I never have.

5) When online works, the game is okay. It's super fast, twitchy and the guns all feel "samey", it's more rock paper scissors and online connection speed than my gun is stronger than yours (not including shotguns/snipers). Killstreaks have been dialed way back, so that's a plus or minus depending on your take. I'm just getting into league play, but it's interesting for people that enjoy playing right and work as a team. The perks and unlocks have been changed, but it's still the same fomula. Perform missions, get kills, get XP and unlock things; it's in a new wrapper though.

All in all, it's a CoD game. It's not the worst game ever and even though there are bugs on release, the campaign is super high quality, zombie mode is terrific and with the addtion of league play, online could have some legs for people like me that would rather play with a team that works together instead of a bunch of boosters and corner campers.

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PS3 Version:

By now we all know that new CODs are the same thing with different weapons and different maps, give or take. NOT this one. The multi-player feels VERY similar to that of Battlefield, only a generic version of it. And you could definitely tell. The pistols are currently overpowered and occasionally, there tends to be small glitches when you die where you'll go through a wall and down to who knows where.

BIGGEST ISSUE OF ALL IS THE FREEZING.

I NEVER had an issue with my Ps3 freezing, now if I try to view my combat record, change an emblem, open a class, or do something new that required a bit of loading, my entire PS3 just freezes. It is not just me, you can hear many people complain about it throughout the server. FURTHERMORE, the server gets stuck with "Need more players to balance team" even with a full lobby. Sometimes, it'll work when someone gets frustrated and leaves.

If you're considering buying this, don't. Not until Treyarch fixes these issues.

If someone from Treyarch is reading this, know that you FAILED big time here. Honestly I feel like we deserve an apology for your team not fixing these issues before releasing them. I will admit that I will continue to play it simply cause my dumb self already put out the $60 bucks for this game. Thanks for nothing Treyarch!

11/20/2012 UPDATE

It has been a couple of days since my previous review. I force myself to play it because I want to like this game, considering I put out the $60. I sit, TRYING to like it, but I can't.

1) THE FREEZING STILL CONTINUES. It is hard to enjoy a game that freezes randomly in a menu. You get stuck anywhere from 5-10 minutes as the PS3 restores and does an error check. Yay!

2) If you make it to actual gameplay (as it loves to randomly freeze before the loading bar is full) you will find yourself annoyed by the amount of times you will be spawned in front of an enemy. Spawn camping is pretty easy to do on here, considering the huge amount of windows and high ground available. In one game, I was literally spawned about a meter away from a bouncing betty, and killed within seconds of spawning.

3) The shotgun is an amazing gun in this game. My favorite actually. However, occasionally, I find myself having to shot a person 3 times, point blank, to get a kill. Not quite sure how a point blank hit, dead center, with a shotgun, doesn't get you an immediate kill. I'm fairly confident on my accuracy, so I highly doubt it's an accuracy issue.

4) There is also this weird thing that I can't quite figure out. Sometimes while trying to join a friend's party, it says something about them needing to restart their playlists in order for you to join because your playlist is newer than theirs. On a couple of occasions I wasn't able to join parties because of this. I'm still trying to figure this out, but in the meantime, I'd like to point out that this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

5) They closed down the Nuketown lobby. That sucks. I was expecting that to be a perk of pre-ordering the game. Guess not.

2/22/13

I went back to play this game after a while without playing it and they seem to have fixed the freezing! Yippee!! Now, why do I leave it as a rating of 1 star then?! I'll feed you baby birds! The game still freezes on Zombies. There is nothing more annoying than having your console freeze while being chased by a pack of zombies on level 31. Trust me, it will piss you off like never before. Doesn't happen always, but has happened enough times to be a burden. For those of you about to tell me it is my slow internet, I'm running on 65 Mbps. It isn't the fastest, but it is good enough to not be a problem.

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There are a lot of things to like about this game, but the negatives outweigh the positives. Let's start with the positives: the score-streak setup they implement in this game is awesome. In addition to getting kills, you are rewarded for playing the objective and being a team player. I am also glad to see that the support strike package from MW3 and death-streaks are NOT in this game, so no more free stealth bombers and EMPs, and no more last/final stand, second chance, or dead man's hand. The way they have divided up the perks is superb as well, with no single perk being overpowered. Similar to the perks in this game, you will find that the guns are well-balanced also.

Unfortunately, even with these great features, the online multiplayer experience can be horrible at times. The lag compensation and hit detection in this game are worse than any of the three previous Call of Duty games (MW2, Black Ops 1, and MW3). It can be extremely frustrating to lose a gunfight to someone when, on your screen, you clearly should have come out on top. They have also taken away the ability to tie score-streaks to your custom classes, so if you find yourself struggling to win a gunfight due to lag or any other reason, you are stuck with the 3 score-streaks you chose and cannot switch to lower ones during a match. In addition to having horrible lag compensation and hit detection, the developers have implemented skill-based matchmaking, so even though the game has connection issues, players are not always placed in lobbies with the best ping. Often, players will be placed in games with worse connections in order to go up against players of similar skill level.

TL;DR: the connection issues in this game have absolutely ruined it. Though they have implemented some nice new features, the online multiplayer experience can be utterly frustrating.

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I had hoped that after all lag issues we experienced in MW3 that this game would be the redeemer. Sadly it wasn't.

The online experience is horrid to say the least. The # 1 thing online games want is an equal playing ground. You get to compete against players who are better and worse than you and you improve accordingly. Skill seems to have very little to do with this game. Lag has killed the competitive element. All you need to do is watch the kill cam and you can easily see why you got out gunned. Players can be a full second or more ahead of you and what you are seeing in real time on your screen is not not real time at all. This is the last COD title I buy until they spend the money on dedicated servers. God knows these guys can afford it yet they refuse to fix their games. The instead tell their customers it their fault for having fast Internet. The other elements of the game are good it's just the lag that ruins the experience for me.