Call of Duty Black Ops - PC

I am not a professional game reviewer nor do I pretend to be one but I feel the urge to do a review on the Call of Duty Black Ops series for the PC.

Call of Duty Black Ops costs for the PC purchased via steam was exactly $59.99. This is an increase of almost $20.00 since the Call of Duty Modern Warfare (COD4) series was released. Although I'm still unable to find a justifiable increase from $40.00 to $60.00.

This time around Activision put Treyarch in charge of Call of Duty Black Ops. Personally I was kind of sketchy with this move as I thought World at War was so-so at its best but it did eventually grow on me. Secondly I felt that this studio was going to listen to the PC gaming community again, as Infinity Ward the makers of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had failed to do. Many gamers cried foul when they were duped by false promises from Infinity Ward and given the cold shoulder. Well Treyarch heard the from the masses of PC gamers and listened to some much needed changes.

The Good Stuff:

One of the first big changes to come back to the Call of Duty series was the return of dedicated servers. A large majority of PC gamers did not like the issues that were involved with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2's IWNET which was designed more for consoles than pc's. Dedicated servers brought back control which was stripped from IWNET. Users now have the ability to administrate their servers and remove or ban cheaters from spoiling games. Although the ability to run your own dedicated server seems to be diminishing amongst the PC community they do offer you the ability to also rent your own dedicated server. However at the time there is one company that has been given the ability to do so which feels like a monopoly. I would still rather play on dedicated servers from one company than deal with IWNET's peer to peer fiasco.

New weapons, perks, modes and more are brought into the game which offers a nice change of pace for the series.

The Primary Weapons for Call of Duty Blacks Ops are:

• Sub Machine Guns
  -MP5K
  -Skorpion
  -MAC11
  -AK74U
  -UZI
  -PM63
  -MPL
  -SPECTRE
  -KIPARIS
• Assault Rifles
  -M16
  -Enfield
  -M14
  -Famas
  -Galil
  -Aug
  -FN FAL
  -AK47
  -Commando
  -G11
• Shotguns
  -Olympia
  -Stakeout
  -SPAS-12
  -HS10
• Light Machine Guns
  -HK21
  -RPK
  -M60
  -Stoner63
  -Death Machine
• Sniper Rifles
  -Dragunov
  -WA2000
  -L96A1
  -PSG1

Secondary Weapons are:

• Pistols
  -ASP
  -M1911
  -MAKAROV
  -Python
  -CZ75
• Launchers
  -M72 Law
  -RPG
  STRELA-3
  -China Lake
  -Grim Reaper
• Specials
  -Ballistic Knife
  -Crossbow with exploding arrow

Some Misc Weapons/Tools:

• Lethal
  -Frag Grenade
  -Semtex
  -Tomahawk
• Tactical
  -Willy Pete Smoke Grenade
  -Nova Gas
  -Flash Bang
  -Concussion Grenade
  -Decoy Device
• Equipment
  -Camera Spike
  -C4
  -Tactical Insertion
  -Jammer
  -Motion Sensor
  -Claymore

If the new weapons don't do it for you then perhaps the new game play modes will. Your classic game play is still available such as Free For All (FFA), Capture The Flag (CTF), Demoltion (DEM), Domination (DOM), Team Deathmatch (TDM), Sabotage (SAB), and Search & Destroy (S&D). That's definitely good but it gets better as the Nazi Zombies are back from World at War. You can go head to head with the undead by yourself or online with your friends in an epic battle. If you don't move fast enough you become their dinner and its gamer over.

Like to put your money where your mouth is? How about a little wager match then. Players vie for the top 3 slots to win credits. Credits are in game currency that allows you to buy perks, weapons and other various items instead of having to wait to unlock them. Think fast though when playing in wager matches as you can quickly become bankrupt if you catch a tomahawk to the chest.

Never played online before or just not sure what to do? Black Ops now gives you the option to play solo and learn the ropes without having to go online. You can play against bots on your computer and learn how the game works before stepping into an online battlefield. This helps give you an idea of what weapons and combinations work best for you. When you join a server you might not feel as overwhelmed that first time around.

The graphics for the new Black Ops series will seem very familiar to anyone who played Modern Warfare 2. They give a clean crisp feel that offers brilliant colors and great texture shadings. I have been told a different engine was used to make this game although this is from unconfirmed sources. The ambient textures and environment give the maps a feel of being almost endless. This is somewhat nice since you don't feel like your constantly being restricted when at the borders of the map.

The Bad:

The sounds of the world and environment are iffy at best. Ambient noises seem to suffer quite a bit when playing. You will also run across sound spamming on certain maps that have been known to crash the game. Some users have been so fed up with this issue that they have disabled the sound altogether to even play the game.

Two big issues seem to be widely rampant when playing online. The first issue is a latency issue that seems to occur for no rhyme or reason. Many players have complaints of stuttering, teleporting, large lag spikes and more that cause the game to be almost unplayable despite having updated and capable gaming machines.

The second issues has made the game pretty much unplayable for a majority of people including myself. At random times it will freeze or lockup requiring a ctrl+alt+del to end its process and bring control back to the computer. Support for these two issues have several gamers trying to solve the issues on their own some with some success others with none at all. It has been quite clear by the Call of Duty forums that many people once again feel they have been let down due to a lack of support for the game they purchased. Many feel cheated out of their money because the game does not work out of the box and is plagued with glitches and bugs that should have been fixed before its release.

As with every game there are those who play just for the enjoyment of ruining another persons fun. Cheaters are on this game and have no qualms about it. It seems 1 out of every 10 servers I visited there was someone using some sort of cheat. To me this is still significantly less than the amount of cheaters who infested Modern Warfare 2. Some will call the cheaters hackers but as far as I'm concerned hacking requires skill and many of these cheaters obviously lack that as they have downloaded programs to give them the advantage.

Final Thoughts:

If I could go back in time I would have kept my money or waited six months before purchasing this game. Since refunds aren't available for digital media that requires you to be locked into a steam account it will most likely sit on steam collecting dust. There are only so many freezes and irrelevant glitches I can put up with until enough is enough. Granted single player is fun but the real play lies in the online comradery and burying a tomahawk into your friends head.

Treyarch I really hope you do right by the PC gaming community and make this game the epic series it once was by fixing these issues.

Technical Specs:

Operating System: MS Windows 7 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM: 6.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 535MHz (8-8-8-20)
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6X58D PREMIUM (LGA1366)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (ATI)

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