[PS3/360] Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

[wyeast]

This is not meant to be a criticism of the review proffered forth (and in fact, thank you for that, good sir ) - but in my own personal case (and after some discussion, the case of many of my online party crew) a review of CoD-BlOps is crucial as it is precisely the MP experience we had in MW2 that caused us to hesitate on picking this one up.

Unfortunately, the timeframe to discover MP-related issues can be prohibitively long for a review. I know many of us were singing MW2's praises the first month or so, then the wheels fell off the bus as we discovered more problems, and found that they weren't going away once the population load came down off of launch-peak.

Originally Posted by jpc_theoneandonly

Oh, you reminded me of one major set back to the console version (xbox 360 for me) of Black OPs. The servers are horrible. Constant party drops. I have waited nearly 20 minutes only to be put into a dead lobby. The team has to back out and then try again which usually takes atleast another 5 minutes or so. Not only is it hard to find a match, but I have experienced entire parties falling apart in seconds. The host begins to search for a game, the countdown begins then all of the sudden poof... party disappears.

I do know that for the xbox 360 the servers are peer to peer and not dedicated servers. Why Treyarch would do such a thing is beyond my comprehension. I think they could learn a valuable lesson from Valve. As much money that they put into the game, they could have spared a bit for the servers.

Trey has perhaps less to do with this, as they are largely tied to IW's core gameplay engine - it is here that the temperamental networking code has caused the behavior that you're seeing, JPC. This is exactly how MW2 played out (for us), and sadly it appears that Trey has been unable to fix it for BlOps. I'm not sure the peer-to-peer specifically is to blame, as MW1 (and WaW) ran much better... something clearly went awry transitioning to MW2.

Also, Valve isn't really the greatest benchmark for MP-over-360, as TF2 was an abomination on the console.

But thanks. This is making me think that I won't be picking this up after all. Pity, I was looking forward to a little Cold War action.

[Karak]

Thanks for the review, especially taking into account the singleplayer as everyone else is going to cover, has covered, the MP to DEATH.
Good job.

[jpc_theoneandonly]

Originally Posted by wyeast

This is not meant to be a criticism of the review proffered forth (and in fact, thank you for that, good sir ) - but in my own personal case (and after some discussion, the case of many of my online party crew) a review of CoD-BlOps is crucial as it is precisely the MP experience we had in MW2 that caused us to hesitate on picking this one up.

Unfortunately, the timeframe to discover MP-related issues can be prohibitively long for a review. I know many of us were singing MW2's praises the first month or so, then the wheels fell off the bus as we discovered more problems, and found that they weren't going away once the population load came down off of launch-peak.



Trey has perhaps less to do with this, as they are largely tied to IW's core gameplay engine - it is here that the temperamental networking code has caused the behavior that you're seeing, JPC. This is exactly how MW2 played out (for us), and sadly it appears that Trey has been unable to fix it for BlOps. I'm not sure the peer-to-peer specifically is to blame, as MW1 (and WaW) ran much better... something clearly went awry transitioning to MW2.

Also, Valve isn't really the greatest benchmark for MP-over-360, as TF2 was an abomination on the console.

But thanks. This is making me think that I won't be picking this up after all. Pity, I was looking forward to a little Cold War action.

Don't let it deter you from picking it up. Right now it is bearable. As annoying as it is, I find it worth the hastle to play MP. If I didn't, I wouldn't even bother. If you are interested in the MP, I say do not hesitate and pick it up. I could always use another person to play with! I have heard, that a patch is currently ready that will fix the servers, but microsoft is withholding it for a week or two. That is only a rumour so take that at face value. Hopefully true though.

[wyeast]

Originally Posted by jpc_theoneandonly

Don't let it deter you from picking it up. Right now it is bearable. As annoying as it is, I find it worth the hastle to play MP. If I didn't, I wouldn't even bother. If you are interested in the MP, I say do not hesitate and pick it up. I could always use another person to play with! I have heard, that a patch is currently ready that will fix the servers, but microsoft is withholding it for a week or two. That is only a rumour so take that at face value. Hopefully true though.

I really hope that rumour is true. If they can fix the busted lobbies I will be there with bells on

[crazyD]

God damn. I started playing the single player, and thought it was total crap. Then again, I got sick of the "fight endless waves of enemies until you pass and arbitrary invisible barrier," rinse repeat gameplay during CoD2. So fucking cheap and lame. I might try going back and giving it another shot, but I doubt it will get any better. So far, MW2's mediocre as shit singleplayer is the far better experience.