Black Ops
I have to say I bought this game with a large element of reservation, it felt that it wasn't that long ago that we were playing Modern Warfare II and my fear was that this would be more of the same. Unfortunately, my fears were to be realised, yes it could be argued that the graphics are better, smoother, the story line is different (slightly) but in the end the single player option, for me, was way too short. Which means the developers were relying on the fact the Xbox Live component of the game would give it lastibility ....... they were wrong!!
They did make some subtle changes to the online experience such as Wager Matches, which I have to say are quite cool, but the rest of the games are the same old drudgery as previous games in the Call of Duty Series, you know what I'm talking about, the Free For All, the Team Death Matches, Capture the Flag, blah, blah, blah and of course you get to do most of these on Hardcore too. It might be just me, being in my early 40's with a very young family, someone who regularly plays but only twice a week, I want something different, I want to be thrown into games where my friends are playing (if there is space), I want a good fight, an even(ish) fight, those that I am friends with provide that as we are all of a similar ability (almost). What I hate is to be thrown into random games, where I get raped and pillaged by a handful of spotty faced teenagers who have nothing better to do with there lives but play Xbox all day and trash talk other players. Surely developers can create an intelligent, more intuitive online experience that takes more into consideration than your connection speed when choosing a game for you ..... (maybe add in, age, points gained, hours spent online, kill to death ratios) ....... just a thought.
They did make some subtle changes to the online experience such as Wager Matches, which I have to say are quite cool, but the rest of the games are the same old drudgery as previous games in the Call of Duty Series, you know what I'm talking about, the Free For All, the Team Death Matches, Capture the Flag, blah, blah, blah and of course you get to do most of these on Hardcore too. It might be just me, being in my early 40's with a very young family, someone who regularly plays but only twice a week, I want something different, I want to be thrown into games where my friends are playing (if there is space), I want a good fight, an even(ish) fight, those that I am friends with provide that as we are all of a similar ability (almost). What I hate is to be thrown into random games, where I get raped and pillaged by a handful of spotty faced teenagers who have nothing better to do with there lives but play Xbox all day and trash talk other players. Surely developers can create an intelligent, more intuitive online experience that takes more into consideration than your connection speed when choosing a game for you ..... (maybe add in, age, points gained, hours spent online, kill to death ratios) ....... just a thought.
Block Ops Zombies
I know I have been quite negative up until now, for me the saving grace to Black Ops was the Zombie maps. I don't know how many hours my friends and I have a massed playing "Kino Der Toten" the first map to be released with Black Ops. Very different from the Zombies in World at War, the developers have done exceedingly well coming up with new ways of getting to "packer punch", replacing the dogs with roaming monkeys that destroy your perks as well as trying to harm you. Some of the weapons in the crate are awesome, including the "black hole", the "thunder gun" along with the old favorites like the "laser gun". I have to say at this point, the tactics that you have to utilise when playing Kino Der Toten was very different from previous zombie games, we found always being on the move and only opening half the map and making regular use of the transporter worked very well for us, we reached L27 with two players, I believe some of the younger players have broken L30 without cheating, something we are still dreaming of!! The biggest challenge we found, other than crap weapons from the crate, were the 'stinkers', thats the horrible beasts on the image above, the crawl around on all fours, below your gun sites if your taking out a stream of zombies at head height!! If you kill them too close, they explode releasing a poisonous gas, causing disorientation, which when things get busy, can be enough to take you out .... you've been warned!!
Ascension Map Pack
This is the first map pack released for Black Ops, personally I bought this for the zombie map rather than the online multiplayer maps (getting bored of the game play). Now the Ascension Zomnie Map is something else, it has taken us a couple of months to figure it a hint of a strategy to get through the levels, at the point of writing this the best we have done is reaching L17 with two players or L16 with three players. It is completely different style of playing, different transportation modes, there are no stinkers, but the zombies dodge left and right and some of them drop to the ground forward roll then jump back on the feet, closer to you. They tend not to stream to the same extend, they continue to come out of windows throughout the map, this is particularly hazardous when you take a platform back to the central location because by the time you land the zombies are already starting to wait for you, causing you to fight your way through to your intended destination. Instead of dogs coming every 5 rounds on the previous maps, this one has monkey (as in the image), these do attack you but there biggest threat is they attack the perk machines, if you don't stop them in time, you can lose your perks, this seriously impacts your chances going forward, especially if you lose Jugger Nog (ability to be hit more before dying). A great map, one that has been causing us a few issues, if anyone reading this has a strategy to get beyond L20 please contact me and let me know!!