Hey guys, 
I'm obviously new here, but I was really curious about some things I found in Black Ops. 
 
I decided to play through on Veteran first time through because I had played COD since Modern Warfare and figured I could handle it... Was it just me or did that suck ALL of the fun out of the campaign mode? I liked the story but Veteran ruined it because I had to play levels over and over and over and OVER. 2 hits on the 360 version and you are dead. I swear it was all but physically sickening to try and finish the stupid game. Last night when I finally beat it I was so relieved not to have to grind at the levels anymore, that I hardly felt any pride in myself for actually finishing the game. But I wanted to S-rank this one like I did with COD4, (actually the second reason I played through on Veteran first time through... It's a pain to play, err... GRIND through the levels again just for those achievements... Made that mistake in COD4 and wasn't about to make it again...) But other than the impossibility that they call "veteran" I really enjoyed the game as a whole. I purposely waited to play Multiplayer online because I wanted to get all the way through the campaign first. I know there will be a ton of grinding to level up in the MP but at least it won't be as impossible(I hope..).
 
 
 
Was anyone else intrigued by the "Tried?" JFK comment Steiner threw out at the end when the explanation was finally happening at the end?! I was pleasantly surprised... Also the level in Khan or wherever it was (the one with the stupid hill you had to run down and kick the napalm drums..) that had the trench at the bottom... HOLY BOOB was that hard and not very informative! I had to look at a quick video of someone doing the actual objective because after 2-3 hours of replaying that same part, I realized that getting into the trench like that one "They're in the trenches!!" guy says was NOT the way to do that mission... Overall I did enjoy the whole game and it was DEFINITELY a challenge. So please don't take this post as b!tching but I really just wanted to see if anyone else had this much difficulty and thought it was grinding to really beat the game on Veteran.  
 
PS - I loved the feel of this COD better than COD4 once I finally got the hang of it... It was like the controls were tighter or more responsive or something. I was WAY off when I shot that VERY first guy in the game but after a few times I got the hang of it and liked it WAY more. Hopefully that transfers to MP well and holds my attention. 
 
 
PPS - Is there any "golden gun" type thing in this MP? 
 
I look forward to more posts and hope I contribute to this forum well!     :D

Welcome to Giantbomb friend.
 
I gotta say I stopped playing campaign after I think the third mission or something. I was also playing on Veteran and got sick of the endlessly respawning enemies FAST. I can't comment on the rest but I do remember hearing talk of the awful barrel level (I guess napalm drums is what they were).
 
Also I used to be the kinda person who would play through the campaign in its entirety before going into multiplayer but I don't do that anymore with any game. I tend to find multiplayer to be a lot of fun and to hard to ignore.

Well, my final reason for waiting to play MP was that my best friend doesn't have Blops until next week at the earliest and I can't stand playing COD without a solid team(or at least ONE teammate I know) to back me up. I don't mind dying 45 times for a team I know and a team I know tried to win. Otherwise it's all 12-15 yr old punks saying "I'm gonna pwn joo!!" the whole time and it then sucks all the fun out of the MP.. So therefore I just opted to wait and concentrate on beating the campaign.  But yes the urge to play MP has been gnawing at my brain all week! :\
 
Do you know of any "golden gun" or "positive reinforcement" type goals/prizes in MP? I haven't heard anything about them... Is that what the "Pro" of each thing is? And if so does the "Pro" thing of each weapon/class setup disappear when you prestige?

Yes, welcome to GB.  Honestly, I didn't find Black Ops' veteran all that bad compared to MW2, but I definitely think you made a mistake playing veteran for your first playthrough.   It would have made it far less enjoyable for me. 

i hate veteran. i played call of duty 4 on veteran a couple of levels. i got frustrated and said screw veteran. i haven't played veteran since then. i played black ops on hardened and had a little bit of trouble with it. 
 
for the golden cameos you have to be 14th prestige to get them.

I played through MW2 and most of CoD4 on veteran, as with a bunch of other games. I usually only do this after having finished the campaign on Normal first because I like the enjoy the story, as bad as it may be, before I ruin it for myself by making it ridiculously hard.

i beat the campaign on regular difficulty to enjoy the story, and thought it wouldn't be so bad playing it on vet (especially since MW2 was kind of a breeze on Veteran) but i'm totally stuck at some point in "Executive Order" (or something) after you blow up the rocket. i was stuck on that one part for two hours and haven't played it since. not fun at all, but that's what i expected. 
 
also, welcome to giant bomb! 

finished black ops on veteran today, have done 2 4 5 6 7 on veteran now, was hard but not the hardest.
it definitely makes the game less fun but for some reason i just have to do it....i think 4 was the hardest on veteran, followed by 2, modern warfare, world at war, black ops and then i found modern warfare 2 to be the easiest, there really wasn't a lot of trouble for that one.

Thanks for all the input guys!  
 
 
And @NTM: As for the going back to MW2, I actually never owned that one. I just played through it while borrowing it from my roommate. Waiting for the price to drop significantly before I purchase it. :) I know I'm cheap but eh such is life...