Damn.  Annually, Call of Duty still sort of works.  If they start crapping out a bunch each year it'll be the end as we know it (it's how Guitar Hero died, of course).

Considering it was a 6 month project maybe it's not so bad.

Damn how I wish they could do proper Vita Quicklooks!

I don't know if I can trust this review guys. Giant Bomb is currently running ads for this game on their site videos. Not sure if this score can be trusted, they might be biased giving it such a high - oh wait, nevermind.

I could also make a joke about Jeff being fired from Giant Bomb soon, but that would be too easy.

@Oemenia said:

Bad move Sony, this couldve saved the Vita.

Bullshit.

this game is the jam!

Well... shit.

Well. That was rather unequivocal. xD

Showing the same not-giving-a-fuck as always, Jeff! I'd never expect a game of this caliber to be this bad, but from how you've described it, it really is.

It's a shame this game turned out this way. As someone who actually enjoyed the single player and multiplayer of Burning Skies, even though it had many issues, I was prepared for this to improve upon those issues. Sadly, this game turned out far worse, with a meaningless single player and some serious online issues that are even worse than the issues that plagued Burning Skies during its launch week. Still, I really enjoyed the campaign in Burning Skies, then the online was patched when I was ready to jump in. Sadly, Declassified's single player content feels like a hollow shell, whilst the online needs some serious work to improve it.

If you're getting a Vita this year, get the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Bundle. That game has some problems, but it's a fantastic game despite those problems.

Well, luckily I didn't get THIS bundle with my Vita. I only got my Vita 2 weeks ago and PS+ is giving me 5 games with my subscription on Monday, so who cares about this game.

Nice review. Now, back to playing COD: WAW. Much cheaper, lol.

Ouch, 1-star huh? That's not a good sign for the Vita. As someone who has recently started commuting a bit I was actually considering picking up a Vita to get in some gaming on the long rides, but it just seems like there aren't that many standout games. Either they are decent games with issues, or games like this that just look bad. Perhaps I'll just find my old PSP and play some of the older games I never got around to finishing.

Well that sucks. Here's hoping Gurrilla Games get it right with Killzone Mercenary.

@algertman said:

@Oemenia said:

Bad move Sony, this couldve saved the Vita.

Bullshit.

Actually I could of....This could of been Americas answer to Monster Hunter at lunchtime that is huge in Japan. Firstly it had to be a good game, 4 vs 4 via bluetooth or how ever Sony does it. Link this up with your account on either xbox\ps3\pc so you get bonus XP for the games you played at school that day and I think this game would of been a hit and sold alot of Vitas, plus put guns\unlocks\perks you could only get by playing the Vita version and the word of mouth with people playing it would be huge.

Considering this is the same developer that made the equally panned Resistance game on Vita, I'm not exactly surprised at the outcome.

@TheGorilla said:

Considering it was a 6 month project maybe it's not so bad.

Is that an actual statistic?

Guys, I think he liked it.

Damn, how'd they manage to screw this up so badly? And 50 bucks?! Fuck no.

I don't know why they bother releasing games that aren't Persona 4: Golden for the PlayStation Persona 4: Golden Machine.

No surprise. The developer was renamed and moved away from retail games. Also, there was dreadfully little promotion for the title after Sony announcing it at E3. It was nothing more than a cash-in, a Tiger Electronics-esque version of Call of Duty.

Why is it $50 games on this system fucking suck? First Uncharted and now this.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@algertman said:

@Oemenia said:

Bad move Sony, this couldve saved the Vita.

Bullshit.

Actually I could of....This could of been Americas answer to Monster Hunter at lunchtime that is huge in Japan. Firstly it had to be a good game, 4 vs 4 via bluetooth or how ever Sony does it. Link this up with your account on either xbox\ps3\pc so you get bonus XP for the games you played at school that day and I think this game would of been a hit and sold alot of Vitas, plus put guns\unlocks\perks you could only get by playing the Vita version and the word of mouth with people playing it would be huge.

I just can't buy into that. Why spend over $200 on a Vita and CoD when I can get the real thing for a console I already own? Vita CoD was never going to be the same as Black Ops 2 on PS3 and have crossplay. MS would never be cool with that and with the money they give Activision for DLC first and for being the console the game is designed on that was never going to happen.

Aren't these the same guys and gals that made that poor Resistance Vita game? They should probably just change their name to an Alan Smithee company.

It was extremely professional of Jeff to play this all the way through. He also wrote a damn good review. One couldn't fault him at all for playing this game for an hour and realizing it's a complete mess. One could fault the developers, however, for making a very shitty game. This is a pretty important IP to hand out to amateurs like knockoff candy. I'm sure there are quite a few indies that would've loved to get their hands on this instead. On the other hand, maybe not. LULZ.

@Oscar__Explosion said:

Holy shit the way Jeff was talking smack about this I thought it was gonna get a 3 star or at worst a 2. I didn't think it would end up being 1 star shitty.

When was he talking about it?

@BisonHero said:

@Oscar__Explosion said:

Holy shit the way Jeff was talking smack about this I thought it was gonna get a 3 star or at worst a 2. I didn't think it would end up being 1 star shitty.

When was he talking about it?

Numerous tweets on his twitter account:

https://twitter.com/jeffgerstmann

Just scroll down a bit. Starts around a tweet about 20 hours ago.

I've never seen the TNT cigar. Looks spiffy.

@rjayb89 said:

@BisonHero said:

@Oscar__Explosion said:

Holy shit the way Jeff was talking smack about this I thought it was gonna get a 3 star or at worst a 2. I didn't think it would end up being 1 star shitty.

When was he talking about it?

Numerous tweets on his twitter account:

https://twitter.com/jeffgerstmann

Just scroll down a bit. Starts around a tweet about 20 hours ago.

Ah, thanks.

@rjayb89 said:

I don't know why they bother releasing games that aren't Persona 4: Golden for the PlayStation Persona 4: Golden Machine.

There are a handful of decent games on the Vita aside from Persona 4. That game is just going to be the best one.

woof.

@algertman said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@algertman said:

@Oemenia said:

Bad move Sony, this couldve saved the Vita.

Bullshit.

Actually I could of....This could of been Americas answer to Monster Hunter at lunchtime that is huge in Japan. Firstly it had to be a good game, 4 vs 4 via bluetooth or how ever Sony does it. Link this up with your account on either xbox\ps3\pc so you get bonus XP for the games you played at school that day and I think this game would of been a hit and sold alot of Vitas, plus put guns\unlocks\perks you could only get by playing the Vita version and the word of mouth with people playing it would be huge.

I just can't buy into that. Why spend over $200 on a Vita and CoD when I can get the real thing for a console I already own? Vita CoD was never going to be the same as Black Ops 2 on PS3 and have crossplay. MS would never be cool with that and with the money they give Activision for DLC first and for being the console the game is designed on that was never going to happen.

But do you have COD at lunch break? We used to play PSP tekken at lunch, would of loved playing 8 player COD. Need for Speed Most Wanted XP goes between consoles including Vita and 360. MS would pretty much let Activision do anything considered how many Xboxs have been sold because of COD.

AHAHAHAHAH.

The people at Amazon genuinely like this game. As if they just don't give a fuck about the campaign and feel the multiplayer is really good for a handheld. One of the highest rated reviews there comes from a guy who's never played a COD game before. So if there's more people like them across the internet, then perhaps the Vita isn't quite dead yet.

@Nettacki: Citing amazon user reviews won't change Jeff's opinion. He played a junk game, and gave it a junk score. And his opinion does not seem to be an outlier. Buyer beware seems to be the overarching opinion from the majority of reviewers. Real reviewers, not some purchasers trying to make their waste of $50 feel worthwhile to lead other cows to the slaughter. At least you found a review pool more useless than metacritic user reviews to back you up though...

GODDAMN

Don't suppose anyone commenting on the Black Ops 2 QL wants to defend their "Jeff is giving COD a pass" statements now?

Wow, definitely not touching this. Wasn't this supposed to be the system seller for the Vita, I mean, it's the best selling franchise in gaming, and it's a POS on the Vita. :(

Makes me sad.

Two worst game of the year contenders in one day?! SHIT IS HEATING UP!

1 star... it's not that bad and I've never played it yet alone own Vita ^__^

@ShinjiEx: I'm sure it will be a great game when it comes out (I'm in Europe btw, great...!), but it's not the system seller nor does it have the push behind it that CoD does.

@courage_wolf said:

Well that sucks. Here's hoping Gurrilla Games get it right with Killzone Mercenary.

Well liberation is still one of the best PSP games ever made so I'm hopeful.

Ouch!

Wow, I thought it would be bad, but not this fucking bad. Awesome review as always by the way!

Guess this won't be on my list when I get a vita...

I managed to pick this game up for about $10 and, well, I'm actually pretty happy with it.

That said, I'm in the minority of people who put way more time into score-attack and side mission stuff than MP thrills. Banging my head against a Veteran challenge level is my shitty idea of fun.

Still, weird tastes aside, the pricing for this is sickening. This should have been a downloadable game, $15 tops. Urgh. On the bight side, horribly overpriced Activision games retain their trade-in value. Once I'm done (that won't take long) I can sell it off for a profit. :)

I'm not a Call of Duty fan any more but was hoping the game would be at least decent to raise Vita's user base. Hopefully this piece of crap won't put them off the Vita.

this is disappointing...Haven't been a huge call of duty fan for a while, but i was interested in this version for God know's what reason...Oh well, maybe I'll pick it up when it goes to like $5.00 :\

Has that always been Jeff's 1 star review picture? I don't know if I've never seen that before.

I shall miss them if they are taken away. Don't do it Dave!

@graboids said:

I dont think I've ever seen Jeff's 1 star review image, so awesome!

Ditto

and its one good thing I can say about Black Ops for vita

And this was supposed to make the Vita more popular?

I hope Sony didnt have this in mind when they said they'll expect more christmas sales for vita.