Frustrated with Call of Duty series.

I have always enjoyed these games, basically since Call of Duty 2 as a launch title for the 360. But the last two entries have been so incredibly frustrating to me.

Black Ops has the potential to be a great game online - great maps, good weapon balance, etc. But the way the game handles network code absolutely ruins it. Hiding what your actual connection to the game is through meaningless bars and killcams that never reflect what you actually did moments before losing, tons of people hacking the game, it's all just a big fucking mess. The way i understand it, the game really has no clear idea where any of the players exactly are at any given moment in the match and just kind of fudges it based on the information it gets from the players. And you can tell - the games feel increasingly random and meaningless. Everybody's just running around hoping that the netcode picks them to be the one who shot the other dude first.

I know most people hate this series and I agree that its yearly iteration and influence on every other game made since Call of Duty 4 is generally a bad thing, but they really can be a fun little diversion when you get a good connection and the game plays consistently. obviously nothing to take too seriously, but better than the majority of online shooting games.

Anybody else feel like they're just done with how sloppy and random these games have become? I thought Call of Duty 4 was so amazing because of its 60fps responsiveness and that generally extended to the multiplayer's feeling. Now it's gone the complete opposite way.

Whats funny is games like Halo Reach, Battlefield 3, Persona 4 Arena, and Ultimate MvC3 that are either more complex in their online offerings or more demanding in terms of latency never feel frustrating in the same way. Is it just that activision knows people will buy these games and doesn't care to improve them?

Most people don't hate the series.

@SpudBug said:

Is it just that activision knows people will buy these games and doesn't care to improve them?

Basically yeah...

In all fairness, Treyarch seem to be getting a little more creative in its approach, though it's always going to be a connection based game. Lag comp and all of the other stuff such as bad spawns will always be a part of the series. If that frustrates you, then I'd call it quits.

I agree the call of duty games are a joke when it comes to connection but personally I find it made me a better player. Instead of relying on quick reflexes in straight up fire fights I just flank around the enemy instead and wipe them out from behind. It's pretty satisfying to stray off the beaten path and come up behind a group of dudes picking then off with a silencer. I have played this way ever since modern warfare. One thing that makes no sense to me in these games is the knifing. It is one of the worst fps melee system ever. Also never spring around corners since that half of a second is a huge deal if you are handicapped with a shit connection.

This is new. I have not heard this before please elaborate as it is most interesting.

Battlefield 3 uses dedicated servers that are region specific, Call of Duty (on consoles) is peer to peer so you might be playing some dude in Russia, Kenya and Rand McNally, hence the laf. Most people don't hate a series that sells this well, the minority of gamers hate it, the rest don't care that much.

Only play with people in your local area. Simple answers really.

@me3639: if you don't find a post interesting, ignore it. The faster it disappears from the front page. Sarcastic "this is really interesting" posts make you sound like an jerk, and i'm sure you're not really a jerk.

Just wondered if other people felt this way as I think they're really good from a map design perspective, but I just can't handle the inconsistent behavior of the online. Maybe this year i'll stick with single player and Halo 4 - see how other people react to black ops 2. Or maybe get back into Battlefield 3. That game was really fun, and I didn't seem to care so much if I got screwed over or didn't score well.

What I don't understand is how they don't improve the matchmaking to say only match you up with people in your state and the states around you. We all know enough people play Call of Duty games that they should be able to get reliable regional matchmaking to work pretty much for anyone.

Black Ops is not who shoots who first there's actual gun skill involved.

You sound like a dude who hates Blops cause he holds the trigger too much.

It's not the game you're just missing.

It's a bit messy to me ans it could be better. But I still enjoy the series and I will probably continue to purchase more CoD games.

@xaLieNxGrEyx:

what i've read is a pretty reliable way to tell what kind of delay or lag you're dealing with is to see how much the reload animation lags behind your button push. Its generally accepted that the call of duty games have had hit detection problems.S

See also:

My best weapon is the galil with silencer and dual mag - i absolutely understand the benefit of burst fire and controlling your shots, and I have had good games, going 40 and 3 or whatever and it's super fun to learn the maps and do well once you learn maps and how to anticipate spawns, but the network problems are what ruin the game for me.

I'm the 1 out of 20 people who actually get these games to play the campaign so I wasn't aware of this issue during multiplayer. Last time I even played a CoD multi match was MW2.

I don't think I've ever had any noticeable network issues in CoD, except for the occasional "wow I totally made it behind that wall" moment. And what system are you playing on? As far as I can tell Black Ops on the 360 is hacker free.

I'm the 1 out of 20 people who actually get these games to play the campaign so I wasn't aware of this issue during multiplayer. Last time I even played a CoD multi match was MW2.

Black Ops and MW3 had shit netcode and, really, it's only expected for BO2 to have garbage netcode too.

But with the effort Treyarch is putting into it and with the addition of League Play, I'm sure a lot of that major latency shit will be fixed. With that and the metric ton of other additions and improvements they're doing, I'm pretty much more excited for BO2 than I was with the original Modern Warfare.

I'll never understand why people play these games. Kids running around in circles seeing who can press L-trigger + R-trigger the fastest over shitty netcode, diving in the air prone to make their hitbox harder to target - it's a fucking joke of a shooter.

@DharmaBum said:

I'll never understand why people play these games. Kids running around in circles seeing who can press L-trigger + R-trigger the fastest over shitty netcode, diving in the air prone to make their hitbox harder to target - it's a fucking joke of a shooter.

...and everytime you hear LoL or SC2, replace it with CoD and BF (or whatever else) as you see fit.

Long story short: You may see it as a joke of a shooter, but it's popular because it's so casual-friendly. It's simplicity is it's saving grace.

Unique topic.

Met a guy at work and asked if he played video games. Yeah, he said. I play Call of Duty and sports games. General public likes them those video games.

@Claude said:

Met a guy at work and asked if he played video games. Yeah, he said. I play Call of Duty and sports games. General public likes them those video games.

This is my exact experience as well, except at school. It's because of this that Activision doesn't need to make drastic changes to how they work.

@Claude said:

Met a guy at work and asked if he played video games. Yeah, he said. I play Call of Duty and sports games. General public likes them those video games.

This is my exact experience as well, except at school. It's because of this that Activision doesn't need to make drastic changes to how they work.

@Claude said:

@Cloudenvy said:

@Claude said:

Met a guy at work and asked if he played video games. Yeah, he said. I play Call of Duty and sports games. General public likes them those video games.

This is my exact experience as well, except at school. It's because of this that Activision doesn't need to make drastic changes to how they work.

Pretty much, yeah. I remember a guy that called his Playstation 3 a blu-ray player. I was like...what?

I don't know if that's better or worse than my classmate calling his Xbox "the gamebox". Probably better since he at least acknowledges that it plays games!