I recently purchased CoDBlOps on Steam because I had a coupon from the Holiday sale for %50 off of it. So, as someone who played a ton of CoD4 and MW2, I felt that $20 was finally cheap enough that I felt justified in getting the game. It has been a while, and I am a different person than I once was. I haven't touched the single player yet as that is being saved for another day, but I have played a few games of multiplayer and I have some thoughts to express on this.

Dedicated Servers

What is the big deal with wanting these things? I get wanting to be able to control your world and play the game you want to play, but having only dedicated servers makes me unable to play the game that I want to play. Every single map is a Nuketown only server. Yes, that is sarcastic, but it isn't that far off. There are a good handful of maps in this game, but if I want to see them all I have to play against the shoddy AI. People know every millimeter of the map in Nuketown, and I kind of hate that map for it.

Also, I loved how CoD4 and MW2 would put you into maps that you might not like because they make you play outside of your comfort zone, but it made me experiment with different play styles. As someone who preferred a sniper rifle in most games, CoD4 game me respect for the SMG and close quarters stuff because of maps like Vacant, which were smaller maps where only crazies would try to snipe. Dedicated servers eliminate this exploration of playstyles in a way that I just don't like.

I don't want to be kicked off of a server because someone else with a reserved slot logs on either. Sure, he likes that, but here I am trying to play CoD for a bit and the game is almost done. Then I lose my match bonus because I've been kicked. It didn't tell me that that was the reason, but I can only imagine that that is the case when I was playing normally and then the server was full when I tried to reconnect. Either way, that never happened to me on the 360.

I also hate being stuck with the same jerks because my ping is not the best on some servers. Here I am stuck on a Nuketown only server with the same 3 jerks who have mastered the art of covering the one house that they always need to control. Heck, I played a game with the same guys who sucked it up for a while while they tried to control their favorite house. A game shouldn't go from 3000 to 2900 to ending at 10000 to 4200 because they finally kicked us out of the house they have mastered.

Maybe they let players kick out the ten year old cuss dumpsters, but whatever really. I just speed mute them anyways. I'm not too worried about it, and CoD is tough to grief in anyways. I have barely ever had to leave a server because someone was being a jerk. Muted, ignored, done.

I don't mind dedicated servers when I am not forced to play on them. If you want to have them, they should be private only. Have separate rank-ups for private matches, then play to your hearts content. Don't make me, the guy who wants to push "Go" and play a random game of TDM, suffer because the quick match button put me in a game that is always crouch, no running. That is not fun. Yuck.

Downloadable Content Handled Like Crap

I shouldn't have to have your DLC to be able to play the game online, Treyarch. You did this to me with WaW recently. I tried to revisit that and the game would match me up with people who had the maps but then would kick me out because I didn't have them. Why they heck does it even do that? Black Ops does it too, which almost makes the Nuketown servers into a favorable experience for me. I won't get kicked out of those because a map switched over to a DLC map. I entered a wager match earlier today, trying to play for some points. Why not? After the game almost had the people it needed to pay the buy in, the map changed. I got kicked out of a game that I had waited four minutes to start, just because the map changed to one I don't have.

I played a lot of MW2 back in the day, and I NEVER had this problem with DLC maps. I don't own them, and don't need them. Heck, back in CoD4, I played with friends who didn't have them and it never screwed them over either. Why is Treyarch bad at this fundamental issue? Is it because someone at Activision is telling them that an error that says "Give us money to not see this error anymore" works on more people than it should? I see those messages as "Screw you, you shouldn't even be playing this game. You have a stack of other games that are so much better. Hey look! It is Skyrim! Baldurs Gate! CoD4! I went back and played MW2 and CoD4 not long ago to see if those are decrepit wastelands of errors and sadness. They aren't. They work great.

I can't wait until later this year when "Call of Duty: Black Ops Give Us Some Money for Zombies and Two Maps" comes out. Don't care anymore.

No, I don't have MW3 either. I'm pretty much done with these things. Aside from the $2 redbox got from my MW3 rental, I'm done with CoD after MW2.

I recently purchased CoDBlOps on Steam because I had a coupon from the Holiday sale for %50 off of it. So, as someone who played a ton of CoD4 and MW2, I felt that $20 was finally cheap enough that I felt justified in getting the game. It has been a while, and I am a different person than I once was. I haven't touched the single player yet as that is being saved for another day, but I have played a few games of multiplayer and I have some thoughts to express on this.

Dedicated Servers

What is the big deal with wanting these things? I get wanting to be able to control your world and play the game you want to play, but having only dedicated servers makes me unable to play the game that I want to play. Every single map is a Nuketown only server. Yes, that is sarcastic, but it isn't that far off. There are a good handful of maps in this game, but if I want to see them all I have to play against the shoddy AI. People know every millimeter of the map in Nuketown, and I kind of hate that map for it.

Also, I loved how CoD4 and MW2 would put you into maps that you might not like because they make you play outside of your comfort zone, but it made me experiment with different play styles. As someone who preferred a sniper rifle in most games, CoD4 game me respect for the SMG and close quarters stuff because of maps like Vacant, which were smaller maps where only crazies would try to snipe. Dedicated servers eliminate this exploration of playstyles in a way that I just don't like.

I don't want to be kicked off of a server because someone else with a reserved slot logs on either. Sure, he likes that, but here I am trying to play CoD for a bit and the game is almost done. Then I lose my match bonus because I've been kicked. It didn't tell me that that was the reason, but I can only imagine that that is the case when I was playing normally and then the server was full when I tried to reconnect. Either way, that never happened to me on the 360.

I also hate being stuck with the same jerks because my ping is not the best on some servers. Here I am stuck on a Nuketown only server with the same 3 jerks who have mastered the art of covering the one house that they always need to control. Heck, I played a game with the same guys who sucked it up for a while while they tried to control their favorite house. A game shouldn't go from 3000 to 2900 to ending at 10000 to 4200 because they finally kicked us out of the house they have mastered.

Maybe they let players kick out the ten year old cuss dumpsters, but whatever really. I just speed mute them anyways. I'm not too worried about it, and CoD is tough to grief in anyways. I have barely ever had to leave a server because someone was being a jerk. Muted, ignored, done.

I don't mind dedicated servers when I am not forced to play on them. If you want to have them, they should be private only. Have separate rank-ups for private matches, then play to your hearts content. Don't make me, the guy who wants to push "Go" and play a random game of TDM, suffer because the quick match button put me in a game that is always crouch, no running. That is not fun. Yuck.

Downloadable Content Handled Like Crap

I shouldn't have to have your DLC to be able to play the game online, Treyarch. You did this to me with WaW recently. I tried to revisit that and the game would match me up with people who had the maps but then would kick me out because I didn't have them. Why they heck does it even do that? Black Ops does it too, which almost makes the Nuketown servers into a favorable experience for me. I won't get kicked out of those because a map switched over to a DLC map. I entered a wager match earlier today, trying to play for some points. Why not? After the game almost had the people it needed to pay the buy in, the map changed. I got kicked out of a game that I had waited four minutes to start, just because the map changed to one I don't have.

I played a lot of MW2 back in the day, and I NEVER had this problem with DLC maps. I don't own them, and don't need them. Heck, back in CoD4, I played with friends who didn't have them and it never screwed them over either. Why is Treyarch bad at this fundamental issue? Is it because someone at Activision is telling them that an error that says "Give us money to not see this error anymore" works on more people than it should? I see those messages as "Screw you, you shouldn't even be playing this game. You have a stack of other games that are so much better. Hey look! It is Skyrim! Baldurs Gate! CoD4! I went back and played MW2 and CoD4 not long ago to see if those are decrepit wastelands of errors and sadness. They aren't. They work great.

I can't wait until later this year when "Call of Duty: Black Ops Give Us Some Money for Zombies and Two Maps" comes out. Don't care anymore.

No, I don't have MW3 either. I'm pretty much done with these things. Aside from the $2 redbox got from my MW3 rental, I'm done with CoD after MW2.

That's too bad that the online multiplayer doesn't work very well on PC. I've never had that problem on console.

You should probably check out that single-player campaign, though. I enjoyed it quite a bit.