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    Call of Duty: Black Ops

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Nov 09, 2010

    The seventh installment of the long-running action franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops puts players into the early era of the Cold War (including the Vietnam War) as a member of the United States black operations unit known as the SOG.

    Thoughts on Call of Duty

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    Egge

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    Edited By Egge

    At least in the United States, Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best-selling game of all time. Like, in the entire history of video games, ever. That's a pretty big deal, and despite my general reservations about whack-a-mole shooters like this I still can't say I'm particularly worked up about the fact that the CoD series is so popular. Unlike, say, a lot of bestselling Wii exclusives (the European obsession with Just Dance comes to mind) there's nothing inherently bad about Infinity Ward's and Treyarch's shooters. Indeed, the games are flashy, polished, chock-full of striking set pieces and offers exceptional longevity for all those players who (unlike me) consider multiplayer gaming to be a worthwile activity. The DLC is over-priced, yes, and the new subscription model seems questionable on some levels, but despite their yearly release schedule the recent Call of Duty games are far from the cynical cash-ins one might expect from a publisher who clearly knows that simply putting "CoD" in the title is a license to print more than a billion dollars.

    Also, it's worth mentioning that my own gameplay-related issues with this very specific type of shooter are a little different from - or at least a very particular variation of - the standard criticisms you hear about CoD these days. As a longtime fan of deliberately dumb arcade shooters I don't mind so much that the Call of Duties are linear, accessible and devoid of any need for real tactics since I've always wanted my shooters to be visceral, impulse-driven experiences with as little serious thought involved as possible. Rather, my problem is that the considerable efforts made by IW and Treyarch to streamline the experience and carefully guide the player through each level paradoxically ends up increasing the difficulty and general obtuseness of the gameplay. I have played shooters since Wolfenstein 3D, but few FPSs have been so challenging and downright frustrating for me to get through as the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare games, precisely because of their rail shooter-esque design. To take a few examples, even when I choose to play on comparatively low difficulty levels I invariably end up struggling with the demands placed on my reflexes by the sudden onslaught of hostiles, and with the necessity to quickly figure out exactly where the level designer intends for me to take refuge from the incoming barrage of enemy bullets and begin my counterattack. This and similar problems lead to a lot of frustrating near-instant deaths and forces me to adapt a cautious, methodical and heavily trial-and-error-based playstyle which is completely at odds with the carefree blockbuster action movie vibe these games so clearly strive for. Thus, unlike the Battlefield crowd and other CoD detractors my issue is not with what the Activision developers try to do but instead with their failure to be consistent and creatively work around any potential contradictions in their overall design approach.

    On a more philosophical level the dismal militarism, neo-conservative world view and creepy soldier masculinity being communicated in these games are all a bit unsettling to me, but that's a whole separate discussion for another day...

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    #1  Edited By Egge

    At least in the United States, Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best-selling game of all time. Like, in the entire history of video games, ever. That's a pretty big deal, and despite my general reservations about whack-a-mole shooters like this I still can't say I'm particularly worked up about the fact that the CoD series is so popular. Unlike, say, a lot of bestselling Wii exclusives (the European obsession with Just Dance comes to mind) there's nothing inherently bad about Infinity Ward's and Treyarch's shooters. Indeed, the games are flashy, polished, chock-full of striking set pieces and offers exceptional longevity for all those players who (unlike me) consider multiplayer gaming to be a worthwile activity. The DLC is over-priced, yes, and the new subscription model seems questionable on some levels, but despite their yearly release schedule the recent Call of Duty games are far from the cynical cash-ins one might expect from a publisher who clearly knows that simply putting "CoD" in the title is a license to print more than a billion dollars.

    Also, it's worth mentioning that my own gameplay-related issues with this very specific type of shooter are a little different from - or at least a very particular variation of - the standard criticisms you hear about CoD these days. As a longtime fan of deliberately dumb arcade shooters I don't mind so much that the Call of Duties are linear, accessible and devoid of any need for real tactics since I've always wanted my shooters to be visceral, impulse-driven experiences with as little serious thought involved as possible. Rather, my problem is that the considerable efforts made by IW and Treyarch to streamline the experience and carefully guide the player through each level paradoxically ends up increasing the difficulty and general obtuseness of the gameplay. I have played shooters since Wolfenstein 3D, but few FPSs have been so challenging and downright frustrating for me to get through as the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare games, precisely because of their rail shooter-esque design. To take a few examples, even when I choose to play on comparatively low difficulty levels I invariably end up struggling with the demands placed on my reflexes by the sudden onslaught of hostiles, and with the necessity to quickly figure out exactly where the level designer intends for me to take refuge from the incoming barrage of enemy bullets and begin my counterattack. This and similar problems lead to a lot of frustrating near-instant deaths and forces me to adapt a cautious, methodical and heavily trial-and-error-based playstyle which is completely at odds with the carefree blockbuster action movie vibe these games so clearly strive for. Thus, unlike the Battlefield crowd and other CoD detractors my issue is not with what the Activision developers try to do but instead with their failure to be consistent and creatively work around any potential contradictions in their overall design approach.

    On a more philosophical level the dismal militarism, neo-conservative world view and creepy soldier masculinity being communicated in these games are all a bit unsettling to me, but that's a whole separate discussion for another day...

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    Bollard

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    #2  Edited By Bollard

    I hate to break it to you, but I feel you might be the minority who find COD a hard first person shooter... Quite a lot of people (myself included) play through them on Veteran from release because otherwise they're just too damn easy, and its the only way to squeeze any challenge out of them. Veteran can be frustrating as hell sure, but the lower difficulties can be completed without even taking cover, and generally blindly walking forwards and holding shoot (this statement was a slight exaggeration, but you get my point).  
     
    I think it possibly has something to do with your reluctance to play online, as after playing against human beings, defeating the (almost non-existent) AI is a piece of cake.

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    #3  Edited By Egge

    @Chavtheworld: Well, I was speaking about my own experience and it's certainly no surprise to me that there are people out there who have honed their reflexes to the point that enemies rapidly popping out from cover is simply not challenging anymore (and none of my commentary had anything to do with the enemy AI, which is indeed rudimentary). I was raised on games like Doom, though, and while such classics can be fast-paced and challenging in their own right there's a whole different dynamic and rhythm to them which I feel the CoD generation of FPSs have lost entirely. As you suggest, though, what I tend to refer to as the "whack-a-mole approach" to shooter design is perhaps an especially good fit for heavily online-focused games.

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    Bollard

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    #4  Edited By Bollard
    @Egge: You can guarantee I would suck completely at Doom. I guess its just a different skill set.
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    Rhaknar

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    #5  Edited By Rhaknar

    you know whats still pretty damn ok? CoD1 :P

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    StrikeALight

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    #6  Edited By StrikeALight

    @Egge said:

    On a more philosophical level the dismal militarism, neo-conservative world view and creepy soldier masculinity being communicated in these games are all a bit unsettling to me, but that's a whole separate discussion for another day...

    That's my main problem with military shooters, and why I refuse to play them. That, and the large proportion of bottom feeders that plague these communities.

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    jkuc316

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    #7  Edited By jkuc316

      @Egge said:

    At least in the United States, Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best-selling game of all time. Like, in the entire history of video games, ever.


    I thought Black Ops only sold 20+ mil. while Super Mario Bros. sold 40 mil.
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    #8  Edited By Egge

    @jkuc316: Those 40 million are worldwide sales.

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    left4doof

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    #9  Edited By left4doof
    @Chavtheworld: I felt like Cod2 on veteran is really hard .

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