For the first time in months I decided to sit down and play some Black Ops 2. I've loved the Call of Duty series for years and in particular I have played World at War and Black Ops 1 to death, so this evening I decided I'd play the latest for a few hours. I really like the maps and the style of the weapons. And I love the sound effects, but overall it has unfortunately It left me feeling more frustrated than...well, enjoying myself, so I decided to write about two things that stood out to me and see what the duders think!

Matchmaking

Firstly, I was surprised to see that in all the matches I played I only saw 4 other people that hadn't prestiged, however even then they were all in their 50's. I am level 28. I scrolled through the lobby in disbelief seeing prestige 3,7,9,4,8,9,Master (whatever that is). It was really disheartening sitting in the lobby thinking, "well I'm about to get my ass handed to me" game after game after game. Now before I get corrected by a zillion people I know prestige isn't really about skill but time. So these dudes are not necessarily amazing but just really experienced. Well as far as I'm concerned its the same thing. Whether they suck or not, in order to be a Master prestige you'll have played the game so much you know every map, line of sight, tricks and gun inside out. I don't. I have a general awareness of my location in a map but I don't know every line of sight, far from it. They could suck beyond belief and I could be a pro but that won't stop me being killed by some hidden sniper in a window I didn't know you could get to. In previous instalments I remember it being common to have most people in the lobby be the first prestige, or occasionally the second or third. But seeing clans of master prestige in rotation is a first. Everyone loves a challenge but it's just not fun being matched against people who are so much better than I over and over. It may be fun for a sunday pub football team to play the Man Utd first team in a one off, but it's pointless playing match after match after match. It gives a legitimate excuse to getting my ass handed to me, but I'd rather not have it. I'd much rather get my ass handed to me by people in and around my level and know that they have had just as much time with the game as me, and I just suck!

Kill Streaks

I think this is a problem that the COD games have had for a while. Those matches where you cannot move for being blown up by the sky, and if you do try to shoot the helicopters and things down, you get shot. This is not a problem if its a rarity. Indeed in previous COD games it would happen, often in MW2 and MW3 but in Black Ops 1 I felt like I managed to avoid this occurring all too often. I guess its really stood out for me today as it has been combined with the match-making. So I've played game after game where somebody in a master prestige gets all this amazing stuff, which allows others in the team to get amazing things, meaning I am faced with a "leave the game or stand here and die" option.

So what would make the perfect FPS? I dunno. I like a challenge, I like the kill-streaks. I guess my complaint can be described in one word and that's "Moderation". This game with a group of similarly skilled players would be awesome, but for some reason I'm placed with really skilled players which take away my opportunity to enjoy the game or even try and get a middling kill streak. I want every aspect the game can offer but in moderation. Too much ruins it!

Oh and lastly, I guess the internet hating campers finally meant they changed ghost and made silencers harder to obtain. In my opinion its a huge shame because traditionally sneaking about is one way to effectively combat groups of really good players. Getting killed by someone in a corner sucked, but in playing the game you could learn about these corners and know how to counter the camper. Pushing the ghost to higher levels means that in my experiences Mr Master prestige is the one sneaking up behind me with a silencer, while I cannot counter at all!

So there we go. Those were my thoughts, what are your thoughts? Agree...disagree?!