Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

[ProfessorLayton]

Out of curiosity, why should we change our opinion based on what Russ Pitts says? Basing your opinion on someone else's sounds kind of sadder.

What I was sort of going for is that, for a game like this, he could have given it the worst review ever and talked about how it could be literally broken, yet people will still act like it's great. In fact, they could send out a half finished game and people would rave about it. When a game is this hyped up, reviews cease to matter.

 

[ohgodalex]

Out of curiosity, why should we change our opinion based on what Russ Pitts says? Basing your opinion on someone else's sounds kind of sadder.

What I was sort of going for is that, for a game like this, he could have given it the worst review ever and talked about how it could be literally broken, yet people will still act like it's great. In fact, they could send out a half finished game and people would rave about it. When a game is this hyped up, reviews cease to matter.

Sure, he could have given it the worst review ever and people would still love it.
That's because Russ Pitts is a talentless hack. This game is by no means perfect, but this review is a blatant appeal to the anti-CoD crowd. Just take a peek at the comments. Even people who were on the fence over this game were almost mollified by his harsh review. Why would the be so incredulous? Because this review is absolutely preposterous. It has no value, just like everything this guy does.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Sure, he could have given it the worst review ever and people would still love it.
That's because Russ Pitts is a talentless hack. This game is by no means perfect, but this review is a blatant appeal to the anti-CoD crowd. Just take a peek at the comments. Even people who were on the fence over this game were almost mollified by his harsh review. Why would the be so incredulous? Because this review is absolutely preposterous. It has no value, just like everything this guy does.

Where do you think saying something like that will get you? You ignore what I was trying to say so you could insult a staff member... why?

 

[Agrael]

Finished single player, and it was good. Although, I didn't see anything ''that'' wrong with the sound acting.. and the gameplay was fun ... Am I going to buy it ? Erhh.... no.

 

[ohgodalex]

Sure, he could have given it the worst review ever and people would still love it.
That's because Russ Pitts is a talentless hack. This game is by no means perfect, but this review is a blatant appeal to the anti-CoD crowd. Just take a peek at the comments. Even people who were on the fence over this game were almost mollified by his harsh review. Why would the be so incredulous? Because this review is absolutely preposterous. It has no value, just like everything this guy does.

Where do you think saying something like that will get you? You ignore what I was trying to say so you could insult a staff member... why?

I didn't ignore what you were saying, you're just wrong. Your logic is flawed. It doesn't matter what reviews say because people will like what they like. The assumption that people only enjoy Black Ops due to the hype is supercilious; you are being offensive and pretentious by assuming that the only POSSIBLE REASON that people could be very excited about something was that it was well publicized.

 

[Muphin_Mann]

Ah this review...the one review on escapist thta made me log in after a few months of lurking just to say: This review sucks.

As an RPG guy games like Black Ops tend to not be my favorite, but i do play a lot of shooters and its single player experiance was certainly better than the trash that was most of MW:2 and overall probably better than WaW and MW:1

Was CoD: Black Ops in single player more fun than Fallout: New Vegas? Hell no. Was it the best that the series has given us in years? Yea...probably.

 

[Chewster]

After the absolute failure of a single player experience that was Modern Warfare 2, this doesn't surprise me. They keep trying to conjure up the same brand of gold-plated lightning that was the first game, and keep failing.

Shame, because the concept behind this one seemed to have potential.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I didn't ignore what you were saying, you're just wrong. Your logic is flawed. It doesn't matter what reviews say because people will like what they like. The assumption that people only enjoy Black Ops due to the hype is supercilious; you are being offensive and pretentious by assuming that the only POSSIBLE REASON that people could be very excited about something was that it was well publicized.

I know people who would never touch a game unless a magazine or a website told them to. And when you have a game like Black Ops, there are people who, before even playing it, will convince themselves that it will be great and nothing can happen to make them think otherwise. The best example of this I can think of is the 2008 election... the news was all on Barack Obama's side, so everyone loved him. Two years passed and now the news is against him so everyone is talking about how much they hate him. These same people can't tell you anything about the man. People are easily convinced and while I'm sure that there are a ton of people who genuinely enjoyed Black Ops no matter what the magazines say, and I'm sure there are people who had told themselves that they would love it before it even came out.

A lot of people believe what other people tell them to believe and hype does the same thing that reviews do. I could go into Black Ops convincing myself that it's the best game I've ever played or the worst, and you know what? I would be right.

 

[Knight Templar]

Very objective review there...Not

Have you ever seen a review that was objective?
Reviews are not bland listings of facts, they are a persons opinion on something.

Uh, the whole point of a review is an objectivve look at something. An opinion is an opinion.

And a review is based of the reviewers opinions, not some unknown objective set of values that decides what is good and bad. Oh you liked Deus Ex:IW? According to the scale of what is good and bad, you're wrong. Is my point getting through?
A basic high school level explanation of what a review is will explain they contain opinion.

 

[TylerC]

I agree on some points but not a whole lot of the review. As a whole I didn't really enjoy the game.

The guns seem waaaay out of place. I never understood why the WA2000 was in MW2 and now it's in Black Ops. Do they not realize that less than 200 were ever made? The G11 was developed during the 70s and 80s and never went into production but you can use it in a mission that takes place in 1968. You can also use the SPAS-12 which wasn't developed until 1979. The FAMAS didn't have its first prototype until '71. MP5k not until 1976 etc. etc.

 

[TheSugarRay]

This is the first time I've thought of Russ as a dick. Did they say that Modern warefare didn't have a story that made sense either.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

So, I got back to this review after I've actually bought and completed Black Ops... and I could not disagree more.

So, it's another Call Of Duty yet you complain about not being able to shoot at anything for twenty minutes? Well, that's what Call Of Duty does. It's not a same-y stupid shooter. It's an experience. They do that stuff all the time. How can you, Russ, of anyone else lack the attention span to sit through those twenty minutes?

The shooting's fun yet the game is bad? How? How is that possible? Are you saying graphics are more important than gameplay? Story? Voice acting?

Also, why start out your review with graphics? It doesn't look that different. I have no idea what you saw, but it obviously wasn't Black Ops - because that looks exactly like the previous CoD games.

If watching cutscenes in Black Ops is "an exercise in futility and frustration"... well, then Metal Gear Solid 4 is an exercise in suicide.

 

[Ferisar]

Whatever man. This game had the best ever moment forever.

"It's an old ship I saw. The Rusalka"
"Where is it?"
"Cuba"
-puts on glasses-

DURUDDUDUD

DURDODURUDUDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOO

so flipping bad it's hilariously the best thing in the world

ice cube's in his @#$%ing element.

Also, the game does not look bad, unless your computer is from ten years ago and you have to run it below low, and the voice acting is hardly terrible (save Bowman. I'm not sure why Ice Cube is doing voice acting for video games, but kudos to him anyway). The story isn't "good" but it's also hardly bad. This is a step up from MW2, at least in my opinion. But then again. Opinions are opinions.

 

[gnargle]

This review is a steam pile of BS.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no CoD fanboy. I hated MW2 and didn't really like CoD4. WaW was pretty good. But BLOPS surprised me. It had one of the best stories I've played since Alan Wake - personally, I felt it was better than both RDR and Reach.
But that's just my opinion.

 

[Arachon]

Oi! Baikonur is no missile base, it's the Russian equivalent of Cape Canaveral/Kennedy.

OT: I can't say I was too exited by Black Ops, I liked the original, WW2, CoD games, before their main target audience became the run 'n gun multiplayer crowd, nowadays, it just feels like the Singleplayer suffers, to accommodate for a multiplayer game, that I've never found very fun or innovative.

 

[Dudeakoff]

There's nothing interesting going on in the single player campaign. It's an issue with many FPS games recently, the genre is stagnating and is probably going to go the way of JRPGs post-90s boom.
I talk to people about this game and they aren't incredibly impressed by it, they realise it's just more of the same.
Anyway, blame Activision for their COD every year thing, it strangles innovation.

 

[maturin]

1) it's only a fucking copy, the original is still back at the house, swarming with Makarov's men or the Russian Military
2) why didn't they just rip the fucking hard drive out of the computer or take the entire thing, it's not like this was supposed to look like didn't want the their presence noticed.
3) if Shepard wanted the data destroyed, why not just bomb the fucking building, hit it with napalm. Why did he order a copy made and brought to him?
4) why did he kill these loyal soldiers who suspected nothing of him, hell there wasn't even a hint of this betrayal? Just invite them onto the helicopter and discretely at a later date destroy the drive, if they ask them anything tell them the info was useless and send them on another mission to catch Makarov.
5) if he had to kill them, why kill them WITH HIS OWN GUN! Smart thing to do would be to just leave them there for the militia to kill, or order them killed from range... make it look like friendly fire. Less witnesses.
6) I mean the US Army/Air-force pilot "say, what's that burning smell and OH MY GOD, Shepard MURDERED those two British special forces personnel! Burning their bodies, didn't even try to arrest them! Not self defence at all"

This is the problem with conspiracy theories based around killing off "loose ends" every one you kill you have to kill 5 more for those who witnessed said killings or who committed the killings themselves. How can Shadow Company keep this secret but not Task Force 141?!?!

Because then he might have won.

Why do you think he outfitted half of his super-elite mega-secret private army with 60 year old Russian machineguns instead of U.S. standard issue or something actually modern?

 

[noobyplasm]

I agree that the game has issues, but concerning campaign I strongly disagree.Story making no sence? Are you serious? Is it THAT complex for most people? jeez...

 

[hmar9333]

Have to say, after reading all of the rave reviews of every other critic, this was more than a little jarring. However, it certainly saves me all the time of re-examining my entire worldview, which is something I'd have to do if Treyarch actually made a decent game instead of one that feels rushed, corner-cutted, and flaccid.

I am disappointed in Russ.

The game is good. No Half-Life for sure, but good.

Graphics are good. And in some places really 'wowed' me.

The story is a bit vague at first, but it all comes together in the end. It almost sounds as if Russ only played the first few missions.

Random bashing of a good game puts consumers off you know Russ, stop being so misleading.

I sense a case of "negative loading"

You're not giving this a 2/5 review because you feel it REALLY is that bad, but because you know so many other critics will rate it +90% you feel the need to under-score to bring the consensus back down.

But two wrongs don't make a right.

2/5 is for a game that is significantly BELOW average only you keep going on about how average it is. You seem to contradict your expectations, on one hand a "mindless shooter" then at other points "aww, it's been 20 minutes since I got to shoot something".

Your review is meaningless... Your opinion is clear but I don't even know you, so what significance is that to me? You haven't explained in any reasonable terms why I should give it any consideration. You just seem like you haven't given this game a chance.

Compared to other critics you have completely omitted elements of innovation and interest in gameplay, and focus on frankly periphery issues like voice acting (which is average, not terrible). Voice acting should not destroy a game anyway, if it did then you are picking a fight with every Resident Evil fan.

What he said.

 

[xxcloud417xx]

Awwwww poor reviewer was sad that he wasn't able to sit through the player character dying 5 times during the campaign? It's okay maybe we can wait for Modern Warfare 3 to bring on the suckage again. In the meantime, I'm going to go play some friggin Black Ops and enjoy not being such a fucking hater.

"He guys! Another Call of Duty game, let's go bash it for fun."

Get over yourself, it seems that the coolest thing nowadays isn't owning the newest freshest high budget FPS, rather it's pointing out all of it's flaws and ripping it apart in reviews that are completely one sided and dripping with unwarranted hate.

I see too many people bringing it down for 1 aspect (most of the time it's the lag in Multiplayer) that they just rage about and completely ignore everything else that is good about it.