Thoughts Before Buying Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It’s generally considered the sixth mainstream game of the Call of Duty series after the storyline of the previous title, Call of Duty 5: World at War. Call of Duty: Black Ops was released on November 9, 2010.

CoD: World at War features a more mature theme than previous instalments. The game is also open-ended, as there are different ways to complete objectives. The gameplay shares several features with previous iterations of the game franchise. Players fight with help from AI-controlled teammates. They help during the game’s missions by providing cover fire, clearing rooms for entry and shooting down enemies.

The CoD4 sequel had a lot of expectations since its predecessor is tagged as its enhanced version. However, the graphics wasn’t as good as what was expected. All figures in the game should have looked real or three-dimensional. But what critics weren’t expecting, the trees looked flat as if it was a drawing in the scene. Graphics have a major role in the enjoyment of the game. It makes a game enjoyable and virtually real. Failure to provide outstanding graphics would be a huge disappointment to CoD fans who are expecting to see a more improved game from the previous version.

Some of the fans ascribe the short-delivered graphics from its current developer, Treyarch, who may have used their old graphics from their old games making it short of expectations from the original developer, Activision. Game players which are critic to Treyarch have seen the similarities of some scenes in World at War with some games previously developed by Treyarch. They describe the World at War graphics as refurbished graphics from old Treyarch games making it a big disappointment to online gamers. Some gamers criticised on the gadgets used in the game. The radar described as thermo, was bashed since there was obviously no thermo radars way back in the 1940’s. The guns were distinguished as lousy and nothing new compared to its predecessor, Modern Warfare.

World at War was not as sensational as expected and some there are some doubts about the sequel, Black Ops. With players disappointed at World at War, I just hoped Infinity Ward will regain the good reputation of CoD games and not disappoint as what Treyarch have come up with World at War. But after reading a few decent reviews of Black Ops, I think I’m going to grab a copy of the game this weekend.

James Bond 007: Bloodstone Review

Bloodstone is somewhat a hard title to figure out, at least from a business perspective. It is not tied into any released James Bond movie, it’s coming out just as the holiday shopping rush is set to start, and it’s not only contending with the Goldeneye remake but yet another Activision title, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Even if the game was outstanding, it would still have a hard time finding an audience under those circumstances, so the fact that this shooting game is bad just ruins any chance it had.

What’s odd about Bloodstone is that it was developed by Bizarre Creations, who is best known for the recently released Blur and the Project Gotham Racing series (not to mention the addictive Geometry Wars). You’d think with that lineage, Bloodstone would offer solid driving segments, but not only is most of the game focused on third-person cover-based shooting, the few vehicle based sequences are mediocre at best. They are all chase segments where you drive a car and go after a target; staged explosions and near miss collisions add few thrills to the mix, but the repetitive missions need memorization and frequent attempts to conquer. Nowhere does skill come in handy—worse still, the cars all handle as if their tires are coated in melted butter, and the collision detection is absolutely awful.

The third-person cover based shooting segments turn out far better, but I mean that in comparison to the driving segments. It’s not nearly as polished as Uncharterd or Gears of War, but to be fair, the game does feature some astoundingly detailed environments, and there were moments, but rare, when I found myself having fun. Unfortunately, the majority of the game is monotonous—you take cover behind an object, kill some baddies, and repeat that about a hundred times — but one-shot kill mechanic called ‘Focus Aim’ and stealth-based melee kills do what they can to break up the monotony. In an odd turn, James carries around a smartphone that make up as a Swiss Army knife, showing you objectives, letting you hack doors, and pinpointing enemies location, which basically ruins the difficulty. Not that the game is very challenging to begin with — enemies who rely on the same side-stepping move to avoid your bullets makes the game so easy, and any sense of challenge comes from staggering numbers rather than intelligent enemy behaviour.

The game’s plot is nothing to write about either, involving global political intrigue and bio weapons; it’s superficial and over the top, and it’s a typical James Bond plot line. Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig turn in solid voice performances, but even their starpower isn’t enough to make you care about what’s going on. There is also a multiplayer mode that I wasn’t able to try, but honestly, I’m not sure enough if people will invest in the game to ensure a healthy community; otherwise, if you’re going to play a multiplayer Bond game, you might as well invest in Goldeneye Wii, and PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will probably be too engrossed by Black Ops to care about anything else for the next few months.

Again, this is why I feel Bloodstone so confusing: Trying to release an original James Bond title that isn’t tied into a big budget movie is risky on its own, but releasing it the same day as the remake of one of the most favourite Bond games of all time, with what will no doubt be one of the biggest selling game of the year in Black Ops waiting in the wings, seems like an unusual business decision.

Call of Duty 2011

On 4 November 2010, Activision Blizzard issued their huge earnings report in which it announced a $51 million quarterly profit. During a conference call with analysts afterwards, executives announced further details on the publisher’s future plans.

Call of Duty will have a new instalment in the second half of 2011.

The only detail that was disclosed was that the Call of Duty series will once more have a fresh first-person instalment late next year. “We will launch a new first-person action title during the second half of 2011,” Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said. This sentiment was later repeated by Activision COO Thomas Tippl, who also said that “Next year’s Call of Duty will be a first-person shooter.”

The executives did not give a title to the game or who the developer was. A possible title is Modern Warfare 3, which court documents identified as being under development at Infinity Ward as of May. Activision said that during the same month, the studio which had lost over 30 members following the firing of its founders last March, continued to work on its “next big project”.

Another COD from Sledgehammer

Another Call of Duty is also in the works from new studio Sledgehammer Games.  Activision has said this title would make the Call of Duty series into the action-adventure genre, third-person. But a May job listing indicated it’s also going to be a first-person shooter. Activision has yet to announce when the Sledgehammer title will be released, but said it was not the unnamed Call of Duty project slated for next year–probably Modern Warfare 3.