Call of Duty: Black Ops

[Kabob]

Has anyone else noticed that setting the game to auto boot to multiplayer doesn't seem to work properly? If I dashboard out and reload it'll go straight to mp, but turning on the console the next day itll bring me to the campaign/mp/zombies select screen.

Mine goes to MP about 50% of the time and to the main screen about 50% of the time, not sure why.

 

[digiram]

My favorite guns are (in order) m16, ak74, galil, famas, and g11. The G11 would be the ultimate weapon if a basic dot sight and silencer can be equiped. The burst with that thing is so quick.

 

[Saint Nick]

The dive is only useful in cinematic escapes, such as:

1) When you are getting gunned down from behind and the offending team is firing at you. You dive out the window in an epic escape.

2) Grenade lands at your feet. You run and dive out the window in yet another epic escape.

3) When getting shot at from the side, dive behind a wall or car for a totally cool cinematic epic escape.

 

[SunnyD]

Oh yeah, footsteps are WAY louder now.

 

[Queasy]

The dive is only useful in cinematic escapes, such as:

1) When you are getting gunned down from behind and the offending team is firing at you. You dive out the window in an epic escape.

2) Grenade lands at your feet. You run and dive out the window in yet another epic escape.

3) When getting shot at from the side, dive behind a wall or car for a totally cool cinematic epic escape.

4) Dive out/in a window to get away from the RC-XD.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I dont know what my problem is. I really dug the Galil a lot. When i tried the AK-74 I loved it. I did even better than with the Galil. I had heard that the commando was the same as the ak-74 but with a faster reload...well I unlocked that and instantly got worse scores and had more trouble killing people...

Switched back to the ak and all was well again. Seriously confused.

 

[Kabob]

Chock it up to different strokes for different folks. Remember, most people love the FAMAS and I hate it. Different things work for different people.

 

[BD2003]

I guess there is a slight visual difference between the two, especially in the iron sights, and the way they recoil visually, but otherwise they're exactly the same gun as far as I can tell.

I just can't be convinced there is a meaningful difference when the numbers say there isn't and my experience chimes with that. I'm equal with the two. It's the same damn gun with a faster reload.

 

[Anubis]

My favorite guns are (in order) m16, ak74, galil, famas, and g11. The G11 would be the ultimate weapon if a basic dot sight and silencer can be equiped. The burst with that thing is so quick.

i thought you could put a sight on the G11

 

[Stuxnet]

Chock it up to different strokes for different folks. Remember, most people love the FAMAS and I hate it. Different things work for different people.

Yeah the FAMAS is balls

 

[sygyzy]

In MW2 discussions, people did some pretty good analysis of the ROF, damage, recoil, reload charts and basically summed it up for us less serious players but basically saying something along the lines of "The most powerful gun is ..." Or "use this gun if you like .."

Is there a similar consensus for Black Ops?

 

[Kabob]

That was a "Time To Kill" chart and I'm sure that data will be around eventually, but "by the numbers" doesn't mean much in the real world. According to that chart the two "best" weapons were the MP5K and Tar-21, neither of which was widely liked. On the flip side two of the "worst" weapons, the M4A1 and ACR, were two of the most used.

 

[BD2003]

Right, because time to kill doesn't take into account accuracy.

With BO assault rifles, you basically have two equally valid choices: rifles that fire and kill faster (aug/famas), but are harder to handle due to the fire rate. Or a slower firing, easy to manage group (enfield/galil/ak/commando). The differences within the groups are minor to insignificant.

The smgs tell a very similar story as well.

 

[sygyzy]

Right, because time to kill doesn't take into account accuracy.

With BO assault rifles, you basically have two equally valid choices: rifles that fire and kill faster (aug/famas), but are harder to handle due to the fire rate. Or a slower firing, easy to manage group (enfield/galil/ak/commando). The differences within the groups are minor to insignificant.

The smgs tell a very similar story as well.

See, this is very helpful and interesting to me. Thank you!

 

[digiram]

i thought you could put a sight on the G11

You can only put two different scoped sights. One's similar to acog, the other is the sniper variable zoom.

I just use iron sights with it.

So, the edge goes to the m16 b/c I can roll with a silencer for it.

 

[gorcorps]

Just finished the campaign. I liked it quite a bit. Story was a tad more interesting than previous CoD games, and was just as intense as always.

About the ending:

Spoiler

I'm usually one to call BS on anybody who sees most twists coming, but I really did think Reznov was all in his head after a while. I thought he was entirely in his head though, not just a real person who used brainwashed Mason to do his bidding basically... so that part was a surprise. I liked it though.

 

[digiram]

Knife lunge range is too long IMHO, it irks me.

Agreed. No one should be able to stab you while being shot in the face.

 

[digiram]

I really hated it in BF1942/BF2 when people would bunny hop all around the screen when a gun fight started. Now the same thing is happening with these dolphin dives. I understand that from a real life perspective, this is a perfectly acceptable strategy (crouch, prone, dive to minimize exposure), but it's really annoying to me. When I see an opponent, I think we should shoot it out. Sure, run around a corner or crouch behind a car. That's cool. But many of these players instinctively dive the moment they see someone. It really bugs me for some reason.

I love dolphin divers, they dive right into my bullets and it looks awesome...haha.

 

[cyphilis]

Oh yeah, footsteps are WAY louder now.

I think its Ninja pro that makes them even louder. I don't run it but on a couple of setups,.. but that mixed with turning on my surround sound is just like when the first Modern Warfare came out. With the 5.1 surround, I was always getting accused of cheating or aim bot because the dummys were always running around and I could track them.

 

[Stuxnet]

Agreed. No one should be able to stab you while being shot in the face.

Yeah it really sucks but that's how it's been since COD4. The way I see it you shouldn't be able to knife if you're "flinching" from being shot.

 

[BD2003]

Yeah it really sucks but that's how it's been since COD4. The way I see it you shouldn't be able to knife if you're "flinching" from being shot.

Yeah, I mean it really is that simple and obvious. The knife lunge is a good thing because it makes knifing easier and more tactile when you do it. No one is really annoyed by being knifed so much as being knifed while theyre shooting someone in the throat.

There's a whole host of other balance changes I'd make as well:

Make the sniper rifles uselful again. QSing wasnt a problem, QSing people from shotgun distance was a problem. The fix is not to make sniping impossible, it would make far more sense to just really nerf the damage up close, in the same way shotguns cant do anything from afar.

LMGs in general also need serious help. As weapons on their own theyre not really superior to assault rifles, due to the slower sight in time, higher recoil, worse hip spread and super slow reload times, despite the similar size clips. The speed reduction on top of that is an insult. Its no surprise hardly anyone uses them, because theyre really not all that useful as theyre basically just bad assault rifles that make you slower in their current form.

And speaking of shotguns, the way they work is insane - 1 hit kill from 5 feet, 0 damage from 6 feet. They shouldnt just range out completely like that. I should at least be able to hurt people to some degree from nearly any distance if a pellet hits. They should suck for anything but CQB, but they shouldnt be useless.

Hardline pro needs to be nerfed immediately. The way you can reroll any package AND get a higher chance of a better killstreak is insane. Its abusive to the point that its practically an exploit. You should be able to reroll just care packages, and the chances of getting whatever should be exactly the same as the first time.

The RCXD also needs to be nerfed - its practically a guaranteed kill, often a double kill, for just a mere 2-3 kills to earn it. Not even the mortar team, napalm or rolling thunder guarantee a kill, quite often, you get nothing. Flak jacket should also protect you 100% from it...I mean, isnt that the point of flak jacket in the first place? 9 out of 10 times an rcxd kills you as if you didnt even have it on.

Scavenger needs some kind of buff. It just doesnt do enough that cant be otherwise compensated for elsewhere, and the other perks in that tier are more universally useful. It should at least refill equipment on top of what it already does.

And the difficulty of unlocking the pro perks varies way too widely. It is god damn near impossible to throw back 5 grenades for flak jacket pro, because the opportunity never arises, since EVERYONE is using the obviously superior semtex with with super short fuse. Same with ghost and the sentry, but at least thats just one. Tac mask pro is also nearly impossible...I've been working on it nonstop since the prestige, and I've just finally gotten 20 kills from someone poisoned by your nova. Now 20 flashbang and 20 concussion on top of that? Literally may take weeks, its way harder than it sounds.

I definitely think you should get some XP for playing wager mode, even if you lose. Its kind of in a ghetto right now, it just feels more rewarding to play standard MP, not to mention unless youre placing first or second in nearly every game, its still more efficient to get your points on regular MP. There's some really fun gametypes in there, but theyre not reaching their potential where they are.

And I know I'm beating this dead horse, but they need to differentiate the weapons more, just for variety and fun's sake. The aug and famas should be 20-30 damage. Play with the fire rates, sight in times, hip fire spreads, ranges, etc. Throw some sway in here or there, maybe even zoom levels. Each weapon within a class should be unique and interesting in its own right, not a very slight variation of each other. And they need to make sure there are no clear winners - now that people have unlocked more guns, you dont see too many MP5s or enfields around, and its obvious why. You hardly ever see a skorpion, mac-10, uzi, pm63, kiparis, or any shotgun, sniper rifle or LMG on the field. 80% of every team is rocking an assault rifle (almost always a galil, famas or aug). 10% have an ak74, and then there's the few outliers. People will always gravitate towards the best weapons, and if entire classes arent getting used, then there's something wrong.

Overall I still really like the game, but in its current form I cant really say its superior to MW2. IW got quite a few things wrong, but it was never this...bland. Every weapon and map was unique, and while those OMA/DC/Noob Tube people were annoying, when they arent around and youre playing barebones so youre not constantly bombarded by killstreaks, its still a superior game IMO.

 

[Anubis]

you should be able to scavenge claymores, that alone would make it better

ghost pro was a joke to get. shooting down 30 aircraft took longer then anything else

also not all LMGs are usless the Stoner with Slight of hand pro+ extended mags is pretty amazing

 

[Kabob]

I rather like the HK21.

 

[smackababy]

BD what you describe about the LMGs makes perfect sense though. An m16 weighs 11lbs with a full magazine, an m60 weighs I believe 23 empty. That is over double the weight. Of coarse you can't aim, run, reload nearly as fast. The fact remains LMGs were never meant to be "run and gun" type weapons. There is no reason they should be buffed.

As for the "uniqueness" of each weapon... Most assault rifles are pretty similar, especially in the time period portrayed here.

 

[BD2003]

BD what you describe about the LMGs makes perfect sense though. An m16 weighs 11lbs with a full magazine, an m60 weighs I believe 23 empty. That is over double the weight. Of coarse you can't aim, run, reload nearly as fast. The fact remains LMGs were never meant to be "run and gun" type weapons. There is no reason they should be buffed.

As for the "uniqueness" of each weapon... Most assault rifles are pretty similar, especially in the time period portrayed here.

I don't think realism is really much of a concern when were dealing with a crazy video game like call of duty. It's far nore important that the game be fun to play than authentic to the weights of a rifle.

I don't think they need major buffing. The speed penalty should be maybe half of what it is if they're going to have the clip size of an AR but reload and sight in way slower. I generally thought the mw2 LMGs were balanced, since the clips were generally super huge to make up for all the other drawbacks. Here it's just all drawbacks, for just slightly better range. Doesn't make any sense.