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Call of Duty Black Ops 2 – Multiplayer Impressions

If you weren’t among the millions of people that were waiting outside of your local gaming store last night at midnight – do not fret. The Black Ops 2 multiplayer is something that isn’t going to surprise anyone that has played Call of Duty before. The game handles just like the games of the past. However, there are a few things outside of the ‘new’ score-streaks that make Black Ops 2 a bit different from other COD games.

The first Black Ops game suffered from major problems with lag and hit detection. Black Ops 2 is noticeably better in this aspect because it seems to handle a bit smoother and simply feels more fluid when either aiming or simply moving around the map. This doesn’t mean that everything is great and wonderful in the COD universe though. Many things seem like they will never change and that is almost always the case with Call of Duty games.

Quick-Scoping Is Still There

Perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of Call of Duty games is the persistent presence of quick-scoping in the game that takes advantage of what feels like a more and more simplified shooter game. Another issue that follows this is aim-assist, if a player walks past or near your cross hairs you can expect to see your weapon movie with them slightly. This, once again is another reason for people that hate Call of Duty to stay away from it and play Battlefield 3 or Halo 4 (a fantastic accomplishment for 343 Industries).

Recoil Is Still Minimal

When aiming down sight you will notice that firing your weapon is still relatively simple to do without a lot of movement from the firing (recoil). Some of the weapons (especially the MP7) are slightly more unstable than their Modern Warfare counter-parts, but that doesn’t mean they have a lot of recoil issues. This is yet again another factor that many people simply don’t need to ask about. Call of Duty has never had any issues or dedication to being a simulation experience. This game is about jumping in and shooting up your enemies – everything else is out the window… including recoil.

Class Customization

This can either be the great equalizer or the worst part of a COD game. If you look at the problems that were in MW2 (Danger Close with Scavenger coupled with RPGs and NoobTubes (grenade launchers)) you will see that the new approach to perks and class customization are going to be key in making your experience something that is not only all your own, but also something that is practical, tactical and effective.

We will be devoting the coming months to some of the newest games. Christmas lists are starting to fill up with dreams of putting digital bullets through digital skulls in our favorite shooter games. NoobTubeTV will be there all the way through to help you become a better and more informed gamer.
Happy Hunting

What More Do You Want From Shooter Games?

The best-selling games on consoles seem to come down to First Person Shooters every single year.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does drive me to wonder what else I really want from my FPS gaming experiences. There seem to be three choices when it comes down to decision-making.

Arcade/Deathmatch Style – Call of Duty is the quintessential example of shooter games that revolve around picking up the controller and smacking other gamers in the face. It is a fast-paced game with slight differences between weapons. Not to mention a huge group of core gamers that are dedicated to the game they have come to love (or even sometimes, hate).

What More Do I Want? – I have been hoping for years for the sniping in this game to be nerfed. However, that is the ‘charm’ of Call of Duty games… the weapons are subjectively rated and designed. In many cases there isn’t much of a difference between using a magnum side-arm and a MK-14 as long as you ‘know how to handle them’.

I don’t want Call of Duty to change, primarily because I know that every time I turn it on I will be able to play it for an hour or two before I get so fed up with connectivity or quick-scoping spawn trappers that I turn it off and put in a different game.

Objective Based/Simulation – Battlefield 3 is designed with huge maps and team-play as the primary components. While some of the interactions with vehicles is far from ‘simulation’ the weapons and handling of the game in-general present a much more ‘realistic’ feel to the game. The recoil of the weapons makes for tough decisions to be made at times when you try to determine if you want more power or more control. This is a primary difference between BF3 and COD games.

Also, objectives are the primary gametypes for Battlefield games. This is something that tends to escape the common COD player than ventures into the land of Battlefield. They will often try to come into a game of Rush or Conquest and try to turn it into some sort of Team Deathmatch. While this is quite useful in Conquest, it is far from useful if you are the attacking team in Rush.

What More Do I Want? –A preventative measure to keep teams from spawn camping with vehicles like helicopters. This is a great game, but people that are new to it will find that it is unforgiving when you play Conquest mode against seasoned teams of gamers. It is one of the biggest downfalls in game design when you make it nearly impossible for a losing team to recover.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Halo, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series all fall into this category for the most part. They are either based in a realm that doesn’t exist or in some sort of alternate universe. Fallout is the only potential threat to this category, but in reality it still has ‘laser’ weapons. Much like Fallout, Skyrim has magic and other spells that make it fantasy related. Halo is based on other planets or regions of the universe and uses weapons that either don’t exist or close to that description.

What More Do I Want?– This category is difficult because there isn’t a lot to base anything off of in ‘real life’. The issue I have with Halo is recoil with weapons feeling non-existent. In general, Halo has a feel to it that makes it seem like the gamer is playing the game with a lot less ‘motion’. There is almost a floating sensation when playing Halo.

What’s the point?

When thinking about any of these things it leaves me thinking that any of the things I wish would happen in FPS games are subjective at best and pointless at worst. Most of the games we choose to play revolve around what we have had time to find a love for over the years. Chances are good that you have already pre-ordered a game this fall or at least plan on asking for one of them during the holiday season.

Take that as a sign that you really don’t have a lot more you want out of a shooter game. Otherwise you wouldn’t pre-order something before you hear about, let alone see any real changes.

Spawn Camping, Connectivity and the Potential Pitfalls of Black Ops 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops suffers from tremendous issues that should cause many gamers to wonder if they should expect the same problems that plague the predecessor of Black Ops 2.

After recently popping-in the original Black Ops for a refresher on Treyarch’s digital cash-cow I was greeted quickly with the reasons I sold this game after owning it for only five-months.

Connectivity

Black Ops seems more like a low-budget, poorly supported online title that could be easily discarded and replaced by any other online title. Firing automatic weapons like the Galil seems to result in a largely disappointing task of dealing with poor frame-rates. Is it really so hard to give such a widely purchased game a decent server system?

It seems almost laughable when playing Black Ops that it has the hit-detection problems that I remembered from ‘so long ago’. I was under some sort of delusion that it would have been patched, but apparently this is something either created ‘by-design’ or strictly overlooked as they moved on with their Call of Duty ~~rehashing~~ development cycle.

Spawn Camping

Another issue that plagues the Domination game mode is spawn camping. If this is an issue in any game they should be firing game-testers. Some of the biggest problems in multi-player gaming is when the logic of spawning is broken. In Black Ops you are almost guaranteed to experience a mind-numbing round of spawn camping by some group of ‘try-hard’ clan kids.

While being the victim of such a childish tactic is annoying, it is more annoying to be a paying consumer of a product that isn’t designed well. You can always quit out of a match that is populated by these internet tough guys, but it is a bit more difficult to quit out of a product you have already spent $60+ on.
Hopefully Black Ops 2 will fix these issues. If not, it could be a long year in the Call of Duty kingdom.

Prepping For Black Ops 2? – Dust Off The Original Black Ops

Getting your eyes and fingers ready for an anticipated game doesn’t entail taking a long break from gaming. If you are looking forward to games like Black Ops 2 you should start putting in some practice time with the predecessor. In this case, you should take the opportunity to start playing some of the original Black Ops.

There are a few reasons for this approach –

Developers Usually Make Games ‘Handle’ Like Old Ones – Treyarch is the developer in charge of Black Ops 2 (as they were with the original Black Ops). Playing Modern Warfare 3 will still help you quite a bit with Call of Duty’s speed and presentation. However, you will notice that Black Ops has many nuances that make it rather difficult to shift between Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer) and the titles developed by Treyarch. You will notice guns aim and even carry differently – pop in each game and start looking for those slight differences that could make a big difference in your ability to play Black Ops 2 more effectively on November 13.

Get Used To Game Speed – The difference in game speed between Treyarch and Infinity Ward is also something that is very slight, but it is something to take into consideration none-the-less. You will notice that sprinting speed and even the aiming of weapons can be just a few fractions of a second different from one game to another.

Snipers…Be Warned – Treyarch is rumored to be removing aim-assist (at least from Sniper Rifles). This will hopefully get rid of ‘quick-scoping’ as well as making sniping a more skillful art than some sort of carnival weapon. Sniping is a major point of contention for a lot of first person shooter gamers. However, when it comes to the difference between sniping in Treyarch and Infinity Ward games – it is one of the most vast differences in gun-play.

Zombies – They are coming back and lets be honest… half of the people that say they play Call of Duty: Black Ops at this point play it simply for the zombies. Start getting your braaaaaains ready folks – Black Ops 2 is less than two months away!