Black Ops 2 Thread - 11-13-12

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BD2003

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
16,815
1
76
Been playing it for a couple days now.

Really does feel like a sequel to blops, as obvious as that sounds. :p
 

GCS

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 1999
4,898
0
71
Ok so about 8 hours of play time on the game now I guess I need to post my impressions. (This only MP as I have not touch the campaign).

Graphics - Simply excellent. Not sure what people are fussing about with the 360 and a 60FPS game not having good graphics but I can say that this is the best looking COD to date. That being said it is a totally different looking COD than we have seen before. The maps are bright, colorful, and look nothing like other COD maps. I am sure this is due to the "future" timeline of the game but it really makes a difference. Are there some not so clean lines and edges to things ... yep but I am not going to nitpick about that.

Maps - I like them a lot more than the MW3 maps however there are many ways in and out of areas (particularly rooms and choke points) so it makes it very difficult to cover an area. You can easily have someone come up behind you and shoot you in the back. This gets very frustrating but it is something we will all have to learn to deal with. As previously mentioned they are bright, colorful and lots of detail. Much more to them MW3.

Menus - Are nice and refined. Much much much faster menu selection and connection to XBOX live. Blops was very slow to connect BLOPS2 is up and running very quickly. I like the look and feel of the menus very much.

Pick 10 - Wow this is the biggest change to the game. Its also the biggest adjustment to get used to. In many ways it is the biggest pain in the ass ever but in many ways it has really changed the game. I like the flexibility to pick and choose what you want and try and get the exact set up you want. At the same time you have to make choices/sacrifices in some areas. It can be very frustrating. Wildcards are very nice to get an extra perk but you have to give up a lot to use it so you better make damn sure you want that perk vs. your tac item or something else (weapon attachments etc). There is no one setup that I think works the best. I think for the first time in a long time you are going to be seeing people running a lot of different set ups in the game. Not just one particular group of perks. All I can say is work through the system and try different things as it will take you some time to figure out what you like and what seems to work.

Speed - The speed of this game is WAY WAY faster than original blops. Everything is faster. I had a tough time for the first few hours getting used to it since I had been playing original Blops for about the last 2 weeks and some Halo. This really messed with my timing badly. Those of you coming from MW3 may have an easier time with the speed of the game. In many ways I like this change as I thought Blops was a little too slow but I think I would have preferred it a touch slower than it is. No big deal I am adjusting.

Weapons - this is the part I am probably most happy with (and party disgusted with too). Happy because I have yet to see any one weapon that is the "weapon of choice" in the game. So far I can say there is no Famas from Blops, no ACR from MW3, etc. The weapons are all well balanced. I feel like no matter what gun I have my chances are about the same in a fight. I will say the LMGs in the game are some of the best I have seen. They are infinitely better than MW3 LMGs and Blops (yes even better than the beloved M60). The LSAT which opens up fairly early in the game is very nice especially with foregrip and the target finder scope. BTW that target finder scope is the sh*t. I love that thing. Call it a cheater scope I don't care but I definitely like it. Attachments for secondary weapons also rock!

Crossbow, Crossbow .... and Crossbow -- this thing is bad ass and I love it. Much smaller, much faster, and much better. More deadly, sort of. You can get off a lot more shots and you get 6 bolts (2 clips worth) to start and they reload much quicker now. Explosive range is nowhere near as big as Blops so you have to get very close with it or stick them. The Dual Band site for this thing kicks ass (its a thermal site). Best part is that the thermal is now really thermal. Bodies are different shades of red (varying on heat level) instead the old all white look. What excellent change. I am a few kills away from getting the triple shot crossbow (fires 3 bolts at once) so I cannot wait to try that out.

Shock sticks are definitely one of the coolest new tact items in the game. They are great.

Oh and quickscoping is back unfortunately. Sniper rifles are not used as much as these maps are not as set up for snipers as in the past. However I got quickscopped a lot this w/e. Enough to annoy the hell out of me.


Now to my disgust on the weapons. With everything seeming so equal on them what my complaint is that they seem so blah and the same. Meaning if I have the MP7 and drop it and pick up a PDW I don't feel like I have a different weapon in my hands. Sure they sound different but I don't feel like I am carrying a different weapon with different abilities. The ARs only seem to feel different to me when I go from a full auto to single fire or burst weapon. Some are slightly slower in fire rate but I still feel like I am carrying the same weapon no matter what. It may just be me but that's what I think.

Gameplay & Mechanics - Gameplay is fine. Mechanics are fine. I think Vondehar is full of himself when he spoke about bad spawns last week. I have experienced several spawn deaths in the game already. Is it as bad as MW3 ... no but it is still there. The single biggest problem I have in the game is getting shot in the back constantly. This is partly due to poor playing by me but also because I seem to spawn close or near an opponent (i.e. they are coming down a set of steps behind me or around a corner near me) and I start to move only to have them come from behind in seconds and kill me. Granted I have been playing against some seriously good players this w/e with no team to help me but it is still frustrating as hell.

Hit detection in the game is good. I haven't experienced any real issues here. The hit markers to me are not as noticeable in this as they are in MW3 or Blops. For example I can rarely tell if I have a crossbow stick until after the player has died. The audible "tick" sound for a hit marker should be louder. Bullet wise I would say it takes a hit or 2 less than it does in original Blops. Drop shotting, halo jumping etc are all there. Drop shotting is a little more difficult mainly due to dolphin diving being back in the game but it is still doable you just can't do it on the run as you dolphin dive instead.

As you all know NO LAST STAND!!!!


Score streaks -- I like the fact that it is based on score now instead of kills since it gives those of us that shoot down things like UAVs, cap flags, plant bombs, defuse etc a good chance at getting them. I don't feel that any of the streaks are overly powerful (ie can dominate the game with them think dogs, chopper gunner from blops, AC130 from MW2). I have seen NO high level streaks in any games I have played. 3 new streaks stand out so far as friggin' cool as ****. Hunter Killers are awesome. Basically you toss it out like a paper airplane and as long as you have sent in the direction of the other team you are pretty much guaranteed a kill. Tons of fun to use. Guardians are outstanding in ANY objective game mode. In TDM not as useful but still help. These are awesome. Get a few of them up around a flag and the other team is screwed! Well worth it to have as a streak. Lastly the Hellstorm - this is basically a 5 way type predator. Not as powerful as a single pred and you have to time it right to get max kills. Shooting sooner gives you a wider spread, shooting later gives a tighter spread. Very good streak but takes a little practice to get the timing right.

My one and only gripe here is that the streaks you have are GLOBAL not per class. I think that is really really dumb and step backwards from MW3. They have done so much to make your class completely customizable and yet they hose you on one of the most important things you should have control over. I really really think this should be changed.

Game Modes -- I will just touch base on Hard Point and Dom since they are "kinda new". Hard point is like HQ but you have to stay in the zone to continue to get points - this is true for each team. Also there is no respawn delay. Nice mode, much more fast paced and frantic than HQ. Dom is now "split". You start on one side of the map and play normal. After 5 mins you stop and switch sides (think CTF here). It is not point based it is time based. Whatever points and streaks you have carry to the next round. However if you have a sentry gun up at the end of the round it goes away at that point. So if you are near the end of the round save your streak! This is very important as it changes the way you might play. The game does cap at 200 points but honestly there were only a handful of times where Dom games I was in got to that point. Time ran out first.

Also "B" flags are a massive PITA on these maps. They are so hard to get but once you get it you can almost guarantee yourself a win. You have to get B right away. This is much more important in Blops 2 than in any other COD game ever.


Final Notes: So far I am really enjoying the game. While this is COD through and through it has a different feel to it. The pace is quicker, the weapons are balanced (almost to the point of being boring), the attachments and perks are plentiful and most mean something, the game modes are nice, the maps are very colorful, the streaks are fun and interesting but don't seem to dominate the game. In general I think they did a nice job with it. I am looking forward to playing with the usual crew which I am sure pump up the fun factor even more. That plus it sucks getting my ass handed to me game after game.

Anyway hope this helps some of you to read my ramblings. I will try to answer questions if you have any.

Greg
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,173
620
126
Thanks for the review will be looking forward to playing this. Just unsure about which version. I'll probably get it for the console because of the ability to play with friends rather than random people on the pc.

Guess I will go out and reserve it today.
 

Ashenor

Golden Member
May 9, 2012
1,227
0
0
Eew the PC version? Barf. (I say this as a person with a 3770k and a 7970)

ya i have a 670 GTX and Catleap 2560x1440 reso monitor.

Most my friends actually play on PC, plus i suck at fps with a controller.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,173
620
126
Why does it matter if its a good system? Graphics are likely to be the same as on the console version since that's how the previous games were. It's easier on pc to play but I'm afraid of cheaters.
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
14,001
4
76
It seems the WiiU version was sent out early from Amazon but the system isn't out yet so they couldn't play it yet n

That's a cool story (really) but it doesn't answer my question. Some people have been playing for days, in 360/PS3. How?
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
That's a cool story (really) but it doesn't answer my question. Some people have been playing for days, in 360/PS3. How?

Mom and pop shops break street dates all the time. Also if you work for a place you might be able to get a hold it early unoffically. When I worked for Gamerush side of Blockbuster, I had played and beaten a lot of games before they were released, the biggest was Halo 2.
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
14,001
4
76
I know they break release dates here and there but there was an article today on Polygon that talked about how they wouldn't reset stats for people who were playing (legally) early. It seemed implied that it's not just some random cases. Like there were a lot of people doing it. I am asking if they had some program where they gave early copies to people, more than usual.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,173
620
126
A lot of times people got them from other stores that were unsure if they were aloud to sell it. Target did this once.
 

Rage187

Lifer
Dec 30, 2000
14,276
4
81
I hope they give the next one to 343 Studios. Be interested to see their take on it.


I'm interested and will likely pick it up during Black Friday. I still have Halo 4 and Borderlans 2 to finish.
 

bigrash

Lifer
Feb 20, 2001
17,653
28
91
I can't wait to play this game. Loved the 1st Black Ops game. Its the only Call of Duty game that I enjoyed.
 

ronbo613

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2010
1,237
45
91
Newegg shipped my pre-ordered BlackOps 2 yesterday, it will be delivered on Thursday.
Been playing Halo 4, I think I like the MP action better on Call of Duty games.
 

Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
Still debating buying this. A little burned out on CoD and I don't really have a solid group of people to play with :\ Not much time to play video games anywho :\ Damn. Guess I already know the answer: "No,"
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,006
12,689
136
was going to get this, but watching that trailer in first post... Not what i've come to expect.