ITSMYYARD

So Black Ops has been out for a few days now with alot of people delving into the multiplayer straight away like I have. It maybe one of the best selling games this year but sales mean very little to a gamer like me, it's the gameplay.

Let's delve straight into it shall we. First notable thing is the customisation which has increased ten-fold since the previous title. As well as the traditional CLAN tag you can have a tag on your gun, change your face paint, change gun reticule colour and image, have custom thumbnail for your name (already seen a guy have a penis as his....the maturity there!). That's great if you love that sort of thing but for me I'm not totally fussed by it as it adds no real gameplay changes to it, instead it's just adds a gloss over it, but I can fully understand why fans love the new customisable options.

Secondly is the credit system in place. Just like in Reach to unlock certain items you have to earn enough credits, and in some cases be the right level/rank to be able to purchase said item, with some items being unobtainable unless you have prestiged. It's a good system if you have to save up lots and lots of credits over days to do it but least in these early levels the amount of credits needed can be bought within a couple of games, with nothing be more than a few thousand credits. That's a good thing as there are loads of little things to unlock and if you like many different guns then it won't take you ages to unlock everything. Of course if you don't have as many credits as you want you could at least go into wager match for instance. Wager matches are alright it adds a different spin with their mini games, but playing for 10 credits a game in low stakes is puny even if it's the only one that accepts party games (bragging rights i suppose), but you can play for up to 20000 credits a game if you double down in the high rollers. Having to level up to unlock all the playlists is a small gripe as some people would just rather play constant no perk games for example.

The maps for most part are alright, I do like Hanoi in the prison area but overall they feel quite clunky and monotone with some places you really want to jump to but can't because of invisible barriers and dieing way too easy by dropping down off a ledge. Likewise killing players seems to be very hard in places. Knifing is harder which is a good/bad thing but headshots seem to be alot harder in normal play. Being directly behind only 1 foot away and aiming my crossheirs directly on their head my FAMAS can not get a headshot, especially bad when they have no head gear on! I didn't know they had sheilds everywhere...

Some of the new perks are well thought out, the blackbird telling you exactly where they are and where they are looking is really good for the HQ mode, but the RC car is just broken unfortunately and way overused. With even custom paths for the RC cars to go (which we can't fit in despite being just big enough to lie prone and move around) it is very hard to destroy them as they just move too fast. Yes they make alot of noise but when very few of the maps are open areas it is often a guaranteed kill. I know they nerfed the RC car before release but it needs another alteration. Nuketown is one of the smallest maps with very few spawn points. Even at the beginning of a round you can have an enemy directly beside you instead of being on the opposite end.Chopper Gunner is just overpowered right now, because most players don't have the RPG's though you could have the RPG kill streak that automatically destroys the helis and planes when in range, but few people do this, opting for the RC car or the big attacking moves instead. Teamwork people!


The auto aim bugs me alot, I swear that I have perfect aim on a guy only for the auto aim to move my cross-heirs. It ruins the skill aspect of the game in my opinion.

Overall people are hyping this to be a great game, COD games always are but I was expecting a bit more in the multiplayer not just a small upgrade. I still prefer BFBC2 to this.

Multiplayer Grade: 7/10 - Still great multiplayer but not enough updates to make me keep playing it as much as other multiplayer games.