Call of Duty: Black Ops Call of Duty: Black Ops

Product Description

The newest installment in the biggest action series of all time and the follow-up to last year's blockbuster Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on November 9, 2010.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20 in Video Games
• Brand: Activision Publishing
• Model: 35801
• Published on: 2010-11-09
• Released on: 2010-11-09
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .60" h x 5.40" w x 7.50" l, .30 pounds

Features

• Wide array of play modes including single player, local multiplayer versus and online co-op and multiplayer
• Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era
• Diverse variety of play setting ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat
• Blending of traditional COD, and new first-person character scenarios designed to both retain the essence of the COD gaming experience and ensure constantly flowing and varied action
• New arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era, including the SR-71 Blackbird and sighted explosive-tipped crossbows

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter with stealth and tactical play aspect that puts players in the role of a shadow soldier fighting in a variety of historically representative fictional Black Ops missions of the Cold War era. Created with the input of actual Black Ops soldiers from the time, the game mixes traditional Call of Duty tactical shooter gameplay with new gameplay options designed to expand the players' experience. Additional features include extensive multiplayer options, along with new vehicles and explosive new weapons. 

pots of the Cold War
Follow-up to 2009’s blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops breaks new ground in the Call of Duty series and the video game industry at large by delving into the not-so cold conflicts of the Cold War.

Relive the Cold War COD style. View larger.

Inspired by the experiences of real Black Ops soldiers of the era, the missions of Call of Duty: Black Ops take the player to a wide variety of settings, ranging from snowbound mountain strongholds in historical Soviet held territories, to the jungles and urban settings of Vietnam War era SE Asia. Throughout all, care has been taken to maintain the traditional essence of Call of Duty style combat, while also introducing new types of player action that add to the gameplay experience. Additional features include co-op, versus and team-based multiplayer options, new vehicles like the SR-71 Blackbird and lethal new weapons such as explosive-tipped crossbows.Key Game Features

• Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era.
• Diverse variety of play setting ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat.
• Blending of traditional COD, and new first-person character scenarios designed to both retain the essence of the COD gaming experience and ensure constantly flowing and varied action.
• New arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era, including the SR-71 Blackbird and sited explosive-tipped crossbows.
• Wide array of play modes including single player, local multiplayer versus and online co-op and multiplayer.

3-D Game Features

• Fully playable in stereoscopic 3D: the game will be compatible with 3D-ready HDTVs and 3D PCs utilizing state-of-the-art active shutter 3D glasses, delivering true depth of field and an unprecedented level of immersion that is perfectly suited for the Call of Duty action experience.
• Awesome 3D experiences: aim down the sights of your weapons, fly in helicopters, rappel down mountains, move through highly detailed environments and more.
• The experience is seamless to use with a simple menu option to enable stereoscopic 3D or disable it at any time whether playing in the single player campaign, multiplayer or Zombie mode.
• Playable in both 3D and non-3D on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Call of Duty: Black Ops for Windows PC is NVIDIA(R) 3D Vision(R)-Ready and supports stereoscopic 3D gaming using 3D Vision active-shutter glasses and NVIDIA GeForce GPUs.   For Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system consoles, 3D features require a compatible 3D-ready HD TV.

Additional Screenshots:

Variety in gameplay action. View larger.

COD style multiplayer. View larger.

Diverse play settings. View larger.

Cold war themed action. View larger.

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Customer Reviews

So.. dedicated servers or no.. LAGS EVERWHERE EVEN IN SINGLE PLAYER
i preorder this from STEAM.. my friend dont waste your money.. 59.99 for one multiplayer ALPHA VERSION looks like not even TESTED on PC.. LAGS everywhere
single player freezes, lag.. 30 fPS at full hd or 800x600 doesnt matter many bugs etc..

my rig
phenom callisto be955 quad core ~3.9ghz
hd4890 XOC 1ghz core 1150 memory
caviar black 500
msi790fx
gskill ddr1600

waiting for Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam.. Cheers DICE!
Another one in the 'Run and Gun' line of recent COD-titles
Treyarch made (in my opinion) the best version of the whole Call of Duty series with World at War, which never became a huge seller because the public had just experienced Modern Weapons (and i mean the weapons) and didn't really want a new WWII shooter yet. I bought this game, on launch day, because of faith in Treyarch.

I was hoping for a continuation of the quality of World at War and a break with MW2. MW2 was a huge letdown for the PC community because of the lack of dedicated servers, but also no lean, prone, gore, and small busy maps. It felt like a console port. I was disappointed however to find that BO reminds me a lot! more of MW2 than WaW. Granted, lean and prone are back, but that's about all.

Dedicated servers are a farce because there is still a max of 18 players. That's not even enough to let a bigger sized clan play all at once. And even if more than 18 players were possible, the maps wouldn't `allow it'. The maps are small, way too small, and littered with objects and hiding points that make flanking dead easy instead of an art. Originally the maps in the Call of Duty series resembled actual, realistic cities, warzones (like destroyed Berlin, with large open area's), where the player had to adapt to. To accommodate the lazy and impatient players wish for an easy flanking opportunity maps however grew smaller and smaller, littered with objects, slowly turning them into paintball arena's. The maps adapted to the vocal cry-babies aged 13 that wanted a quick fix, instead of the other way around. Combined with an upped tempo of the characters movement and seemingly unlimited sprint (even without the perk) it has made a tactical style of play (like `Search and Destroy') virtually impossible, or at least unenjoyable. This game, like MW2, and maybe even more so, is only suited for `Run and Gun' types of gameplay, like TDM or DM and maybe the wager matches. The 14 online maps are also very very similar in design, and basically only vary in setting.

As far as the graphics go. Where COD titles used to have huge improvements in graphics every year in the past, this has ended. I think mainly because the COD titles nowadays are mainly designed for the console market, and the Xbox360 and PS3 have the same specs now as when they came out some years ago. PC's evolve, but as this game is a port of the console games, the graphics are designed for the non-evolving consoles. BO's graphics are not great, of the same level as WaW or MW2. But that doesn't bother me in the least. The graphics since WaW are on such a level that improvement is not really that vital. The graphics are good enough!

Then there is the issue of the `feel of the game'. This is of course subjective to every person's liking, but in BO the setting is the `70's. And COD is a series of WAR! games. Now we all know the iconic WW2, or current day middle eastern battle scenes. But this game mainly takes place in secret towns and factories in the 70's. I can't identify with it. The feel of a wargame is all gone. The feel of the game is more that of a `Bond007-game'.

Te one nice thing I can say about it is that some maps have really nice scenery, surrounding the map, like a huge ore mining machine, a driving train (with lots of sound), and a rocket that lifts up. But again, that's also the problem. That last maps could be straight out of 007's "You only live twice". But COD shouldn't be a `spy-game', it's a war-game! I know the COD makers are continuously trying to revive the game, but stick to war scenarios like WWII or Iraq, I would even liked to have seen an attempt at a WWI over this.

Lastly, be prepared to go through some download time because the industry doesn't want you to buy games on CD anymore, but download them. This is apparently why the CD serves as nothing more than a `key' to start your download via steam. The whole game, all the game files, all the gigabytes, will be downloaded from the steam servers! (with annoying messages that the steam servers are too busy). Bizarre, but for real, the game doesn't install from the CD.

This review was entirely about the multiplayer part of the game. I think if you spend the money, it's for the hundreds of hours you intend to play it online, not for the meagre 5 to 6 hours the single player campaign takes.

All in all still 3 out of 5, because it's still a good `run and gun' game and an addictive break form my regular games. I think I'll tire form it soon enough tough, and go back to other games. In some weeks time I won't touch it ever again, as is the case with MW2 now. The only sad thing is that the COD makers' wallets don't differ with me having a `game for life' or a game for some weeks. I still bought it. We, the public, buy COD anyway, mediocre as it is, and don't send a signal to the makers to deliver higher quality...
MP is made for console not PC
Besides the other dealbreaker issues of lag, retro 1990's graphics, bad animations.. The WORST dealbreaker IMO is the maps are Clearly MADE for a console NOT PC! The maps are very very small with very dense narrow shooting lanes to create a labyrinth wackamole claustrophobic feel. This is done by the devs. on purpose to cater to console thumb-stick controllers. Enemies that are CLOSE up and in a narrow field of vision are easier to see and hit with a thumbcontroller. But this all comes at the expense of PC/Mouse users. There is no aiming involved or skill on the PC side. just be looking in the direction you are restricted to traveling and there is the enemy-click. Previous games like cod4 offered a fair balance in map size and design but Black OP's is 100% made for a thumbstick in your face TV venue.

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