BLACK OPS 3 is out for 100+ days. Thoughts.

[Sgt-Greco]

Two sinusoidal curves express my feelings for this game.

Not just for BO3 but for for every single COD.

 

 

Share some thoughts.

 

[Sgt-Greco]

Next COD please IW: Feet on the ground. No more future warfare gimmicks.

[Dillinger]

That's a great chart....LOL

 

I'm a 3arc fan and I am disappointed.  The depth of the game, the ability to really fine tune your playing style from the different Specialists, to even having different sensitivity for 'X' and 'Y' axis were really great steps forward.  I don't even HATE the wall running, though still not a fan of it.

 

The problem for me has been the balance, the match making, and what the hell did they do with that half off Crypto Key patch?

 

Since that 1/2 off patch, both systems have been sweaty as hell for me.  Solo.  In a party.  I don't even have "gud" numbers in the game and I still get sweats in almost every lobby.  

 

I personally believe that SPM is the new "skill based matchmaking".   Every lobby I get into, I can almost bet hard currency that I will be in the middle or in the upper half of the lobby, but the K/D's of the players rated higher, are actually lower than mine.  But the window between the top person's score per minute and the bottom player's score per minute are frequently within >108 points of each other.  

 

As some of you know, I have a bit of OCD.  It's a punchline, but if you have it, you have no choice but to notice and track strange shit.  That's me. 

 

Since the 1/2 price Crypto patch, my K/D has fallen steadily 0.59 points to a global of about 1.77.  My SPM is also down, but now in every lobby, I am playing people with very close SPM ratings.  I don't get many, if any, players with 450 SPM ratings, but I still get guys who have Dark Matter and are MP, level 217, so it's not like I don't see the sweats.

 

My initial response to this was to figure I'm getting old, reflexes are going and the game is pretty fast.  Then I will have a game where I completely destroy everyone, go 34-3 and see myself in 1st place.

 

What's changed this year?

 

Well for the first time in 3 years we have pretty much consolidated the CoD community in one game.  How?  Black Ops 2 was the last time we "know" we had over a million players online.  It wasn't the big numbers of MW3, but for the CoD community at the time, that was big.

 

Ghosts killed a lot YT channels and it definitely fragmented the player base.  A lot of us just kept playing BO2 for our CoD fix.  I don't care how many times I have the argument with Fuzzy Clam, Ghosts was shit.  The hit detection was great.  Everything else was a complete disaster.  It also gave birth to another run of campers, led by that fucking moron Saken, who must have sucked some SERIOUS YT dick to get a 30 second commercial about his shit channel on EVERY CoD video for about a month.  

 

Then AW drops.  And well, let's call that a freshman offering from a new upstart and leave it at that.  They did some cool stuff, but really that game needed more time to cook before it was released and it was released in the wrong order.  Had BO3 dropped first, with it's current movement, then AW would have had better penetration numbers I believe.  People just weren't ready to go from dying in a heartbeat in Ghosts while running on the ground to playing "Come back here you little fucker" and chasing bullet sponges all over the map in AW.

 

So again, some people moved away from the series, some went to Battlefield, some stayed with Ghosts, Titanfall got a few, some tried Blacklight and BO2 was still getting 100K players on a good night.

 

Then BO3, the "Savior of CoD" came back around again and the pre sales numbers were through the roof.  Activision share holders were running around in gold plated diapers again and everyone and their mother was taking time off work to play the Beta.

 

So all these different play styles and FPS generals started making their way back to one game.  A game with connection issues, balance issues and now we have what I truly believe to be SPM matchmaking practically insuring every lobby is played in the sweatshack of MLG training.

 

In the past CoD Champs was always in March.  Usually the game would kind of be fine tuned within a week or two before the actual event.  This year the last tourney of the year is going to be CoD Champs, with a bunch of weekend tournaments in between.  Online tournaments.  Not LAN events.

 

On top of that we have Activision's CEO saying that "fun and exciting new content" is slated to be dropped in the near future for BO3.  Who's working on all that content?  I am guessing the one guy who knows anything about game balance and hit detection, because that isn't being addressed.    

 

I don't think I can play this game for this entire cycle, let alone the next two.  I'm not sure if I will even hit MP in this one the way it's been hot and cold.

 

Personally I am waiting on Black Ops 1 to drop on XB1.  I will buy it as soon as I can and I will be grinding the hell out of that for awhile so I can let the extreme hardcore members of the #DumaArmy tackle the every changing landscape of BO3 Meta.

 

Maybe in 6 months the game will be playable again?    

[corrosiveguy]

That's a great chart....LOL

 

I'm a 3arc fan and I am disappointed.  The depth of the game, the ability to really fine tune your playing style from the different Specialists, to even having different sensitivity for 'X' and 'Y' axis were really great steps forward.  I don't even HATE the wall running, though still not a fan of it.

 

The problem for me has been the balance, the match making, and what the hell did they do with that half off Crypto Key patch?

 

Since that 1/2 off patch, both systems have been sweaty as hell for me.  Solo.  In a party.  I don't even have "gud" numbers in the game and I still get sweats in almost every lobby.  

 

I personally believe that SPM is the new "skill based matchmaking".   Every lobby I get into, I can almost bet hard currency that I will be in the middle or in the upper half of the lobby, but the K/D's of the players rated higher, are actually lower than mine.  But the window between the top person's score per minute and the bottom player's score per minute are frequently within >108 points of each other.  

 

As some of you know, I have a bit of OCD.  It's a punchline, but if you have it, you have no choice but to notice and track strange shit.  That's me. 

 

Since the 1/2 price Crypto patch, my K/D has fallen steadily 0.59 points to a global of about 1.77.  My SPM is also down, but now in every lobby, I am playing people with very close SPM ratings.  I don't get many, if any, players with 450 SPM ratings, but I still get guys who have Dark Matter and are MP, level 217, so it's not like I don't see the sweats.

 

My initial response to this was to figure I'm getting old, reflexes are going and the game is pretty fast.  Then I will have a game where I completely destroy everyone, go 34-3 and see myself in 1st place.

 

What's changed this year?

 

Well for the first time in 3 years we have pretty much consolidated the CoD community in one game.  How?  Black Ops 2 was the last time we "know" we had over a million players online.  It wasn't the big numbers of MW3, but for the CoD community at the time, that was big.

 

Ghosts killed a lot YT channels and it definitely fragmented the player base.  A lot of us just kept playing BO2 for our CoD fix.  I don't care how many times I have the argument with Fuzzy Clam, Ghosts was shit.  The hit detection was great.  Everything else was a complete disaster.  It also gave birth to another run of campers, led by that fucking moron Saken, who must have sucked some SERIOUS YT dick to get a 30 second commercial about his shit channel on EVERY CoD video for about a month.  

 

Then AW drops.  And well, let's call that a freshman offering from a new upstart and leave it at that.  They did some cool stuff, but really that game needed more time to cook before it was released and it was released in the wrong order.  Had BO3 dropped first, with it's current movement, then AW would have had better penetration numbers I believe.  People just weren't ready to go from dying in a heartbeat in Ghosts while running on the ground to playing "Come back here you little fucker" and chasing bullet sponges all over the map in AW.

 

So again, some people moved away from the series, some went to Battlefield, some stayed with Ghosts, Titanfall got a few, some tried Blacklight and BO2 was still getting 100K players on a good night.

 

Then BO3, the "Savior of CoD" came back around again and the pre sales numbers were through the roof.  Activision share holders were running around in gold plated diapers again and everyone and their mother was taking time off work to play the Beta.

 

So all these different play styles and FPS generals started making their way back to one game.  A game with connection issues, balance issues and now we have what I truly believe to be SPM matchmaking practically insuring every lobby is played in the sweatshack of MLG training.

 

In the past CoD Champs was always in March.  Usually the game would kind of be fine tuned within a week or two before the actual event.  This year the last tourney of the year is going to be CoD Champs, with a bunch of weekend tournaments in between.  Online tournaments.  Not LAN events.

 

On top of that we have Activision's CEO saying that "fun and exciting new content" is slated to be dropped in the near future for BO3.  Who's working on all that content?  I am guessing the one guy who knows anything about game balance and hit detection, because that isn't being addressed.    

 

I don't think I can play this game for this entire cycle, let alone the next two.  I'm not sure if I will even hit MP in this one the way it's been hot and cold.

 

Personally I am waiting on Black Ops 1 to drop on XB1.  I will buy it as soon as I can and I will be grinding the hell out of that for awhile so I can let the extreme hardcore members of the #DumaArmy tackle the every changing landscape of BO3 Meta.

 

Maybe in 6 months the game will be playable again?    

 

 

What does the current player count on black ops 2 look like these days. I dont even have my 360 console anymore

[Zennon]

I feel like the only one who likes this game here

 

Plays really nice still, people are getting better at the game and mastering weapons and maps but I'm still loving it.

 

There a a few issues with it but on the whole it is the most fun I have had since had since MW2.

[UK_Wildcats_Fans]

I like the graph and feel that it represents how the community at large feel about each of the COD games even if it is playing well.   Taking that in account, this is a business for them.  Therefore, they have to figure out how to keep the interest high and revenue/profits coming by introducing new things to the game over its life cycle.  I do like BO3 and enjoy gaming with my friends.  I won't even get online unless I have friends already online to party up.   If I played solo all the time, I would rarely play BO3.   Having said that I feel that the commercialization (pay to win) has take a larger priority to Activision and game developers.  While they should be trying to fix the core parts (engine, lag comp, etc.) of the game, they are spending their time fixing exploits on maps, adding new maps, adding weapons, etc.  

 

After months of being released, why are the friends list still completely missed up, leader boards screwed up, can't swap party leaders (available in beta but not now??), why does adding players in and out of party affect match making?, why does higher pings have an advantage, why is the match making so screwed up, why can't I disable the DLC?, why can't I just add a scope to the Argus and use it as a sniper rifle to kill someone across the map (sarcasm).  

[Dillinger]

What does the current player count on black ops 2 look like these days. I dont even have my 360 console anymore

 

I played about a month or so ago and there was over 65k online for the few days I played.  It wasn't really hacked all that bad either.  I had maybe a couple of lobbies (P2P) where the guy was running mods and it was easy to just ban his host and end that experience.

 

I may actually play some of that this weekend if BO3 isn't treating me with anything other than a flaming dildo

[JConnor]

I played BO 2 on the PC last night (3.5K still online) and it's night and day compared to BO3, obviously, but in a good way.

 

It feels like a CoD game even if the tech is a little clunky compared to the more fluid movement systems of Ghosts and BO3.

 

It feels more like Counter-Strike's distant cousin than Destiny, Titan Fall, or Tribes (AW). That's a good thing. That's what I missed. Boots on the ground, no over the top gadgets / specialists / weapons... Which is ironic since BO2 is a "future warfare" game at its core.

 

The best part of all... No P2W, RNG gambling crap. The only thing you can buy are cosmetic skins, map packs and they have ONE DLC weapon... The Peacemaker... Which isn't that OP. In fact, it's an average weapon compared to the stock weapons. That's how you do DLC right, IMO. No competitive advantage if you DON'T have it.

 

As for BO3... The game itself is a technical mess. That's a given, unfortunately.

 

The in-game meta and balance is also completely out of whack, IMO. Not only that, but it changes, daily, so you can't formulate strategies... Which may be part of some people thinking the game is "broken" when it is not, technically speaking. However, the lag comp that favors high ping players has been proven by a third-party and documented, so that has been laid to rest (for some) and is the main reason I feel this game is not a good game in any sense of the word. Even if I had never watched BattleNonsense's video, we can all "feel" there is something inherenently wrong with the game by how it (under)performs compared to other online FPS and rewards high ping players instead of low ping players.

 

The only reason I will buy MW4 is if the Squads (Bots) feature returns from Ghosts. That is what made Ghosts playable for me and my friends. It added a real strategic element to coming up with perk, weapon and gear combos to beat each others squads. I also ran the gauntlet and made my way to number 250 in the world leader boards on Squads until I found out anything past 200 is kids boosting -- Giving their squads only knives, so their friends get easy kills. I was even invited to join the boosting ring since I made it that far when most ignored the feature, or just got sick of it and quit  - lol. I declined.

[corrosiveguy]

I played BO 2 on the PC last night (3.5K still online) and it's night and day compared to BO3, obviously, but in a good way.

 

It feels like a CoD game even if the tech is a little clunky compared to the more fluid movement systems of Ghosts and BO3.

 

It feels more like Counter-Strike's distant cousin than Destiny, Titan Fall, or Tribes (AW). That's a good thing. That's what I missed. Boots on the ground, no over the top gadgets / specialists / weapons... Which is ironic since BO2 is a "future warfare" game at its core.

 

The best part of all... No P2W, RNG gambling crap. The only thing you can buy are cosmetic skins, map packs and they have ONE DLC weapon... The Peacemaker... Which isn't that OP. In fact, it's an average weapon compared to the stock weapons. That's how you do DLC right, IMO. No competitive advantage if you DON'T have it.

 

As for BO3... The game itself is a technical mess. That's a given, unfortunately.

 

The in-game meta and balance is also completely out of whack, IMO. Not only that, but it changes, daily, so you can't formulate strategies... Which may be part of some people thinking the game is "broken" when it is not, technically speaking. However, the lag comp that favors high ping players has been proven by a third-party and documented, so that has been laid to rest (for some) and is the main reason I feel this game is not a good game in any sense of the word. Even if I had never watched BattleNonsense's video, we can all "feel" there is something inherenently wrong with the game by how it (under)performs compared to other online FPS and rewards high ping players instead of low ping players.

 

The only reason I will buy MW4 is if the Squads (Bots) feature returns from Ghosts. That is what made Ghosts playable for me and my friends. It added a real strategic element to coming up with perk, weapon and gear combos to beat each others squads. I also ran the gauntlet and made my way to number 250 in the world leader boards on Squads until I found out anything past 200 is kids boosting -- Giving their squads only knives, so their friends get easy kills. I was even invited to join the boosting ring since I made it that far when most ignored the feature, or just got sick of it and quit  - lol. I declined.

 

I am about ready to go back to Black Ops 2... I upgraded my internet from cable internet at 50 mbps to 1gbps Fiber to the home.. It has destroyed Black Ops 3 for me.. I can still have a positive KD, but its sweaty and utterly frustrating to shoot people first and die.. Gayarch is the worst game developer ever.

[fuzzy clam]

Well JD and I will head back to Ghosts LMAO.I'm at the point where I trying all kinds of crazy shit to get the game to play decent,just so people are aware playing in the nude makes no difference in the consistency of BO3 gameplay.Tried for about a week,made no difference only thing that changed was Mrs Fuzzy yelling at me more...

 

Sad thing is there isn't anything to really "Go back to" since I hated BO2 and AW but did really like Ghosts.It might be time to pull out the PS3 and play some BO1 or MW3 again.

 

I'm glad for YODA Z and the others that it's running well for just wish it would be that way for everyone.

[Dillinger]

PS3 and BO1 you say?  Are you serious?  I can't let my boy field that hacker bomb by himself.  I could acquire a disc this weekend and we could give it try, Peer to Peer hosts with Hyper Lane and give some #DumaArmy feedback?

 

Might make for some interesting tales for the fireside chat.....

[nffcbaz72]

Well JD and I will head back to Ghosts LMAO.I'm at the point where I trying all kinds of crazy shit to get the game to play decent,just so people are aware playing in the nude makes no difference in the consistency of BO3 gameplay.Tried for about a week,made no difference only thing that changed was Mrs Fuzzy yelling at me more...

 

Sad thing is there isn't anything to really "Go back to" since I hated BO2 and AW but did really like Ghosts.It might be time to pull out the PS3 and play some BO1 or MW3 again.

 

I'm glad for YODA Z and the others that it's running well for just wish it would be that way for everyone.

Exactly my thoughts, i was relying on this game, as i hated aw too, but maxed out on ghosts in about 6 months, so got bored playing it. Bops3 beta was fantastic, and i was so glad it was good, cause i don't play much else either, then it changed.

 

Too many updates to the game has ruined it, you'll be lucky to get 2 good games in a row. I'm hanging in there with it though, i'm prestige 6 nearly 7, so trying to hang it out.

[bagsta69]

This version of black ops has done exactly the same as the previous versions. The devs have released patch after patch till it is this thing that it is now.

It is so unpredictable it's stopped even being funny.

They also appear to have brought in some sort of skill based matchmaking.

Ive been away for about 3 weeks from playing more than maybe 5 games then last night I hosted a few friends and got hammered every single game. Got one of my friends to host who is new to cod and we both topped the leader boards 3 games in a row.

Back to me hosting and whilst I had got my groove back it was still difficult and don't get me started on the connections or spawn points, sheesh who came up with those?

The whole cannot buy a kill to start with then your a killing machine then you couldn't hit a barn again is also annoying but not half as annoying as the majority of people who now invade the lobbies.

Playing a game of HC Dom and I was 2nd on our team at one point with 4 captures and 19 kills 11 deaths. Lead guy on our team had 2 captures 24 kills and about 9 deaths and just walked up behind me and stabbed me in the back.

Other clueless individuals include the guy who gets killed trying to collect his care package, twice. so as nobody around I have a go at it. It takes me longer to pick up and I kill another 2 enemies who are moving in on it whilst trying to collect it so numb nuts kills me for trying to get his package instead of leaving it for the enemy.

It was around the 3 month mark I left the other black ops games and whilst I may have the occasional game all ya really need to know is that this is the first Call of Duty game I have not picked up at least the first map pack. nuff said.

In my humble opinion the franchise took a turn for the worse when they started introducing all the bells and whistles, you know the gazillion score streaks and shiny things for the kids with low attention spans, last I checked it was rated Pegi 18. 

Please IW give us boots on the ground and limited score streaks.

[cranium2001]

Just so people are aware playing in the nude makes no difference in the consistency of BO3 gameplay.

Speak for yourself. It brings "Sweaty" to a whole new level.

[Sgt-Greco]

Bo3 inconsistency is getting on my nerves. The game assigns each player a God/noob mode randomly.

On the other hand. I tried a couple of hours "the Division". Kill-loot-kill-loot-kill-loot-extract" the same pattern all over again.

Switched to BO3 right after.