PurSuiT Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Call of Duty: Black Ops PC review: CPU bound, broken online play http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2010/11/call-of-duty-black-ops-pc-review-fun-game-with-a-broken-leg.ars/ The Bad - So you can say curse words, but you can't put them in the subtitles? I'm afraid people with hearing disabilities will think people are saying %*#%& when they're actually saying (*&%@(% - Multiplayer on the PC is a bit of a mess at the moment - Still heavily scripted - The helicopter scenes are tricky to control - The plot twist is pretty easy to figure out - The PC version seems to be CPU bound. If you don't have a fast system, wait a bit The Ugly - Kennedy always saw the Zombies coming - The game basically, you know, doesn't work at the moment Verdict: Skip, and wait for news of patches Multiplayer Multiplayer should be a big draw, but at least in the PC version it's buggy and broken. Sometimes you time out when you try to join a game, other times you get connection issues, and when you're able to get into a game it's a laggy, jerky mess. "Online PC play is total sh*t right now, only thing that's playable is single player," one comment stated in a previous story. "Multiplayer lags out constantly. Even with dedicated servers we get screwed." Yup. Other readers wrote us in e-mail: "Hi, a lot of PC gamers (99.9%) are facing serious lag issues both in multiplayer and singleplayer. No one seems to be writing about it." Consider it written about. I have a buddy who bought this game pretty much 100 percent for the multiplayer, and he's also disappointed as hell. It just doesn't work, and of course we can't return it. Funny, that. "It plays like a slideshow," another gamer told me via Twitter after I complained. "If you turn down the resolution to 800x600 it'll be a lot smoother, but the matchmaking's broken." Yup. All of this is a shame. The addition of a point-based system for buying new perks, weapons, and upgrades is a good one, and it's a nice change from the leveling mechanic in previous games. The lack of tactical nukes and the addition of remote-controlled explosive cars is a good one. Playing against bots that use your Steam account for names is a good way to practice. You can also enter games where you can wager on the outcome, and the top three players get a taste of those sweet, sweet points. I'd like to play online more to tell you about it, but right now I just can't get games going with any regularity. Even when I can play online, the jerkiness and low framerates are headache-inducing, and this is from the guy that played the entirety of the single-player game in 3D. Speaking of which, the 3D effect is broken in multiplayer as well—no matter how I adjust the settings I can't see anything, the screen is just black. I can hear the gunshots and see the HUD, but no actual graphics. Dedicated servers are back, the game promises a refined online experience, and we have a working console to tweak our settings. Yay. If it worked I would probably be having fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarSpartan Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 I too have heard these horror stories as well from a group of friends who pre-ordered. And they are big time CoD fans. So for them to knock it - it has to be rough. I'm just staying with Bad Company 2 as I wait for these games to get cleaned up. I'm done being a pre-beta retail tester (and sufferer), lol. I also want to say "bugger" to the continued lack of LAN support in many of these games. Its honestly why I havent been to LAN's lately. The games I want to play are very poor to play in a LAN environment. Sadness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Funny how the console version runs smooth as butter. This is what happens when you have a company make a game that has a solid history in consoles but zero in pc. You'd think it would have faired better being it was made by the same guys that made the last CoD games. Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisru Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 (edited) Online issues with lag and stuttering were fixed on day two or three, and it was a very well known fact that this game would be rather processor intensive. It runs perfectly on an i7 and is even playable on an AMDX2. I don't see the problem here. Edited November 21, 2010 by Sonaeru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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