Black Ops First Strike - My $.02

 So I was up early this morning and got to thinking, "hmmm, first strike is coming out today. I wonder if its dropped on live yet...". Lucky for me, it had! Shitty side, I had thunderstorms all over town so my internet connection was a piece of shit and I did nothing but eat lead and die all morning (fxxxing hick state... anyone ever heard of 'communication hardware upgrade?!). All drama aside, i'll get right into it.
Stadium: Since this is the one that pissed me off, I'll put it first and get it over with. I try to play up close and personal as much as I can, and this map just put a crimp in my style (lack thereof? whatever, moving on...). The whole urban setting started out looking cool, but when I started really playing through it I noticed how open all the indoor and outdoor spaces are. I mean seriously, its a sniper and camper playground. You sit and camp in one corner, and you command a whole hallway and a number of doors and windows. Pissed me the hell off. I got the feeling they where trying to duplicate the success of Nuketown by adding the big central courtyard, but the lanes leading up to it are so open that there's always some 12 year old with a fxxxing uzi sniping you from the other corner of the map. So much for trying to reign in the campers... thanks treyarch [eye roll].

 

 

 Kowloon: Two words; Bad Ass! I went into this thinking that Kowloon would be a bloody massacre and, well, it is. But in a good way. The zip lines are kinda of superfluous in my opinion, but I'm sure someone will get a youtube hit with a zip-line super jump, double back flip fakey-to-backstabber or some freaking thing. Anywho, the map is great. Very close in, lots of room-to-room and courtyard-to-courtyard, just the way I like it. There are a few long hallways and shooting lanes to keep the long-gunners happy as well. Shitty part for careless players is there are no walls on the edges of the map, and theres a giant fxxxing bottomless pit in the middle of the map. At worst, it will seperate the men from the boys in terms of situational awareness (oops, was that a cliff? shit, shouldnt have strafed sideways...). Still a lot of nooks and crannies for the campers of the world, but overall good map.

 

Discovery:  This map is a good balance of close quarters fights on the perimeter coupled with wide open spaces through the middle of the map. The little "ice bridge" that so many people raved about in the pre-release turns out to not be so much of a game-clincher, as a novelty. I admit it was a good idea, but just don't see it being a very big tide-turner. On the downside, this map will be a nightmare for trying to pick out snipers and campers (think Jungle from the original release, but in the snow). Still, overall good variation of different indoor/outdoor terrain and elevation. Very cool map. 

 

Berlin Wall: Thus far, my odds on favorite. Dunno what to make of the auto cannons in the middle yet (to be honest, it would've been cooler to make them player-interactive instead of "kill the first mother-fxxxer who moves" mode" but that's just me). The wider avenues around the middle corridor offers a lot of angles and hiding spots for snipers and campers to do their thing, while still having a more close in route through the buildings at the perimeter. What does this mean for you? Now, the campers can do their thing while the rest of us can play like big boys around the rest of the map. Is it a final fix for the electronic virus that is camping? Duh, of course not, but it will make it easier on the rest of us who have learned how to actually use the left stick on our controllers.

So that's it. My $.02. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months, but so far it's looking promising.

Black Ops First Strike - Thank You Treyarch

Sweet! Not that I'm terribly bored with the original maps (god knows I don't play near often enough for that to be so), but variety is still the spice of life, is it not?

Don't really care about the new zombie level, but I guess there are those out there that are nuttin' their sweat pants over it. Whatever floats your boat guys, have fun. You won't see me there.

The multiplayer maps (the concepts anyway, since I haven't seen any layout s as yet) look pretty pimp. Can't ever have too much snow and ice (plus another smallish or medium would be nice; Summits good, but WMD kinda sucks: too many nooks and crannies for campers and their grannies), and the two urban style ones will be a good addition.

Not 100% sure about the Kowloon map (If its anything like the campaign, then Nuketown will soon be massively eclipsed by the amount of potential death and carnage. Possible name change to 'Massacretown?'). If it turns out to have all the roof hopping and open spaces of the single player map, it will probably be a good thing that Treyarch has hosed up the sniper class for the most part. That being said, there are enough solid players out there that you could end up being cross-mapped by some jackass with a revolver and do nothing but spawn, die, get pissed off and repeat. All theory and conjecture on my part of course, but we'll see what happens come 1 February.

Come to think of it, I'm not 1000% sure about Stadium either (based on the descriptions), but I'll try and stay optimistic that it won't turn into a fxxxing campers playground (meanwhile, back in the real world...). Might be a pipe dream, but time will tell.

Whatever, no complaints from me just yet. Looking forward to it.

Black Ops Rant: Capture the Flag

 I'm going to go out on a limb here and see if anyone is actually reading any of this. If you are one of those idiots who jumps into a CTF match and then sits around and camps like its a freaking team deathmatch... YOU ARE A COCKBAG!

 

Its one thing to camp on the flag and defend it, but when you sit in the middle of the map away from BOTH flags... You're not doing anyone any favors. Instead of sitting on your ass and dragging your team down, get your butt down here and make a grab at the other teams flag, or at least keep the bastards off my ass when I make my attempt. If you're not going to be a team player, then go play FFA or something the fuck else so we can go about our business. Seriously, I got a marathon perk I'm trying to upgrade so if you aren't going to be helpful, then FUCK OFF!

Black Ops Rant. Bear with me...

 I will freely admit that I am not the most amazing gamer on the planet. I don't play more than maybe an hour a day (if that), but it seems that there are people out there even worse off than me. I refer, of course, to the freaking campers I have been encountering, and they seem to be increasing at an alarming rate! I agree that Treyarch made a good move by taking steps to impede quick scoping (I  appreciate it more than I can express, I really do), but I hope they can find a way to limit the amount of campers that inhabit certain maps.

It doesn't seem to be so much of an issue on the smaller maps (least of all Nuketown; lord knows camping on that one almost universally earns a volley of frag grenades, and a sticky demise) but some of the larger maps almost scream for some kind of limitation. I don't mind playing Jungle with a good group of players who will go toe to toe in a stand up fight, but when you start adding the little tool-bags who go prone in the weeds and just sit there the whole game... Just not fun anymore.

I don't think it has to be a dramatic or complicated change, either. In fact, I would say that the most recent Medal of Honor game had the right idea by not allowing players to go prone in multiplayer. I don't think it's necessary to go that extreme, but if Treyarch limited the amount of time a player could go prone, and then institute a cool down period before the player could go prone again (think the same concept as sprinting, only Jenna Jameson style) it would go a long way toward revving up the pace of some of these slow, camper infested monstrosities.

Anyway, just my $.02. Honestly, I'll be surprised if anyone even reads this, but if you do feel free to drop a comment one way or the other.