2 Weeks and a Couple Patches Later...Review BO3

[bucket415]

I'm looking for some of the forum folk's infinite wisdom. Have been in a holding pattern on the purchase or even rental of this game. I know I am not the only one. Give us hold-outs a general overview and your opinion of the connection this go-around. Thanks!!

[illram]

Good
- Player population is good (Xbone)
- Maps are fun (most of them)
- Movement system/wall running is fun, and map design seems to incorporate it in interesting ways as opposed to AW, which to me was a map design failure
- Guns have a little more variation than the typical treyarch "everything is the same! SAMENESS! FAIRNESS!" gun design... although given time Vonderderp is likely going to ruin that (i.e. right now, guns are still fun to try out)
- Emblem editor is awesome, best yet
- Some of the specialists are fun to use
- paintjob feature for guns is pretty cool new toy

Bad

- Some of the specialists are sucky and there is no reason to really use them, unless you are a masochist
- Seemingly arbitrary nerf hammer of Treyarch will lord over this game. If you like a gun, expect it to be nerfed.
- Random crashes (might be solved by now)
- Party issues (might be solved by now, I see a lot more big parties)
- Theater mode is terrible
- Random non-functional features here and there

To me, I like the maps and it is not jumpy jumpy mcjumperson-time like AW was, so it's a win. COD is a rather simple affair--are the maps fun? Are the guns fun? Yes on both, for me. If you have a COD itch, this will scratch it.

[ChloeB42 (Alexcalibur42)]

Honestly I've barely been playing it. It's okay, but maybe in a few months when they slow down on all the nerfs and buffs and things get fixed and settled maybe I'll invest more time. Until then I'm not enjoying it all that much, especially when Fallout 4 came out 4 days later and is immensely more fun to play.

And after playing again, I can't stand this game. One of the worst CoDs to date in my book.
Specialists are garbage.
Spawns are garbage.
I have no clue what the fuck is going on with the connections or something. My connection is fine, everything is running smoothly, but then suddenly I'm in a fire fight with someone, get 2-3 hitmarkers and suddenly I'm instantly dead, no warnings or anything. Didn't even show them firing on my screen.
The maps are shitty, the only few maps I actually like I almost never see in rotation.

Maybe it's just Ghosts and AW have completely drained me, but I can't stand this game.

[banana]

best cod

[LeGitBeeSting]

It's ultra good for now. For now. DJ Vahn has already proven to be a spineless twitter slave.

[Will]

It's Titanfall without the Titans, on COD maps (small). Wallrunning is fun. Everything feels silky smooth, unlike the jerkiness of AW's movement system.

And best of all: No more 1-hit-kill magical panic knife lunges, it's a 2 hit buttstock smash. You actually need to equip a knife or get a specialist ability for the 1 hit kill. This is kind of a big deal because we've been asking for this since COD 2.

[Dissentia]

Nov 20, 2015 21:42:17 GMT -5 Will said:

It's Titanfall without the Titans, on COD maps (small). Wallrunning is fun. Everything feels silky smooth, unlike the jerkiness of AW's movement system.

And best of all: No more 1-hit-kill magical panic knife lunges, it's a 2 hit buttstock smash. You actually need to equip a knife or get a specialist ability for the 1 hit kill. This is kind of a big deal because we've been asking for this since COD 2.

+1, I'm on board.

[iw5000]

My Two Week Review

Conditions:

- I stopped playing CoD AW last April, cold turkey. I didn't play the BO3 beta. So my playing the past two weeks was coming off a long CoD break
- I have played about 257 games so far, almost 2nd Prestige (lv50). That's about 40 hours of gaming.
- The game modes I have played. 229 games of Domination (3/4 solo), 27 games of TDM, 1 game of Uplink.
- Haven't even touched Zombies or the Campaign modes yet.


The Good, The Same, The Different and The Bad

Good

- This game is NOT AW. If you are normal CoD fan, this is great news. Like cheer worthy news. Like Trumpet blazing good news.
- There is a lot to do in this game. I have only played the MultiPlayer. Haven't even played Zombies or Campaign. Three games for one price.
- As said before, the movement system is very much like TitanFall light. Which is great news.
- The movement scheme - Jumping, sliding, mantling, sprinting. It really feels 'organic'. It supplements, not overpowers the play.
- Jumping doesn't feel like the jerkish, unnatural AW boosh1t. There isn't any 500 mph exo boosts. Hallelujah!!!

- The maps are all "3-Lane" style, but augmented by wall running. So unlike AW's mess, movement knowledge can help around the map.
- You can see your own Combat Card stats, but....no one can see yours (Spm, KD, etc)..This is great in theory....but.see next part 'The Same'
- Lobbies form and games start blazing fast, with a very good population it seems. But note, read the 'bad' section notes about this.
- In a huge surprise, Games in Progress joined are NOT a Loss. Wow. Hallelujah!!!!! Join a GiP & win, you get a 'W'. Lose? Doesn't count.
- You can now see your connection and ping stats mid game. This is new & good (although it's function is overrated)

- The Lag (measured in ping, see above) seems overall 'stable' so far. Some bad games, but mostly stable.
- TTK's seem longer than AW and Ghost. Slightly, which is good, as it helps with the above lag issues. This is positive.
- Combat card stuff and designing is immensely improved, but i haven't done much with it yet.
- Spawns, at least for Domination, are rock steady and predictable. A+ here.
- The Destiny rip off, 'Specialist', isn't my thing. But....unlike Destiny, there are a TON of variety and choices with it.
- Graphics? Not much to say here. All good. Enemies are very easy to pick up. PS4 vs XB1? Who cares.

The Same

- Combat Cards are hidden, but nearly everyone STILL obsesses over the KD ratio, sucking the KD cock.Same old faggotry.
- The guns feel nice and different to a certain respect. But t's still CoD, so over time, they do kind of blend to a bit. Same old..
- Killstreaks, same old whatever. Same sh1t/ different name. eg, 'Dogs' is now roaming robot balls that behave the same way. Meh.

- I don't snipe, so can't comment here. I hear it's the same.
- Same old Pick 10 system from Treyarch. Which is ok, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
- Same MLG 'bro' mode yet again called Arena. And like before, no one plays it, & the mode doesn't work right. Same old Sh1t.


The Different - Not necessarily better, just 'different'.

- Obviously, the Movement scheme in BO3 is VERY toned down from AW. This is back to ground based combat, not airborne combat
- The specialist 'Super'. Straight up Destiny copy, you get over time. Unlike Destiny, it's not quite as overpowering or cheap. Meh.
- If you are a 'stock/AR strafing' type of CoD player, watch out. ADS Strafe movements feel like they have been cut in half. Which leads to...

- HUGE difference between smg's and AR's, in terms of ADS/strafe fire. SMG's WILL dominate here. A lot. Ridiculous amount.
- Treyarch has new firing underwater mechanics. So a lot of the maps now feature water to swim through. Fortunately, it's more a novelty.
- Compared to AW, BO3's Domination mode is now back to being a 'power position' spot game. Get to them first, you win.


The Bad

- While MM moves very fast, games form fast...keeping a group together was a nightmare at first. Completely broken, but improving.
- The MM still is matching up broken lobbies, like 4v7, 4v8, 3v7, etc.. One out of every 10 games for me.
- Solo play makes the MM work 10x better. But.....you will get Games in Progress almost on every first game. You have to deal here.
- Party invites didn't work the first ten days, ...they sort of seem to be getting better. A little.

- AW had little hiding. This game? Lots of head-glitches spots ALL OVER the maps. Serious amount of them (but doesn't break game)
- The leaderboards are an unholy mess. Treyarch doesn't even know how to compute 'Score Per Minute'. It's broken on the combat summary
- Leaderboards are very VERY basic. If you are stat person, you will hate the limited scope. It sucks.


OVERALL

If you hated CoD AW (almost everyone did), this game will feel like a breath of fresh air, back to the 'Good old CoD', as much as one can expect. I can't imagine anyone not liking it compared to the mess that was Advanced Warfare. Setting aside the broken group/party functions (which is improving), and the limited stat recording, this is an 'A' game, all the way. If you truly are a CoD fan, you have to get it.

[Pegasus Actual]

I have probably 50-60 hours on this game. It feels very much like BO2 in a lot of ways (for obvious reasons), so I'll mostly compare it to that.

Streaks are junk. You're so limited in selection compared to BO2. Fun, if cheesy shit like Hunter/Killer has been replaced by useless shit like Dart. Dogs were a great streak. RAPS are just nerfed dogs. Great, now they can shoot down the deployment ship completely depriving you of your well-earned explodey balls. Or they can just run Spaceman Pro, and have relatively little concern over the existence of your RAPS. Kind of sad. GI Joe Unit might be a good one but I think that dude needs a bit of a buff to his control unit. Homeboy is prone to sitting in the middle of nowhere doing absolutely nothing. Wraith is OK, not any better than a Stealth Chopper from what I've seen, and Escort Drone has no equivalent here. The Talon is a piece of shit that buzzes in your ear. If you actually control it, it ends up being worse than whatever the "you have to pilot it" drone from BO2 was called. Cerberus is similar in lineage to the Angry Ground Robot and has the same limitations.

The Mothership is a garbage final streak. Granted, I've only gotten it twice at the end of games, once in the beta in Domination I think, and then once in FFA. Why the hell is there a streak that takes 3 people out of the game? Just no thanks. In FFA it's just pointless, you'll get more kills running around than you will using it. It's not even fun as a victory lap. The targetting for the streaks is all really lame. If someone is indoors you're never going to have any clue. All the streaks seem super easy to juke.

For a lot of game modes a streak either needs to do work on its own while keeping you in the game, or it needs to be totally badass while you control it. These streaks fail on that level. When you're going solo against parties and you're keeping the game close, the last thing you need is for your epic kill streak to result in a freaking HATR that gets shot down in two seconds and a RAPS that doesn't deploy a single deathball because it's shot down while entering the map. Kill streak usage was a great equalizer for a solo player and that's effectively dead.

Yeah, I know, I do go on about streaks. But since MW2, streaks have been a crucial component of the game. Streaks should make me want to get them. These don't.

Anyway, as a result I have little to no reason to play Domination. In BO2 it was a favorite. Here it's dead to me.

TDM was a bitch to get streaks in anyway, so it's mostly fine here. It seems reasonably fun, I haven't played a ton of it.

FFA in this game, despite the crappy streaks is more fun than BO2. Sound works better in this game. The new movement options are very useful when you have shit flying at you from all sides. All around very enjoyable.

SND... SND.... SND..... Ok, SND due to a certain Dumien is easily my most played mode this time around. It's good. It was always a low level streaks UAV/CUAV game mode anyway so all my streaks bitching doesn't matter much here. The specialist abilities were fun and added an interesting new wrinkle here, but the latest patch has nerfed them out of existence. Overall I think BO2 search was better though. Riot shields, MMS, it just had a better flow to it. But BO3 Search does lead to some hilarious and awesome moments all the same.

The weapons. It's mostly bad news. A lot of the guns feel like clones of BO2 weapons. I just don't like how the FAL/SMR were rolled ino the super slow fire rate 2-shot Sheiva. It's an ok gun, but the fire cap is low, it kinda robs some of the fun of using a semi auto. Which is clicking the god gosh darn golly gee whized fire button when you're on target. With this thing I feel the need to spam and oversample x2 just so that I keep the firerate somewhat reasonable. The hit detection isn't clean enough in this game for me to feel like I can just throw High Caliber on there and go for headshots. The M8A7 feels as powerful or more as the old M8A1. I don't get it, that gun was just about as powerful as the FAL in BO2 but caught no meaningful nerf, so I guess it's just now the top choice for 'skill' players. I'll get back to the Sheiva, and I'm sure I'll eventually start dealing with the firerate cap better, but I'd rather have a 3-hit FAL style gun than this thing any day.

Sniper stuff... well you run into much fewer snipers, they get little-to-no aim assist. Mostly a good change. What's bad is that the sensitivity for sniper ADS is way too high. As a big fat cheating XIM user I can work around if I really feel like it, but for controller players it seems screwed up to me.

The specialists copied from Destiny are fun, they fit in well. I'm cool with all that. The swimming is good. IW5k calls it a novelty but in SND the water routes are very important and add depth (no pun intended). The wallrunning copied from Titanfall is a mixed bag. The maps have too many arbitrary limits and invisible walls. It does have some interesting differences from Titanfall but the map design really lets it down. The only place where the wallrun mechanics truly shine is in the Free Run courses. The boost jump itself independent of the wall runs opens up some much needed tactical options but is also let down by map design and arbitrary invisible wall placement. I get that it's BlopsTrois and they don't want people to be able to just hop from lane un, deux, ou trois to another at will but it's clear that the enhanced mobility kind of clashes with their inherent limited mobility design. It's a strange Chimera... the Chimera being yet another (along with say a Gorgon) mythological beast not as interesting nor as lovable as a flying horse.

Connection-wise it's the same old COD. Some games are good, others lag. Life is like a box of chocolates. Nowhere near as good as something like Titanfall or Battlefield but surprisingly better than it probably has any right to be.

Most of the technical issues from the beta and launch are pretty well cleaned up. Party stuff mostly works. The game doesn't crash... much. It holds 60fps very strongly on both PS4 and Xbox One. New Theater Mode blows. Sometimes I don't understand where that third year of dev time went. Gun Game is back, Sticks and Stones and One in the Chamber are gone . It's weird to see clear steps backwards like that.

So I don't know, what does that all add up to? It's a good COD game. I am playing this. A lot. It's fun. I think BO2 had bigger problems at launch. For now BO2 feels like the better game. But I can already tell I'm going to max prestige on this. I'm going to get the map packs. I'm going to have a lot more fun. For players that were disillusioned with Ghosts and AW multiplayer, I'd recommend checking this out.

[illram]

Nov 21, 2015 9:10:36 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Treyarch doesn't even know how to compute 'Score Per Minute'. It's broken on the combat summary

It's funny at this point. I mean it's not like a once in a while thing, literally every single game is a hilarious miscalculation.

[wittyscorpion]

Nov 20, 2015 19:18:09 GMT -5 banana said:

best cod

This.

I have not played much due to another game called "Halo 5 Guardians", but nonetheless my 2 cents:

Thursday and Friday sessions have proven that the following annoying problems have been addressed:

1) Game stability (not crashed even once);
2) Party stability (party of 4-6 players have stayed together all the time);

I hardly have any complaints about this game, because the new directions are where I want the games to go:

1) fancier movement system: great
2) Introduce Specialists and nerf scorestreaks: for mediocre players like me, great
3) Network conditions: AW has demonstrated that fancy movement + horrible netcode = no fun. BLOPS3 on the other hand is doing well. Ever since I fixed my NAT (assign local static IP + port forwarding 3074 & 3075), things are reasonably good when playing solo or with small parties
4) Weapons: I actually don't mind and even welcome 3arc going pretty aggressively on balancing in terms of frequency. But since I don't play the game day in and day out, I am not the one to speak on this matter;

I am going to approach this game quite differently than other CoD. Instead of trying to be a completionlist though prestiging/weapon-prestiging/completing-challenge, I'll keep myself at rank 55 most of the time, and only prestige when 2XP weekend comes along. There are other games to be played, so I am not going to get myself slaved by the prestiging.

On the other hand, I am thinking about spending most of my BLOPS3 play time in Arena, since I am among the minority that are much more interested in playing tight games with/against peers at my skill level than stumping (or get stumped). That's why I am so addictive to Halo 5 Arena. Bros who have played BLOPS3 Arena extensively: I would like to see your review on that aspect of the game.

[Will]

Nov 21, 2015 10:39:11 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

in SND the water routes are very important and add depth

I concur. They are a huge addition to the game for SnD

[Dumien]

This CoD is definitely "up there." It is refreshing after the last two installments.

Bad first. No grief. That makes me sad. Theater mode sucks for no reason at all. A bunch of Treyarch style party games are missing for no reason at all. No riot shield but I understand why. It wouldn't work out well with the movement system...still I would want to use it for fun. The specialists are fun but the majority aren't currently usable in SnD because of the recharge nerf. The sounds design is BO2 quality which means definitely less clear than Infinity ward's creations. Emblem creation looks involved and I can't wait to sit down and make a really nice one... the reason I put this in the "negative" catagory is because there is a distinct lack of ability to share/copy emblems.

Good now.

FFA is great. The respawns are a bit iffy and you can watch people spawn if you plan well enough ala the worst parts of MW3.

Campaign, Zombies, and Nightmare are all great fun with friends. Campaign was surprisingly cool and I enjoyed the abilities/unlock system.

SnD is the most important part of CoD for me. It dictates winner and loser in my book. This SnD is a winner. The map design is excellent. I only really dislike one map and that is simply because of an annoying sound (metro). The bombsites are put in sensible locations with a clear bias for defending side. This means a team won't just immediately crumble to a team of bum-rushers. The perk design is a big part of why I enjoy it. There is alot of depth here that lends itself to counterplay. It is actually a joy to design classes. Let me give you a few examples...

One of my favorite classes is thus: DS/Perk3Greed/Awareness/DangerClose/2TripMines/2ShockCharge/NakedGun The gun I run is either sheiva, VMP or pharo...all good choices for a gun to be used with no attachments. I run around and hide a trip mine and shock charge at key high traffic positions. The shock prevents ducking or evading trip mines so an unprotected enemy dies easily. When a teammate or enemy is killed by bullets I pick up blue bags and throw some more. I play a bit defensively and try to initiate good picks for my team. Since you can see teammates' equipment through walls in this game you can essentially direct and understand map traffic. Let us look at how you counter this class.

Hardwired is the most potent. You can just run by the trip mines and shocks. No big. You could have flak jacket. The shocks might get you but the trip mines won't kill you. You can have tac mask and not get slowed down by the shocks though the mine might still get you. You can run engineer and just avoid them completely.

However, if you run tac mask or engineer (both perk 3) you can't run both Dead silence and Awareness. DS and awareness are the play2win perks of choice as matter the most in all situations. You rarely see a good player without both. So, most players won't avoid traps with engie or avoid the shocks. If they do, then they either can't head you or they aren't silent. In both cases you have an advantage in a gun fight. If you run hard wired then you are hard pressed to also run fast hands or tracker...other useful tools in gun fights and gun fight set-up. If you run flak jacket then you aren't running sixth sense...so my teammates can successfully camp in corners behind my traps.

Another important thing is that tac mask is a perk 3. Because of how crowded that slot is (my third prestige unlock was perk 3 Greed), concussions become very very powerful. So powerful, in fact, that I made a variation of the previous class to take advantage of people's metagame decision to use more tactical grenades in the face of DS/Awareness classes. This class is the same as the previous, but with two trophy systems in the place of shock charges. These are great for supporting your team and protecting your trip mines from frags, but perhaps even more importantly...it helps you get that crucial UAV a little bit faster by netting you a free 25 points for every explosion stopped. This really stacks up between rounds.

See... I got lost in the perks again.

It's a good game.

[UrbaneVirtuoso]

Nov 21, 2015 10:39:11 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

useless shit like Dart.

Couldn't disagree any harder; Darts are probably my favourite streak in any Call of Duty, since they're the Battlefield jets we never had. Really, these things are so versatile for how cheap they cost and how hard they're to hit. It can easily cockblock enemies from their score pedestal, too.

Moreover, with good breaking and dexterity you can navigate the most narrow routes; I love catching people way off guard, and it's ripe for rage. I'm sure HawkNY and GodMars can attest to my averaging 3-4 kills per Dart -- or even more come upon lucky spawns or just straight up Ground War.

[GodMars]

Nov 22, 2015 10:59:03 GMT -5 Dumien said:

Another important thing is that tac mask is a perk 3. Because of how crowded that slot is (my third prestige unlock was perk 3 Greed)

A permanent unlock on a level 13 perk? Seems kinda excessive, no?

[GodMars]

Nov 22, 2015 12:17:25 GMT -5 UrbaneVirtuoso said:

Nov 21, 2015 10:39:11 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

useless shit like Dart.

Couldn't disagree any harder; Darts are probably my favourite streak in any Call of Duty, since they're the Battlefield jets we never had. Really, these things are so versatile for how cheap they cost and how hard they're to hit. It can easily cockblock enemies from their score pedestal, too.

Moreover, with good breaking and dexterity you can navigate the most narrow routes; I love catching people way off guard, and it's ripe for rage. I'm sure HawkNY and GodMars can attest to my averaging 3-4 kills per Dart -- or even more come upon lucky spawns or just straight up Ground War.

You're beast at Dart.

[Dumien]

Nov 22, 2015 12:27:53 GMT -5 GodMars said:

Nov 22, 2015 10:59:03 GMT -5 Dumien said:

Another important thing is that tac mask is a perk 3. Because of how crowded that slot is (my third prestige unlock was perk 3 Greed)

A permanent unlock on a level 13 perk? Seems kinda excessive, no?

Playing without both is unbearable for me...lol. unlocking it now means I don't have to be without it for 13x7 levels. I figure I'll unlock argus, M8, and sheiva later. My other staples are early unlocks anyways (gorgon/VMP).

I'll have to practice with the dart. Sounds good for clearing out rushing routes.

[Pegasus Actual]

Nov 22, 2015 12:17:25 GMT -5 UrbaneVirtuoso said:

Nov 21, 2015 10:39:11 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

useless shit like Dart.

Couldn't disagree any harder; Darts are probably my favourite streak in any Call of Duty, since they're the Battlefield jets we never had. Really, these things are so versatile for how cheap they cost and how hard they're to hit. It can easily cockblock enemies from their score pedestal, too.

Moreover, with good breaking and dexterity you can navigate the most narrow routes; I love catching people way off guard, and it's ripe for rage. I'm sure HawkNY and GodMars can attest to my averaging 3-4 kills per Dart -- or even more come upon lucky spawns or just straight up Ground War.

The controls are an affront to any flight sim player ever, or for that matter, even a Battlefield jet pilot. I don't know if I buy a 3 kill average, not with all the Spaceman Pro I tend to run into. I'd ask for a screenshot of your combat record but with Treyarch math how could one believe it one way or the other anyway?

I probably am using it wrong though, I like to try to throw it up and swoop back down shooting at stuff, and it has not been good for that.

But I'm never going to like that streak. Ever. Not after the beta:



That was like my own personal 11/13 yet I never see the news talking about it. Nobody sends any Foxtroting flowers.

[UrbaneVirtuoso]

To be fair, your Dart was hacked by the Black Hat in it's prime; now compare that to how shat on said equipment is to the point of extinction. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any Black Hats used at ALL from my post-beta experience. Goes to show how uppity 3arc is with their nerfs, really.

As for proof, I'll get around to some footage, but as I said there are witnesses; Hawk even followed right behind my Dart as I cleaved through small rooms. Overall, I'm not sure what to say other than here's to hoping you'll experiment with Darts more -- and without first bad impressions to get in the way.

Now to answer Dumien, the key to using Darts well is to throw them upwards to circle the battlefield. Keep it levelled out in the air, only pivoting downwards to pick off threats (or even upwards to nuke those aerial streaks via lock-on :3), then quickly resuming to neutral position before you crash into something.

Furthermore, be patient and repeat this pattern for every individual target(s), lest you eat dirt. Don't bother wasting time locking onto people, just lead your shots. Be prepared to fire another rocket against potential FJ users, or kamekaze into them upon exhausting your final rocket. Two explosions are enough.

Moving to the fancy "cleaving through rooms" part, it really boils down to trial and error. Just be absolutely sure to familiarize with the Dart's turn radius and the amount of room corridors have to compensate. I can't stress enough that braking is your BFF. Should you stick, you'll pop out camper nests in no time.

[LeGitBeeSting]

I need to remember to crank up the DPI on me mousy for the Dart as using the Dart requires you to spam lift the mouse off the pad repeatedly to make a turn instead of just holding the joystick.

You can still get unlucky with the Dart but it's definitely better than both the Hellstorm/Sorta Fast Strike.

[iw5000]

Nov 21, 2015 10:39:11 GMT -5 Pegasus Actual said:

The specialists copied from Destiny are fun, they fit in well. I'm cool with all that. The swimming is good. IW5k calls it a novelty but in SND the water routes are very important and add depth (no pun intended). The wallrunning copied from Titanfall is a mixed bag. The maps have too many arbitrary limits and invisible walls. It does have some interesting differences from Titanfall but the map design really lets it down. The only place where the wallrun mechanics truly shine is in the Free Run courses. The boost jump itself independent of the wall runs opens up some much needed tactical options but is also let down by map design and arbitrary invisible wall placement. I get that it's BlopsTrois and they don't want people to be able to just hop from lane un, deux, ou trois to another at will but it's clear that the enhanced mobility kind of clashes with their inherent limited mobility design. It's a strange Chimera... the Chimera being yet another (along with say a Gorgon) mythological beast not as interesting nor as lovable as a flying horse.

I'm calling it a bit a novelty, but I said so more from this point. It is new, a bit unusual (for CoD), but it's obviously game dependent too. I have been playing mostly Domination and GW. Most all of the time it's just not needed.By the time you take the extra 4 to 5 seconds of swimming, the flag is either capped or the control/power position is lost. Especially since wall running is so much faster. Obviously, like you said, SnD is a completely different game.

I'm going to slightly disagree with you on your assessment of the killstreaks. While we both agree what's in the game is a bit bland, unoriginal, and mostly just reskinned old crap....I think they are mostly ok, in terms of power. BLack Ops 2 was to far overdone in terms of powerful Killstreaks. The past VSAT, dogs, swarm combo was a bit overdone. Especially when stacked. It almost became a 'insta-win' condition, one which the CoD community sort of acknowledged pretty quick. I say that, as I remember people almost quitting instantly as soon as the combos started rolling. Quit-mania, over and over and over. What good does that serve?

Right now, it seems the BO3 lessor version of HATR, RAPs, and GI/Unit isn't anywhere as strong. I think that's fine. Especially for game modes like Domination and such. In my not always humble opinion, the CoD win conditions should primarily be about map control, over map dominance with positioning and killing.....not who can play for a killstreak first, and start chaining them. While the latter is important, it should add to the former, not be the end game.

Just my two cents.

[fpsdredd]

A few bad:
- drop shot nerf returns (bullet shoots randomly for a second or so)
- player takes FOREVER to stand up from prone or to go prone. Makes movement feel sluggish and tiring.
- Buffering weapon swap commands during mantle animations is gone, super annoying!
- Buffering 'go to prone' by holding crouch in midair is broken. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Tested this extensively.
- suppressor is SO much weaker. It's super bad!
- projectile motion of thrown C4 is weird. leaves your hand at a strange angle.
- ghost is crap, it stops working too fast
- sixth sense is silly, forces flanking playstyle to expend another point.
- no riot shield

[Dumien]

I'm actually happy with the drop shot nerfs. Alot of gunfights are won either by already being in an advantageous prone position or by utilizing air movement better than your opponent. Flanking playstyle can run tracking... never needed sixth sense to catch corner campers...it's just a boon if you can afford it.

I agree with everything else. Mantling just sucks in general...though you can use wallrun->mantle on something in front of you to avoid making unnecessary noise. My problem with ghost is that it seems inconsistent as hell...working when it shouldn't...not working when it should.

[LeGitBeeSting]

Nov 23, 2015 11:43:21 GMT -5 fpsdredd said:

A few bad:
- drop shot nerf returns (bullet shoots randomly for a second or so)
- player takes FOREVER to stand up from prone or to go prone. Makes movement feel sluggish and tiring.
- Buffering weapon swap commands during mantle animations is gone, super annoying!
- Buffering 'go to prone' by holding crouch in midair is broken. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Tested this extensively.
- suppressor is SO much weaker. It's super bad!
- projectile motion of thrown C4 is weird. leaves your hand at a strange angle.
- ghost is crap, it stops working too fast
- sixth sense is silly, forces flanking playstyle to expend another point.
- no riot shield

The real question is: does FPSDredge use the Judge Dredge?

[fpsdredd]

Nov 23, 2015 13:11:55 GMT -5 LeGitBeeSting said:

Nov 23, 2015 11:43:21 GMT -5 fpsdredd said:

A few bad:
- drop shot nerf returns (bullet shoots randomly for a second or so)
- player takes FOREVER to stand up from prone or to go prone. Makes movement feel sluggish and tiring.
- Buffering weapon swap commands during mantle animations is gone, super annoying!
- Buffering 'go to prone' by holding crouch in midair is broken. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Tested this extensively.
- suppressor is SO much weaker. It's super bad!
- projectile motion of thrown C4 is weird. leaves your hand at a strange angle.
- ghost is crap, it stops working too fast
- sixth sense is silly, forces flanking playstyle to expend another point.
- no riot shield

The real question is: does FPSDredge use the Judge Dredge?

Can't stand burst fire weapons

[fpsdredd]

Nov 23, 2015 12:00:36 GMT -5 Dumien said:

I'm actually happy with the drop shot nerfs. Alot of gunfights are won either by already being in an advantageous prone position or by utilizing air movement better than your opponent. Flanking playstyle can run tracking... never needed sixth sense to catch corner campers...it's just a boon if you can afford it.

I agree with everything else. Mantling just sucks in general...though you can use wallrun->mantle on something in front of you to avoid making unnecessary noise. My problem with ghost is that it seems inconsistent as hell...working when it shouldn't...not working when it should.

I mean players are running sixth sense and you have to counter it.

[fpsdredd]

Ghosts stops working too fast. It stops working before I'm done reloading.

[iw5000]

Nov 23, 2015 12:00:36 GMT -5 Dumien said:

I'm actually happy with the drop shot nerfs. Alot of gunfights are won either by already being in an advantageous prone position or by utilizing air movement better than your opponent. Flanking playstyle can run tracking... never needed sixth sense to catch corner campers...it's just a boon if you can afford it.

I agree with everything else. Mantling just sucks in general...though you can use wallrun->mantle on something in front of you to avoid making unnecessary noise. My problem with ghost is that it seems inconsistent as hell...working when it shouldn't...not working when it should.

Agree with the prone thoughts. It's always come across as kind of garbage play to me. Not that this game is realistic, but even video game realistic has limits. People running around doing dozens of squat thrusts over and over and over, all game long and hitting head shots, is just, ...well...stupid.

[flatulentmonkeys]

Nov 21, 2015 11:29:48 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

On the other hand, I am thinking about spending most of my BLOPS3 play time in Arena, since I am among the minority that are much more interested in playing tight games with/against peers at my skill level than stumping (or get stumped). That's why I am so addictive to Halo 5 Arena. Bros who have played BLOPS3 Arena extensively: I would like to see your review on that aspect of the game.

As a predominantly competitive player, I play a lot of Arena. Here's my review on it, following the common theme for reviews in this thread:

The Good:

Game modes -

    * Allowing Uplink and CTF to be included together was a great move. Although I'm leaning towards favoring Uplink, letting the "community" decide which game mode is best for competitive play was a great move by Treyarch.

    * Hardpoint is fantastic in this game. The 3 lane maps play well into the rotations. The spawns need a little work as rotation deaths are quite unforgiving. BO2's spawn algorithms were on point in HP and I hope we get closer to that in the coming weeks.

    * SnD plays very well. It reminds me of BO2. Exodus and Combine could use some tweaks to the bomb sites, but otherwise everything plays really well.

Protect/Ban -

    * The timers have been altered a bit so the process is a bit quicker. This is good. I'm seeing less people quitting (I'll get to that) during the protect/ban phase.

    * This idea is revolutionary to COD. It's a great way to change up the Meta on the fly and catch the other team off guard with an off-the-wall ban. It forces players to eliminate crutches, which is good IMO.

Matchmaking -

    * When queuing up solo, I've had no trouble getting a game very quickly. Being in a party takes a few seconds longer, but it's head and shoulders above where it was at launch. I'm still seeing an occasional team of 4 level 6's taking on 4 solo level 1's, but it's been few and far between lately.

    * Haven't seen a team with more than 4 since the hotfix. There were errors early on that led to 4v5's and 3v5's and all kinds of crazy stuff. It's been fixed.

    * SBMM seems to be a thing. But I could just be getting lucky. Haven't seen a lot of blowouts, even when rolling as a team of 4. I mean, they happen, just not as frequently as I thought they would. I've run into some real solid players, which is nice.

The Bad:

Quitters -

    * Too many people quitting. There is relatively no punishment for it and with the pick/ban process there's no join in progress function. So that's lame and needs to be addressed.

Ranking System -

    * I don't get it. A win is a star. A loss loses a star. That seems to be the gist of it.

    

    * There needs to be some weighting to the games like BO2 had in league play. It's frustrating when 2 guys back out because the Gorgon was banned and you have to play a game of HP 2v4... and still lose a star for it. This issue goes hand in hand with the quitters issue addressed above.

Friendly Fire -

    * While I agree this is a part of competitive COD, I don't like that the teamkill stops streaks and counts as a death. If it's an accident, the guy/gal you shot shouldn't be punished. And if it's intentional, then it's even worse. I got intentionally TK'ed the other day one kill away from my HATR. I have no idea why, either. Guy was angry, I guess. Also scoresteaks can really hurt your own teammates. With a team, it's okay to communicate when you're nuking a hill, but with 4 randoms they don't know to avoid it while your Lightning Strike hits the hill. That's frustrating as well.

Perma-Bans -

    * I understand that this will be addressed once Treyarch/MLG decide on them, but in the meantime it ruins the Pick/Ban portion.

    * There are a number of things (UAV/CUAV, Care Packages, C4, Trip Mines, etc) that just don't belong in competitive play. Either they don't have a viable counter, or they take away from the idea that skill should win engagements. Either way, we shouldn't have to "waste" our ban on something that shouldn't be in the playlist.

So that's what I have for now. The recent tweaks have really improved the game mode and I'm sure there's more in the pipeline. As it sits, this is just the "beta" or "Pre-Season", so there's bound to be some kinks. The first season doesn't kick off until early December, so we've got another 2 weeks for Treyarch to get things right.

[iw5000]

As a quick side thought, I like NEVER ceases to amaze with these developers. They can program the crap out of a game to let us digitally shoot people worldwide online. Like smart stuff. Amazing stuff.

....but then these same people, are completely clueless when it comes down to the basic core principles of competition. Seriously, these developers have no clue what goes on in people's minds. What makes a competitor, 'compete'. What drives them. What motivates them. Not only that, how actual competition works. All that stuff. It's like every person at Treyarch's staff, never actually went outside as kids and even did a simple kickball game.