Black Ops 4 Launch Review

I've been playing Black Ops 4 pretty much exclusively since it came out and over the few weeks I've been playing, I've naturally developed my opinion on this iteration of Call of Duty and have thoughts on the things I like and loathe that'd I'd like to share with everyone. Now, I will only be talking about the multiplayer as I don't play zombies and I generally have a distaste for Battle Royale games, though I did give Blackout a go a few times and was surprised to found it to be everything battle royale games appear to be and that is one big, long, boring camp fest and that's if you're able to find a decent gun and defend yourself from the other five people that landed beside you. So yeah, it's better I not talk about Black Out, biased opinion and all that.

So, without further ado here's my current opinion of Black Ops 4!

MAPS:

Map design is not to be underestimated, you won't see a lobby disperse faster than one that's been locked into an awful map selection. My overall feeling on BO4's maps is they're not my favorite the series has ever had. Black Ops 3 set the bar for me in map design, most of BO4's maps actually remind me of WW2's maps, which were universally panned. These maps have the same interweaving paths between the three lanes that causes constant back attacks and terrible spawns. Here's my rundown on all the maps so far:

ARSENAL

An annoyingly popular choice, what I hate most about this map is how much of it is unused. All traffic goes through the lane that has these raised planters, and it's flanked by players using the middle lane. That alone shows how bad this map is designed when the power positions are not even overlooking the central lane, so yeah, half used map.

CONTRABAND

Another map I don't like, it's a bit of a mess. The spawns are absolutely huge and are easy to get spawn trapped in. The positioning of water on this map feels more of an obstruction that an opportunity and why are the two ladders that get you onto the bridge in the central lane opposite to each other, one needs to be positioned closer to the ruins for improved flanking opportunities.

FIRING RANGE

A map I hated in Black Ops 1, though admittedly I really didn't get on with BO1's multiplayer. But in BO4, it's actually a really fun map and works very well. Spawns are well balanced and this map seems to flip more often than others. It's a fun and slightly frantic map.

FREQUENCY

I don't tend to see this map a lot, which is a shame as it reminds me of the layout of many BO3 maps which means it's good. It's well designed, all the lanes see use and just flows so well. There's an absence of interweaving pathways between the lanes which means it isn't as annoyingly chaotic as some of the other new maps.

GRIDLOCK

Much like frequency, it's another BO3 like map and it's great. My favourite map in the whole batch, probably because I always do well on it which always helps bias an opinion. It's another map that sees fairly even usage between the two flanking lanes, but everyone gravitates into that central lane regardless and there's two great power points to defend that grant the map structure.

HACIENDA

Another map I do not like at all, I think this a Black Ops 2 remake though I may be mistaken. (I barely played BO2...) It's all over the place, the spawn points are massive. As soon as you pop out there's so many angles to consider, so if you happen to get spawn trapped, you're unequivocally screwed. Also, because the central lane is multilayered, the flanking routes don't see a lot of attention.

ICE BREAKER

I'm on the fence with this map, it's great for being such a departure from most maps. The central lane is the least used with both flanking lanes being the primary traffic areas. One side is more favorable to long shots, the other has some handy cover but does have a few long sight lines.

It's not symmetrical in the slightest, even the spawn points are kinked so movement to power points is slightly unbalanced. But overall I enjoy this map.

JUNGLE

I quite frankly hate this map, I hate everything about it. It's a huge mess, the only power point is the the village and it encourages camping in the worst possible way. I never enjoy this map, in fact I groan and moan when I see it, and if it gets re-voted back, I normally back out of a lobby. Which sounds petty, but I really hate this map.

MILITIA

Looks interesting, but it's another large map that's a bit of a mess. I couldn't really discernibly tell you that it has three lanes. The most popular place of play is at the church which has a biased spawn nearby, the central area is a mess of houses and trenches and the rest of map is seldom used by anybody. I really don't know what they were thinking when they made this map. 

MOROCCO

This is another map I'm on the fence on, sometimes it plays really nice and other times it's a grind, normally if everyone gets holed up atop the ramp from the spawn. There is an S bend that gets heavily camped, if it's well defended you can maintain an eye on all main traffic routes from one end of the map to the other. The ramp side spawn is unbalanced, it's pretty easy to spawn trap.

PAYLOAD

I'm probably becoming less and less popular as I go on, but again it's a map I don't like. Just doesn't flow nicely, it's large but in a bad way. The flanking lanes are so lopsided, one side (the cliff) is just a single lane until you get right across and then you're pretty much on top of a spawn location and as for the other flanking lane, it's a polar opposite with two heights and multiple rooms. Rarely do I see people use this route.

SEASIDE

Another BO3 inspired map, but I'm not especially keen on this one, it has the three dedicated lanes and is fairly long. The flank routes are neat but not linear and the central lane sees very little traffic on average. It's hard to lockdown a power position because the flow of the map is always encouraging spawn flipping. 

SLUMS

I used to hate this in BO2, but surprisingly I've been warming up to it in BO4. The lanes are unbalanced though, the flank route through the building is biased to the high path side, it has two entries and also you can jump over the wall beside the building and flank through the hole in the wall where the low path players have only one entry in.

All three lanes see a lot of use but more or less always in the middle of the map, few of the maps have such a focused width of usage, but this one does.

SUMMIT

Another BO1 map that sees redemption in my eyes, this is really fun in BO4. As usual the most amount of traffic you get on this map is through the second floor of the main building with a bit of flanking on the catwalks beside it. The cliff side lane is criminally underused in BO4, I remember it being fairly popular in BO1 but for some reason it's seldom sees use here.

So, there we have it! my brief and perhaps controversial opinions on the maps for Black Ops 4. But my opinions do not stop here, the specialists have returned to Black Ops 4 and this time their individual abilities are really focused and it's not just some sort of kill all weapon or temporary buff. Originally this game was meant to be more like Overwatch, so each specialist is supposed to fulfill a role of attacker, defender or healer. But apparently that build of the game was not approved and so everything was re-tweaked into the system we have today. 

So, what do I think about them?

SPECIALISTS

AJAX

They say you never forget your first love. Well, mine was Ajax. Nobody was using him when the game first launched and I liked the idea of his riot shield. Little did I know at the time that his 9-bang equipment was so ridiculously powerful, it's pretty overpowered actually and truly disorienting. The shield is good, the full auto pistol has terrible accuracy which seems deserved for the role. 9-bang should be nerfed a bit, but that's about it.

BATTERY

A firm favourite from BO3, she is still a worthy specialist in BO4. Her cluster grenade is powerful and the cluster grenades that are released are great for pushing attackers back. Her grenade launcher is tons of fun and very powerful, but does require some skill to use. You earn all her abilities surprisingly fast compared to other specialists, she could probably use a nerf to the charge rate for her war machine.

CRASH

Crash is the proclaimed medic of BO4, which is a joke when the average time to kill is 300 milliseconds. Regardless, Crash does try. The assualt pack is more useful than the Tak 5, an extra 50 HP doesn't seem to go particular far but the extra score from the assault packs really helps your team and you get your higher streaks faster. I see a lot of high tier players using Crash for this trait. Tak 5 needs some sort of buff to be somewhat useful though.

FIREBREAK

One of my favourite specialists, his reactor core equipment is devastating if used right and recharges fairly quickly. The purifier on the other hand, is pathetic. It takes ages for Firebreak to raise the flamethrower and even longer for the jet stream to reach max range. It isn't even an instant kill, it normally requires at least two hit markers to kill. I would have preferred Firebreak to be have a self destruct ability, that'd would have been more fun and functional. 

NOMAD

My new favourite, I've fallen foul of Nomad's dog and mesh mines time and time again and if you can't beat them, join them as the saying goes. The mines are very powerful and work best if they have a laser point between them. Cautious players will easily spot poorly placed ones or you can protect yourself with engineer.

The K9 unit is ridiculously powerful and probably could do with a nerf to HP. It instantly kills anyone it sets upon though you can take it out with guns somewhat easily if you get on top of it with teams mates, but compared to other specialists weapons the K9 unit causes a lot of chaos.

PROPHET

I'm surprised people use Prophet, the seeker is terrible. It's enemy tracking is all over the place, you can't follow it to an enemy because it changes it's targets so flippantly. His Tempest on the other hand is pretty awesome, it downs anyone it hits with a very fast projectile and will chain onto other enemies. A second shot is required to kill, but it has a good rate of fire. It's fine as it is but the seeker needs a buff desperately.

RECON

Another favourite of the higher tier players, the sensor dart is a decent enough piece of equipment. Needs to be fired in heavy traffic area or capture points. Plenty of people seem to fire them in all manner of odd and useless places. His vision pulse has the longest charge up time of any specialist weapon and for good reason, it's a wall hack for the entire team that lasts a fairly long time. It does need a nerf and that nerf is that only Recon can see through walls. You can even take away the pulse effect, just bring it in line with Outrider's vision pulse from BO3.

RUIN

Everyone likes using this guy but I don't rate him particularly high. The grapple gun may get you from A to B quicker than sprinting but not by enormous amounts and leaves you really vulnerable. It does recharge very quickly but that's pretty much the only positive.

Ruin has a special weapon? It's called the Grav Slam? I'm being sarcastic of course, despite having a generous recharge rate I almost never ever see this in action. Maybe I'm just lucky. It does have pretty impressive range but it's very underused.

SERAPH

Another top tier choice, the tac-deploy can be fairly powerful in the right hands, especially for spawn trapping or just generally giving the team and strong foothold on a power point. Her annihilator weapon is a high skill weapon, it is one shot kill but compared to other specialist weapons it's a bit underwhelming. She needs a buff somewhere I think to make her appealing to more players but what that is I'm not sure, perhaps make it harder to spot and or destroy the tac-deploy?

TORQUE

Obviously in the older build of BO4, Torque was to be one of the tank characters. All of his abilities are about restricting enemy movements. As such he sort of sticks out a bit in comparison to the other specialists. His abilities do not directly kill enemies and there're so visually large that it's hard not to spot them. They definitely work better in smaller maps but on the larger maps, Torques a complete waste of a specialist. 

It's hard to buff or nerf him, what he does is so unique and niche so it's better that he's left as is.

Some people love the specialists and the versatility of their abilities and other people hate the fact that they are very powerful and can easily ruin anyone's streak. But that's sort of the point of them though, I would be interested to see how the game plays in a no specialist abilities playlist.
It is a pain to have your run ruined by a lucky war machine shell or to lose that objective capture because you got stuck in a reactor core field and so forth, but that's the game.

PERKS
This is probably the first Call of Duty I've played in a long time where the perks didn't feel exceptionally defining. There's really only a few I find genuinely helpful, the perks overall are definitely under powered this time around and that's most likely to prevent a single player beefing up a specialist to some ungodly potential that breaks the game. So, what are my top choices?

MUST HAVES - ENGINEER, GUNG-HO AND GHOST
With all the specialist equipment and UAV's to contend with, Engineer gives you the edge when it comes to detecting them. With Engineer you'll never wander blindly into Nomad's mesh mines and you'll blast sensor darts away with ruthless glee and also you can actually see where in the hell a UAV is on Jungle, which is really helpful.
Gung-Ho is just, amazing, if like me you run around like an idiot too much. The reduced recovery from sprint is a big help and it's allowed me to keep the edge over many an opponent.
Lastly is Ghost, I was actually torn between Ghost and Deadly Silence, but considering how many UAVs are in the air at any one time and how nobody ever has the launcher equipped, Ghost is pretty necessary when it comes to staying off the radar.

MUST HAVE NOTS - FLACK JACKET, SKULKER AND TEAM LINK
What is the point of flack jacket in this game? Mesh mine, one shot. Cluster grenade, one shot. War machine, one shot-in fact any explosive that hits you, one shot! If you want some form of protection from explosives then just equip body armour, it works much better.
Skulker may have only one useful purpose and that's probably search and destroy which I never play because it bores me to tears. I cannot ever, really see a purpose to skulker apart from when people found out they could glitch out the game with it, but that's fortunately been patched.
Team Link, maybe great for some people. For me, not especially. I don't stare at my minimap for too long for this to be of use, I'd rather just look for red dots as the enemy starts shooting and I find most of the time I just get into a flow with a map and I'm able to predict enemy movements fairly well, so yeah, not much use to me.

WEAPONS
The gunplay in BO4 is exceptionally tight, consistent recoil patterns award familiarity and the handling of the weapons and the feedback is pretty much perfect. There are some questionable choices though, such as four sniper rifles, three of them bolt action. Yet there are only two shotguns and three light machine guns. You can tell Treyarch love their quick scoping community with the plethora of choice and to keep the quick scoping pure there is the new tactical rifles section which are basically guns that sit between assault rifle and sniper rifle. For a game that has generally small to medium maps there's certainly a lot of long range weapons available. Having said all this it's probably to give variety to Blackout and they've just pushed them into multiplayer to fill out the roster.
Anywho, here are some opinions:

FAVOURITE GUN - VAPR
I didn't actually like this gun when I first used it, it's grossly under powered against other assault rifles and the mobility boost isn't anything to write home about. But when I got used to the gun and aided with a silencer and high caliper, it's high rate of fire and easily managed recoil make it a devastating weapon. Not to be underestimated. 

WORST GUN - VKM
What I hoped would be a fine successor to the Gorgon is actually a really out of place gun. Slow fire rate, wild spread and three to four shot kill potential means it's outclassed by any other gun that works best at close, medium or long range. It doesn't get FMJ but at least high caliber is the first attachment you unlock but cruelly the rapid fire attachment is the last one you'll get.

KILLED MOST BY - ICR
The default assault rifle is also one of the most popular. So few people seem interested in experimentation, but this is a pretty decent all round gun. Even without high caliber it does good damage against chest and head and the fire rate is nothing to sniff at with an easy recoil pattern. It's weakest element is the pathetic choice of attachments you have for it. Regardless, I've seen far too many kill feeds with this gun in question aimed squarely at my head.

SCORESTREAKS
The staple mechanic of any Call of Duty game, the scorestreaks (or killstreaks if you're a veteran), has been the series mainstay and is as much revered as it is despised. There's no better reward for being good at something that being granted extra power. Because lets be honest, when you're already at twelve kills and zero deaths you could really use that attack chopper right?
Love it or loathe it, we have to deal and play with it. I am disappointed that there aren't any returning scorestreak from BO3 (other than Treyarch's recurring scorestreaks), I would have preferred to see the RAPS return rather than the strike team. And why has the Mantis replaced the Cerberus? 

FAVOURITE STREAK - GUNSHIP
I've had a surprising amount of these pop out of my care packages (I don't live long enough to rack up that kind of streak!), being the highest streak you can obtain, you expect it to be powerful and mighty and oh, it is. I'm sure a patch will reduce it's appearance in the crates soon enough but for now the amazing power you have in the gunship is fantastic. 

WORST STREAK - DART
Is this supposed to be useful? It costs fractionally more that the RC-XD but is pathetic. Remote detonation blast radius is both tiny and weak, you have to smash directly into someone to kill them which is easier said than done with it's twitchy handling. The RC-XD walks all over this as far as scorestreaks go.

MOST ANNOYING STREAK - ATTACH CHOPPER
The scorestreaks are buffed this time around after all the criticism from IW and WW2. The higher streaks are not easily countered by one man and his rocket launcher anymore. The attack chopper takes three rockets to take out, and you have to do it fast before it can release flares again and that's before it melts you once your cold bloodied perk disappears after five seconds. Also, targeting the attack chopper is fiddly, you have to focus on it's centre rather than any piece of it and it can be very precise. It also flails about the sky erratically making lock-ons even harder and lastly you have to contend with all the overhead obstructions; towers, ramps and tree tops all get in your way. But most of all, most of all! The worst thing about this streak is virtually no one on your team will help you shoot it out the sky. So the damn thing more often than not gets to melt your team netting whoever summoned it huge swafts of score! So yes, this is the streak I find most annoying, if you can't already tell.

FINAL THOUGHTS
If you've stuck around for this long then I commend you, I didn't realise when I first started this how long I'd end up writing for but it appears my opinionated self has surprised even me! 
So one of the things that's really confused me about the pick ten system is BO4 is every specialist has their own unique piece of equipment, very effective and powerful equipment which also doesn't cost you a pick ten slot. But if you want to, you can equip some classic equipment which includes the trophy system, frag grenade, concussion grenade and a couple others. Unlike previous entries, these classic items of equipment still work on a cool down like the specialist equipment but cost a pick 10 point and are also, literally pointless. Hands down, worthless. I tried out the frag grenade for a bit and yeah, Battery's cluster nade is ten times better. Actually kills people and has a good blast radius. Don't know what happened here but yeah, it's ridiculous. 

That about wraps up my opinions on Black Ops 4, in case you're wondering how long it took for me to formulate these opinions; the game informs me I have spent 22 hours, 5 minutes and 25 seconds playing multiplayer. I've only just completed my first prestige so I feel like I've given the game in it's launch state a very good going at and that my opinions are structured and valid. I don't feel like I'm just a raging noob who needs to "git gud" as they say these days. 
Hope you guys found this launch version review of the multiplayer constructive or at the least entertaining. Black Ops 4 is a good game, it's annoyingly addictive, it's not perfect but the groundwork is there so lets just hope that as the major patches come it gets even better and that the DLC maps won't follow the trend some of Black Ops 4 more questionable maps have done.

Have a good day everybody.

Top 5 Places Human's Have Visited In Space... In Videogames.

I'm fascinated by space. It's beauty and mystery captivate me and yet it's a place that by and large, we live within completely unaware of. Our own little worlds are our main concern, we wouldn't know if a meteor flew by Earth, narrowly missing a fatal impact or if a Gamma Ray Burst was heading towards us. Stars are exploding all around us, hundreds of light years away and yet if you take the occasional glance at the sky at night, all we can see is the twinkling of stars.
Recently I was gifted a telescope and I've since learned that several of those nighttime "stars" are actually our neighbors. Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all easily spotted in my Telescope. If you didn't know they were there before you certainly will once you clasp eyes on Venus, the brightest of the Planets in the sky.
But I digress, space is so out of reach for us at the moment. As a species and especially as individuals, but in the world of science fiction we've been able to explore the cosmos at our leisure and I'm going to rundown my top five locations Humans have visited in videogames.

Foreword, I wanted to keep this list somewhat grounded in reality and so I will only be listing locations that Human's from Earth have visited. So sorry Star Wars and your Galaxy from far, far away. Also, no fantasy worlds either as there is no information that such a world has links to Humans from Earth.
So, without further ado, let's get into it:

EUROPA - CALL OF DUTY INFINITE WARFARE

We're going to start close to home, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar systems. It's often regarded as Earth's protector; it's large gravitational pull drags debris such as meteors into itself, though this may be an undeserving title as Jupiter is more than capable of knocking other objects off their orbital paths and directly into Earth!

But Jupiter is a beautiful planet, it's surface hidden beneath a sea of copper and cream clouds, swirling endlessly and how could we forget it's infamous Red Spot, a storm that has been ongoing for hundreds of years!

Jupiter has many Moons in it's orbit, most are rather small but five are often cited. One of it's most interesting Moons is Europa, an icy ball that has a liquid water core. Europa is often noted as the most likely place to find extraterrestial life in our Solar System. But we're talking micro-organisms not E.T. sadly.
In Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, events begin on Europa; a weapons black site attacked by the SDF. UNSC special forces land on Europa and attempt to secure the site. It's a breath taking opener of a mission. Descending through the icy ammonia clouds of Europa, the soldiers crash against it's icy mantle and there looming in the distance is the ominous Jupiter, occupying almost the entire sky. 

There's a wealth of inaccuracies in Infinite Warfare regarding what it'd be like to go to Europa, not mentioning the obscene amount of radiation you'd be basking in, so close to Jupiter but it's certainly a gorgeous and satisfying entry.

THE SPHERE - PREY (2006)

It's been a long time since I played this old gem, sadly it's almost unmentioned thanks to the successful reboot of the franchise. The original game was a thoroughly enjoyable adventure about a Cherokee man named Tommy who one night, along with his girlfriend Jen and Uncle is beamed up to an alien spacecraft called The Sphere, a biological spaceship that harvests planet's life forms. I won't go in to too many details, save the spoilers and all that but needless to say, Prey had some interesting narrative arcs.

The spaceship itself was roughly the size of a moon, but is a hollow structure that's more like a network of parts assembled together. It processes organic life into ship parts, sustaining itself for future intergalactic harvesting. 
One of the most interesting aspects of the ship is the portals employed to connect different parts of the ship together. This was one of the first games to show working ingame Portals and employed them to great effect.

If you haven't played Prey from 2006, I seriously suggest you hunt down a copy and play it. It was an absolute gem when it came out way back when and is still worth your time today.

MARS - DOOM (2016)

Not to sound arrogant or ignorant, but Mars is the planet I am the least interested in. It's a barren rock with virtually no atmosphere. Aside from having the largest mountain in the solar system (the Olympus Mons) it has no other notable features. Sure there are plans to have Humans begin colonisation in as early as 2060 but really, there's not a lot there that captivates my interest.

Then comes Doom 2016, it has had the most interesting iteration of Mars to date. (Lets be honest, the original Doom 1 is a fun game but it could've been based anywhere). Doom 3 let players explore a fair bit of the martian landscape and the hidden alien catacombs deep within but the Doom reboot makes it for me. 
Firstly, the Mars base is now fully realised and is a massive, mega-structure that reaches all over the red planet, right up to it's icy poles. I loved how the AI processor needed to be cooled so much that it had to be installed at one of Mar's pole. For the first time someone shows us Mars in more than one colour. 

COLLECTOR BASE, GALACTIC CENTRE - MASS EFFECT 2

I did "um" and "ah" as to whether include a Mass Effect planet in this list as to be honest, most of the planets that it introduces aren't especially exciting. Much like Star Wars, the series that inspired it, Mass Effects planets have that 'I'm one type of terrain/environment' all over sort of style. No place is varied and each planet is a derivitave of some Earth like environment. Mass Effect 2 however, had some balls. Throughout the game Shepherd and his crew are investigating the disappearance of humans from colonies all over the galaxy and his search ends when he discovers the location of the Collector Ship, a brain washed species that has been rounding up Humans for a nefarious intergalactic plot I won't divulge here.

The most exciting part about this is the location of the Collector base, the Galatic Centre! We are completely unable to view into the galactic centre. It's a dense region of the Galaxy where super massive stars reside, their huge mass has made them sink to the centre where a super massive black hole lurks, Sagitarius A*. 
Life must be pretty impossible here, the largest stars have incredibly short life spans, burning through their hydrogen reserves with shocking speed and then exploding into super novas, releasing gases and particles the star fused in it's short time. These gases, with so much collective mass collapse in on themselves and ignite into more stars. All the while, Sagitarius A* is ripping apart stars that get too close to it's core and releases huge jets of Gamma radiation, powerful enough to destroy life millions of light years away...

With all that in mind, why would you make your base of operations here? It would be unlivable, the constant super novas, the ridiculous amounts of radiation and the sheer gravitational forces exerted on space time here alone would make this a deadly place.
In Mass Effect 2, the Galactic centre is cloudy looking place, and does actually seem further from the centre than what one would think but needless to say, going anywhere near the galactic centre is an exciting proposition and whilst I would have liked to have seen a more interesting take on what things would be like so close to all this star and black hole activity, I applaud Bioware's enthusiasm for showing us a place we will never, ever see.

THE SPRAWL, THE MOON TITAN - DEAD SPACE 2

Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons. It is also the only other locale in our solar system that has an atmosphere rich in nitrogen, in fact Titan has a weather system that works very similar to Earth. Titan has regions like Earth also, however, instead of having oceans of water, Titan has oceans of liquid methane that have carved it's rocky structure just as Earth's oceans have done to our own blue little planet.

Interestingly, in the Dead Space lore; Titan was the first place to be "planet cracked" and by the events of Dead Space 2 all that is left of Titan is a final shard, the moon almost wiped out from the existence of space. An amazing and chilling thought, planets and moons refined into nothingness. 

Much of Dead Space 2 takes place on The Sprawl, the colony come refinement chewing up the last of the moon. However, this is all just a front for the Earth Government who've been recreating Markers by mapping Isaac Clarke's brain. Sadly, the facility has been intercepted by the insidious Unitologists that attack the colony, commit mass murders and suicides and all for the aim of feeding the Necromorphs with fresh corpses. 

In the end Isaac Clarke destroys the last remnants of Titan along with the Sprawl and all the Necromorphs on it. All for the best really as all those corpses were being fused into a brethren moon! 

DISHONORABLE MENTION: VENUS - WOLFENSTEIN THE NEW COLOSSUS 

In Wolfenstein The New Colossus, about 80% into the game you're sent on a mission to get some codes for a Nazi airship. The codes are located at a central base on the planet Venus... Freaking Venus.

If you're not too up on your astronomy, let me give you a couple of points of info about Venus: it is the hottest planet in the solar system with a temperature of at least 462 degrees Celsius and that temperature doesn't particularly change from day to night because it's atmosphere is so dense from a runaway greenhouse effect that it acts like a blanket, trapping all the heat it absorbs from the Sun. 

Oh, and this thick atmosphere by the way, it's incredibly dense; about 90 BAR or 1305 Pounds Per Square Inch. You gloss the internet and you'll learn that a measly 100 PSI of pressure is more than able to force air through your skin and into your bloodstream with lethal implications. Imagine trying to build anything in that? The stress to any machine or even human it would be impossible to build any infrastructure.
Lastly, the clouds are made up of sulfuric acid and it even rains acid on a regular basis so why in The New Colossus do I see vulcanised tyres being stored outside the Nazi base? Hmm.

I'm sorry Wolfenstein, you're a fun game with some great story telling but you are taking some huge liberties when it comes to your depiction of Venus. Naughty Wolfenstein!

CONCLUSION

Space is a fantastic place that holds so many secrets and wonders and I'll probably not live long enough to see them. Thankfully I live in an age of cinema and videogames and can vicariously voyage through space, exploring planets and galaxies and that's great.

We're rather short sighted, all this majesty floating above us in all directions, until I started looking into space and astronomy six months ago, I couldn't remember the last time I looked at the sky in wonder. I took it all for granted, we all do. But one day when the last star dies and all that is left is blackholes slowly radiating away, there will be no wonders. Just an emptiness, never to be filled again.

Black Ops 4: Troubling Rumors Ahead

Hello everyone and welcome to the Love of Gaming blog. This weekend, like you may have, I learned some troubling information regarding the state of Black Ops 4's multiplayer. Granted, this is based entirely on leaks, however Charlie Intel corroborates some of the information and their sources are normally reliable. Deciding the fact from the fiction is not something I'm going to bother with but I am worried about Black Ops 4.
When it was announced, I was pretty much hyped from the word go. I fully expected an experience similar to BO3 which you'd think be the case as it was so well received and possibly one of the best Call of Duty multiplayer we've had.

"the tonal shift in multiplayer did not go down well"

Fast forward to today and frankly, the sort of leaks I'm hearing are worrying me. It's sounding like the COD identity is being diluted so that it can imitate other popular shooters; namely Overwatch and PUBG/Fortnite. 
Now, I don't hate or dislike those aforementioned games, I did even fancy playing Overwatch, but honestly I just haven't got the time to get into another multiplayer with a meta-game. As for the whole battle royale craze, I have zero interest in it. It simply doesn't appeal to me and so when I hear Black Ops 4 is supposedly dropping the campaign in favour for a Battle Royale mode, I feel gutted. 

I may be in the minority of COD players that play and finish the campaigns (personally I think more people than not, play the campaigns). But if the absence of a Campaign is true, I'm really disappointed. I think the story mode is an amazing edge-of-your-seat rollercoaster ride, it's the closest I'll get to being in an action movie and Call of Duty is the only game delivering this sort of experience.
And why replace this unique and enthralling experience with a Battle Royale mode? I know this is COD and it has a huge player base, but you're not going to steal the lions share of users from PUBG or Fortnite and like most crazes, the bubble will burst and people will move on. Not saying Battle Royale will die a death, I'm sure it won't, but the mass hype and craze will calm when the next big thing arrives.

"Call of Duty isn't some sinking ship losing money"

Then that leads me to tagged article, talking about Black Ops 4 having more in common with Overwatch than Call of Duty. If this is true, this is ridiculous. End of the day people are buying Call of Duty for the Call of Duty multiplayer experience, if we wanted to play Overwatch, guess what, we would be.
I don't get why Activision appears so obsessed with imitating gaming trends and listening to the most vocal (although incredibly tiny portion) of it's player base, of which normally deride every game that comes out regardless of what Activision do, so why bother catering to them.
People like me buy and routinely log in through the year because we like Call of Duty, it resonates with us, it's the game we want to play. Changing your core mechanics because some other FPS doing it's own thing, it's own way, and is also popular is ridiculous. Call of Duty isn't some sinking ship losing money year on year out that does need to revolutionise itself. WW2 was the best selling game of last year guys, you're doing fine the way you are.

Fortunately, from the reported leak, the tonal shift in multiplayer did not go down well and Treyarch have been making alterations, bringing the experience back to something similar to BO3. But I'm very curious to see what exactly is going to be unveiled in May and with a release date penned for October rather than November, what state will multiplayer be in? 
I think Activision made the wrong choice adding in a third developer to allow annual releases. Personally, I think they should've opted to release a new title every other year. Most people would've been perfectly happy with BO3's multiplayer having ongoing support for another year with a slew of new maps, weapons and even operatives added in. There were hints that they may have been looking in to this with BO3, that received some added content, updates and general maintenance through the life span of Infinite Warfare.

Regardless, we won't know anything for sure until May 17th. I'm anxious what we'll see but Call of Duty, please, please stay Call of Duty. That's what I like to play.

Thanks for reading everyone and hope you have a good week!

Click here to see the original article on Charlie Intel

COD WORLD LEAGUE: Enters New Orleans!

Hello everyone! Hope you've had a great week! The blog has been a little on the quiet side, but that's due to a little project I have in the pipeline. I also finished Okami HD this week and I'm planning on writing a game analysis for it as well. 
But most important is the COD world league kicks off tomorrow at 8:00pm London time! I really enjoyed watching the highlights from the Dallas tournament. I find it spiriting to see the true team tactical play that goes down at these tournaments. I'll be watching tomorrow and seeing how the teams get on. This is the first time I've actually followed any of the CWL tournaments, I normally stick to EVO but I'm quite into CWL now.

Mentioning COD, we're also on the verge of what should be a very big update to the game. Michael Condrey has become quite vocal with the community recently and a good thing too. I'm not sure whether we'll see reductions to sprint out time and health regen, I know the community is begging for it though. 
I think we're more likely to see a health regen buff than a sprint out reduction, believe it or not. WW2 is actually quite a fast paced game, compared to say BO3 (that I replayed recently), and it's due to the small nature of maps, there is a very low time between interactions with other players. It can be quite frenetic. Also, time to kill feels very quick. I haven't done any hand testing, but each skirmish is a very brief event in WW2. But hey, we'll see!

As for the comments on shotguns, I'm not sure about the sawn off shotgun, but the Luftwaffe is actually a bit of a beast. The key is to ADS with it, it's terrible from the hip. Pellet spread is wild. When you ADS, the pellet spread is very tight. It's one shot kill potential isn't quite as great as the combat shotgun, which has received a ridiculous buff! It totally out classes the others. That needs addressing ASAP.

Anywho, hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy yourselves some COD! 

Call Of Duty WW2 Review: Old feels new!

Hello everyone! Well Call of Duty WW2 has been out for a little while and I've already dedicated most of my evenings to it! Poor old Infinite Warfare received huge unwarranted backlash when it was announced, but little did the wider world realise that Activision had already commissioned a return to COD's roots and stopped Sledgehammer creating a sequel to Advance Warfare. Instead putting them in charge of the first COD game to go back to the world war since World At War in 2008! 

"Let's not beat about the bush and get straight in to talking about the multiplayer: it's not fantastic."
  Let's not beat about the bush and get straight in to talking about the multiplayer: it's not fantastic. Not to write the whole affair off, but there a two components that WW2 critically hasn't done well. The first problem is the maps: I don't know what happened in the meeting when they were talking about map design but they were very much mistaken. WW2 continues the trend of three lane maps of small to medium size, but where it goes wrong is pathways. 

Let's remember Black Ops 3, (the best multiplayer since MW2 in my opinion). Three lane, mid-sized maps. Localised spawn locations at either end with some cover, two flanking routes and the larger middle route. Normally the flank routes had one interconnecting pathway into the middle route, otherwise they connect back up near the spawn hubs. 
This meant that the designers had great control of player movement around the map, which means it's easier to place  strategic cover, reduce camping spots, improve spawn logic and give the players a better understanding of the map. 

WW2 however, chooses to have lots of interconnected pathways from the flanks to the central map area. Which in turns makes it much more difficult to predict player movement for the designers and the players. For a designer it means a bit of head scratching where to appropriately put strategic cover and for the player it means a headache when deciding how best to flank the enemy team and where to expect another player may approach from. 

The issue is further compounded by the fact that aesthetics have taken some precedent in the maps this time, so yes they look more prettier but it's just stuff that gets in the way of sight lines and movement. There are pointless bits of cover littering some of the maps and makes them feel a bit maze like. 
I'm not sure at all why they decided to do things this way, I don't remember anyone complaining of not having enough pathways? Sure, not everyone likes mid-sized three lane maps but WW2's maps are just a headache.

When I played BO3's multiplayer, I was able to predict enemy movements around the maps without using the minimap. The maps were that well designed you could get into a flow, but I can't in WW2. There are two many pathways to look down if you're rushing and it feels like you're flipping a coin as to which route an enemy player may come down. Unless you've got a recon plane or something going on, it's very difficult to predict player movements.

 "yes, quick scoping is still here."

The next critical flaw is weapon balancing, it's pretty bad here. LMGs are a waste of your time for instance. The movement penalty, general low magazine count, recoil and long reload times makes them pale in comparison to anything else. Rifles have a far better damage profile, quicker fire rate and quicker reload times. Their clip sizes are also pretty modest. Apart from some specific occasions there's just no reason to choose an LMG over an assault rifle.

Sniping is pretty beastly this time around and yes, quick scoping is still here. Anyone using the Mountain division (more on them later) gets aim assist when aiming down sights, and the assist is pretty strong. Far more than any COD I've played since MW2. The result of this is most lobbies have multiple snipers using the one shot kill Enfield, either amazingly or pathetically. Obviously one of the issues with having sniper rifles so effective is that in the right hands it's a laser beam of death at all ranges. Some snipers can outgun shotgun users, as the sniper rounds have no damage drop off range where the shotguns can have pretty strict ranges.

Strangely, only the SMG's get silencers this time, but playing covertly isn't as big a deal this time around partly due to the map design as I said before predicting player movements is a lot trickier now. Their damage profiles are also pretty strict and there doesn't seem to be a big movement bonus over the rifles and so for a better damage profile most people go with a rifle. 

Lastly shotguns get beefed up like they did in BO3, and so in the right hands they can be pretty devastating. But the rate of fire for them is pretty poor, so if you fail to nail that one shot kill you're just sitting duck even in close range. 

"the pick 10 system is gone!"

I mentioned the Mountain division earlier, that's because the pick 10 system is gone! Instead you choose between five divisions that are designed around each of the weapon categories. You can level the divisions for additional perks, so for instance in the expeditionary division, if you equip a shotgun as your main weapon you can load incendiary shells into it. But only if you run shotgun as your main weapon, you don't get this ability if you main any other category of gun.

The perks you obtain as you level a division are the main rewards and do apply to any other weapon you equip as a main. For instance in the expeditionary division, as you rank up you can equip a tactical and lethal grenade at once, next rank you throw further and while sprinting and finally at the last rank you can resupply grenades off dead bodies. So the divisions are quite potent and choosing the right one for your playstyle is important. It is wise you evenly rank them up as depending on the game mode a division can help you succeed. It's also clever to mix a division with a different weapon category. Mountaineer division get stealth perks which are perfect for a rush class rather than a sniper.

Maxing out a division nets you a new weapon in it's respective weapon category and then prestiging a division rewards you with a basic training skill which are basically a perk. 
There are lots of basic training skills, over twenty. They're a mixed bag of useless, half useful and useful perks. I think they really could've chopped these down or allowed us to pick at least two at once, but only choosing one out of twenty just means only the crutch trainings get chosen. There's not a whole lot to sing about the basic training perks as most of them are perks from previous games.

I like the divisions, they're a good idea. Not wholly implemented well though as some of the skills are pointless. Like a bipod for an LMG. Reduced recoil and faster reload rate, what's so bad about that? Well you cannot move, they keep the damage profile and every map already has minigun emplacements which have a better damage profile, faster fire rate and also infinite ammo! 
I could go on nit picking all the strange design decisions in the multiplayer but then this article will go one for ages!

"War's maps are amazing!"

Now I want to be positive, and to be honest this is a big positive, so big I wish this mode had more maps and was the main part of the multiplayer experience and I'm talking about the War mode.

Those maps that I mentioned aren't good? Well War's maps are amazing! The maps are designed around attack and defend and the attackers are always positioned at a disadvantage, but it works!
So, to give you an idea of how the War mode works and how the maps flow let me tell you about Operation Neptune, a Omaha beach themed level. 

Allies start on the beaches and have to charge up to Axis lines and plant charges to get access to the cliffside. 
The Axis get to stay in the bunkers atop of the cliffs and using minigun emplacements they get to tear up the beach. 
To help the Allies there are NPC soldiers running around keeping Axis players preoccupied. 
Once the Allies breach the shoreline they can build ladders to scale the cliff and/or breach the lower bunker and gain access to a trench that leads up into the bunkers for additional flank routes. All the while the Axis players will be rebuilding any defenses and patrolling the trenches around the bunkers. 
All the allies have to do now is sit in the bunkers to capture them like a domination flag. If the allies accomplish this then the Axis are forced to retreat to bunkers further up the hill. 
In this stage of the battle the Axis have to defend radio equipment in a large bunker, and the allies have to breach the bunker and destroy the equipment. Sound simple but this bunker is easily defensible. However if the Allies destroy the radio equipment then the final phase of the mission is initiated.
Again the Axis have to retreat before the timer counts down and mortar fire commences. This last stand is at two flak cannons that the allied players must destroy by planting three bombs on each cannon and the Axis naturally have to prevent them. This last push is the hardest section of the map, once one cannon is destroyed a tank arrives to help the Axis troops and it becomes much more frantic.


The Axis players can win by halting the allies within the time limit and naturally the attacking side has the greater obstacles to overcome, but the imbalance in the maps is what makes this mode so interesting and makes the maps so playable. No more spider web pathways! These maps have such focus that they're design is just sublime and they're a real joy to play. There are only three maps currently, but I really do hope they put out more than one war map per map pack, because War is the saving grace of WW2's multiplayer. 
I wish more shooter games included modes like this, it sort of takes me back to playing counter-strike, having the attack and defend dynamic.
The worst thing to say about War mode is it's very frustrating when your team don't use tactical grenades like the smokes when it comes to completing objectives and grenade spam is very present and it takes a long time to rank up the Armoured division for it's flak jacket buff.

Now I do understand the hardship in designing maps that must be suitable for team deathmatch, domination, hardpoint, search and destroy and capture the flag is pretty immense and it's no wonder that they get it wrong from time to time. Ultimately, something has to give so that all those game types can function in that map space. Because the War maps only have to accommodate one game mode they get to be refined and well balanced, WW2 really shows the weakness of having multipurpose maps.

"I found the Final Reich mission was really newbie friendly"


Nazi zombies returns again, (I guess this is now the official co-op COD mode) and I was pretty surprised by it to be honest. Infinite Warfare's spin on the mode was enjoyable and was easier to get in to for newcomers (traditionally this mode is tough as nails) and WW2 follows suit. You can play a little prologue that explains the basics as each iteration has some tweaks to the formula but I found the Final Reich mission was really newbie friendly and unlike previous games where each "easter egg" was so vague and long winded to activate, you can actually do a fair few of the objectives in the Final Reich without reading an FAQ.

One thing that does really help is you get a lot more points from zombies this time around and the cost of weapons and stat bonuses isn't extortionate. You can also choose a class which affords some passive bonuses and an ability that you can charge up before activating which add to your arsenal and are a welcome addition.
If you like COD zombies you'll be happy here as there is plenty to get your teeth into and it never gets old watching your character remove a zombies head with a shovel.

"I don't get how people can say COD games don't look good!"

Finally the campaign, I was unsure what to expect going in. The European theatre has been done to death in games and movies so was unsure how engaging WW2's campaign would be but I've got to say I was really impressed. 
It looks gorgeous, that's the first thing that hit me. The character models, the environments and set pieces it's all wow, wow. I don't get how people can say COD games don't look good! They must have vaseline on their glasses or something, I mean it isn't going to have the fidelity of Battlefield but then COD runs at 60 FPS instead of 30.
And the sounds, the guns have a real grunt to them. They sound powerful, the noises really pop in your ears and the sounds of explosions all around is an audio treat. WW2 grabs your senses and throttles them, never letting go. 

It plays as good as it looks and sounds, too. The Nazi AI on the normal difficulty is engaging, the level design is very good and you never spend too long doing the same thing. There's some great pacing here and I like that you don't always shoot your way out of a situation. Nazi's can be forced to flee or even surrender! It just keeps things fresh and interesting and adds humility to the game. 
The campaign also sports a very interesting level called Liberation where the player infilitrates a Nazi garrison in Paris and you have to find your Nazi contact whose helping you bring down the garrison and liberate Paris. It's a really clever level and I won't go into too many details and spoil it for you. It's not quite as perfect as All Ghillied Up but it's certainly pushed the bar when it comes to interesting COD levels.


The story is nothing to write home about, you do get involved in some historical battles including The Battle of the Bulge which was a highlight for me. The characters are one dimensional and the dialogue is cheesy, it's like a 90's movie full of macho bravado. The story tries to go somewhere dark but ultimately COD knows it's not the platform for such things and nips things up very quickly. 

WW2 changes the health system that's been in use for so long now and brings back a health bar and health packs. Your life does not recharge at all! You do have a teammate that will give you a free health pack after you kill enough Nazis but I never found myself too often bereft of health packs. (You can hold up to four). But I have to admit I prefer the old recharging life bar, in a COD campaign it's an interactive movie and it seems odd to have to concern yourself with this one bit of resource management.
All your allies actually have abilities that charge as you fight, one can highlight enemies for a while, another will resupply your grenades. But I was generally only fussed with the health packs as ammo is plentiful regardless.

Expect the campaign to last around six to seven hours, add a few more if playing Veteran and you could easily hit around twenty hours if you're a trophy hunter or completionist as there's quite a few hidden collectibles. So hidden I maybe found two of a possible thirty three!


Overall, WW2 is a good package but your mileage will definetly vary depending on how well you get on with the multiplayer maps and if you like the War mode.
I personally will be bingeing on War mode, well at least until I start playing Battlefront 2 but don't let my Star Wars bias dissuade you. There is fun to be had here but those maps are definitely going to be crux of whether you'll keep this game or move on. Stick to War mode, you won't regret it.

Hope you enjoyed the review and if you did, then please give a +1 and follow the blog. Have a great week everybody!