Call of Duty Black Ops, the game has sold so many units it's not even funny any more. The game got so much critical acclaim it was ridiculous but the fact of the matter is the game was really a pile of crap.

Modern Warfare 2 was often criticized for an unbelievable storyline involving the detonation of nuclear missiles over US soil, the invasion of America, the massacre of civilians at a Russian airport leading to this invasion and the whole damn thing being pinned on the USA because of an undercover CIA agent gets caught. Ok so that was pretty stupid at times but Black Ops takes the piss completely:

A single special forces soldier is somehow captured in Cuba in the 50s he then manages to break free of the russian prison camp he's put in at some point in the 60s. By the 70s he's fighting in 'Nam Then in the 80s? He saves America from chemical weapons and his own brainwashed self in what can only be called the most "Team America" statement possible in such a game. Aside from the fact that even if he was 17 and somehow in the special forces during Cuba (a fact that is unlikely, the average special forces soldier is in their 30s if not their 40s) if we say that the games story ended up in 85 and the game story started in 56 he would be around 46 come the end of the game, it's a story spanning 29 years. If he was like most special forces soldiers actually around 30 in the first game he's bordering on 60 before the end. Even better his nemesis in the game is around 40 when he encounters him in Castro's Cuba in the 50s he'll be about 70 - 80 when the game draws to it's inevitable conclusion. Now I don't see a bunch of geriatrics managing to do all the things they do in this game.

Then I can criticize the weapons. Ok so Treyarch wanted to include weapons we were familiar with and yet have some authenticity, I applauded the inclusion of the AK74u, I applauded the inclusion of the M-16 these are all time specific and are great guns but when we look to the FAMAS rifle that gun as far as I am aware did not get made until 2001 15 - 20 years after the ending of the game. Whoops Treyarch put a gun in the game set 20 years prior to it's invention and well not only that where in Modern Warfare 2 the FAMAS was a 3 round burst gun famous for it's precision in Black Ops the gun is a fully automatic gun which can chew through it's entire stock of ammo in around 4 seconds of sustained fire (this includes a sleight of hand reload)

Then we get to the controls, Modern Warfare had some dumb moments, lets not even go there but Black Ops has had worse the controls somehow for a game built on the same engine as some of the Modern Warfare games feels loose it feels like Julian's mom after I've been going at it for an hour so if you've ever experienced those sloppy seconds then you know what to expect. I didn't expect the controls to feel lose after such a tightly tuned game in MW2.

Multiplayer, well lets see I have never believed either COD developer to make a particularly good multiplayer function. MW2 was kinda fun in how it rewarded you for progression with new weapons and rewarded you for using pieces of equipment on them with improved or new equipment, want a thermal scope? Earn it, get 60 kills through the ACOG first show us how bad you want it. Black Ops went for the "we're gonna unlock guns based on your level but you get to buy it with money you earned just leveling up and doing contracts of which you can do 3 at once and most are piss easy" So really there was little need to rank up and once you unlocked the AK74u (a mid range smg) you never really needed another SMG. The AK74u fires like an assault rifle, put a grip on it to curb the recoil and you can literally run through the multiplayer just using this weapon. I've got around 11000 COD cash because buying new weapons is pretty pointless unless I want the commando assault rifle. I think that the progression and "armoury" of the Black Ops game was ill thought out the fact that it takes nothing to choose what attachments to take for a gun save "do I have enough COD points yet?" means I have little incentive to buy a bigger gun when my current gun is possibly the best one in the entire game (wanna see how broken it is? When playing a MP team death match game type, check just how many of the people when they die drop one of 3 guns: Famas, Commando or the AK74u pretty much 90% of people use these 3 guns). Moving on from the progression system we come to a major flaw in the game the hit boxes on opponents. Sure we don't complain when the hit box allows us to be shooting someone and killing them without actually hitting them, especially if it's our game winning kill but seriously? The hit boxes are about 5ft square when your person is 2ft square. Then there's the considerable lack of skill it takes to get kills. I'm not kidding you Halo requires so much skill compared to the Call of Duty series. The rhythm needed to place DMR shots perfectly for a 5 bullet kill for example, difficult to master, easy to learn. Call of Duty hasn't got that it's just a case of who has the bigger gun or the drop. Likewise I have seen videos and been in frays in Halo, especially on Halo Reach where 2 people or more have gone after someone alone and the lone spartan/elite comes out on top against them through sheer skill and a little luck. In Call of Duty if 2 enemies see you and you see 2 enemies, you die no matter what. Sometimes you'll kill one of them if you're lucky but whatever you try unless you've got a grenade launcher a bit of space and a lot of smurfing luck you're dead. Simples. Kill streak rewards are another gripe theres very little bonus to a death streak reward, maybe you'll drop a grenade on death but then the grenade will blow up harmlessly behind someone unless they stood around to bag (great tea bag prevention there) which would have been pointless since kill cam prevents them from seeing you desecrating their bodies. However get 3 kills and you get the chance to know constantly for a limited time just where the enemies are, get 5 kills and the game gives a crate which can randomly give you: ammo or ANY kill streak reward possible in the game in MW2 this included nukes lol. 9 kills and suddenly you find yourself gunning down opponents with a Vulcan cannon from the side of a huey over the battlefield, the huey is far more effective at dodging the RPG shots than a Cobra or Apache above the battlefield. 15 kill streak and they give you a pack of dogs, the dogs are independent and run amok killing enemies until they're dead or they're tired. I've seen games end because someone got dogs whilst his teammate worked on getting a huey or got one from a dropped crate at the same time. Spawn - killed by chopper, spawn inside - killed by dog or by chopper shooting through wall depending on the level. The game actively supports and encourages a one sided crushing defeat instead of a close game that both teams can actively enjoy.

Over all I think Black Ops in particular though the Call of Duty franchise completely is overrated by most modern gamers on the PS3 it could well be one of the best if only FPS games you play mostly because if you don't happen to like Killzone there isn't much of a good choice out there on there, (though I would suggest Battlefield or even Home Front as an alternative) On the 360 however to be playing Call of Duty and claiming it's far superior to Halo when Bungie have time and time again proven to make masterful multi player game experiences is sheer madness, Call of Duty Black Ops takes no skill, is very little fun if you're on the losing side of it and storyline wise somehow manages to be tier than Halo Reach to boot.

Is Call of Duty Black Ops a good game? It's legion of fans and the critics seem to think so. Do I like it? I sat there with Quin playing last night and all night all both of us could say was "this is so , why are we playing this crap? I don't know why we're doing this..."