MEMBER BLOG

My sickening Black Ops 2 experience
Posted on Monday, November 19 2012 @ 16:19:52 Eastern


Every year I always greatly anticipate the next Call of Duty release, and this year was no different. I had my PS3 standard edition pre-ordered and went to my local GameStop for the midnght release. I was pumped! I've always been a huge shooter fan, and I love the fast, silky smooth gameplay that Call of Duty multiplayer brings.

The transaction at GameStop went smooth, which sadly has been the only part of the experience that wasn't a headache. Of course the part where they take your money goes smooth... Anyways, I get home and that's when the downward spiral begins. Freezing, matchmaking issues, hardlocking which resulted in data corruption on my harddrive, and the list continues on. This was release night though, AND the PS3 version (which almost always is terrible) so I wrote it off as release day issues.

The next day got worse... during initial bootup of Black Ops 2 the game would immediately hardlock my system. I scoured the internet trying to figure out a fix, doing absolutely everything I could. I would end up getting 12 more hardlocks in a row before I gave up that day. A day I couldn't play a single second of Black Ops 2.

The next day would end up being a living hell for a Call of Duty fan. The Black Ops 2 team released patch 1.03 and claimed that all is fixed in the world of Black Ops. The team then took the next few days off work to celebrate making over $500 million dollars in a single day. However, myself and thousands of other have gotten the "22.0.-1" server error which means you can't connect to any Black Ops 2 online services whatsoever. No multiplayer, no zombies.

So here I am, I can't connect to the Black Ops 2 servers. Before the Black Ops 2 team goes on vacation they announce that this weekend is Double XP for pre-ordered players. I pre-ordered the game, yet since they wanted time off, I ended up missing the entire weekend of Double XP, something I paid for when I pre-ordered the game.

Once the weekend was over, on Monday David Vonderhaar, the lead game designer at Treyarch, stated that the 24/7 Nuketown 2025 pre-order DLC content was being removed. Playing nonstop Nuketown 2025 was a major selling point of Black Ops 2, and having that content removed where thousands upon thousands of users were never even able to access it once is pathetic.

The great David Vonderhaar then goes on to state "I'm really enjoying Multi-Team Hardpoint right now. 3 on 3 on 3. Slows down the pace a little bit, keeps it tactical, rewards patience." Really? You are that much of a disconnected ******* that you are going to post this while thousands of your loyal customers have been unable to play at all, and have been completely ignored by you for almost a week now?

By this point, the Black Ops 2 forums have been completely blown up by angry users who have not, even to this day, been able to play the game a single time. Activision Support has been telling the user that the problem is on the user's end. The user needs to fix their router, or ensure they downloaded the patch, or ensure that their console has power. Basically, Activision has completely placed all of the fault on the user and claimed their servers are working perfect. However, dozens of hardware nerds and networking majors have posted proof numerous times that it is not the user's fault, and that the Black Ops 2 servers are broken or glitched. Pictures have been posted, showing two PlayStation 3s playing Black Ops 2 on the same router, with one PS3 connected and the other PS3 recieving the 22.0.-1 network glitch. Activision has continually denied any wrongdoing and is steadfastly sticking to their claim that it is the user's fault and their problem to fix.

I haven't been able to play Black Ops 2 for 5 days now, and apparently it is my problem. The forums are still blowing up this very minute, and Activision/Treyarch have stated nothing except that they are "really enjoying" their game. They now know that they no longer need to release a working product to rake in piles of cash. What precedent is this setting? I am pretty pissed off and am sorry for posting such a long BLOG, but I just had to let you all know the plight that myself, and thousands of other gamers, are currently in. Black Ops 2 on PS3 is the worst console experience I have ever had in my life.

The opinions expressed here does not necessarily reflect the views of Game Revolution, but we believe it's worthy of being featured on our site. This article has been lightly edited for grammar and image inclusion. It has been submitted for our monthly Vox Pop competition. ~Ed. Nick