COD: Black Ops DLC :/

[Mr Buckshot]

A few months back, I bought Black Ops on a discount at Direct2Drive, for $45 (as cheap as any Activision game's going to get in such a short time after release).

While I avoided MW2 (simply borrowed the console version for the single player, then returned it and never touched it again), I decided to give Black Ops a chance because of 2 things Treyarch promised - Dedicated Servers, and mod tools. Now I'm no modder myself sadly, but I always like mod tools because I'm the kind of player who gets tired of the stock maps after a while and then decides to check out the community's creativity. Did this a LOT in COD4 and had great memories. So far Black Ops has been quite fun - the unlocking system is a big improvement and the dedicated servers aren't laggy. But the 18 player cap is annoying, and the lack of proper integration with Steam (you can't right click on a friend's name and join his game from the friends list) is mind boggling considering how the game forces Steam on you.

Now, it's been almost half a year since Black Ops released, and still no mod tools. I was going to give Treyarch the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to delays, bug fixing, etc, until I got THIS in my email inbox just now:

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2349/90959549.th.jpg (http://img826.imageshack.us/i/90959549.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

Anyone else pissed? I mean, I wasn't this pissed about IW axing dedi servers in MW2 since I couldn't find any concrete proof that they'd actually promised the dedi servers (can't say I wasn't expecting the dedi servers though). But Treyarch did promise mod tools (http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/23/confirmed-call-of-duty-black-ops-will-have-mod-tools/). It seems like they thought "ZOMG COMMUNITY WILL STEAL POTENTIAL PROFITS PAID DLC FTW" and decided to go the console route again.

What's sad is that enough fanboys will still fork out $15 for a bunch of maps that any of the skilled Modacity members could make in a heartbeat for free, thus allowing Activision to continue with this. I don't dispute that Activision has the right to run their business whatever way they want. If they want to charge $100 per level of the game, they have every right to. But I just can't stand it when the community whines about it, then pays for it anyway to contradict their point. Ugh.

Looks like about 7.7 GB of hard drive space is going to be freed.

[Warsaw]

Back to Battlefield...

[Mr Buckshot]

Back to Battlefield...

Same here, at least BC2 has free DLC and more importantly, no broken promises, even if they lack mod tools as well.

[hobojoe]

Black Ops dosent even run right still. i7 + GTX480 you would think be ok, nope.
Broken from release and had 15,000 patches thrown at it that only made it worse.

[Donut]

15 dollars for a map pack is fucking insane. i dont know what sadist came up with that marketing ploy, but im sad to say i know the fools who will gladly pay 15 bucks for it.

and before anyone gets all upset like "BUT I WANNA PLAY WITH MY FRIENDS", i understand that, but you might consider telling your friends what a fucking robbery 15 bucks for this is.

[TeeKup]

I payed 2$ for black ops. I didn't pay shit for the map pack. The map pack was good however, I actually really enjoyed Berlin Wall (despite all the players I run into saying they hate it, dunno why.) and Discovery, Kowloon is the only map I can enjoy CTF on.

Stadium is good too. I abuse that map hard with dual skorpions.

[Amit]

LOL teek. This thread intended for bashing Blops, not saying how fun it is.

[sleepy1212]

Too bad. I think those 4 maps are the best ones in the whole set.

[Amit]

Too bad. I think those 4 maps are the best ones in the whole set.

If the maps are decent and people like them, CHARGE AWAY ACTIVISION! :ugh:

[Mr Buckshot]

15 dollars for a map pack is fucking insane. i dont know what sadist came up with that marketing ploy, but im sad to say i know the fools who will gladly pay 15 bucks for it.

and before anyone gets all upset like "BUT I WANNA PLAY WITH MY FRIENDS", i understand that, but you might consider telling your friends what a fucking robbery 15 bucks for this is.

I don't really care how much they charge for it (I don't buy DLC period unless they're proper expansions, i.e. HL2 episodes or BC2 Vietnam), but they've blatantly broken their promise to release modding tools for PC. I wonder if they were afraid that the first thing modders would do is recreate the First Strike maps and upload them for free? (as if people who are into modding in the first place are that unoriginal). If they had not clearly promised modding tools during previews, I wouldn't mind so much.

[Pooky]

Blackops sucks, don't know why anyone would pay for maps for it.

Just my two cents.

[Donut]

dont think i forgot that about the modding tools buckshot. i was just venting about 15 dollar dlc just for maps. after the disaster that was mw2 pc, the news that they went back on their promise for modding tools kind of didnt phase me too much.

im annoyed at DLC in general. i can get fable 1 (idk if its lost chapters) for 1200 ms points. i can get 4J's TOTALLY revamped port of pefect dark for 800 mspoints, which is an ENTIRE GAME with more single player gametime than most first person shooters i pay 60 dollars for. YET 5 maps for a game that still hasnt dropped its 60 dollar price tag is 1200 ms points, aka 15 bucks. look at bioshock 1's dlc. the plasmid pack, while not offering too much, was free. its kind of like the company saying "hey consumer, thanks for being a consumer. heres some new toys, no charge. enjoy". little things like that are great, and more companies should do it. big stuff like single player additions (re: NOT LIKE HOMEFRONT) are ok to charge for imo.

i think this is a good example of what im saying here: mostly everyone knows about bioshock 2's multiplayer dlc. its bullshit, but we know about it. i was recently surprised to find out bioshock 2 has some console exclusive DLC single player stuff as well. its actually a whole stand-alone minicampaign called "Minerva's Den". its normally 800 ms points, but i picked it up for 400 on a sale. its not too long, but it still has that excellent bioshock story telling, new and developed characters, new weapons, new plasmids, new enemies, and new areas. THAT is worth 10 bucks imo.
Now lets look at multiplayer. i believe its the metro pack that gives you a 3rd attachment to choose from for each weapon that you have from the moment you unlock the gun. that, too, costs 800 ms points, or 10 bucks. thats 10 bucks for a full-fledged stand alone campaign vs. 10 bucks for some MINIMAL model work and loadout stuff in multiplayer. Heres some more bullshit: YOU can use this shit online against people who DONT have the dlc. its literally paying 10 bucks to give yourself an unfair advantage. the second dlc, also 800 ms points, added 2 gene tonic that let you drop a grenade when you die (where have we seen that before), and the other one lets you fucking COME BACK TO LIFE after you die. its ridiculous. thats 20 bucks for a ridiculously minimal amount of work. if i could make 10 bucks a pop for that amount of work, id be so fucking rich its not even funny. not to mention half the shit was on the disk to begin with, and the 10 bucks was just to download a code to unlock it. its so bullshit. that shit should have been available from the start, and the resurrection/martyrdom pack should have been free too because there was almost no work involved in making it.

i could go on for a lot longer (fable 3, damnit), but im sure youre all sick of it already. i know, its a big wall of text, but iv been wanting to bitch about this for a while. you gave me a good opportunity.

E: oh yeah, lets see some more sales too. fuck, id buy so much more DLC if there were more sales.

[Mr Buckshot]

dont think i forgot that about the modding tools buckshot. i was just venting about 15 dollar dlc just for maps. after the disaster that was mw2 pc, the news that they went back on their promise for modding tools kind of didnt phase me too much.

im annoyed at DLC in general. i can get fable 1 (idk if its lost chapters) for 1200 ms points. i can get 4J's TOTALLY revamped port of pefect dark for 800 mspoints, which is an ENTIRE GAME with more single player gametime than most first person shooters i pay 60 dollars for. YET 5 maps for a game that still hasnt dropped its 60 dollar price tag is 1200 ms points, aka 15 bucks. look at bioshock 1's dlc. the plasmid pack, while not offering too much, was free. its kind of like the company saying "hey consumer, thanks for being a consumer. heres some new toys, no charge. enjoy". little things like that are great, and more companies should do it. big stuff like single player additions (re: NOT LIKE HOMEFRONT) are ok to charge for imo.

i think this is a good example of what im saying here: mostly everyone knows about bioshock 2's multiplayer dlc. its bullshit, but we know about it. i was recently surprised to find out bioshock 2 has some console exclusive DLC single player stuff as well. its actually a whole stand-alone minicampaign called "Minerva's Den". its normally 800 ms points, but i picked it up for 400 on a sale. its not too long, but it still has that excellent bioshock story telling, new and developed characters, new weapons, new plasmids, new enemies, and new areas. THAT is worth 10 bucks imo.
Now lets look at multiplayer. i believe its the metro pack that gives you a 3rd attachment to choose from for each weapon that you have from the moment you unlock the gun. that, too, costs 800 ms points, or 10 bucks. thats 10 bucks for a full-fledged stand alone campaign vs. 10 bucks for some MINIMAL model work and loadout stuff in multiplayer. Heres some more bullshit: YOU can use this shit online against people who DONT have the dlc. its literally paying 10 bucks to give yourself an unfair advantage. the second dlc, also 800 ms points, added 2 gene tonic that let you drop a grenade when you die (where have we seen that before), and the other one lets you fucking COME BACK TO LIFE after you die. its ridiculous. thats 20 bucks for a ridiculously minimal amount of work. if i could make 10 bucks a pop for that amount of work, id be so fucking rich its not even funny. not to mention half the shit was on the disk to begin with, and the 10 bucks was just to download a code to unlock it. its so bullshit. that shit should have been available from the start, and the resurrection/martyrdom pack should have been free too because there was almost no work involved in making it.

i could go on for a lot longer (fable 3, damnit), but im sure youre all sick of it already. i know, its a big wall of text, but iv been wanting to bitch about this for a while. you gave me a good opportunity.

E: oh yeah, lets see some more sales too. fuck, id buy so much more DLC if there were more sales.

LOL, that reminds me, you should check out BC2's paid DLC on PC and console. Well it's not really DLC since new maps are made free for PC owners and console owners who got the game brand new, but you can pay real money and unlock all the later guns in each class without actually having to level up. So while one guy may have sunk 30 hours into the game to unlock his M416 assault rifle, someone with $$$ to burn just buys the M416 (and any further unlocks) with real world money!

Paid DLC that does nothing more than unlock what's already there has got to be the most shameless DLC imo.

[Donut]

its kind of cheap, but at least everyone is more or less on the playing field in that regard. im not sure if you were comparing it to bioshock 2's mp dlc, but the dlc for that game is actually content that you CAN NOT access AT ALL unless you buy the dlc.

but yeah if anyone can get it, and people just pay money to unlock it earlier than others, i dont see a tremendous issue there. its a money grab, sure, but at least its not for shit you wont get any other way.

[Amit]

LOL, that reminds me, you should check out BC2's paid DLC on PC and console. Well it's not really DLC since new maps are made free for PC owners and console owners who got the game brand new, but you can pay real money and unlock all the later guns in each class without actually having to level up. So while one guy may have sunk 30 hours into the game to unlock his M416 assault rifle, someone with $$$ to burn just buys the M416 (and any further unlocks) with real world money!

Paid DLC that does nothing more than unlock what's already there has got to be the most shameless DLC imo.

Yeah. But it's the M16, not the M416. M16 rapes everything.

[Dwood]

*Never bought DLC* also, we should have seen this coming when we saw what was going on in China. They've made b/m/illions off games fueled 100% by dlc.

[Phobias]

Too bad. I think those 4 maps are the best ones in the whole set.

Depending on how pessimistic you are you could say they did this on purpose.

[Donut]

i was thinking that too, but thats just because i have a huge bias against activision and cod now.

[Mr Buckshot]

Two days since the First Strike was released, and Treyarch/Activision hasn't admitted they lied about mod tools.

Some people on other forums are still getting hopeful because of no official word, but I honestly doubt it, it would "eat into DLC profits".

[sleepy1212]

Depending on how pessimistic you are you could say they did this on purpose.
or they just got a better feel for how their game is running...but sadly, probably on purpose. either way it's still campaign-copypasta.

[Mr Buckshot]

BUMP.

https://twitter.com/pcdev/status/58300444358881280

Could there be hope after all?

[Warsaw]

Mayhaps. Pray for them to be good mod tools, not H2V-like mod tools.

[Amit]

The guys at Bash and Slash or gonna go crazy for this. If it's true. pcdev is definitely the better of the two guys Treyarch has talking to the community so there's a bit more hope for the mod tools now than if JD posted this.

[Mr Buckshot]

Bump.

For those who own BO and logged into Steam today, there is an auto patch that says "adding mod support to prepare for upcoming mod tools release."

There is hope people!

But I'm still puzzled, why the hell did they bother to release two entire DLC packs then? I hope the mod tools at the very least have level geometry editing (which is basically what the DLC is made of). It's sad that standards have fallen so low that I'm happy just to have H2V-level of modding available in my games now.

[Amit]

Puzzled, you say?

MW3 thread:


I noticed this about an hour or so ago, as well. "In preparation." They are dragging this WAY too far out now. Notice how it was the first thing on the note list? They just want the PC crowd to hold onto some hope of still getting hold of the tools. They are trying their hardest to milk every last penny out of BO before MW3 in November and it really shows. This is just disgusting. I don't see how gaming journalists can dismiss their contempt of PC users. They go out of their way to piss off real CoD fans.