After months of sitting on three fragger ribbons I got two in one evening playing new game mode Escalation. In a close game I just kept throwing grenades in objective D ran back a bit to resupply and ran back in and threw more grenades. With a few multi-kill grenades mixed in it wasn't too difficult after all. I then played a game of Domination for the ten minute longer match length to be certain I get 25 machine gun kills for my fifth machine gun ribbon and the trophy.
The next night I played a few matches and focused on the assault rifle to get just two more assault ribbons needed for the trophy. The assault rifle is a great overall weapon I neglected for a while to use the faster shooting sub-machine gun.
I now only have two trophies remaining for the platinum. Headhunter trophy which I only need 300 more sniper kills for the medal and trophy. The eager beaver trophy which is to get at least 58 medals, I have 53 currently. I will keep you posted on my progress as usual.
Now that I have played through and beat the campaign portion I can give a better opinion on the game. It is spectacular to say the very least. For a military themed game like this it is very enjoyable to play through all the missions. The missions are very varied offering many unique ways to play every mission besides the straight up run to the next checkpoint approach. The soundtrack is amazingly engaging and really fits in well pulling you further in than you already are. Treyarch is so much better than Infinity Ward at creating a more gripping campaign as evidenced here and previously World at War. The only flaw is one can play through the game in a day as it only really involves about seven hours to complete on normal difficulty. There is some replayabilty built in with trying to obtain all trophies in a second veteran difficulty playthrough. Multiplayer aside, this game is worth the purchase, the multiplayer only makes it that much more of an amazing package.
At this time I am reviewing the multiplayer portion of Black Ops, however I will review the single player campaign soon (as soon as I beat it.)
Black Ops is the biggest selling game of the year and it delivers. The big thing about multiplayer in this Call of Duty is variety. There is so much to do in the multiplayer side it is almost overwhelming. In World at War the Zombies co-op was the highlight for most players pretty much outshining the competitive multiplayer. In Black Ops it is every bit as impressive only this time the multiplayer can hold its own.
The competitive multiplayer games are even more deep than ever offering more of everything and improving on what Modern Warfare 2 did wrong. Killstreak rewards have been toned down but not to the point of uselessness. Ranking up and unlocking newer weapons is still the goal for many and this game has weapons and attachments that one can spend almost as much time menu surfing than actually playing. Perks are more balanced and don't modify the game not nearly as much as in Modern Warfare 2. Stat tracking is massive showing everything you do in-game with detail down to the gun and where you are hitting your targets; and you see these same stats of your friends and even recent players.
Wager matches are the new modes here offering a good diversion from the other multiplayer mayhem. It is a fun way to see who the quickest draw with a pistol is or who is the most skilled with every weapon.
Here's an example of a wager match "one in the chamber"):
A training mode with AI bots for you to practice or test out weapons is also added. It even generates player names from your own friend list to name the bots which is a fun addition. Black Ops also records every multiplayer game (from the past week) for you to watch later from different angles or player's perspective. Although a direct save ability to the PS3's hard drive would have been nice but this could potentially be added later perhaps. This is the best Call of Duty games since the fourth installment. Be sure to check back later for my review of the single player campaign.
