Today will be remembered forever in the gaming community, what is sure to be one of the worlds most successful franchises released the latest iteration. Call Of Duty: Black Ops was released throughout the world and it is predicted to eclipse all previous records for sales.
I wasn’t at my local video game store for Call Of Duty, much the opposite, I was even trading in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare in the hope that the Wii was still a major player in the console wars.
I’d recently purchased an Xbox just to play FIFA 11 because I was sick of Nintendo being handed childish efforts in terms of graphics and gameplay. There is a large adult Wii ownership as well!So, alot rested in Goldeneye. Could this put the Wii back on the map, could we finally forgive Nintendo for giving up their Rare exclusivity deal over 10 years ago to Microsoft?The first thing that strikes you as you insert the disc is that, as can be expected, the graphics are no where near as sharp as it’s rivals. Nintendo will surely have to build in HD support for it’s next machine.
But, after a few minutes you get used to the quality of the graphics and let the gameplay shine through. Gameplay is what Nintendo prides itself on. Who cares about the graphics of Tetris, the gameplay sucked you in. It’s the same here.Before you know it, you’re infiltrating the facility at the bottom of the dam. A lot of the layouts look similar but when you get deeper into the game it has been drastically reworked.The levels are intense, even on the easier setting and they take far longer to complete than they did back in ’97.
I’ve only completed the first few levels at present because the main focus of this game is, and has always been, the multiplayer mode. After some brief training, I was off.Multiplayer, online, choose my weapons, vote for the arena, 2 seconds later I was dead. The game had only been out a few hours and already there were professional marksmen roaming around the levels.The action is rapid and it looks like there is so much depth, even in a multiplayer mode. There are even some game types that are locked at first that must open after you’ve earnt them.I’ve already mentioned that the graphics are maybe not up to scratch but they definately push the Wii to it’s limits. But, I realised after a few hours that I was taking the frame rate for granted. It never juddered or froze and this is probably the most important factor.I still have the claim that my 3 friends and I actually crashed an N64 with 4 players blasting each other with RCP90s.
I can’t see that happening with the Wii version and it’s testament to Activision and Nintendo.This could save the Christmas for Nintendo and set them up for the Wii’s swansong – Zelda.
