Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One)

For me CoD has been a yearly purchase since CoD4. I know that maybe the last 2 haven't been the best but those games were NOT made by Treyarch - this game however was. As someone who has played every CoD since 4 and bought all the DLC too, I now the difference between each developer and its unsurprising that Treyarchs last game - Black Ops 2 - is still being played by hundreds of thousands of people every day 3 years later. Just because I was disappointed by Advanced Warfare, doesn't mean that Black Ops 3 is going to be as bad as its made by a completely different development team. It means I maybe wary of buying CoD in 2yrs time!With that being said, lets move on to the game. Treyarch have given us the most feature packed CoD ever. Not only that, its also a return to what made CoD great for me.The campaign is probably the weakest aspect from my point of view in terms of 'story' but what it does offer is up to 4 player co-op. All the missions can be played in any order, each has a list of challenges which help boost your XP, which in turn help you unlock more abilities etc too. The campaign has its own progression system and weapon camo's, player cards etc to unlock. Also once you beat it, you have access to a different version of the campaign too (no spoilers but its worth playing through to unlock this). Unlike previous games, there is more reason to replay the campaign and has the added 'fun' of playing with friends too.The MP is probably what many will spend the majority of their time playing. A lot has been made about the new movement and the ability to run on walls, swim etc but in essence these factors are not game breaking like Advanced Warfares Exo movement was rather they enhance the experience. The game still flows like a traditional CoD game and the maps are designed in that traditional 3 lane system. The movement allows for quicker navigation whilst still allowing you to use your gun-skill. The emphasis is back to that gun on gun action and the majority of engagements are very much 'boots on the ground' with gun-skill being more important than movement mastery. The movement itself is very intuitive anyway and doesn't give a major advantage to 'scuf' users like AW did. I know those with Scuf or the new Elite controller will have a bit of an advantage in some circumstance but no more so than in the earlier CoD's. The new Specialists add something extra too but again not game breaking. So far the weapons feel 'balanced' although I do think that AR's are likely to be the most used in general. The Scorestreaks overall are good although a few need tweaking to be effective. Class set up uses the familiar Pick 10 system too. Overall I think this MP game has benefited from the MP beta a few months back.New to CoD is the Gunsmith and Paintjobs. The Gunsmith allows you to make your own weapon variants using the variety of attachments and camos. Paintjobs allow you to create your own 'camo' although these don't cover the whole weapon. You can create up to 64 layers and each weapon has 3 areas to apply these 2 - top, left and right. Each weapon has its own.Zombies returns too. Its come a long way since its easter egg bonus beginning in World at War and grown into its own separate part. The new Zombies retain the same formula as previous games but with a few added extras. Unlike AW's Zombies, fortunately there is no crossover with the movement mechanics. It too has its own XP progression system with unlockable camos etc that can be used in any of the other parts of this game.I know its early days for this particular game in the Call of Duty franchise but my initial impression is that its certainly the best Gen 8 version CoD game by a long way. The 3 year development time (an extra year for Treyarch) has been put to good use to add new features, polish the experience and retains the things that made CoD the franchise it is. Every part has replayability and opportunity to play with friends, CoD games may not be the most visually stunning games but they are certainly not the worst and one of the better games to run at 60fps and this is no exception. Sound design is also great throughout - not just the score but the weapons and effects too.For its price, you would be hard pressed to find a game that delivers as much great content as this has and for any FPS and CoD fan, this is an essential purchase. From my point of view, this is a truly the best next gen CoD by a big margin!

Great game still playable to this day

Love the whole Call of Duty franchise

A solid game for the franchise which has already given me hours of fun. The multiplayer is fun, which it hasn't been since MW2. The campaign could do with a little more depth but the revival of four player co-op provides another mode of entertainment which is always a good thing. Zombies is now a standalone feature of the franchise as they have added layer upon layer of collectible, weapon and enemy. There are a few problems which can be expected in launch with the game which include server issues, dropping connection whilst in a lobby and laggy pre game lobbies - making it impossible to invite a player because they are apparently already in your party, but due to a drop in connection they no longer are. Overall it is a great game with a load to do now they have introduced specialist classes in multiplayer. It has certainly lived up to the BO franchise name for me.

I've got to say that this cod wasn't for me but...my mate Tom loved it!He said his favourite bit was the advanced jumping around mechanics and the quick scope hard scoping was pretty cool too apparently.He said his best tactic for this game was to camp in the corner and shoot people in the back as they run past.My main criticism of Tom is that he would never go for B on domination, he would just sit back camping at A to up his KD ratio.....Dont be like Tom guys, always go for B!Tom also liked the save money and guns feature in the zombies....and the bus! He's hoping it's going to be back in blops4 coz he left a sweet pack a punch gun in there.

I bought Black Ops 3 for the Xbox One on the day of release. As the owner of every single Call of Duty game since the first one ever released for PC in 2003, I can honestly say that in my opinion I found this iteration to be the weakest and most disappointing offering to date, heaven knows what Treyarch have been doing for the last 3 years with their much lauded "extra year development time", as both console versions feel rushed and extremely unpolished, and far inferior to Black Ops 2. Anyway, I didn't want this trash to take pride of place in my game collection anymore and therefore I've just traded it in today for Fallout 4 (amazing game so far). As I mentioned, the Xbox One version of Black Ops 3 feels like a rushed port, seriously I had to double check when I was playing it just to make sure that I wasn't playing it on my old PS3, yes, the textures are that bad!, not to mention the inconsistent framerate dips I constantly encountered during the campaign (which chugged most of the time, even when there was very little happening on screen), even offline multiplayer seemed 'choppy' (so they can't blame the servers!) and this affected gameplay enjoyment considerably for me, something which never happened in last year's COD Advanced Warfare (which is by far the smoother and better game).For all you naysayers out there get your heads out of the sand and check the video posted on YouTube by Digital Foundry under "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 PS4 vs Xbox One Campaign Frame-Rate Test" if you don't believe me.If you have an XboxOne and want a good, solid, polished (and truly 60fps) first person action shooter for Xbox One this holiday season then I'd highly recommend Halo 5 instead of this rubbish. I'm confident that any reasonable gamer out there, once they've played this crap will agree, the dumb fanboys will always bring the hate, which one are you?