Call of Duty Black Ops Launches Big - Not Without Problems

Post by Dan @ 02:52pm 10/11/10 | 34 Comments

Activision's latest addition to their hugely successful shooter franchise Call of Duty: Black Ops has made a big splash after yesterday's launch. While we don't all the boasting numbers as yet, Steam statistics of PC concurrent users have recorded a peak of 77,609 people simultaneously playing multiplayer.

Unfortunately things haven't gone completely smoothly and while the controversial "exclusive" dedicated server supplier appears to be meeting launch demand for the most part, many day one players have reported frequent lagging and freezes -- the causes of which point toward being a mix of client CPU issues and issues communicating with the game's master servers.

Although no official announcements have been made, the developers have indicated via social networking methods that they are well aware of the issues and are working on fixes.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Check out the new live action TV Spot "There's a Soldier In All of Us", here on AusGamers.

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Latest Comments

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The GuVna
Posted 03:27pm 10/11/10

Trust Kobe to be a noob tuber.

:)

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DM
Posted 03:46pm 10/11/10

Apparantly in the config files, the default settings are bung. Like the "minimum requirement" of a dual core CPU despite the config files having multi core disabled (set this to 1). Also by default you have multi GPU support turned on which should be off.

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Sc00bs
Posted 03:56pm 10/11/10

why do so many games come out with such f***ed default settings :@

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DM
Posted 04:02pm 10/11/10

Because they are designed with consoles in mine. Pc is an after thought. That's why when a company like valve or blizzard make a game, the problems that happen are always that they can't handle the load of people trying to play. Actual programming errors don't seem to happen for them outside of betas (which this never had)

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teq
Posted 04:03pm 10/11/10

lag and server problems with call of duty?

quell surprise

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TiT
Posted 04:26pm 10/11/10

so i have quad core with 2 x GTX260 video cards what do i need to do to fix this?

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DM
Posted 04:31pm 10/11/10

for the CPU change "seta r_multithreaded_device 0" to 1. Why they disabled this I have no idea. GPU setting should be cool though.

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TiT
Posted 04:34pm 10/11/10

k thx

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reso
Posted 04:40pm 10/11/10

That doesn't necessarily fix it DM. Didn't for me.

Other things to try:

Wait for a patch.

/snd_restart in the console every round.

Set Steam priority to low, set blackops.exe to above normal

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step
Posted 04:56pm 10/11/10

If your PC supports multi-threading:
seta r_multithreaded_device "1"
in config_mp.cfg (Steam\steamapps\common\call of duty black ops\players)

/r_multiGpu - should be set to "0" if you do not have a multi-gpu graphics card.

Seems to be a few memory leaks in some maps, I go from 125fps flat to 10.

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`ViPER`
Posted 05:50pm 10/11/10

Unfortunately things haven't gone completely smoothly and while the controversial "exclusive" dedicated server supplier appears to be meeting launch demand for the most part, many day one players have reported frequent lagging and freezes

How are they meeting demand "for the most part" while in the same sentance you say people are lagging and freezing.

Shouldnt the line have been something like "the exclusive servers appear to be buckling under the pressure and people are finding the game unplayable due to lagging and freezing"

Then something like "this is unnaceptable for a new release game that people are paying close to $100 for"

and maybe

"game developers should take a note of companys like valve who have an open server model, allowing you free choice to pick a server with the best performance"

you probably woudlnt get invited to early release demo's anymore though.

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reso
Posted 06:06pm 10/11/10

It's not the game servers lagging, well at least not here in Australia with Internode hosting them, anyway.

There's a s*** tonne of empty servers pinging less than 50ms for me. I'd say they have easily met demand here.

The "Lag" issue that everyone is complaining about isn't actually network related at all (game servers at least), it's just people who call any stoppage or freeze in their game lag. My experience so far has just been actual hardware lock ups pretty much, while Black Ops does that, it is even sometimes enough to stop Winamp playing music from a separate drive too. That doesn't seem network related at all to me.

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do0b
Posted 06:03pm 10/11/10

wow this game is boring

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ViscoS
Posted 06:12pm 10/11/10

It's Steam Cloud.

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reso
Posted 06:12pm 10/11/10

If it is Steam Cloud why do I still freeze with it disabled?

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ViscoS
Posted 07:22pm 10/11/10

Are you freezing in multi or in general? The game itself hogs the CPU.

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reso
Posted 07:23pm 10/11/10

Multi, of course! :P

I loaded up Single Player for a bit and it seemed okay. No locking up in menus or in the game.

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Dan
Posted 07:36pm 10/11/10

How are they meeting demand "for the most part" while in the same sentance you say people are lagging and freezing.

Shouldnt the line have been something like "the exclusive servers appear to be buckling under the pressure and people are finding the game unplayable due to lagging and freezing"

My god, buckle your britches sunshine. What reso said.
As much as I personally dislike the concept of closed model servers for a FPS game, there's nothing to suggest that the issues have anything to do with the quality and quantity of the locally hosted servers.

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FraktuRe
Posted 07:42pm 10/11/10

Well there is a grand total of ONE wager server in australia it seems, only one will ever show up and I can't try out those modes :(

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reso
Posted 07:49pm 10/11/10

I've seen 6 Aus Wager servers listed before. There must be another issue with the server browser just not showing some, maybe the master server list getting hammered? My mate is only seeing 12 ranked servers with Aus flags at the moment too.

Also, can't believe there isn't a location filter in the server browser? They already identify the country that the server is hosted in, how hard would it be to add "Only show me servers in Australia"?!?!

Oh they could also just be randomly dying a lot too, there does seem to be some issue with some servers just crashing out and not restarting.

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Dan
Posted 07:48pm 10/11/10

Orly? that's a good example of a shortcoming of the exclusivity model at launch, though no doubt they'll reconfigure their current offerings to best meet player demand after a bit of feedback. Is there anything else about the PC dedicated server experience that people are finding lacking?

My main gripes are about future possibilities. Obviously no open server model means no (or completely crippled) modding support and it means GSPs that can't run their own servers aren't going to be interested in running tournaments for their communities (so don't expect a GameArena ladder for Black Ops for example).

I am interested in hearing others thoughts and experiences though.

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Trauma
Posted 07:51pm 10/11/10

How are they meeting demand "for the most part" while in the same sentance you say people are lagging and freezing.

Shouldnt the line have been something like "the exclusive servers appear to be buckling under the pressure and people are finding the game unplayable due to lagging and freezing"

Then something like "this is unnaceptable for a new release game that people are paying close to $100 for"

and maybe

"game developers should take a note of companys like valve who have an open server model, allowing you free choice to pick a server with the best performance"

you probably woudlnt get invited to early release demo's anymore though.

What makes you think they are not totally aware of the advantages of choice in regards to servers? They also know that they can monetize control and people will still accept it.

I was playing New Vegas just now and a certain character said something along the lines of "People will sell their freedom if the alternative is worse" (not exact, but close).

Kotick knows that most will trade these kind of features and control in order to get the gameplay they want.

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Trauma
Posted 07:54pm 10/11/10

My main gripes are about future possibilities. Obviously no open server model means no (or completely crippled) modding support and it means GSPs that can't run their own servers aren't going to be interested in running tournaments for their communities (so don't expect a GameArena ladder for Black Ops for example).

Internode Ladder? Can they? Would they? Would ppl give a s***? Would it serve them financially?

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Dan
Posted 07:59pm 10/11/10

Games On Net could obviously run a Black Ops ladder, yes. it serves them as a promotional tool, in that they are the only ISP in aus to operate servers for one of the most popular online games.

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`ViPER`
Posted 08:03pm 10/11/10

My main gripes are about future possibilities.

I'd also be concerned about any future of the multiplayer side of the game more than say a year or 2 after release.

When the developer decides its game over and shutdown the servers, thats it. Unless at that stage they release the servers to everyone, but I cant see that happening.

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Eorl
Posted 08:11pm 10/11/10

Currently, there are 2 major bugs. First, the server browser has been half shutdown due to massive surge, and they're just getting hammered to bits. They took it down to put up additional databases to help with the amount. Second, the glitching/lockouts are being looked into by the developers, and they hope to have a fix in the next 24 hours. Everyone saying it's "lag" is incorrect, as it isn't anything to do with network capabilities. Pinging is fine, it's either memory leaks, or some scripts going into loops or not executing properly and throwing errors.

Just be patient, this happens alot with multiplayer games. Networking is never going to be 100% unless the whole world has the same computer, same ISP, same cables, same routers, same everything really. And also, yes, programming is never 100% either. If you think otherwise, please, go do a programming course, or go read a programming for dummies. I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just saying, that there are problems, and hopefully one day we can have a world without programming code issues.

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Eorl
Posted 08:17pm 10/11/10

Also, future possibilities are a bit more foreseable in this COD. There are now dedicated servers, whichever way you want to look at it. That means there will at least be servers around for future use, especially if the next COD is going to be a futuristic one, and, like BF2142, doesn't do well, people will just flood back to the earlier, unfuturistic one.

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Trauma
Posted 08:36pm 10/11/10

Games On Net could obviously run a Black Ops ladder, yes. it serves them as a promotional tool, in that they are the only ISP in aus to operate servers for one of the most popular online games.

Well yea but I wonder if it would get people to change ISP... I would not for something like that, would anyone here?

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Whoop
Posted 11:22pm 10/11/10

While we don't all the boasting numbers as yet,

Is there a 'have' missing from this sentence?

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Morbz
Posted 11:45pm 14/11/10

Ok just clarify whats already been said, short and simple...

Anyone who is saying its network issues is incorrect.

The Answers lie within our local machines (hardware / software related issues.)

I am personally outraged that they didnt test the PC client correctly. Console sucks some serious ass anyways, The true gamer is the PC gamer. These pack of halfwits who made this game should know that and should of tested in diffrent hardware environments "properly" before release. Its ok to have bugs and minor issues. But this basically smaked all PC users in the balls.

One thing is certain we will see a nice heafty PC patch that will make fragging alot more enjoyable?

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qmass
Posted 01:51am 15/11/10

One thing is certain we will see a nice heafty PC patch that will make fragging alot more enjoyable?

How can something be certain and be a question?

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Morbz
Posted 09:53am 15/11/10

Its called a certain question, Which means its going to happen but we have no real proof of this event haha

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`ViPER`
Posted 11:09am 15/11/10

Also, future possibilities are a bit more foreseable in this COD. There are now dedicated servers, whichever way you want to look at it.

Yeah there are dedicated servers, for now. But all the developer has to do is end the exclusive contracts with the server providers, (if they dont already have a fixed end date) and no more MP for you.

Shut down the MP servers of the old game, release new version of game, profit.

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boba
Posted 11:09am 15/11/10

I've had zero issues with mp apart from the frame hitching the first day or so which seems to be fixed now.

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