It's Obvious Black Ops Devs Don't Own Guns

Ok this entry is dedicated to my disappointment with the new Call of Duty Black Ops game. To put it bluntly - I'm underwhelmed with this release. There are a lot of reasons like cheesy graphics, dorky sounds, ridiculous spawn behavior in multiplayer. These are somewhat subjective. However, I believe I have some items below that virtually everyone - especially anyone who actually owns a gun - will agree with.

- Makarov damage. I was glad to see the Makarov in the game although I doubt it would be considered a serious side arm for an actual soldier or black ops operative. The most bizarre thing about it though is that the damage settings for this gun are higher than for a 1911 .45 pistol. What?!?! The Makarov uses a 9x18 round which is actually shorter (and less powerful) than a typical NATO 9mm (9x19). The 9x18mm round produces between 185 and 215 ft lbs of muzzle energy. The .45 ACP produces around 400 lbs of muzzle energy. Why does Black Ops rate the damage from a Makarov higher than a 1911?

- Bullets penetrating concrete. No assault rifle can penetrate 4 inches of concrete - at least not without digging a hole with several mags worth of ammo. Yet in Black Ops diving behind a concrete barrier - similar to the ones you see on the side of the freeway - provides no cover as bullets pass right through it.

- Snub nose Python is more accurate? The Colt Python is a pretty powerfull .357 pistol. It comes in long barrel (4 or 6 inch, it's hard to say) and snub nose 2 inch models. In COD BO the 2 inch version is more accurate than the longer barrel. Again, have these folks ever even fired a weapon before?

More to come as I play this and uncover all the ballistic nonsense it contains.

Update 1: Ranks

My pet peeve about this game is the apparent lack of research that went into it. The bizarre weapon attributes above illustrate this. Move evidence of this is in the ranks as players move up in the multi-player game.

Players move through the enlisted and commissioned officer ranks which appear to match those of the U.S. Army. However, the officer ranks go from 2nd Lieutenant (O1), skip 1st Lieutenant (O2) and go directly to Captain (O3). Why skip 1st Lieutenant? Was there a reason? Once again, it makes the game look like a low budget hack where they didn't bring in military consultants to help make sure it was accurate. If the game is supposed to represent the real world then get the details right!