Call of Duty: Black Ops Still Fraught with Issues on PS3 Post Patch

[shane]

 

Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops patch 1.04 to the Playstation 3 early this morning in the hopes of fixing many lingering issues with player connections for multiplayer games and other issues.* So far the patch doesn’t appear to have done the trick as gamers are complaining about many of the same problems with some of them turning out worse.

 

Owners of the PS3 shooter have hit the official Call of Duty forums, the Playstation forums and elsewhere to voice their frustrations with the game.* It isn’t clear yet if this is a case of only those negatively affected complaining but there appears to be enough in common between the complaints to cause concerns.

 

Players are reporting long waits to to find games to connect with, being dropped from lobbies multiple times, getting dropped from games and other issues such as hard resets.* Host migration also appears to be an issue when the host disconnects whether intentionally or not.

 

Some of the comments include:

 

If this wasn’t so sad – it’d be almost funny.

 

I think the patch was a placebo (sugar pill).

 

yes to some issues.. no to freeze issues. my ps3 froze twice in 4 games!

 

Taken 1 hour to play 1.5 games of TDM. When they’re actually running, they run really well. But finding a game was frustrating to the max. Often it would do the countdown and get to 0..then do nothing, and sit on the lobby screen with nothing happening.

 

oh and dont even get me started on hard resets. so here’s the stats:

 

1hr 15mins of time with the ps3 on

11 failure to connect to host

13 times it just couldnt find a lobby (despite 76,000 people in the game list)

2 hard resets

booted from 6 games

games played 4 domination and 5 tdm.

 

The NAT (Network Address Translation) appears to be one of the main culprits as many are reporting showing a ‘Strict’ or ‘Moderate’ NAT status online with the game.* Some users have suggested changing the router settings for the PS3 to put it in DMZ to help with that.

 

The problems do not appear to be as rampant over on the Xbox 360 side of the Black Ops pond but it was more stable to begin with.* However, platforms appear to share an unwelcome undocumented change.* The ability to mute players in the lobby has been removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Pillorian]

Getting your NAT to Open will solve 95% of disconnect problems, especially during host migrations. I had the same problem in MW2 before I got mine open. When a host migration would occur, I would make it into the game about 2 out of 10 times. There are so many people on this game who have no idea how to make their connections better, but for some reason the game decides to have the wrong people host.

 

I also recommend using the "Local Search" for public lobbies so that you get into low ping games which will help when Johnny's mother starts downloading a YouTube video on their 1.5 DSL connection so you don't get dropped.

Edited December 14, 2010 by Pillorian

[mikejaxon]

Ok one where is the local search, two as soon as i downloaded the patch i switched from open to moderate and I am hardwired to the router.

[Pillorian]

@Jax: When you are in the main lobby (just before you go into the menu to select your game mode) press select, then a popup comes up giving you two options:

 

Party Privacy: Open (Open, Invite Only, Closed)

Search Preferences: Default (Default, Locale, Locale Only)

 

You will want to change "Search Preferences' to Locale or Locale Only.

 

As far as your NAT, try rebooting or power cycling your router. If it is still Moderate, try setting your PS3 into a DMZ. Check this video for how to set it up:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=ex-4qQ6trwk

[Crusty_Demons]

So far I am seeing that a party host with a moderate or strict nat is able to find games for the party easier. In my experience having a open nat has put me in the minority.

[Pillorian]

Are you NAT Open out of the box (no modifications to router settings?) or have you set up a DMZ for your PS3?

 

I played about two hours tonight and had zero problems. Party stayed together (back out with party feature actually works now), only one host migration (rage quit), and great connections for the most part.

[Crusty_Demons]

I have given the ps3 a static ip and put it in the dmz I also had to change my modem from router mode to bridged in order to get an open nat. Some people I travel with have moderate or strict nats and they seem to have more success getting us into a game than I do. I have seen several almost disconnects where the plug pulling symbol pops up and I'm not the only one on my team to see it when it happens. I have had multiple instances where people have gotten dropped from the party.

[Pillorian]

Hmmm. Well that is about all you can do to make it work better, that you can control. Everything else is either related to the game, their servers, ping, poor matchmaking... etc. Hopefully they can tweak it so it works better. Seems like all of the CODs take a few months before the connections shape up.

[IRISH BULL]

You shouldn't have to do all this re-routing, DMZ, ABC, 123 steps to get a game to work on your PS3.

[[-VR-] Tool_Minion]

I had only two issues with the patch:

 

1) they took the FRACKIN mute option out on a person's profile...you can no longer click the persons name and bring up a menu to 'mute' them...BIG no-no as I mute every single person other than those in my party. I don't log in to hear your damned music or your mommy bitching you out in the background. You can still however mute them from the game screen, and that carries over to the lobby.

 

2) I froze one time last night...and I mean full lock up. That hasn't happened to me on this game before.

 

Now the good:

 

I hosted parties up to 9 and got in and out of games fine.

Footsteps...OMFG I could hear them!

the party stays together when you leave a match...FINALLY

The host migration didn't take all freaking night to work, it seemed to take place as soon as you started.

 

I also like that it displays the nat type now too. Mine showed open. I don't have a great connection, but its stable and serviceable.

[xViCaRiouSx]

having an open nat doesnt help mine has been open since the patch yet every game i play halfway thru i get connection interrupted thing on my screen then the room gets booted, the game is a fail the patch is a fail. now i cant even mute the dumb immigrants in the lobbies any more either now im forced to listen to them. i played from 6am this morning till 11 am and got 2 , 2!! full games in all the rest i got booted or the game wouldnt even load, not to mention the 2 hard reboots i had to do. infinity ward for the win.

[Pillorian]

xViCaRiouSx;821087'] infinity ward for the win.

 

Uh, no.

[Nikastylez]

xViCaRiouSx;821087']having an open nat doesnt help mine has been open since the patch yet every game i play halfway thru i get connection interrupted thing on my screen then the room gets booted' date=' the game is a fail the patch is a fail. now i cant even mute the [b']dumb immigrants[/b] in the lobbies any more either now im forced to listen to them. i played from 6am this morning till 11 am and got 2 , 2!! full games in all the rest i got booted or the game wouldnt even load, not to mention the 2 hard reboots i had to do. infinity ward for the win.

 

White power?

[xViCaRiouSx]

how could u sit there and say this game is better than mw2 and mw1 ? treyarc sucks man , world at war was horrible and this is the exact same game but a different era and some different guns, i NEVER go booted as much as i do in this game, and i never had such a hard time keeping the party together as i do in this one. there in my opinion infinity ward is much better,

Edited December 15, 2010 by xViCaRiouSx

[Crusty_Demons]

xViCaRiouSx;821102']how could u sit there and say this game is better than mw2 and mw1 ? treyarc sucks man ' date=' world at war was horrible and this is the exact same game but a different era and some different guns, i NEVER go booted as much as i do in this game, and i never had such a hard time keeping the party together as i do in this one. there in my opinion infinity ward is much better,[/quote']

 

In my opinion the game itself is 100x better than the crap IW put out known as MW2. The issues with blops that's another story.. Until Treyarch gets it figured out they are going to catch a lot of flak. I don't know if most people remember but MW1 was virtually unplayable for the first 6 months and MW2 had it's issues at launch as well. You would think that these two developers having developed games with this engine for so long would have it pretty dialed in by now but apparently not.

[Pillorian]

Crusty_Demons;821108']In my opinion the game itself is 100x better than the crap IW put out known as MW2. The issues with blops that's another story.. Until Treyarch gets it figured out they are going to catch a lot of flak. I don't know if most people remember but MW1 was virtually unplayable for the first 6 months and MW2 had it's issues at launch as well. You would think that these two developers having developed games with this engine for so long would have it pretty dialed in by now but apparently not.

 

How quickly people forget... Every game that I have bought for the PS3 on release has had problems with it until a few months after release. You have to give it time. IW for MW2 simply refused to patch the javelin glitch and the care package glitch for a good solid month yet they are the golden child? Just before MW2 came out, IW refused to patch MW for PS3 which had players flying around the map and rampant use of turbo controllers. Despite public outcry, IW refused to adjust One Man Army. What has happened since this game's release? What hasn't happened is what is key. Treyarch has been busy fixing so many things with this game that you will never even know about because they are fixing them before they spread. Go check the patch logs... soft spots in maps especially. They have been on top of things.

 

Now it is apparent that there are issues with matchmaking and connections with this game. I would say don't really judge a game it, as Crusty said, until a good 6 months after its release. By then, they will have done everything they can do. If the game doesn't run flawless by 6 months, then we can start talking about their failures.

 

All of these problems could be relieved if they did do a public beta... but money talks. Probably is much cheaper and makes them more money in the end as they don't have the overhead of running a beta and the game is likely to sell more if people don't have any preconceived notions the game based upon a beta. That is just the price we have to pay in these times...

Edited December 16, 2010 by Pillorian

[mikejaxon]

Here is an update i seen this morning from their communtiy manager:

 

Hey PS3 community –

 

We are aware that many online players have been experiencing connectivity issues since Tuesday’s patch. We have been working hard to track down the cause and fix them as quickly as we can. We’ve already updated the game with one “hot fix†since Tuesday’s release that has improved many of those connectivity problems, and we’ve got more coming, so stay tuned.

 

Forum feedback has been tremendously helpful. In fact, we’ve been on the forums, monitoring feedback and in a number of cases, working with community members directly, so please keep the feedback coming. In the meantime, know that we’re committed to doing everything we can to support the best online experience, and we’re working quickly to resolve this issue.

 

NOTE: There have been rumors suggesting that deleting your save data will improve network connectivity. Please do not delete your save data, as it will not have an effect on network connectivity. A hot fix was released at 9:30p PST last night, coinciding with the first instance of this rumor, and this hot fix is the reason many users have experienced improved connectivity.

 

Thank you for your continued support and feedback. As always, we will keep you updated.

 

Thanks

-JD

[mikejaxon]

As of right now at 8:41am three of us can no join each other's party, what the hell did they do now

[mikejaxon]

Ok so i was still messing around with trying to fix this connection thing with black ops and I think I got it figured out, for me at least. I went into my routers set up page and noticed two things. One my firmware was not the latest version and i checked my ip address on my ps3 and it changed somehow. So all the ports that i forwarded to the original ip address were not assigned to the right one. So i changed the ip address to the current one and everything is perfect now.