I Refuse to Play Black Ops 7

So Black Ops 7 just released and I've been hearing loads of people, other content creators, saying that it has the worst campaign in the COD franchise. Really? Come on guys, stop being hyperbolic. I mean, how bad could it possibly be?

What the fuck was that?

Oh that's, those are… Zombies? In the iconic Vorkuta mission?

Take us into orbit Mr. Malmsteen. We've seen enough.

Nope.

I'm good. Get the Reznov Challenge Pack. No thanks. Get the Reznov Challenge Pack. No thank you. Get the Reznov Challenge Pack. Uh, no thank you. Get the Reznov Challenge Pack. Not this year. Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is packed to the

brim with AI art slop. I'm out and I suggest you go out too. I refuse to play

Black Ops 7 and I'm gonna tell you why. Ironically hearing how bad the campaign was only made me morbidly curious. I had every reason to play and review Black Ops 7. I mean it's been a yearly tradition on this channel for almost a decade to review every new COD game no matter how awesome or bad it is. You guys really love the reviews and the COD videos are some of my most popular and I love making them. I was also given a code

for some reason. I had a thumbnail made for a live stream. I was all set and prepared to dive into this worst COD campaign. I thought, well I have to see it for myself. Open the chest, I need to see it! But then I realized, I already played the worst COD campaign. Why would I do it again?

I heard you died in a tank in South America.

Well I wasn't in that tank.

And as you can see, I am alive and well.

Somehow Palpatine returns.

No, I don't need to see it for myself.

I can't watch anymore.

I will not be playing Black Ops 7. I'm not gonna stream the campaign and I'm not gonna review it. It's not just because of the campaign or the egregious AI slop we're having to deal with. The short answer is that I'd rather do anything else. I'm working on a long overdue COD 4 review. Don't you guys want to see that instead? I mean, do you? What am I supposed to say about Harper turning into a giant destiny to raid boss?

What do you want me to say about this? I'll tell you what I think. Instead of playing and streaming Black Ops 7, we're going to be streaming COD Ghosts. That's where I'm at. And I'll be streaming ghosts later today, link down in the pinned comment. Some of you watching might be thinking, well, Actman, how can you criticize this game if you're not even playing it? Here's the thing.

If I'm walking down the street and I see poop on the sidewalk, I don't need to bend down and like, oh yeah, this smells like poop. That's poop all right. I know shit when I see it. I don't need to smell it. I mean, look at what people are saying about it.

All right, let's not sugarcoat it.

This campaign is absolute dog water.

That was sincerely worse than I expected.

Oh my goodness. I got to pause for a second. Just a reminder, this is a sequel to Black Ops 2. We're 13 years later and it's just a disaster.

This is indeed a miserable experience.

This game releasing, being able to be purchased by people

should be a crime.

There's nothing of value in it. There's nothing of value being said, the writing is awful. Like it's not even really fun to talk about. You can visibly see my expression get progressively worse every single time I loaded into a new mission during this game.

This is real, visible pain that worsened with each hour of this campaign that I haven't felt in any COD campaign before.

But pain is difficult, isn't it?

Black Ops 7 is just terrible. Black Ops 7 campaign is a disgrace to the franchise. The campaign is offensive. I tried Black Ops 7 to see if it's that bad. It's worse than you can imagine. It's pathetic. I beat it so you never have to. If you watch those previous Black Ops 7 videos I made, you probably got the impression that I didn't want to play this when it came out.

You know something? You're right.

But I thought, well, if my audience wants me to stream it, then I will. So I put out a poll asking all of you sexy act fans, and I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted no. Go home and be a family man. Unfortunately, I'm sterile, so I can't exactly do that. Sorry to all the ladies out there, all zero of them. But also I want to thank everyone who voted yes. Suffer with me. Because that reminds me of an actually good COD campaign.

One of the best. And a story that was left open-ended allowing our imaginations to take over and that's what I don't want to be ruined my Imagination I've already talked about how I felt like black ops 7 was going to be creatively bankrupt And for those of you who watched that video and have played it yourself Can you let me know in the comments if I was right? If I see enough yeses down there, then it will confirm my suspicions

and validate that this is the right call to not play Black Ops 7.

Act Man, if you're watching this, I watched your video called Black Ops is Creatively Bankrupt. I think they are. I think campaign-wise, there is nothing more that we can do.

It is time to end this thing. Stop bringing back Wood, stop bringing back Menendez, stop bringing back Mason.

And here's the thing that I really want to stop saying every year, but I feel like I have to. You can enjoy Black Ops 7. I question your taste, but please don't defend it because you deserve better. It's- it's all- things are only getting worse. Like, the idea that this was worse than Modern Warfare 3's campaign just blows my mind.

Are you a terrorist?

No!

You look like one.

But I can- I can see it in just the clips I've watched. What would I even say about this game? Oh, look at what they've done with Frank Woods I I really love his character arc, you know at first he was like a Vietnam veteran Then he was a wheelchair bound elderly man, and then he turned into an onion I'm a goddamn onion Mason and now he's a giant Venus flytrap. Yes. Excellent work Raven and Treyarch. I'm a... I'm a fucking onion. Yes, give the- give the writing team a raise. What wonderful character development.

Like, what the fuck am I looking at? What am I supposed to say about this?

Fuck you.

**gunshots**

The simple fact is that they fucked his BO2 sequel up three times. You had an opportunity to follow up this story and decide what the canon ending was and you decide to take it in a completely different direction. Okay, that's fine, but you can't redo it at this point. You already abandoned this storyline and the only reason Treyarch and Raven are going back to it is because they have nothing else. They are so desperate for ideas they have to go back 13 years into the nostalgia well to pull out fucking Harper, Menendez, and Frank Woods again, and David Mason. And this

game is catering to a younger audience. A younger audience who doesn't know who to fuck these characters are. It's... as far as I'm concerned Black Ops 7 is not canon. This is whatever it is, it's fanfiction. They're not telling this story to make a true sequel to Black Ops 2 and cap off this incredible story. Or because they have a genuine passion for it. The timeline matched up with BO2 and they chose these characters in this setting because they have nothing else. And it feels so hilarious to witness this like lack of self-awareness in their own marketing material

But in the world of black ops the past never dies

Say that say that again, but in the world of black ops the past never dies Yes, the past never dies and at this point I can't help but feel like maybe our boy Kylo Ren was actually on to something

It's time to let old things die. But in the world of Black Opt,

the past never dies.

But in the ending where Menendez lives, Karma dies. So she's alive because...

The past never dies.

Alex, thought you were dead.

Still standing.

But in the world of Black Ops, the past never dies.

Weaver, I thought you were dead.

Train go boom.

Even after all this time, he just refuses to let me go. He's dead, David. You can rest easy.

But in the world of Black Ops, the past never dies.

And as you can see, I am alive and well.

I wasn't in that tank.

No, no, you're still holding on!

Let go!

Stop looking backwards, David.

Every action has its consequences. What a beautiful irony to illustrate this game. These fan-favorite characters transforming into horrific monstrosities. It's basically like an allegory for how warped, twisted, disfigured, and unrecognizable the Call of Duty brand has become. That's right guys, no carry forward, because Black Ops 7 needs to feel authentic to Call of Duty and

its setting. This is the franchise holding up a shattered mirror to itself. This is what Call of Duty has become. So conceptually, I disagree with the sheer existence of a Black Ops 7 like this. And I've watched some gameplay clips. What the fuck is this? What the fu- is this a campaign? Why does it look like Warzone?

Did they do that shit again? Remember those open combat missions they made for Modern Warfare 3 because that game was originally intended to be a DLC expansion to MW2 and they had to scrap the campaign together using Warzone assets? Remember those missions?

We call them open combat missions.

It's the biggest piece of dog shit.

Remember how everyone hated them? Well let's do that again.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And what is your obsession with adding zombies into campaigns? Just make a zombies campaign. Like, you see what I'm saying? If I made a review, I'd just be repeating myself. They've just put zombies in the campaign. I just so strange that they would do this,

but you know what? I'm kind of, I'm here for it. I don't even feel like I'm playing a campaign right now. This just looks like Warzone. Is this Warzone zombies or a campaign? It looks like Warzone. What am I watching? But, but here's a new, here's a new new one You can't pause the campaign. Okay, I can't I can't pause this III would like to pause this why I can't seem to pause this Oh, thank Christ You know, I kept praying for the day that they'd remove the dang Pause feature like what are we talking about right now dog? What are we talking about right now, dawg? What are we talking about? Pausing?

We talking about pausing right now. We talking about pausing.

I must have left my PC for anywhere around 5 to 10 minutes, so when I came back, I had

been kicked for inactivity from my single player lobby of the single player campaign.

I mean how silly is that? Man, we talking about pausing.

I can't pause it to react dude

This sucks so much ass. We're not even talking about the game the actual game when it matters We're talking about pausing. How do you keep fucking this up? Why why do you have to like squat up to play campaign? Why is it online only you you can't pause card vanguard zombies now You can't pause bo7 campaign to have fallen so far and learned nothing

The failure is yours

We're talking about the exclusion of a pause feature in a first-person shooter campaign I think it's time to pack it up boys. Like let's move on. Let's let's play ghosts. Okay, let's play fucking ghosts.

Dog models.

Both Vanguard and BO7 were always online and would kick you if you played solo. Why? What could be the reason other than fuck you? Campaign also has no checkpoints.

I don't wanna die.

So if you get kicked from it, you just have to restart the mission, dog. This game looks like a toilet I don't even wanna poop in. I'd have more dignity shitting my pants in sheer defiance. And if you'd like to show solidarity with me, I invite you all to release your bells now. Gross.

I know what I'm looking at, and it's an even further perversion of Call of Duty's campaign formula with warzone zombies and like always online co-op thrown in there. It just it looks like straight ass. I don't have to play it. Now here's the other thing. Black Ops 7 is infested with AI slop right from the get-go this time. You hear that, piggies? It's feeding time! Look, time to eat the slop!

Don't forget to consume!

Get the Reznov Challenge Pack!

I mean, this pretty much seals the deal for me right off the gate. I stopped playing Black Op 6 immediately after that AI bullshit they added in the Winter Update. Wait, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? SEVEN?! 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? 7?! Even though I had fun playing BO6 Zombies with Mr. Rafflewaffles and Hidden Experience, you know what new zombies is pretty good though.

I'm digging it.

Wait is that a positive zombies comment?

Let's go!

Yes. I don't even want to entertain the thought that this is worth playing. At some point you gotta push back against the widespread inshittification of all these things and games and hobbies we're so passionate about. Otherwise these greedy corporations are going to keep ruining everything and extracting as much value as they can from their passionate player base.

Call of Duty developers think the Game Pass price hike is a positive. Like this has reached a point where it's not even funny anymore. They think it's a good thing that you are being charged more money for less These people need to go fuck themselves in the ass Call of Duty revolutionized and introduced the idea of a persistent progression system and Where are we now? I'm not grinding for AI generated Studio Ghibli robot slop.

I'm more than capable of generating my own slop. They're not even willing to make their own nameplates by hand anymore. What does this say about the rest of the cosmetics in game? I think it shows nothing but complete contempt. You're gonna be happy grinding for AI slop. No I'm not.

I'm not playing your game. Fuck you. I get that this is like the 22nd COD game and we're basically completely out of ideas at this point and the nostalgia well is drier than the fucking Sahara Desert, but goddamn, that's some serious apathy. And you know what they say,

Apathy is death. Worse than death. Because at least a rotting corpse feeds the beasts and insects

So it's like you have no respect for your artists. That's why you laid them all off You have no respect for my time as a player. So I have no respect for you or your game. Fuck you Being a fan of Call of Duty makes me feel genuinely embarrassed at this point like seeing what it has become It is embarrassing and the people in charge of it should feel deeply ashamed, but they don't, and that's part of the problem. And this is made abundantly clear.

When we look at Activision's response, like so many around the world, we use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players. I love that the phrase best gaming experiences is now related to the worst reviewed game in this franchise's history. Again it's like poetry, it's sort of that they're completely contradictory statements.

Like so many greedy corporations, we use a variety of cheap tools, including AI tools, to downsize and reduce our headcount to save the best amount of money possible for our shareholders. Our lazy ass practices continue to be led by the financial numbers in our Q4 report. And I think LegacyKilla here put it best. The thing about the AI slop in Black Ops 7 that isn't being discussed enough

is that no one is seeing any benefits other than Activision and Microsoft execs. Consumers still paying 70 plus dollars. Developers now losing their jobs. Great representation of the future of this AI revolution. Worst reviewed game in the series, but it's all it's all for our benefit. It's like is anybody honestly fooled by this bullshit? So Black Ops 7 is not proof that AI makes games

better. In fact, it's it's empirical evidence to the contrary. And in case you forgot, Activision finally admits it uses generative AI for some Call of Duty Black Ops 6 assets. Yeah, remember this? Remember this? We complained about it? They kept doing it anyways. This is what made me stop playing BO6.

And if it's in these parts of the game, what other parts is it in that we're not seeing or being told? The fact that they've opened the door to selling you like AI generated cosmetic bundles

and they don't have to disclose it like like fuck you in july wired reported that activision sold an AI generated cosmetic for MW3 the store did not disclose any use of generative AI for this bundle which costed 1500 cob points or 15 wired pointed out that Microsoft, which owns Activision Blizzard after its $69 billion acquisition of the company last year, cut 1,900 staff from its gaming business just months after Activision sold this skin. The report alleged that 2D artist jobs were being replaced by AI at the company. One anonymous Activision artist told the site remaining concept artists were then forced to use AI to aid in their work Activision employees were allegedly made to sign up for AI training with its use promoted throughout the business

What does this mean? It means they think these artists were not worthy of having that job you the artist You are not worthy to create Cosmetics and art for our company in our game and our audience is not worthy of receiving that level of care and attention. Treyarch Associate Creative Director Miles Leslie has clarified the Call of Duty developers position. We live in a world where there are now AI tools. I think our official statement we said last year around BO6 is that everything that goes into the

game is touched by the team a hundred percent We have generative AI tools to help us, but none of that goes in game. It was in the game Oh, and then you're going to say yeah, but it has I'll say it has by accident and that was never the intention It happened three times, dog. Go fuck yourself. Go- you lying sack of shit, man. You got balls to come out here and just tell a bold-faced lie like this.

I have no respect for that. You see why I'm not playing this? We've come out and been very clear that we use these tools to help the team, but they do not replace any of the fantastic team members we have that are doing the final touches and building that content to put it in the game. They do not replace any of the fantastic team members. So you've all of those layoffs those were not fantastic team members. That's crazy shade to be thrown that's like kicking

people into balls after you lay them off. That's crazy yeah you weren't really a fantastic team member. So everything you play is human created and touched. AI tools in the world we live in. It's how do we streamline it? That's really the goal. Not replace, but streamline. I love that you could take this like, oh, it's just the world we live in. And you could just take that back in time. It's like, yeah, well, of course we own slaves. That's just the world we live in. Dog just because it's the world we live in doesn't mean you

have to fucking do it. So given Leslie's prior answer, why hasn't it and other suspected generative AI images been removed from the game? Yeah, good question he responded. Not my department. Well goddamn if you aren't dodging that, that accountability. Oh, it's not my department. I know everything is hand-touched, but it's not my department. The team is actively looking at that stuff, making sure it's not shipped.

Dog, you fucking failed three times in a row. I think, I think maybe you're not being totally honest right now. Miles Leslie, the fall guy for Call of Duty, man. That sucks. It sucks that you had to come out here and just like try to tell these bold faced lies.

You're really bad at it. So yeah, I mean, and this also is in conjunction with every shitty thing that Microsoft and Xbox have been doing recently. Like they just have no respect for the customer anymore. They're trying to extract as much wealth as they can and I...

The only way to beat them at their game is to just say no.

Fuck you!

Like the greed at this point is unbelievable. You just got done raising the prices of Game Pass and now you put out the worst reviewed Call of Duty of all time?

Your life will be consumed by absolute loss.

No, I don't think it will Raul because I'm not gonna give them the chance to ruin you. Look I've more or less had my worst fears confirmed already. I've seen the shit on the park path I don't need to smell it to know that it's poop. And that's the thing it's like I don't see a point in putting forth the effort to review this game or play it. Like I've seen enough. Even the worst entries in a franchise have something worthwhile to talk about, and we're going to discover

that when we go replay ghosts. I played the beta. I know I'm not going to be into the multiplayer, and if I want a good zombies experience, man, there's there's maps and Easter

eggs I haven't beat before in black OPS 324 Cold War there. Shit I haven't done with this series. So yeah, I think that about sums it up. I refused to play Black Ops 7, so don't expect a review, but do anticipate a COD 4 review. But what do you think? Am I making the right call here?

Have you played Black Ops 7? Post your thoughts and opinions in the comments below, like the video if you enjoyed it, and subscribe to the Act Man for more awesome content. Alright everyone, that's all I got for today. This is the Act Man signing out. Peace!

I get it now.

He loved you kid.

I know. This is the price we pay for what we do. I'm done, Sarge. Good. He's happy to hear that. You talking to the dead now, sir? Nah.

They talk to me. They talk to me.

Part of the world of Black Ops, the past never dies.