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Hello fellow eIrish citizens,


So since around 2:30am in the early hours of last Wednesday morning the Beta of Black Ops III was released. David Vonderhaar, being the wonderful guy he is sent out the access codes 10 hours early. Seeing as I've played more or less continuously I thought I'd give my little bit of insight into the game.


Perks:



First off, lightweight and toughness are no more. They were seen as essential perks and so everyone had them on their classes. Treyarch made the intelligent decision to get rid of them so as to make it a little more interesting... especially in competitive.
The perks are surprisingly well balanced for a beta. We see most of the classics return and a few new ones: Ante up, overclock (not the same as AW exo ability), tracker, sixth sense and engineer.
So far I've only used ante up, tracker and sixth sense. Ante up is nothing special, you just start the round with a few points towards your first scorestreak. Tracker allows you to see enemy footprints, however in my experience you have to be right on top of the enemy to see them so it's not much use. Sixth sense is like a close range UAV, I have found it very useful and quite fun to use. It's not overpowered, as many had speculated, this is because you have to be quite close to the enemy to see him/her on your mini map and even at that nothing more than a quadrant is highlighted.


Primary Weapons:
Okay, the guns are not as well balanced. The Razorback SMG is clearly dominating at close, mid and long ranges. With low-recoil and moderately high damage for an SMG it is very hard to beat. It will be nerfed come November.
The Kuda and Wevil are also good SMGs but I have not used them nearly as much because I am a tryhard.
I've found the Man-O-War to be a strong AR. Yes, it has a slow rate of fire but if you're looking for a gun with hardly any recoil, this is the one for you. It's a lot of fun and the gun sounds incredible.
If you can be deadly accurate the Shieva AR is a two shot kill from any range. I haven't used it yet but I plan on using it soon!
The ARK-7 is also a strong AR once you level it up. Good damage and it is just fun to use. I see it being used much more once the game is released in November.
The M8A7 is rumored to be phenomenal. Unfortunately, I have not leveled up enough to use it as of yet!
I haven't used any shotguns or LMGs yet but I hope to in the next day or so.
In the sniper rifle category, the locus is not a bad gun. It can be a bit frustrating as the reload is just a bit odd and I find it needs a little more damage. What I can say though is quickscoping is as big as ever!
The P-06 is really unique in that it is a three-round-burst sniper. Once again, I haven't used it yet!


Equipment:
Not much to comment on here. Run-of-the-mill equipment but flashbangs, semtexes and frags are extremely powerful due to large blast radii. Very fun and deadly if used correctly.


Movement:
For any of you who have played AW, BO3 is really not the same. It is much slower paced. It's a perfect combination of BO2 and AW. The movement is fluid and brings a new dimension to the gameplay. Wall-running, while it may be fun, is rarely the best choice. When wall running you can only hip-fire (unless you want to fall off) and so you are extremely vulnerable. The jump is quite low and so is only really used to get to places, as it is not great in gunfights. The slide is very useful when in CQC situations and definitely will give you the upper hand if you can master it


Maps and Scorestreaks:
There are only three maps in the beta. They're classic Treyarch with three lanes of movement. All quite fun with loads of cover for smart players.
Scorestreaks are back, baby. They are powerful and will get you a lot of kills (*cough* unlike AW *cough😉. Classics mixed with new promises a very fun game!


Specialists:
These have been a great addition. Not at all overpowered, they give those who are not great at getting scorestreaks something to look forward to. Sparrow is super-fun imho. That along with vision pulse and gravity spikes are my favourite. Tempest, I find, is quite hard to use. You have to be deadly accurate and it requires a charge-up time.


All-in-all, I cannot wait to get my hands on this in November. We're going to have a great year 😉

Leave a comment if there is anything specific you want to know as this is only a brief summary.