UK Sales Charts: Black Ops III Beats Battlefront to Christmas Number One

Tomb Raiders leap from 16th to 15th was impressive. I wonder if we'll see a continued jump in the sales for Star Wars, it'll be fairly interesting, the Movie is very good so I'll imagine that'll keep sales up for at least another couple of months.

Every year people root for Call of Duty to fall off. They say stuff like CoD is slipping, franchise fatigue blah blah blah and here it is out-selling the most hyped game of the year which had its launch strategically placed not too far ahead of the most-hyped movie of the year. Time to accept, whether you like it or not, CoD is a juggernaut that doesn't seem like it will disappear anytime soon. The only three words in mainstream gaming that might carry more weight than Call of Duty are Grand Theft Auto.

@Gamer83 Call of Duty often remains in the top ten all year and often the most played online game. This years in my opinion is by far the best next gen CoD despite a weak campaign story - partly because of the co-op and the way you can play levels in any order and partly because of the new XP system. It may add replayability and a bit more variety to the campaign but ultimately the actual story itself has suffered.
Even at its lowest ebb (last years AW), it still managed to have sales figures that all but 1-2 franchises could only dream of and remained in the top ten probably every month.
Compared to a lot of games, CoD often has more content and variety. Not only does it come with a Campaign and MP (with at least 10 different game modes as well as 'hardcore' versions of some of these, it also has a few 'party' modes like one in the chamber, sticks and stones, infected etc). It also comes with a co-op mode too. It also offers couch-co-op both off and online as well.
Regardless of my personal opinion on each specific entry, I have never felt short-changed by the amount of content offered on disc. I have never felt that content has specifically been removed or the content reduced purely for DLC and you rarely hear people complain that their Season Pass is one of the more expensive ones - particularly by CoD fans. It also shows up SW:BF in terms of its on-disc content!
Its launch date though has remained consistent, its almost always the first week in November so its co-incidence that this years happens to fall a few weeks ahead of Star Wars.

I enjoyed the campaign of the latest COD more so than I have in previous years not touched the online part yet. Suprised GTA V is in the list.

Thing for me is do I choose Star Wars battlefront (just multiplayer) or COD (campaign and multiplayer)? For me added value is alone time to enjoy a COD story. If EA had created a Jedi knight 3 or Star Wars battlefront (with 20 hour campaign) I would had bought that straight away. The graphics, sound and tech in SW:BF are awesome but imagine the same frost engine running a Star Wars FPS RPG?! I smell potential £$£$s. Come on EA/Lucasarts ^_^

If Battlefront had a single player campaign I suspect it would probably have won this battle, from what I've read elsewhere it actually did on PS4, it just seems most who have an Xbox bought COD.

@BAMozzy
Just to clarify the strategically placed game I was talking about was Star Wars: Battlefront, don't think I made that clear enough in my original comment.

I agree about CoD, the 5 games I've bought in the series (2, Modern Warfare 1, MW 3, Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3) I've always had a good time with. I even enjoyed BO 3's campaign. And you know you'll get a lot of content for your $60. The last 2 years I've actually been more satisfied with my Call of Duty purchases than the other two FPS purchases. I traded Destiny in about 2 weeks after I bought it and Halo 5 is easily the most divisive in franchise history and my least favorite Halo by a longshot.

@carlos82 @bbq_boy The problem with SW:BF isn't just the lack of any meaningful SP content or just the lack of Maps (the 2 big modes only shipped with 4 maps and the smaller modes 8), its also the actual game play itself in that MP. Its maybe fun for a good few hours as everything is new etc but then you realise that it is a very shallow (but fantastic looking) experience. The lack of variety in the game - both in terms of meaningful (not cosmetic) customisation as well as the maps/modes etc, start to wear very thin. Dice themselves have said they wanted to make the game as basic as possible so that 8yr olds can play with their parents and it really shows. There is no 'roles' or tactical play (and don't tell me CoD doesn't have that either - it does - whether you want to be an all rounder, a run and gunner, a sniper, a defender/aggressor, slayer or team based support etc - you won't beat a team playing Dom/or other objective modes if you don't have a co-ordinated team) and after a while it just gets repetitive. You can't change it up by switching classes (like in old Battlefront and Battlefield), you can't change your load-out significantly to alter your play-style or 'role' within the team etc. For FPS fans it is so lacking in depth, strategy and variety. I doubt very much that this is being played more than CoD or even Destiny although I can easily imagine that as far as SW:BF is concerned, more people are playing it on PS4 than on any other format - just nowhere near as many people are playing it compared to other FPS games on PS4.

@Gamer83 I have every CoD since CoD4 and have all the DLC (apart from W@W's) and I must admit I did enjoy Ghosts and AW's campaigns. I also enjoy Destiny as well and that has had more hours invested in it than the last 2 CoD's combined - even before the Taken King released. A lot of my games are FPS as that is my preferred 'online' MP as well as co-op experience. I really dislike what 343 have done to the Halo games and the latest is the final nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned. Its MP is as if MS told 343 to make it like CoD:AW (as that was current) eSports because they knew CoD was going to PS and the campaign just shows how little they know their franchise and what gamers expect from a 'main' Halo title. Bungie never once made a 'token' campaign that was tacked on to the MP. All their Halo games were all about the campaign first and foremost - but that didn't mean that the MP felt bolted on either (well maybe the first might have done as the majority (myself included) didn't subscribe to gold back then). Anyway enough ranting about MS's 'flagship' exclusive that stopped being quite so important after Bungie left (although I would say when Gears of War came along...And yes I am concerned that the Coalition may do a 343 on this). Its like Naughty Dog leaving Sony and then some unknown developers making 'Uncharted' games without understanding the characters and relationship dynamics or the passion and attention to detail that ND have for their franchise.

@BAMozzy you're right the gameplay is very shallow and the reality is that Walker Assault is the main game, with all the other modes basically been stripped down sections of this and with very little variety in the environments. I personally could have accepted this had there been some kind of single player, as I buy my games mainly for this purpose. This is the main reason I haven't bought a COD since Modern Warfare as all the sp campaigns have reviewed poorly since then, however I am tempted to dip back in with the latest one. Battlefront just feels rushed to get it out for the film and while the shooting has little depth, the flying mechanics are even worse and are shown up by the quite excellent Rouge Leader on the Gamecube. Thankfully my copy was free with the star wars PS4 (needed to upgrade to a 1tb hard drive) but I doubt I would have bought it, even less so when I found out that you had to effectively buy the other half of the game separately.

To be honest W@W, MW2, BO, Ghosts and AW all had good campaigns that may not have had the 'big' impact that MW had but ultimately had a good and enjoyable playthrough. MW was a bit exceptional at the time with its mix of pace (who can forget that sniper mission- All Ghiillied Up or the realism of the AC130 in 'Death from Above' as well as that nuclear explosion and killing a main character). Rightly or wrongly, everything since has been compared to that game but because MW did this 'first' they don't have quite the same impact but that doesn't mean that they are not 'good'. I do feel that BO3 has a weaker 'campaign' than many others because of its 'structure' The fact that any mission can be played and in any order means that the 'story' progression is somewhat lacking but its designed that way to make it more accessible for co-operative play and the new XP progression also adds replayability - different abilities/unlocks etc can change the way you play each as well. It also has the Nightmare mission too which basically replaces the soldiers with Zombies so adds another variation.
To me Battlefront also feels 'rushed' - as if they spent all of their time and effort on the aesthetics and then realised they had to get a game out quickly to meet the Films release. The Flying mechanics are certainly very basic and its difficult to see any difference (other than aesthetically) between the two options you have for either side. Its even more difficult to see any difference between the two tie-fighters. It does feel less rewarding to play as well. in games like CoD and Battlefield, you are always unlocking 'something' whether that's a new weapon, perk, piece of equipment, attachment or something cosmetic like a camo, emblem, badge etc. These often encourage me to play those 'extra' games that I hadn't intended - the one more game that ends up being an extra hour or 3 because I am close to unlocking the next attachment, camo, prestiging etc.
CoD is 'almost' like 3 games in one - its certainly got a longer campaign than some campaign only games and its MP has a lot more content, depth and variety than games like SW:BF and Titanfall. It also has a separate co-op mode in Zombies (although this years does have a few unlocks that are usable across all modes) which can offer players more hours than many other AAA games too. It is of course relative and horses for courses so to speak