We mentioned last night how Activision had released new ports of Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 for PlayStation consoles, and in the initial footage that was doing the rounds, it seemed like very little had changed compared to the original Xbox 360 (and PS3) releases from back in the 2010s.

Digital Foundry is one of the first outlets to provide an early analysis of Black Ops 1 specifically, and it's fair to say they're not very impressed. The article mentions that it gives a lasting impression of "just how little time, resources and expertise that Activision chose to invest in this project", criticising the lack of improvements, the overly high price point, and the decision not to release a new version on Xbox consoles as well.

DF acknowledges that the PS5 port is better than the Xbox original, but not by much:

"Amazingly, the game is still better than the Xbox version running under back-compat, which is limited to a 360-era 608p resolution, with lower-res shadow maps and a darker presentation - so no Xbox enhancements to speak of. But for a native PS5 title and a somewhat high-profile port, this is a deeply odd state of affairs. Even the game's obvious visual blemishes are preserved: shadow quality was necessarily poor back in the day, but why preserve that problem in the present day when so much more graphics horsepower is available?"

Of course, Xbox owners get the advantage of backwards compatibility for Black Ops 1 and 2, meaning they don't need to pay again if they already bought those games in the past. The problem is that some players complain of "hackers" on BO1 and 2 for Xbox, and this Digital Foundry analysis argues that they could have either improved the backwards compatibility versions or provided a more significant paid "remaster" with full 4K support.

"I could understand Activision owners Microsoft not wanting the game to look better on the PS5 than their own Series X console, giving a false impression of the relative power of the two systems, but the game still ships with a resolution advantage on PlayStation. And if that was the case, surely the answer here would be to get back-compat working better on Xbox, or bring out Blops 1 as a paid "remaster" for both PS5 and Xbox Series consoles with minimal tweaks at a full 4K?"

Ultimately, the offering is criticised as being not "good enough" for all of these reasons, and we're inclined to agree. It's amazing for PS5 and PS4 owners to be able to play Black Ops 1 and 2 again without a doubt, but these games are going to sell like hot cakes — surely they could have provided a few more improvements for them?

I do personally feel that they might have held back here because of the Xbox versions, not wanting to anger owners of the originals who felt like they were being forced to pay again despite the existence of backwards compatibility. It might have been nice to have the option at least though — either stick with the old versions or pay for a new release with 4K support and various quality-of-life tweaks. Maybe that's something they could add in the future instead.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.