Digital Foundry Slams Activision for Low-Quality Call of Duty: Black Ops PS5 Port

Activision’s re-releases of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 have already drawn plenty of side-eye for their asking price. Now, Digital Foundry’s technical inspection has added another complaint: the ports don’t look or run as well as players might expect.

In its analysis of the original 2010 Black Ops port to PlayStation, Digital Foundry zeroed in on the resolution target. The game is presented at 1080p rather than 4K, even though it’s an older title that originally launched on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The issue doesn’t stop there either, with the port lacking anti-aliasing.

Digital Foundry also took aim at performance. Even on PS5, the frame rate is capped at 60Hz. As the outlet put it, “A 1080p60 presentation would be potentially acceptable for the PS4 version – and there is one! – but for a brand new PS5 conversion, it’s disappointingly poor and well below what the hardware is capable of.”

Quick scan: Digital Foundry’s main complaints

• The PS port targets 1080p rather than 4K.

• No anti-aliasing is used.

• Frame rate is capped at 60Hz even on PS5.

• Digital Foundry calls the overall state of a PS5 conversion “deeply odd.”

Digital Foundry went further, arguing that the situation doesn’t make sense given the platform. “For a native PS5 title and a somewhat high-profile port, this is a deeply odd state of affairs,” it continued. The review also points out that familiar visual compromises from the original era remain in place.

Even when the visuals have obvious aging issues, the port keeps them rather than improving them with modern capability. Digital Foundry notes that shadow quality was understandably weaker at the time, but asks why those same shortcomings are preserved when there’s clearly more graphics power available today.

There is one point in the PlayStation versions’ favor, though: the PS5 and PS4 releases look and run better than the version currently available on Xbox hardware through backwards compatibility. On Xbox Series X and S and Xbox One, the experience is tied to the Xbox 360 original resolution of 608p, and there are no Xbox-specific enhancements at all.

Pricing is still part of the conversation. Each PlayStation port of Black Ops costs $40, and both games also include a separate season pass priced at $29.99. To buy the full package—both games plus all downloadable content—you’re looking at $140 total for titles that first launched more than a decade ago.

For PlayStation Plus members, the math changes. With the subscription discount applied, each game drops to $20, and each season pass is listed at $9. That brings the full bundle price to $58, assuming you want everything, and the discount is set to run until August 6.