Nobody Reads This

In a flurry of multiplayer titles during Q4 of 2007 there is one game that particularly shone at me, yes i’m talking about Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately, since the 360 port was so broken and the typical Xbox Live player was just too retarded to actually be a threat I found myself drifting to other games.

First back to Halo 3, which online just a shambles – sad to say that I had more fun playing with man-cannons *giggles* than I ever did in ranked and when I eventually got COD4 (which Originally was supposed to be my review but was replaced with Mass Effect (10/10)) I wasn’t expecting that much.

‘Dachande’ had told me it was good, and that the online was awesome … But this is coming from a person who thinks Halo is the best series ever and that Counter-Strike was hugely over-rated. Sorry to say, you’re wrong on both counts Now down to business…

My first impressions of Call of Duty 4 unashamedly say “You’re fucking shit at FPSs” and I loved it for it. These days gamers are given far too much credit online for suck at games. How many times have you been pwned by the noob stood on a mountain of grenades and just pulling the left trigger? Or the guy stood in the building with the shotgun AND the sword? Or the guy who just slightly clipped you with the ghost and you went flying? Or the guy with the 1 millisecond lower latency who always beats your melee?

There is none of that in COD4. You either kill, or are killed. You are either good or bad.

In this respect it’s like Counter-Strike, which also got negative reviews but exclusively from those who sucked at it.

The one thing i’m tired of hearing is that COD4 isn’t Pick-up-and-Play’able because that is total and utter nonsense. These people cite the unlockable guns and modes as a testament to this but fail to realise the fact that it’s a Reward system. Just because the rewards give you a mild bonus (ie. Red-Sight, only slightly better than the iron-sight) this does not mean the world is out to get you.

I still play WoW even though 99% of players have better Gear than me … If I’ve got skill i’m still going to beat them. If you think that a red-sight or an ACOG scope are actually that good then you simply suck at COD4. Not to mention the fact that the M16 – one of the best rifles in COD4 – is a starting unlockable.

Less about why it isn’t bad … The other thing I love (and i’m sure these people hate) are the challenges. Basically these are lists of things you have to do for a reward (experience and unlockable perks), they generally help you to level up and give you something fun to do in the mean time. They include anything from blowing up cars to shooting X people through walls, these are great little motivators to get you through those sometimes unwinnable games you play.

Later ones encourage you to play new modes, theres a whole list just for Search and Destroy (ie. Counter-Strike) mode … And some for my personal favourite Hardcore Team-Deathmatch.

The sheer amount of Game types (which yes, the majority of you do have to unlock … Which overall takes about 2 hours to do … If you don’t suck) is also a pure winner. You have all the usuals in DM, Team DM, S&D, Elimination … Then you have game modes slightly more akin to the Quaketard demographic which feature weapon spawns (shudder) and such nonsense … Then you have Hardcore mode. Now this is the best bit so listen it:

In these game modes you lose your HUD, everything except your Radar which you get 1) In your menu and 2) On screen only if your team has called in a UAV. Then you have increased bullet damage, lower health and a longer health regen time. Oh and no on-screen cross-hairs in case you thought that didn’t count as HUD.

Epic right? Just don’t play S&D on it unless you are particularly awesome It certainly beats repeated Team Deathmatch on Snowbound and repeated Elimination on The Pit.

The last thing i’m going to talk about, as this post already surpasses 700 words, are the Guns. The single most important part of FPS is the S, you can’t really have a Good FPS with the shooty things. Lets talk about Halo 3’s “Fisher-Price” toy guns with no recoil or even a mature aiming system … Lets talk about Team Fortress which uses Fixed-Guns (all-be-them cool) … Lets talk about Counter-Strike which has no weapon customisation.

Lets talk about COD 4; which uses real liscenced guns, which uses realistic (both look and feel) recoil systems, which uses a mature accuracy system, which features not only a long list of guns (yes, unlockable you broken record) but a long list of customisation for them, which uses shoot-through-walls mechanics and which actually feel like Guns.

When I shoot someone dead in COD4, it feels plausible. I have just shredded that mans organs into fresh meat. In Halo 3 I pull the trigger … I watch his shield drop and he falls over dead. Entirely unspectacularly.

It’s not believable or even very entertaining. It’s just silly.

Thats the end of this little ramble … And I hope those of you out there who didn’t like COD4 for the reasons listed above realise it says more about you as a wimpy Halo-Gen gamer than it does about COD4. It’s an awesome online title, and if you were so bad at it that you were too busy QQ’ing about being killed by the P90 to realise it … Then thats a shame for you.

The first 150 Kills I had was with a bloody AK47 … You didn’t hear me moaning …

Regards,
JamesR