Posts Tagged ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’

I’m Not A Multiplayer Gamer

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Okay, so I shell out £40 a year for my Xbox Live Gold subscription, yet I admittedly don’t use it to its full potential. Most of my time on Xbox Live is spent in party chat, or tackling Spec Ops and other co-op based missions with friends. Racism, cursing, tea-bagging, and sexual slurs are not appealing to me. At all. When people find out I’m not a big Multiplayer gamer, especially with Call of Duty 4/Modern Warfare 2, they respond in such a way that suggests that’s what these games are all about. Whilst I’d agree Multiplayer is a big part of these game’s appeal and longevity, I’m one of those gamers who finds the story mode holds so much more weight. That isn’t the only reason why you won’t find me whizzing about the favela in Team Deathmatch, and that’s precisely what this post is about.

I’m no stranger to the lobby. I used to play in a clan. I used to be the captain of the Rainbow Six: Vegas division of a clan. Captain Rockers Delight! Even though I’m not a competitive gamer in the slightest, it was great to be a part of a group that played a game I loved regularly, and I got pretty good at Vegas as a result. For a girl ;) Indeed, those days were undoubtedly some of the most fun I’ve had as a gamer.

Perhaps spending so much time with Vegas was a double edged sword. In one respect, I became so confident with Vegas I was able to dive into Multiplayer and secure a spot in one of the top two positions on the leaderboard every time. It was devoid of that ‘n00b’ feeling I had when playing Gears of War, unable to master the ’shotgun and roll’ tactic that so often saw me killed. On the other hand, I now have the slow paced nature typically associated with Vegas etched into my brain, and I seem to be unable to familiarise myself with anything else. My kill to death ratio in Call of Duty is embarrassing.

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Posted in Xbox Live | 15 Comments »

Hey Infinity Ward, What’s Happened To Veteran?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

It would be no exaggeration to suggest the enduring difficulty of Veteran, and how much of a challenge completing the campaign on said difficulty proves to be, has become somewhat synonymous with the Call of Duty series. Whilst anyone can attempt and complete the game on Veteran with enough persistence, it is still never-the-less quite an accomplishment to end the campaign on such a climatic note. Instead of taking hours, missions can sometimes take days, often with your body getting acquainted with the floor more so than your gun. Indeed, it is not a challenge to be taken by those with little time, or by those with little patience.

Which is why, with Modern Warfare 2, many people skipped Veteran altogether and dived right in on either Normal or Hardened. For me, neither of those were an option, I was genuinely anticipating the challenge. And so I began battling my way through suburbia and snowy terrain expecting many of the tear-my-hair-out moments Call of Duty 4 provoked. Yet with each passing level, I was still waiting for that challenge to hit.

As I progressed with a steady pace throughout the campaign, I reached the half way milestone and was disappointed I had done so with relative ease. If you think back to past Call of Duty games, I’m sure there will be certain moments in each of the 6 installments that you remember advancing with sheer determination (I have only played 2,3,4, and 6). For example, in Call of Duty 4 the first mission which proved to be a real bastard was Charlie Don’t Surf, where you are in what appears to be a TV studio with Al-Asad’s speech being broadcast. Such levels set the pace for what those playing Veteran want — a real challenge. Why, then, was this absent from the latest Modern Warfare?

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Posted in Rants | 11 Comments »

Aside: Developers, Scruffy AI Won’t Cut It

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

The problem with Medal of Honor: Airborne, is that enemies are (seemingly) programmed to target you and you only. Your allies fail to attack enemies with even the slightest success rate, which means while all iron sights are on you, so is the onus of survival, creating a very frustrating experience. Not to mention your squad will often disappear at crucial moments (yet their vocal orders are still heard), respawning only when you’ve reached the next checkpoint. In fact, this game would have been considerably better if only a little more attention had been payed to AI.

Call of Duty 4, on the other hand, is a great team effort, with AI effectively clearing the surrounding area of enemies and allowing you to progress further (a godsend on Veteran). I don’t know what the CoD devs are doing, but they’re doing it right, and other studios need to take a leaf out of their book.

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Posted in Asides | 1 Comment »