State of the Game Pt. 1: Review of COD Gaming on PS3

by Mr_X
in Community
April 8, 2011 at 7:36pm.

The Birth of a Community

When reflecting upon their PlayStation 3 gaming history, most FPS fans, particularly in the SIXAXIS Gaming (6A) community, focus on one game in particular – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (COD4). COD4 was the game that brought the community together, with its simple yet addictive gaming formula providing a great platform for like-minded individuals to congregate in clans and then test their skills against others. All it took was a couple of forward-thinking individuals to create a place for these clans to organize their meetings and discuss results and the rest is history – www.sixaxisgaming.com.au is now approaching 5000 members.

For some though a growing dissatisfaction in the Call of Duty franchise and bland offering of other shooters is contributing to doubts for the future of FPS gaming on 6A. Is this warranted?

The Call of Duty is Answered

The aforementioned COD4 is considered by most to be the finest installment in the COD series. It contains simple, uncomplicated fun. The structure of designing gun classes was made tactical, the guns are (in the majority) well balanced, and the maps are well designed. COD4 reigned supreme as the game of choice in the FPS genre for a long time, but as with all popular phenomena there was an eventual fall from grace as people desired something new. Even now there are still COD4 die-hards who still compete on it, but no-one can contest that the numbers are far less than in the game’s heyday. The upside to this inevitable decline in popularity is that it applies to far more than just video games: we won’t have to deal with Rebecca Black for much longer!

Community at War

COD4 was usurped by Call of Duty: World at War (WaW). While WaW was highly anticipated, in the eyes of many it failed to live up to the hype that was generated in the build up to its release. The inclusion of tanks was considered by many to be a fatal flaw, with the overpowered vehicles ruining many fun matches. Nevertheless the game had a decent run and many fun times were had competing in clan wars and playing the Nazi Zombies game mode. If tanks hadn’t been included, if the hit detection was better and other small tweaks had been implemented who knows how much more longevity the game could have had.

The Legacy of Modern Warfare is Defiled

The next release in theCoD series wasCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2). Another product of Infinity Ward, those responsible forCOD4, the game was very highly anticipated. In the lead-up to its release the game looked exceptional: an overhaul of the killstreak system, a much larger amount of customisation and a revamped engine hadCoD fanboys frothing at the mouth and trying exceedingly to obtain the game early. Some managed to do so, and although most of these lucky individuals had positive reviews there were a couple who were less than satisfied with what had been produced. Although these individuals were savaged by the community, their honest first opinions turned out to be a portent for the collective community consensus onMW2 that was to come. Immediately after the proper releaseMW2 was met with nearly universal rave reviews of its merits and record sales. Before long though, the flaws began to surface.

The guns sounded anything but powerful, with the noise accompanying the stream of bullets from the gun sounding like someone “keying” a car or running their fingernails down a blackboard. The infamous UMP sub machine gun was abused readily leading to a stagnant lack of variety, and before long many were exploiting the “cheap” additions to the game. Snipers abused the perk “Sleight of Hand Pro” allowing “quickscoping” to be prevalent, and “One Man Army” was abused to allow infinite grenade launcher ammo. The associated rage that built up was like having someone squeeze your brain with a pair of pliers. Obviously I don’t know if this is an accurate simile, but you’ll just have to trust me that if some day you fall into the hands of a sadistic psychopath you will have recollections of playing public matches onMW2. The game did have some positive inclusions such as game-winning killcams and improved matchmaking, and the engine was also very smooth, but the abundance of easily abused features was a major drawback. It is this game which forever changed the community’s opinion to competitive gaming: instead of simply enjoying the game as it was made with minimal changes, the widespread desire is now for nearly everything to be banned with a standardisation aimed towards replicating COD4. It is responsible for the near demise of variety.

Black Ops: A Black Spot in the Gaming Library

As has become predictable; a newCall of Duty game was to be released in the November following the release of MW2. This time the release ofCall of Duty: Black Ops (BO) was a chance for the company Treyarch to show what they were made of. “All aboard the Hype Train,” called the hyped-up commander of theCall of Duty network, and the hype-filled devotees shot full steam ahead to Hypeville. Best. Metaphor. Ever. The seasonedCOD4 veterans, myself included, were understandably cautious as the psychological wounds inflicted byMW2 were yet to heal, the insidious pus of disappointment still pooling in our skeptical words of warning about rushing into a game so full of gimmicks seemingly implemented by an overenthusiastic idealist. The conversation between those designingBO must have gone something like this:

Designer 1: Alright we have the successful CoD formula at our fingertips, but surely simplicity is overrated. What we really need is a killstreak that releases a ride-on shark with daggers for teeth and rollerblades on its fins. Or even a recon whale that shoots lasers from its blowhole.

Designer 2: Come on man, no need to be stupid. A much better idea would be to have a remote control car capable of blowing the f##k up. Or even a combat crossbow. The marines use them right? And how about making it shoot MOTHERF##KING BOMBS!

Like usual, there was praise upon release, but not at the astonishing heights of previous releases. Despite my woman’s intuition telling me not to, I bought BO on release. It is exceptional. Exceptionally bad that is. The lag was unbearable, graphics are awful and the hit detection and game engine are very mediocre. There are things that can be fixed, such as the improvement of matchmaking, but the fundamental aspects of a game are not things that can be merely patched out. At its coreBO is just plain disappointing. It had so much potential and some aspects of it deserve praise, such as the Theatre Mode allowing games to be recorded and uploaded to YouTube without the use of a capture card. Other good MW2 inclusions have been retained and refined, such as the game-winning killcam. The gun sounds have also improved to an extent compared toMW2. On the whole though,BO is just another game hastily pumped out to cash in on a phenomenon. Treyarch would be happy with the result, as the sales ofBO are the highest in history, but many gamers feel the same as I do about its failure.

The Future of the Call of Duty Series

As it is now almost April, that means it is just over 7 months (presumably) until the next Call of Duty game is released. The game is expected to follow on fromMW2, a reasonable expectation given its name “Modern Warfare 3” (MW3). At present there is not much information on the aspects of MW3, only that it will run on theMW2 engine. This, at least, is a positive thing as the MW2 engine was the smoothest in the series to date. Many overhauls fromMW2 will be needed to truly makeMW3 a great game. It has been speculated that the campaign will play out as a prequel to MW2, this time from the perspective of the character Ghost. This leads me to an important point: despite their short length, all of the campaigns across theCall of Duty series have been, in my opinion, fantastic. So far this hasn’t been enough of a reason to warrant buying theCoD titles as the multiplayer experience is the true draw card of the series. I expect this trend to continue inMW3.

Where to now for