Why Call of Duty isn't as Good as Everyone is Telling You.
Somewhere in the world, there's a person who hasn't played Call of Duty.
I don't know where. If you hike into deepest, darkest Peru you might
find an old lady, who lost her thumbs in a knife fight, who has never
played Call of Duty. Even then, the bitch might be lying.
But is Call of Duty as good as everyone tells you? Your boyfriend, your mates, your children, they'll all tell you that it's one of the greatest game franchises of all time, with over seventy million copies sold - the most recent incarnation, Black Ops alone, sold seven million copies in it's first twenty four hours. At the same time, my local game shop received, pre-owned as a trade in, more than one copy only twelve hours after the game had been released at Midnight on the high street. Well Call of Duty is a game of two halves.
It's Campaign mode, to put it bluntly, is shit. They have undoubtebly cool moments - storming the Reichstag with the Russians, defending the White House from the Russians, being gassed by the Russians... I notice a pattern emerging. It's an FPS shooter on rails, with very little freedom to expand. I found this easier to excuse on the first couple of entries, but in a world of decision making in games, of Deus Ex, of Half Life, of Halo the current campaign mode is so weak to be ridiculous - Black Ops had a painfully awful campaign, weak plot, irritating killing off of characters and a set story line on rails.
But who really gives a fart about the Campaign mode in COD? Halo has a fantastic campaign mode, but I for the life of me only ever played about seven minutes of the sodding thing. It's in multi player where Call of Duty shines. But does it shine anymore?
Black Ops online was rife with bugs, particularly in it's Playstation and PC versions. And after several updates, it still has more bugs than a slags knickers - anyone who's ever tried to knife someone, only to find yourself getting bullet fucked in the eye because your blade passed harmlessly through them will agree with me. Plus, the lag can be unbearable, watching enemies skip, hop and jump at random across the occasionally badly executed maps has had me perfectly willing to hurl my controller out the window, in the vain hope that it might find hone in on the guy I'm playing and knock him out.
And the maps, what are they like? Call of Duty 3 had some amazing maps and Modern Warfare 2 had location's to die for. But Black Ops has a total of three good maps - one of which you pay seperately for in the shape of 'Arena'. 'Array' and 'Summit' are the other two candidates, and I suppose 'Nuke Town', is a contender but it gets a little old. Think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when Indie hides in the fridge. It's like that, but there's no lead bound escape. Not that that film ever existed, no no. As far as I'm concerned, there were only three Indie movies. Just three and never any fucking aliens.
But is Call of Duty as good as everyone tells you? Your boyfriend, your mates, your children, they'll all tell you that it's one of the greatest game franchises of all time, with over seventy million copies sold - the most recent incarnation, Black Ops alone, sold seven million copies in it's first twenty four hours. At the same time, my local game shop received, pre-owned as a trade in, more than one copy only twelve hours after the game had been released at Midnight on the high street. Well Call of Duty is a game of two halves.
It's Campaign mode, to put it bluntly, is shit. They have undoubtebly cool moments - storming the Reichstag with the Russians, defending the White House from the Russians, being gassed by the Russians... I notice a pattern emerging. It's an FPS shooter on rails, with very little freedom to expand. I found this easier to excuse on the first couple of entries, but in a world of decision making in games, of Deus Ex, of Half Life, of Halo the current campaign mode is so weak to be ridiculous - Black Ops had a painfully awful campaign, weak plot, irritating killing off of characters and a set story line on rails.
But who really gives a fart about the Campaign mode in COD? Halo has a fantastic campaign mode, but I for the life of me only ever played about seven minutes of the sodding thing. It's in multi player where Call of Duty shines. But does it shine anymore?
Black Ops online was rife with bugs, particularly in it's Playstation and PC versions. And after several updates, it still has more bugs than a slags knickers - anyone who's ever tried to knife someone, only to find yourself getting bullet fucked in the eye because your blade passed harmlessly through them will agree with me. Plus, the lag can be unbearable, watching enemies skip, hop and jump at random across the occasionally badly executed maps has had me perfectly willing to hurl my controller out the window, in the vain hope that it might find hone in on the guy I'm playing and knock him out.
And the maps, what are they like? Call of Duty 3 had some amazing maps and Modern Warfare 2 had location's to die for. But Black Ops has a total of three good maps - one of which you pay seperately for in the shape of 'Arena'. 'Array' and 'Summit' are the other two candidates, and I suppose 'Nuke Town', is a contender but it gets a little old. Think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when Indie hides in the fridge. It's like that, but there's no lead bound escape. Not that that film ever existed, no no. As far as I'm concerned, there were only three Indie movies. Just three and never any fucking aliens.
