Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been playing the campaign for about three hours and I'm really enoying it. For me it's better than the MW2 campaign which I didn't really follow and kept getting characters mixed up.

Don't read this if you've not played much.



I'm actually reluctant to stop playing which is never usually a problem with the CoD campaigns, usually I only do it in bursts in between mulitplayer sessions but I want to finish this and find out what happens!

Graphics are quite good. Smoke looks very pretty and the character animation is among the best I've seen in FPSs on the 360 that I can think of. Dissapointed that it's only meant to be five hours but I buy it for the mulitplayer anyway so that's not really an issue. If I didn't buy mulitplayer I doubt I'd buy it, just get it off lovefilm or something for a few days.

Oh, also (I'll spoiler this although it is just a comment on a location)

As I'm sure you are aware, brands have value. Else people wouldn't be working themselves up over the latest CoD game entirely because of the brand. Despite being made by a different group than mw. When IW release the next one,will people get it despite it not being the original IW? Based on the hype around any CoD you would have to say yes.

Taht the game is published by an unpopular publisher who got terrible PR from the split also seems to have had little effect.

Fact is, 90% of people know nothing more than 'CoD'. What bad PR? Most people are absolutely none the wiser.

I have the Codblops. Picked it up tonight for £4.97 from Asda with the Fable 3 trade in offer

I agree with WTB. Something feels less cunty about this than MW2 did on the first day. Can't put my finger on it, other than me being not fucking shit.

I've just noticed it also has stats - like graphs and all sorts. Your entire history broken down by weapon, game mode, etc. Another good thing stolen from Halo!

I mentioned that earlier on! I really like the Heat maps and the body map that shows where you hit your enemies. I also spent about twenty minutes designing my badge thing

Mine is a rabbit getting its head smashed in by a hammer!

Brilliant! My sweet, lovely, feminine girfriend has gone for lots of skulls

Initial thoughts:

It really lacks or the... erm, whats the right word?... weight or heft that MW/MW2 had. It's got that slidy-unreality that W@W has. It also has the Treyarch lack of game flow in the single player campaign.

That said having all the on-line stuff working in split-screen is wonderful. Even if the frame rate takes a hit. That alone will probably stop us trading it in.

And Zombies seems as awesome as before.

Treyarch working on CoD games makes me sad. It seems to as though they have the makings of a really, really fine arcade game maker. They should be pumping out things like Nazi Zombies and the like without having to waste time with 'realistic' games or multiplayer grind fests. Let them embrace the arcade purity they clearly understand.

That said, it's a far, far better beast than W@W so far.

I don't get the weight thing. Multiplayer is just as good/the same as MW2 only a little slower and with less lame stuff. Unless you're talking about the campaign?

Maybe the sound? Bangs pop rather than boom for example.

Curses. I really need to stop being able to remember ever digit on my debit card.

The sounds are certainly different! I actually prefer them though, seem more realistic to me. Especially weapon noises. Not sure about the explosions which pop as you say.

Hmm. This (campaign) appears to be a bit buggered. On the third section

I think he's referring to the lack of the Jam Gnome which spreads jam all over your face when anyone so much as gives you a dirty look.

Oh, the jam gnome is still there.

It is? Feh. Stupid Jam Gnome.

Completed!

I loved it. There are a few very nice looking levels and there is one level in particular where some music plays as you're playing and it's brilliant A couple of level looked like a nod to CoD games past, only prettier.
The story was brilliant*, I was beginning to think it was getting a bit mad but I think it was actually done with a bit of a nudge and a wink to how ridiculous the stories in these games are. Don't read until your finished
Looked a lot more polished than the modern warfares as well to me! Controversial?

*By brilliant I mean blockbuster ridiculous brilliant, not masterpiece brilliant!

How long did that take, Gill?

Judging by the screenshots in the article linked below, I'd go further than saying it's not suitable for 10 year olds. It's the kind of thing that makes me worry about people in general that such things would be desirable in a game.

linked article

I don't think it's controversial! Not anymore anyway. I think Treyarch proved they could do a decent job with WaW, and they've had the full studio on this game for two years, so it stands to reason that it'd be as good as the Infinity Ward campaigns.

As for the multiplayer, I'm really enjoying it. It's basically MW2 with the annoyances removed, some seriously great maps, Halo style handy features, wager game modes which are a nice touch, and customisation options. The logo creating tool is infinitely more powerful than the one in Halo. It allows you 10 layers to Halo's two, and a shit ton of images to rotate and distort at your leisure. I can't wait to stick it on my gun. And BTW: the FAMAS is awesome. Really impressed so far.

I've only played the first campaign stage (Veteran) and it seemed decent - standard CoD fare really, but I do like the Cold War setting. Definitely looking forward to going back to it.

Zombies is a neat addition and potentially very fun in co-op, and the twin stick shooter Easter egg arcade game is great as well. Helluva package.

'99%' - The Sun

I'd say six hours at an average pace. Five hours would be achievable if your powering through on one of the lower difficulties. As with all CoDs I did it on regular to take in the story and I'll do it again on Veteran sometime soon.

Oh yeah...hell no is it suitable for a ten year old. Quite a few scenes as well and gameplay elements that I can't see them missing out even if you chose the 'no disturbing images' option at the start.

So am I first finished out all the beexers?

Is this what Dimrill feels like? *strokes beard*

I quite enjoyed the campaign so far, its good!

Gun Game is fucking awesome!

Well I finished the campaign. It was a bit rubbish.

Dabbled with the multiplayer, and it's ok, but not really my thing.

Going to trade it in for £9 more than I paid for it tomorrow.

Third stage of the campaign has a corridor section with infinitely spawning enemies. Been stuck for a fucking hour. Fuck you Treyarch. I genuinely don't think it's possible on Veteran. The checkpoint is a fucking joke.

I thought they'd put a stop to this cheap shit?

I was trying to figure out if it was infinitely spawning enemies when I was playing and I thought it was but I was trying to ignore it. That's rubbish if it is The checkpoints are usually terrible and then start creeping forward a bit once you've died a billionty times but it still sucks. That's the reason I don't go through it on Veteran first time. I like to enjoy the story and game the way I would a blockbuster film and it's ruined somewhat if I put it off in frustration because of cheap tricks like that.

Well i played a little over 3 hours of this last night and it does feel more WOW than MW2 but with a nicer graphical polish over it all.

I didnt even touch the single player but jumped straight into MP and some small maps which can get quite manic (Nuke 'town'? is basically 2 buildings and their gardens and i played about 3 team deathmatch games in there with about 20 other people which was absolute chaos).

When i started there were 2 people on there who were level 41 - and everyone else was about 1 - 20 - by the end of the night I was about level 18 and starting to put together some winning runs on Domination.

A quick go on the zombies and that was it for the night - i'll try again tonight.

I ended up getting stuck there too, on Hardened but I got through it easy enough on Regular. Smoke grenades are your friend. There are a few spawn points and as you pass each one they stop. It is fucking cheap though. From what I've seen so far I can't agree that this campaign is in any way as good as that in MW2, not even nearly.

The sound of a grenade attachment on impact, or a grenade itself isn't explosive, even if nearby. I agree they have toned down from MW2 (and what the game highlights is that they were right to) although maybe too far. Also, there is a disbalance in the FX used. For example, the voice over comms telling you that a spy plane on the way is very fucking loud, but take an objective and you barely get any form of audio advice. More than once I was running at a HQ and only knew we hadn't taken it because it had gone red. Christ knows when it happened.

Possibly one of the other reasons that the game feels different is that the movement speed of players is far slower, even with Marathon on, and noticably slower with heavy weapons. With an LMG you feel stuck in mud half the time, which is how it should be. Very quickly you learn that everyone else has picked up on this, you don't sprint round corners without looking on the radar as you aren't going to escape from someones sights. Also, you can't fly over obstacles, it is a climb. That said, I saw some big kangaroos leaping over the train line in Launch (which seemed to account for 50% of games I played last night, I think the kids like the voting mechanic and the big rocket).

Also, no One Man Army so far as I can see (yay), and Warlord (Bling) is restricted that if you have a secondary weapon attachment to your gun, it won't work. So no Grenade Attachment plus red dot sight for example, but you can mix the RDS and suppressor. As a result, far fewer explosions. And those explosions are less powerful, extending to Claymores which have a far smaller blast radius (and are also back to the CoD 4 mechanic of planting, which led me to grenading myself on more than one occasion at the beginning).

I haven't played SP on this, and can't see when I will do soon.

When I had my second session last night the stat bar at the bottom of the player list showed that 654 people had prestiged. Didn't seem that many, but the stats clearly weren't frequently updating, I saw the same mount everest stat several times.

What's your maximum price and I'll keep an eye out.

I have no money. I gave everything I had to my girlfriend for rent yesterday.

This could be trickier than I thought.

Actually that's a lie. I have 10 English monies in my wallet and a copy of new Vegas.

A Swedish girlfriend might be worth a trade.

This could be more interesting than I thought.

this could be trickier than I thought.

amused me.

Anyway. Didn't get to play yesterday, but the wife's working late tonight, so I'll be all over it like a tramp on chips.

Actually, your wife isn't working tonight. She's going to be all over me like a tramp on chips.

The only respawning enemies I've noticed is when you're in 'Nam, where it at least makes sense. It is an army you're fighting. But then I'm playing on normal, itight be more noticeable on harder difficulties.

Fine by me if I get to play CODBLOPS.

I want to play codblops

My Codblops is in the post. I might open it, but we'll see.