Topic: The Ultimate Call of Duty 4 thread.

[Ghandi]

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Yeah, my buddy in the Air Force was sitting next to me telling during that level. He was telling me some cool (unclassified) shit about how realistic it is.

But the voices and some of the gameplay from that level are completely ripped from this video that was released form the Air Force, I'm pretty sure that it's still on YouTube although I forget the name. The dialogue is literally identical and the real-life video has an attack helicopter gunning some guys down in a field. I wish I could remember the name of it.

[scottws]

Oh yeah I have that video saved on my computer.

Edit:  The filename is "224Helicopter_kills.mpeg"

[MysterD]

Please, just tell me they're just kicking the idea around of doing a COD MMO and nothing more...

Would You Play a Call of Duty MMO?
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick floats the idea at an investor conference.
by Ryan Geddes

March 4, 2008 - Speaking to a group of investment analysts today, Activision CEO (and soon to be Activision Blizzard president and CEO) Bobby Kotick said the company is considering turning its Call of Duty franchise into a massively multiplayer online game.

Kotick briefly touched on the idea in answer to a question at the 2008 Morgan Stanley Technology Conference about how merging Activision with Vivendi Games might open up new opportunities for both companies.

Before closing its deal with Vivendi (which owns Sierra and Blizzard), Kotick said Activision looked at five years of data on U.S. publishers' attempts to break into the MMO market. Most resulted in failure, cancellation or low profit margins. By teaming up with Blizzard, which has proven its online mettle with World of Warcraft, he said Activision can not only pull in WoW's subscriber base to strengthen its balance sheet but also to learn from the company's veterans how to undertake new projects.

That could include tapping Blizzard talent to figure out how Activision might take Call of Duty in an MMO direction, Kotick said. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, developed by Infinity Ward, was a huge hit for Activision in 2007 and routinely appears at the top of Xbox Live's weekly list of most-played games.

Kotick only touched briefly on the CoD MMO idea and went on to discuss the future direction of the Guitar Hero franchise, which will likely see user-generated content and more tie-ins with Vivendi's Universal Music Group going forward.

[Pugnate]

Insanity.

[MysterD]

Infinity Ward is NOT ruling out the chances of CoD4 getting some SP DLC content in the future, even though currently they have no plans for it.

Call of Duty 4 Single Player DLC?
Mar 31, 2008 at 9:02 AM - Robert "Apache" Howarth - 6 Comments
Infinity Ward isn't ruling out single player downloadable content for Call of Duty 4 according to some developer quotes at Videogamer.

    CoD4 is currently the most played game across Xbox LIVE and PSN and has sold phenomenally well across multiple consoles since its release late last year. While gamers have been looking forward to new multiplayer maps for some time, we haven't heard anything about new single-player content.

    When asked if gamers will ever see new single-player DLC for CoD4, Infinity Ward programmer Jon Shiring told VideoGamer.com: "I wouldn't rule it out but we don't have any plans for that right now."

    Developers tend to prefer to release new multiplayer content than single-player content when it comes to first-person shooters. When it comes to CoD4, Shiring explained, the new DLC was in direct response to community requests.

In other CoD4 news... the company claims to have some 1.3 million players a day.

[MysterD]

There were rumors floating that Infinity Ward was trying to buy CoD IP back from Activision.

Activision squashed the rumors, saying that it'll be like it has been -- Infinity Ward and Treyarch (who made CoD3) will alternate on who's developing w/ each iteration of the CoD IP. So, IW will make one CoD game, Treyarch will make the CoD after that one, repeat cycle.

Activision rubbishes COD negotation talk
News by Rob Purchese

Today 15:00

Activision has rubbished rumours that Infinity Ward has moved to take control of the entire Call of Duty series.

A spokesperson for the publisher told Eurogamer it was a total fabrication, and that Treyarch and Infinity Ward would still alternately create instalments in the shooter series.

Rumours spiralled from an ex-Activision Underground employee who claimed that Infinity Ward had prompted a contract renegotiation in an effort to become the sole developer of Call of Duty games.

This unnamed source also revealed that Activision Underground was making a third-person Call of Duty spin-off, but had to stop work as a result of the renegotiation, which promptly led to studio closure.

Call of Duty 4 was released late last year but still commands a place among the top 10 in the UK All Formats weekly chart.

The game has sold over 9 million copies across PS3, 360 and PC formats around the world.

Its freshly released Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack also went on to set a new record for the most downloaded piece of paid-for content on Xbox Live, serving over one million people in just nine days.

[gpw11]

Holy shit, this is the most intense and immersive FPS ever.  I'm going to be having flashbacks and shit.

[PyroMenace]

Holy shit, this is the most intense and immersive FPS ever.  I'm going to be having flashbacks and shit.

Heh, welcome to the club. I guess the main question to weigh in on is, do you think its worth the full price tag of 60$?

[gpw11]

I can't really say.  I'm not very far into it; maybe about 2-3 hours.

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The Price flashback/sniper mission

. If the game really is 6-7 hours long I'd say it's worth it.  I could very well play through it again. If it ends in an hour or so I might think differently about it.  Realistically, I probably won't touch mp apart from trying it out.  I wasn't a huge fan of CoD2s MP and I barely have enough time to play my two MP loves (TF2 and DoD: Source).

I'll let you know my thoughts on the value when I'm finished.

[gpw11]

Ok, I didn't pay full price for it so my perspective might be a bit skewed, but yeah I think it totally would be worth the full price when compairing it to other games that sell for the same. The SP campaign may be short, but it contains zero filler (unlike maybe 80 of other SP campaigns).  Every second is intesnse, every mission is different, and at the end of it you're not even thinking of it as a game, you're thinking of it as an experience.  I had to force myself through FEAR, Prey, and countless other FPS games because there was so much repititon that didn't advance anything or even prove to be more than marginally entertaining; you were doing shit purely to add time onto the game.  Some people may equate this with value, but personally I don't; where's the value if you'd rather be playing something else? 

The single player campaign may (although knowing what I do now, I'll pay $60 for six hours of awesome over 10-12 hours of simply average) not be worth the full price on it's own, but you can't deny the potential value is there.  I checked out MP, and although I personally don't think I'll get into it, it's fleshed out enough to make the purchase completely worthwhile if you're into MP. I also played around with the arcade mode and was kind of pumped to see that because the game is so well scripted and varied in enviroment I still had as much fun playing through the first mission again.

I don't think everryone would be satisfied, but knowing what I know I'd have no problem throwing down full price on the next CoD game if the SP is just as short and just as potent.

[scottws]

I'm actually on my third play-through.  This time on the hardest difficulty.  I can't believe I'm trying it, because that part...

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where you evac at the end of the sniper flashback at the ferris wheel

...was a huge bitch on the second hardest difficulty level.  I must have played it 20 times before I found an exploit that made it pretty easy.

But yeah, the single-player experience in this game is awesome.  The only part I didn't like was when...

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Sgt. Jackson died.

I mean I understand its inclusion in terms of the story and impact, but it was a big change of pace from the rest of the game and wasn't very fun.  If anything, it was confusing.

But yeah, awesome, awesome game.  The multiplayer is mostly fun, but can be frustrating like when the gametype switches to free-for-all and switches to the Supply map on a 32-person server.  This map is tiny and only fun in team deathmatch on like 8 or 16 person servers.  Other than that, it's sort of up and down.  I'll be first on one map and then dead last on the next.  It's very dependent on streaks.  If you build up a kill streak, you unlock air strikes and then a helicopter.  Naturally these things enable you to get even more kills and subsequent air strikes and helicopters.  When someone else is on one of these streaks it sucks.  The helicopter will snipe you across the map and crap like that.

[gpw11]

I'm actually on my third play-through.  This time on the hardest difficulty.  I can't believe I'm trying it, because that part...

(click to show/hide)

where you evac at the end of the sniper flashback at the ferris wheel

...was a huge bitch on the second hardest difficulty level.  I must have played it 20 times before I found an exploit that made it pretty easy.

But yeah, the single-player experience in this game is awesome.  The only part I didn't like was when...

(click to show/hide)

Sgt. Jackson died.

I mean I understand its inclusion in terms of the story and impact, but it was a big change of pace from the rest of the game and wasn't very fun.  If anything, it was confusing.

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Really?  I didn't find that part all that hard on regular.  Actually I thought it was going to be a total bitch while setting up and it didn't pan out that way.  I guess it ramps up quite a bit eh?  As for Jackson dying, I actually liked it quite a bit. You get out of this crazy Black Hawk Down scenario, get into your helicopter, and as the last RPGs fly by you you breath a sigh of release.  Then it's chaos, serenity, and nothing. It's not so much that you die which I found impressive, it's how they handled it; you didn't die a hero, you were just another statistic. Fuck, had you not gone back to save that pilot you would have lived too.

[scottws]

I too didn't find it too hard on regular.  I thought it would be tough, and I wouldn't say it was easy, but I made it through on the first try.  Not so on veteran or whatever the next difficulty is called.

[Ghandi]

I'm actually on my third play-through.  This time on the hardest difficulty.  I can't believe I'm trying it, because that part...

(click to show/hide)

where you evac at the end of the sniper flashback at the ferris wheel

...was a huge bitch on the second hardest difficulty level.  I must have played it 20 times before I found an exploit that made it pretty easy.

(click to show/hide)

What exploit?

I actually played the game my first run through on the hardest, and it took me a bit to get that part down. The important thing is to place satchels in the correct spots and blow them as the different squads run at you. I think that I camped out in the back right to snipe some guys, and pulled out my automatic when they flanked me from around the railing.

[scottws]

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I tired going behind the bumper car area, but I was pelted with grenades and flashbangs. 

The exploit is right after the choppers start coming, you run down the right pathway between the buildings and then go prone by an outcropping.  I did this and only saw a couple of guys.

[MysterD]

This is from one of Infinity Ward's game makers, Robert Bowling -- on his web blog.

COD4 Map Pack will be sponsored by Nvidia for the PC, for FREE downloading on June 5th.
Patch 1.6 is coming, too.

Great news! Heads up that the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Variety Map Pack sponsored by NVIDIA will be available worldwide for our PC players next week on June 5th!

NVIDIA is making it possible for PC players to download the map pack for Free on the PC thanks to their sponsorship. In addition, expect to see quite a few promotions popping up leading up to the launch of the map packs on the 5th and beyond. I know NVIDIA has a lot of great things planned for PC users in addition to maps becoming available.

There’s going to be some PC specific previews going up online this weekend I believe that will cover how well the maps play on the PC version as well as some contests and promotions happening all next week. I’ll be posting up details on them as they get started all this week!

The Variety Map Pack includes four new maps for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer including Broadcast, Chinatown, Killhouse, and Creek.

In addition to the map pack hitting, PC Players will be receiving the 1.6 Patch for the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that will add support for the new maps, fix a server crash exploit recently reported by the community, and a few additional features / bug fixes. I will post a full patch notes list next week.

EDIT, 6/4/2008:
So y'all know, Patch 1.6 is now out for you PC gamers.

[Ghandi]

Decided to play though again on the hardest difficulty and there are a few parts in the game that are damn annoying. There is one mission where you fly in from a chopper at the beginning, and I died about 40 times in a row because I was unable to do anything. There was a 50 cal shooting me from a building and I wasn't able to shoot back because the gun on the chopper doesn't turn sharp enough, and you die in only a few hits on the hardest difficulty. I was finally able to get through after it missed, but I was mad as hell at that point considering I'd spent over half an hour just dying with no control. I'm fine with dying when I have control, but when it's out of my control like that it's a little frustrating.

Other than that, my second run-through is just as enjoyable as the first. I'm trying to collect all the intel computers this time around. Does anyone know what it unlocks when you collect all 30?

[scottws]

I just reinstalled and played through this again, again on the 2nd hardest difficulty.  I'd forgotten until I read this thread I was in the middle of a play-through on the hardest and started over.  I love this game.

This time I watched the credits all the way through.  I didn't realize there was another map after the credits.  Tough and short, but pretty cool they threw that in there.

[Pugnate]

Didn't know about the extra map. And the game is only good on the mid level difficulty settings. On "high" the game just cheats and is a an exercise in frustration. Something like Crysis or R6:V is enjoyable on the hardest difficulty, because the AI never cheats. The difficulty is ramped up, but without any shortcuts.

I might just play this again for the last map.

Nah... too many games on my plate. Still haven't started Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Dawn of War 2 etc etc etc.

[scottws]

If you have saves with the game beaten, then you don't have to play through the end again and wait out the credits.  If you go to mission select, you should see "Epilogue" in there.  That's the extra mission.

[Pugnate]

No saves. Reformatted.

[Ghandi]

And the game is only good on the mid level difficulty settings. On "high" the game just cheats and is a an exercise in frustration. Something like Crysis or R6:V is enjoyable on the hardest difficulty, because the AI never cheats. The difficulty is ramped up, but without any shortcuts.

There's a good 3-4 really annoying spots on the highest difficulty but other than that it's not too bad. It's definitely not as fun, though. More of just a challenge than anything.

Have you guys checked out the MP yet? It's a lot of fun - a little different than the standard fps multiplayer in that you can pick perks and get levels and whatnot.

[scottws]

Yeah, I was really into the MP for awhile.  Eventually though, I kind of hated it.  I'm sorry, but the helicopter is complete BS.  Once someone gets one, it's relatively easy to keep calling them since it helps get them another 7 easy kills, continuing the utter misery.

[Ghandi]

Yeah the helicopter is stupid. If you have a good team it only takes a couple of guys a few seconds to shoot it down, but its so absurdly imbalanced that it isn't fun. I usually just played Search & Destroy, where you never really see the helicopter.

[MysterD]

Best Buy has Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare PC - Game Of The Year Edition for $30 this week.
Count me in.

[MysterD]

Oh, man -- this game so far is awesome (SP). In many games, you have levels that totally standout for me -- i.e. MOH:AA had Omaha Beach; CoD2 has Stalingrad. So far, every level has stood out as amazing in this COD4 Single Player campaign.

First Few Levels

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The opening level in the boat was amazing, watching the water flood the ship as your cam goes sideways, even when you try to get it not to.

Also, the first-person level where you feel the actual assassination....gripping and pretty bad-ass.

How far I am along, so far...

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I made it to the B&W air-strike level. This is cool, yet actually quite different...

[scottws]

Glad you are enjoying it, but damn are you late.

[MysterD]

Glad you are enjoying it, but damn are you late.

Better late than never, I'd say.

Worth noting -- the game looks great and runs fantastic on my PC, as well.

[W7RE]

This is one of the games in my list of "I must play these games to consider myself an FPS fan." I've probably been to the 5th or 6th level maybe? not far. I'll start over when I get back to it though.

[MysterD]

God, this SP component is freakin' awesome. Pretty much, this game's been awesome.

Ferris Wheel

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The Ferris Wheel mission was outstanding. Picking up the dude after he gets injured and all, and you can pick up and drop him to help you out and do shooting -- that has to be one of the coolest missions I've seen in a FPS.

Where I'm At

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I'm at the mission at the barn, to try to blow 4 tanks out of the water w/ the Javelin.

This game's awesome.

[beo]

how much did you complain about the length of the game when it came out, d? i know it was enough to piss me off. now you've actually played it and have something to actually base an opinion on, have you changed your mind? quality over quantity and all that...

[MysterD]

how much did you complain about the length of the game when it came out, d?

Quite a damn bit. I don't really like games being...well, too short. For $40-50, it's just not a deal I'm willing to take -- b/c in a matter of no time, I'll be done with it. The way I play, a few days, basically.

I get much more mileage out of say RPG's, time-wise.

At $30, I'd say a short SP campaign is say MUCH more acceptable (than say $40-50) -- which is what I paid for CoD4.

I'd really be bitching more, if there was say no MP portion. I ain't even touched the MP yet, even...

i know it was enough to piss me off. now you've actually played it and have something to actually base an opinion on, have you changed your mind? quality over quantity and all that...

So far, the SP game's amazing, as it stands -- some 7 hours into it (or a little more). Let me finish this baby off, actually see how the game actually ends, and we'll see how many hours I've got through the SP (according to Xfire).

Back to the game, now...

EDIT:
Finished the SP. Spent around 10 hours with it, according to XFire. Worth $30 I paid for it, after spending 10 hours with the SP? Damn right.

SP ENDING Talk

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The game really could've left you rescued and all, after you shoot Irman Zakaev (spelling?) on the bridge and all. That would've been a perfect way to complete it all.

But, "ugh!" and "WTF?" at the way they pull a Prey here -- give you another short extra level to do, after The Credits rolled and leave you literally hanging with a few (new) threads they opened untouched. Who was the hostage with the bag on their head? What happens to your character after he jumps out the plane?

Until Modern Warfare 2, I guess...

[beo]

i think you missed the point a little there, d.

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it's not really related to the rest of the game - not important in the story at all. it's just a little bonus.

[MysterD]

i think you missed the point a little there, d.

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it's not really related to the rest of the game - not important in the story at all. it's just a little bonus.

(click to show/hide)

Well, it has nothing to do w/ the Zachaev story...

But it looks like this is where MW2 will begin or it'll pick up from that point or it'll somehow integrate and connect this extra-level right into MW2.

[Pugnate]

how much did you complain about the length of the game when it came out, d? i know it was enough to piss me off. now you've actually played it and have something to actually base an opinion on, have you changed your mind? quality over quantity and all that...

It wasn't just D on OW.

I'll say that 6 hours is the perfect length for me when the game comes with a kick ass MP component. Simple fact is that I just don't have the tolerance for a longer linear shooter game.

[Ghandi]

I agree Pug, but I expect it to be a kickass 6 hours if they choose to keep it that short. Luckily this game fit the bill. I wouldn't have complained if it were longer, though.

[sirean_syan]

Right now the game is on sale on Impluse for about $24 ($20 if you have that 2009 survey coupon), so I finally picked it up and gave it a go.

So... really? I have a hard time believing this is one of the most immersive games ever. I suppose I should start with the qualifier that I played through on hard, which may have been a mistake. But, after the tutorial the game recommended I do it, so I went with it.

Far too many times in the game, I was forced to use trial and error in order to get through the tough areas and it was just frustrating as hell. Several times, it seemed like the game expected me to be able to just know when there was a guy in a blind corner, a blind corner was being covered by another blind corner, able to dodge a constant barrage or grenades, or survive an encounter with 20+ enemies. Probably the worst part is that I'm pretty sure enemies endlessly respawned unless you pushed forward. So, you couldn't expect to clear an area and move up. Instead, you had to take the five second opportunity in between kills to move to the next area. While I suppose this is supposed to keep things intense, it doesn't help when you allies are worthless when it comes to moving forward and always wait for you to take the lead, essentially without their cover. To make it worse, they can't provide cover fire for shit. So, that leads to the blind corner problem. This was also a problem when you were expected to survive through disgustingly lopsided odds as you more or less became a one many army while your buddies just hung back. For a game that was sort of pushing reality, it relied too much on Black Hawk Down situations. Ultimately, I felt like the game was being cheap rather than just hard and the constant deaths in some of the areas pulled me out the action far too often.

That said, I think the game was worth seeing and it probably would have been much better if I was just able to enjoy the ride on normal difficulty. I really enjoyed the first half of the sniper levels and some of the more sprawling battles. I was also really impressed with the air vehicle level because it pulled off this level of detachment from the combat situation that was just interesting.

So yeah, that's my late take on the deal. Good game, could be really good, but not quite super best.
 

[MysterD]

Right now the game is on sale on Impluse for about $24 ($20 if you have that 2009 survey coupon), so I finally picked it up and gave it a go.

So... really? I have a hard time believing this is one of the most immersive games ever. I suppose I should start with the qualifier that I played through on hard, which may have been a mistake. But, after the tutorial the game recommended I do it, so I went with it.

I never go on Hard Difficulty unless it's a replay. I'm sure that did not help matters w/ you starting off w/ Hard, as Infinity Ward is known for heavy trial and error, heavy respawns, and highly scripted games. They've been doing this style since the old 2015 days of MOH:AA, before some of they became Infinity Ward - it's just they really have ratcheted it up even more so w/ their COD games.

Of course, we have to all define immersive. Some people see Gothic as the most immersive games b/c of the way NPC's act and behave on a schedule that is very highly scripted; some people get immersed into the world of say Fallout 3 b/c of all the destruction, decay, and the post-apocalyptic setting; some people think it's a great story that immerses them into a gameworld; some people see COD4: MW immersive for the way it pulls you into combat; etc etc. Me, I wouldn't say COD4: Modern Warfare is the most immersive game ever - but it's surely got to be one of the most intense shooting games I can think of.

Far too many times in the game, I was forced to use trial and error in order to get through the tough areas and it was just frustrating as hell. Several times, it seemed like the game expected me to be able to just know when there was a guy in a blind corner, a blind corner was being covered by another blind corner, able to dodge a constant barrage or grenades, or survive an encounter with 20+ enemies. Probably the worst part is that I'm pretty sure enemies endlessly respawned unless you pushed forward. So, you couldn't expect to clear an area and move up. Instead, you had to take the five second opportunity in between kills to move to the next area. While I suppose this is supposed to keep things intense, it doesn't help when you allies are worthless when it comes to moving forward and always wait for you to take the lead, essentially without their cover. To make it worse, they can't provide cover fire for shit. So, that leads to the blind corner problem. This was also a problem when you were expected to survive through disgustingly lopsided odds as you more or less became a one many army while your buddies just hung back. For a game that was sort of pushing reality, it relied too much on Black Hawk Down situations. Ultimately, I felt like the game was being cheap rather than just hard and the constant deaths in some of the areas pulled me out the action far too often.

Infinity Ward does this a lot w/ their shooters - very highly scripted and A LOT of trial and error. Also, yes - they do use respawn scripts a lot, too. I bet that's even more so true on Hard, as well.

I had trouble often on Normal at times, so yeah - I don't think IW makes the easiest games around, either. They're pretty old school and hardcore, in nature.

That said, I think the game was worth seeing and it probably would have been much better if I was just able to enjoy the ride on normal difficulty. I really enjoyed the first half of the sniper levels and some of the more sprawling battles. I was also really impressed with the air vehicle level because it pulled off this level of detachment from the combat situation that was just interesting.

The black and white level defending the church from above and the one in the 'copter where you man the gun are awesome. I'm sure there's a lot more of these awesome moments, if I can think of them. The battle defending the barn from the tiger tanks is quite memorable, as well.

So yeah, that's my late take on the deal. Good game, could be really good, but not quite super best.

Did you try the MP yet?

[MysterD]

Man, these were the good old Call of Duty 4 - PC version days...

[Pugnate]

Far too many times in the game, I was forced to use trial and error in order to get through the tough areas and it was just frustrating as hell.

Yea I can't believe you ruined the game for yourself by playing on hard. The game is awesome on normal difficulty, but a piece of broken shit on 'hard'. I was in the same situation as you and restarted the game on easy. I even posted about this earlier in the thread. This isn't your fault though, as the game suggested that I play on hard as well. Big mistake.

I don't have issues with a harder game (I loved Crysis on hard), but I do have a problem when the AI cheats.