Looking back, I remember when I played the first Modern Warfare game and boy did I have an epiphany at the time. It seemed like the numbers at the end of titles have shifted meaning in my short absence from the single player scene.
We weren?t dealing anymore with sequels but rather with game time being blatantly displayed for everyone to see. For me personally it seemed like producers just gave up on selling false hopes and dreams and just went for the wallet of the everyday gamer. Despite such issues I decided to move, leave my log cabin in the mountains and return to civilization.
By the way, in case you haven?t caught that one, it took me 4 hours to complete Modern Warfare and boy was I surprised to see that the game is named Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Now imagine with what I went ahead to check out the latest installment in the series Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3!
Despite being an anti-social bastard I don?t dream quietly at nights about shooting civilians or even starting a world war. The one main reason for that would be that I wouldn?t want a war, I would just like to wake up alone on the planet one day, but that?s beside the point. What matters now is how MW 3 is holding up in my books. In order to get a ?feel? of the series, since it has been quite some time since I played the last titles, I decided to take a run at them again.
This shouldn?t be a problem anymore since I knew that it would take me tops a day to finish the entire Modern Warfare series and that with lunch and ?me time? brakes. I used to do that with older games in order to get immersed into the story line again, yet then it struck me. There is no story line in the Modern Warfare series.
To those who say that there is, just go back to your Tom Clancy novels and leave us mere mortals sit here in our little puddle of ignorance. Saying that a series of ?Oscar Mike?, ?Sit Rep? and ?Move up go!? (Crysis, I know) constitutes the basis for a storyline is like saying that ?I?ll be back? is on the same level with ?To be or not to be?.
But let?s move past the obvious and get down and dirty with what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has in store for us from the point of view of a simple FPS. Firstly I?m annoyed to no end by these ?ultra-realistic? games in which despite the claim of realism our character can recover even from the most painful of injuries. It doesn?t matter if your limbs were scattered across the screen by some incoming grenade, just crawl behind some sort of object which apparently is bullet proof and you?ll be growing those back in no time.
I?m not sure where the producers of MW 3 took their definition of realism, but let?s just say that if it was from the Bible, I can understand respawns in Quake 3 as well. The game kicks off with a full scale invasion of the US by Russia (who else is lining up here folks?) yet I fail to see why that would be plausible or even desirable. Most likely since the country has been turned into a cross country shopping mall with gas stations every 10 miles, but who am I to judge the funny ?Engrish? speaking folk of the game.
In sweet Modern Warfare style you will be going through a number of playable scenarios in which you take control of some hardcore soldier, obviously on a protein diet. After killing and murdering half of the invading forces as a Delta Force member, you move on to the gritty and grim undercover or special ops type of characters. Unit 141 or whatever their name is made me hope for a while for a switch in gameplay, yet opponents spawn infinitely and keep pushing you to advance.
If this was the designer?s idea of creating an action packed game, then I?m sorry to disappoint them, as I did not feel the ?action? at any point. I?ve felt my heart pump faster during some intricate puzzle in Braid rather than Modern Warfare 3. This is partly because we know this to be fake and partly because control is taken away from the player.
What happened to choosing the right moment to engage a fight, what happened to really controlling the outcome of a battle instead of running full speed towards the weapons of the opposition or otherwise run the risk out being left without ammo. Drying I not an option since your incredible regenerating abilities will keep you alive in any situation.
Staying on combat, there is a huge array of weapons, yet the differences between them are almost irrelevant since I could kill my opposition with just as much as irrespective of manufacturer. Moving up on the difficulty scale won?t bring you that adrenaline shot you?ve been looking for in FPSs since the beginning of time but rather make you a masochist since getting insta-killed is not my idea of fun or entertainment.
Some of those hardcore fans out there (spinning around) might find this amusing, but for me it was an annoyance at best. The other big flaw of combat is the fact that everyone sort of looks the same. You might argue that ?How come you don?t know the standard military outfit of a Russian foot soldier? or ?how come you don?t know the standard of the Delta Unit? but I would come back with a somewhat clever retort ? why would it matter? Isn?t the whole point of the game to entertain, rather than annoy?
In terms of shooters, thinking back at such titles as Counter Strike, you can clearly differentiate between an enemy or a team mate and Quake 3 had it even simpler ? shoot anything which isn?t you. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 I found myself a number of times looking at team mates instead of opponents or at opponents instead of my team-mates.
Which brings me to my next point ? does it even matter? The whole game is built around a character which comes with the name of a weapon?s manufacturer and who indiscriminately kills women and children. Right at the outset of the game you are being prompted to skip a scene and I thought to myself ? oh yes, this is what I want from my 60 euros ? to skip stuff! Who wants all the content?
The scene in question might be considered offensive or brutal by some audiences and once I?ve reached said scene I couldn?t but laugh at the pathetic attempt to make the player sympathize with the characters cause. That terrorism affects anyone and everyone irrespective of age or gender, yet this could have been achieved by other means as well.
How could older titles make us care about the character, the plot and the overall storyline without having to automatically ban a scene? How many games made you believe in the just cause of your character and how many games have ever asked you to skip scenes. This was one of those occasions in which the producers of the game have decided to go TV on your lazy ass and insert some gore into the whole mix.
Let?s throw this in, shock them, get some news time, maybe we squeeze out another few thousand units. And that?s the problem. After 5 hours the game was over and thinking that I have to go back into it to start making the vide for it makes me somewhat sick, yet I get over it like I get over all my problems ? with a bottle of lube and heavy liquor. Is this what I have returned to? Is this the new standard?
If it is, I?m not exactly sure I wish to be another guinea pig to become part of a generation which has been brain washed into believing that some blood, some military uniforms, an invasion and some children getting blown to hell make a good game. I don?t wish that. Until anything new comes up you?ll find me lurking in Half-Life.
We weren?t dealing anymore with sequels but rather with game time being blatantly displayed for everyone to see. For me personally it seemed like producers just gave up on selling false hopes and dreams and just went for the wallet of the everyday gamer. Despite such issues I decided to move, leave my log cabin in the mountains and return to civilization.
By the way, in case you haven?t caught that one, it took me 4 hours to complete Modern Warfare and boy was I surprised to see that the game is named Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Now imagine with what I went ahead to check out the latest installment in the series Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3!
Despite being an anti-social bastard I don?t dream quietly at nights about shooting civilians or even starting a world war. The one main reason for that would be that I wouldn?t want a war, I would just like to wake up alone on the planet one day, but that?s beside the point. What matters now is how MW 3 is holding up in my books. In order to get a ?feel? of the series, since it has been quite some time since I played the last titles, I decided to take a run at them again.
This shouldn?t be a problem anymore since I knew that it would take me tops a day to finish the entire Modern Warfare series and that with lunch and ?me time? brakes. I used to do that with older games in order to get immersed into the story line again, yet then it struck me. There is no story line in the Modern Warfare series.
To those who say that there is, just go back to your Tom Clancy novels and leave us mere mortals sit here in our little puddle of ignorance. Saying that a series of ?Oscar Mike?, ?Sit Rep? and ?Move up go!? (Crysis, I know) constitutes the basis for a storyline is like saying that ?I?ll be back? is on the same level with ?To be or not to be?.
But let?s move past the obvious and get down and dirty with what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has in store for us from the point of view of a simple FPS. Firstly I?m annoyed to no end by these ?ultra-realistic? games in which despite the claim of realism our character can recover even from the most painful of injuries. It doesn?t matter if your limbs were scattered across the screen by some incoming grenade, just crawl behind some sort of object which apparently is bullet proof and you?ll be growing those back in no time.
I?m not sure where the producers of MW 3 took their definition of realism, but let?s just say that if it was from the Bible, I can understand respawns in Quake 3 as well. The game kicks off with a full scale invasion of the US by Russia (who else is lining up here folks?) yet I fail to see why that would be plausible or even desirable. Most likely since the country has been turned into a cross country shopping mall with gas stations every 10 miles, but who am I to judge the funny ?Engrish? speaking folk of the game.
In sweet Modern Warfare style you will be going through a number of playable scenarios in which you take control of some hardcore soldier, obviously on a protein diet. After killing and murdering half of the invading forces as a Delta Force member, you move on to the gritty and grim undercover or special ops type of characters. Unit 141 or whatever their name is made me hope for a while for a switch in gameplay, yet opponents spawn infinitely and keep pushing you to advance.
If this was the designer?s idea of creating an action packed game, then I?m sorry to disappoint them, as I did not feel the ?action? at any point. I?ve felt my heart pump faster during some intricate puzzle in Braid rather than Modern Warfare 3. This is partly because we know this to be fake and partly because control is taken away from the player.
What happened to choosing the right moment to engage a fight, what happened to really controlling the outcome of a battle instead of running full speed towards the weapons of the opposition or otherwise run the risk out being left without ammo. Drying I not an option since your incredible regenerating abilities will keep you alive in any situation.
Staying on combat, there is a huge array of weapons, yet the differences between them are almost irrelevant since I could kill my opposition with just as much as irrespective of manufacturer. Moving up on the difficulty scale won?t bring you that adrenaline shot you?ve been looking for in FPSs since the beginning of time but rather make you a masochist since getting insta-killed is not my idea of fun or entertainment.
Some of those hardcore fans out there (spinning around) might find this amusing, but for me it was an annoyance at best. The other big flaw of combat is the fact that everyone sort of looks the same. You might argue that ?How come you don?t know the standard military outfit of a Russian foot soldier? or ?how come you don?t know the standard of the Delta Unit? but I would come back with a somewhat clever retort ? why would it matter? Isn?t the whole point of the game to entertain, rather than annoy?
In terms of shooters, thinking back at such titles as Counter Strike, you can clearly differentiate between an enemy or a team mate and Quake 3 had it even simpler ? shoot anything which isn?t you. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 I found myself a number of times looking at team mates instead of opponents or at opponents instead of my team-mates.
Which brings me to my next point ? does it even matter? The whole game is built around a character which comes with the name of a weapon?s manufacturer and who indiscriminately kills women and children. Right at the outset of the game you are being prompted to skip a scene and I thought to myself ? oh yes, this is what I want from my 60 euros ? to skip stuff! Who wants all the content?
The scene in question might be considered offensive or brutal by some audiences and once I?ve reached said scene I couldn?t but laugh at the pathetic attempt to make the player sympathize with the characters cause. That terrorism affects anyone and everyone irrespective of age or gender, yet this could have been achieved by other means as well.
How could older titles make us care about the character, the plot and the overall storyline without having to automatically ban a scene? How many games made you believe in the just cause of your character and how many games have ever asked you to skip scenes. This was one of those occasions in which the producers of the game have decided to go TV on your lazy ass and insert some gore into the whole mix.
Let?s throw this in, shock them, get some news time, maybe we squeeze out another few thousand units. And that?s the problem. After 5 hours the game was over and thinking that I have to go back into it to start making the vide for it makes me somewhat sick, yet I get over it like I get over all my problems ? with a bottle of lube and heavy liquor. Is this what I have returned to? Is this the new standard?
If it is, I?m not exactly sure I wish to be another guinea pig to become part of a generation which has been brain washed into believing that some blood, some military uniforms, an invasion and some children getting blown to hell make a good game. I don?t wish that. Until anything new comes up you?ll find me lurking in Half-Life.
