lost in games

This is the first Pure Vs Uber article in the series which will be co-written with my main gaming partner and Uber Otaku Mardas. In these articles we will be discussing and debating specific games and other game related issues. This article will be a 2 round piece where we will talk about Call of Duty 4 and its credentials for being a strong candidate for Game of the Year. It will be published here, in this blog, and also at our Forevergamers site.

From: Pure Otaku Costas
To: Uber Otaku Mardas
Date: 21/11/2007

Dear Uber Otaku Mardas,

I will go first my friend starting with the Campaign mode.

First of all, let me ask you this? How many joypads have you thrown at the wall in frustration? Did your 360 really go down the ring of death way or was it thrown out the window? I know you have been playing it on Veteran and i just wanted to know. Myself, I chose the normal way. The average Joe gamer’s way. I wanted to enjoy the cinematic experience without having to die a million times before each checkpoint.

Off I went with my mates in the SAS and boarded the ship in the storm. We hit the bridge first. I took out that lazy bastard sitting on the chair. You know the one I am talking about. All was going well until the ship was struck by a MIG’s missile. Rushing out of that sinking ship I almost missed a turn but my Captain’s voice helped me find the right way out. He saved my life twice that night in the space of a few minutes.

Why this intro of the game you might ask. I wanted you to know that I really felt I was actually part of what was going on. Although the events in Call of Duty 4 are scripted and always triggered when you kill enough of the respawning enemies or after you have moved to a specific location Infinity Ward have masterfully ensured that it never, ever feels scripted. I was totally immersed.

Two missions in particular had me on the edge of my seat. Hair raising levels, each in its own way.

The first one is Death from Above where you are in the AC-130 gunship and you are basically providing covering fire to the troops on land. It’s the best escort mission I have ever played. And it felt so real that I was uneasy killing the enemy throughout the mission. Are we really that close to confusing a game with reality?

Then there is the ‘All Ghillied Up’ mission where you are a sniper together with your commanding officer in Ukraine and you are moving into a position to take out your target. Did it feel like it was a father and son relationship to you? I was ready to do anything Captain McMillan wanted me to do. Carrying him around towards the LZ was no chore. I wanted to keep my mentor out of harm’s way and take him to safety.

Scripted, yes. But each moment is so satisfying and so exciting that it never feels that way. And the game never let me go. It hooked me from the start and kept dragging me along, one awesome moment after another all the way to the very end.

I don’t know about you but although the game did not break any new grounds it did provide me with the most exhilarating time I had with a game for a long, long time.

It is a game that had me shaking long after I had finished it. Don’t you think it has Game of the Year written all over it?

From: Uber Otaku Mardas
To: Pure Otaku Costas
Date: 22/11/2007

Dear Pure Otaku Costas,

I will go second, a position I am not used to, but I will make an exception as I am honoured to have my words sharing the same space as yours.

Let me begin by defending my honour. You mock me for playing on the Veteran difficulty but I had my hardcore, uber-otakuness and manliness at stake! The combination of most achievement points being awarded for playing through on Vet, my achievement whoring and the well known fact that a high Gamerscore is the quickest way of getting laid forced me into opting for the Vet difficulty. You should hang your head in shame for taking the coward’s way out. There is no room for cowards in Modern Warfare. If you are content in being a self proclaimed “Average Joe” then so be it, I am in no way average my friend.

Joking aside, I broke no controllers but I feel that the constant reloading of checkpoints following my infinite number of deaths may have hastened the demise of my 360. I do however admit that Vet exposed some glaring flaws in the gameplay but I will leave that for later.

You used the word “cinematic” and that is precisely what Infinity Ward are masters of. The gameplay is, for the most part, hugely enjoyable but the scripted events and the way the story unfolds in front of the gamer is breathtaking!

I am going to talk about specific events in the single player game so anyone who hasn’t played through the game may wish to stop reading here.

*****SPOILERS START HERE*****

The opening moments have you trying to escape from a sinking tanker. A great sequence and running though the tight aisles with water pouring through the port holes as the floor is continuously tilting gets the heart pounding. It does a great job of putting you into the soldier’s boots and conveying a sense of urgency to get the hell out of there.

Another moment of magic, even though I could only pan the camera in first person, was seeing through the eyes of the kidnapped President being lead through an Arab city during a coup. You are eventually shot in the head by one of the games villains.

I too loved the Carbonyl level a.k.a “All Ghilled Up” as it showed how a two man sniping team stealthily approach a war zone compared to the chaos of the front-line marines. You are right about bonding with your commanding officer and in fact I ended up caring about pretty much all the characters in the game. Crawling through the fields in my Ghillie suit, blending in with the surroundings as a hoard of enemy infantry and armour comb the land only inches away was awesome too.

One of the other things I loved was the pacing of the game. The different levels did a great job of breaking up the action, especially the AC-130 gunship level which came out of nowhere for me and was a welcome break from the mayhem of a fire fight. Manning those three different calibre guns and the use of the black and white camera used by the military nailed the experience. Pounding the enemy with the 105 mm M 102 Howitzer was crazy. It really felt like anything coming up against that much firepower would be screwed and I would hate to be in that scenario. It looked real, like you mentioned, but only because it’s in monochrome and there isn’t that much detail from a birds eye view on a war zone from a plane 30,000 ft in the air. Still it looked spot on to any video I have seen of a bomb run.

*****SPOILERS END HERE*****

It’s definitely one of my games of the year but don’t forget we still have Mass Effect and also you have yet, unlike me, to experience the elation of Super Mario Galaxy! I think we will leave Game of the Year for another Pure Vs Uber session Pure Otaku.

What do you make of the online part of the game and also please own up that Normal is far too easy for us seasoned Otaku.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 11:43 and is filed under PURE VS UBER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.