Support NeoGAF

[adelante]

Lol the discussion's been brought here?...was a matter of time i guess...*sigh* i'll just quote myself frm the GFW thread (with edits for clarification) :

Yeah that was the only "gripe" I had with the game....despite being put in a variety of settings, i hate how the game sent enemies in infinite droves...feels like you could only progress if you plough your way through, physically "capturing" one area at a time, in which doing so seems to switch off enemy respawns within your immediate vicinity, making them pop up elsewhere ahead...on one hand I like that you're thrown in a constant battle, but on the other,you can never rid an area of enemies from a distance (because it requires you to actually go there and stop the respawns)...

I suppose IW wanted to maintain the somewhat realistic nature of the game and not put you in a role of Rambo like in other games...where, say you're given a sniper rifle and you pluck the enemies out from afar one by one until that huge area ahead of you remain absolutely devoid of life (since enemy count is finite)...and maybe IW figured if you're gonna invade enemy territory, you should be expecting no less than hundreds of hostiles in the area....in which case i understand their rationale for those infinite respawns, but still, I'd have liked them to tackle that situation by having enemies turn up in an irregular timing (so it feels like an area has actually been CLEARED even for a short while) and definitely not from the same goddamn spot/house/barracks...have trucks/helicopters ferry them in or something...

 

[Opus Angelorum]

I understand the need for respawning enemies in some situations, but the implementation could be much more clever.

They could make it appear more realistic by having irregular timings and a random number of soldiers. It would then be similar to reinforcements, and much less 'obvious'.

So for example you could have an area defended by 10 soldiers, one of these have a radio.

If you kill all 10 soldiers quickly, the radio is now defunct. If however you only kill a few over a period of time, or you fail to kill the guy on the radio he will call for reinforcements.

I think this approach would make for a much more exciting push/pull mechanic.

 

[Iron_Scimitar]

Gee, I hope nobody misses the ad.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Gee, I hope nobody misses the ad.

I know, I thought everyone knew Solider of Fortune Payback was coming out.

 

[dark10x]

The game really doesn't look as good as I had hoped. The 60 fps is fantastic (it isn't 100% constant, but it's much smoother than CoD2 was), but everything else looks a bit less impressive. This isn't even in the same league as Gears was last year.

Can anyone comment on the 360 framerate, by the way. The PS3 version is 60 fps most of the time and there isn't really any significant slowdown, but at times, when facing large areas, you'll notice very minor drops. It seems like something most would never notice, but it did bug me just a bit. Someone load up that first mission (after the car ride) and walk up to the cliffside ledge looking over the city. If you spin the camera, do you notice a small drop in performance when facing the busiest area of the city?

I just played CoD4, holy crap, fuck awesome, my god, this is the shit. Halo and Resistance are great games but CoD4 is in a class of its own (apologies to Frankie). I was a huge fan of CoD2 but it didn't get enough online loving from my friends but this will be no problem with CoD4 thank you Raptor Jesus.

Man, you really think so?

I've tried so hard to get into it and really had hoped that the modern themes would bring me back into the fold, but I've come to the conclusion that script fests just aren't for me anymore. I'm really having a tough time getting into it.

It seems exciting, but the gunplay just isn't doing it for me.

 

[Oneself]

Post to confirm once more that this game is fuck awesome.

 

[epmode]

I *really* like the single player mode, as long as it's not on Veteran. Incredible production values and gameplay variety. Scriped stuff is fine if it's excecuted properly, as this is.

edit: dark10x, the 360 version has minor framerate drops during super-heavy fighting.

 

[JB1981]

The game really doesn't look as good as I had hoped. Someone load up that first mission (after the car ride) and walk up to the cliffside ledge looking over the city. If you spin the camera, do you notice a small drop in performance when facing the busiest area of the city?

:lol

You are insane.

 

[dark10x]

edit: dark10x, the 360 version has minor framerate drops during super-heavy fighting.

So it's probably about the same then. The way people were talking, it seemed as if the framerate never budged.

Not a huge deal, though, and still much better than CoD2.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

dark10x can't enjoy shit. Damn.

 

[FoeHammer]

So it's probably about the same then. The way people were talking, it seemed as if the framerate never budged.

Not a huge deal, though, and still much better than CoD2.

I never noticed any frame drops, but I agree with you on the graphics.

They are nice, but I was expecting to be blown away from the hype that has been brewing.

 

[storybook77]

I'm glad I can enjoy games for what they are unlike dark10x. This game f'n rocks!

 

[Dirtbag]

The game really doesn't look as good as I had hoped. The 60 fps is fantastic (it isn't 100% constant, but it's much smoother than CoD2 was), but everything else looks a bit less impressive. This isn't even in the same league as Gears was last year.

Can anyone comment on the 360 framerate, by the way. The PS3 version is 60 fps most of the time and there isn't really any significant slowdown, but at times, when facing large areas, you'll notice very minor drops. It seems like something most would never notice, but it did bug me just a bit. Someone load up that first mission (after the car ride) and walk up to the cliffside ledge looking over the city. If you spin the camera, do you notice a small drop in performance when facing the busiest area of the city?


Man, you really think so?

I've tried so hard to get into it and really had hoped that the modern themes would bring me back into the fold, but I've come to the conclusion that script fests just aren't for me anymore. I'm really having a tough time getting into it.

It seems exciting, but the gunplay just isn't doing it for me.

I never noticed any frame drops, but I agree with you on the graphics.

They are nice, but I was expecting to be blown away from the hype that has been brewing.

whats it like to be that jaded... do you enjoy anything anymore?

 

[Carl2282]

I guess i came into cod4 not expecting a lot to change. It's still that really linear shooter so far, but man! It's soooo good. smooth framerate, great graphics and sound. I think IW really did nail that movie-like experience.
The mp is really great as well. Thanks IW!

 

[Imperial Hot]

whats it like to be that jaded... do you enjoy anything anymore?

:lol :lol :lol
So true.

 

[dark10x]

dark10x can't enjoy shit. Damn.

whats it like to be that jaded... do you enjoy anything anymore?

Actually, yes, I've enjoyed a lot of games lately. In the last 3 months I've finished and loved games such as Bioshock, Halo 3, Orange Box, Metroid Prime 3, Dreamfall (LTTP), Castlevania PSP, and more. The first four are all FPS style games and I loved them to death. Call of Duty 4 is nowhere NEAR as fun (for me) as those games. At this point, I'd rather replay HL2 Episode 2 than continue playing CoD4.

The problem is, I believed that CoD4 would be somewhat different. I DID NOT like Call of Duty 2 all that much. It was "OK", but I found most of the game to be highly boring and repetitive. It has nothing to do with being jaded, I simply don't care for this type of FPS and CoD4 serves up the proof.

 

[Fallout-NL]

What about a proper MP demo though? I'm definitely not touching this until then.

 

[Beer Monkey]

I've tried so hard to get into it and really had hoped that the modern themes would bring me back into the fold, but I've come to the conclusion that script fests just aren't for me anymore. I'm really having a tough time getting into it.

It seems exciting, but the gunplay just isn't doing it for me.

I should have noted that my exuberance primarily stems from the multiplayer.

Single-player, I'd rate Portal and Bioshock higher, because of the aforementioned heavy scripting, but I still find the single-player CoD4 enjoyable.

 

[mysticstylez]

I never thought the Single Player campaign would be this gripping I just

Spoiler

Finished the first act where the area you are in gets nuked, and you crash. I thought that I was the lone survivor and just walking outside the helicopter I was in awe of how everything looked. Even the slow animation of your character walking and trying to jump was immersive. Then....you fall down and die. I was surprised they would actually do that in the game.

fuckin awesome.

 

[joelseph]

I still feel let down from the lack of co-op.

 

[dark10x]

I should have noted that my exuberance primarily stems from the multiplayer.

Single-player, I'd rate Portal and Bioshock higher, because of the aforementioned heavy scripting, but I still find the single-player CoD4 enjoyable.

Fair enough. I haven't tried multi yet and that does have a lot of potential.

 

[sprocket]

Though you guys waned things more realistic in your games? lol In real life are you going to complain when a terrorist had placed an remote bomb in a car? no you just die! :lol

 

[Fallout-NL]

Though you guys waned things more realistic in your games? lol In real life are you going to complain when a terrorist had placed an remote bomb in a car? no you just die! :lol

For the moment I'm just going to complain about the lack of multiplayer demo.

 

[Borys]

I always do the same test as dark10x in some FPS games :lol

Face some wall or canyon and spin around seeing is the framerate consistent :lol

Metroid Prime 1 & 2 passed this test BTW.

 

[SonnyBoy]

I love this game! The SP is awesome and so is the MP.

I have no desire to ever touch Halo 3 again. It's leagues above ANY FPS shooter out at the moment. This development team just took every excuse from every developer that a great game can be made on a multi-platform title.

edit: Except Bioshock. They're in the same league.

 

[Borys]

There's always the PC version, right? right?

Barking at the wrong tree?

 

[mrklaw]

all this talk of Halo3 and bioshock and orange box is upsetting me. I'd actually put off playing HL2, and haven't even got bioshock.

oh well i'll buy it anyway and if its short and not something i'd replay i'll trade it in. Loved CoD2 (while being very aware that I was being led on a leash through the levels), hated CoD3 (aaaargh!!!), so if this is more of the former its a safe bet I hope.

Will play on weaksauce difficulty though.

 

[dark10x]

I love this game! The SP is awesome and so is the MP.

I have no desire to ever touch Halo 3 again. It's leagues above ANY FPS shooter out at the moment. This development team just took every excuse from every developer that a great game can be made on a multi-platform title.

How can you say that, though? The gunplay is simple, the AI is terrible, and the game relies entirely on scripts. It doesn't have any of the nuances of Halo nor the creativity of Half-Life 2. It's all flash, no substance.

Multiplayer may be a different story, of course.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Picked up the 360 Ver. last night (Prefer the controller) and played for a few hours:

SP - Very well done so far and enjoyable. It IS Call of Duty, however, and it plays almost exactly like COD2/3 before it, just in modern settings and with modern weapons. I enjoyed the previous games a lot so this is no problem for me but it IS heavily scripted, and there ARE "monster closet" situations where enemies will pour out until you move up. I'd say that if you didn't like COD2, don't bother with this. I've played through several levels and I haven't noticed ANY framerate drops but I'm not super-sensitive to this unless it's actually bad and not a anal retentive nit-pick. There appear to be several fun achievements that will help extend the SP playtime.

MP - Best COD multi ever, no contest. It's incredibly fun and solid. I only experienced a lag situation one time and it was over in a second. I'm loving the experience and leveling mechanics, and especially how you gain levels and abilities in realtime. The "bonus" abilities for kill strings is also quite cool. I had to force myself to stop playing last night.

 

[Druz]

MP - Best COD multi ever, no contest. It's incredibly fun and solid. I only experienced a lag situation one time and it was over in a second. I'm loving the experience and leveling mechanics, and especially how you gain levels and abilities in realtime. The "bonus" abilities for kill strings is also quite cool. I had to force myself to stop playing last night.

but did you play the United Offensive expansion?

 

[Lefty42o]

I understand the need for respawning enemies in some situations, but the implementation could be much more clever.

They could make it appear more realistic by having irregular timings and a random number of soldiers. It would then be similar to reinforcements, and much less 'obvious'.

So for example you could have an area defended by 10 soldiers, one of these have a radio.

If you kill all 10 soldiers quickly, the radio is now defunct. If however you only kill a few over a period of time, or you fail to kill the guy on the radio he will call for reinforcements.

I think this approach would make for a much more exciting push/pull mechanic.

i dunno my experience has been much diff. most areas have 3-4 major waves and if you fight thru those waves they stop comming. and most times they are come in in realistic ways, by copters etc.

also sneaking helps alot as i snuck in one house and killed every guy stealthy till i got upstairs.

seems much better than any previous cod game.

 

[Diseased Yak]

I bought the PS3 version, spent about 2 hours with SP and around 3 hours with MP last night. First off, it looks awesome. However, there are a few framerate drops here and there, I noticed it once or twice in SP when a lot of smoke was present, or if a particularly long shot of a city happened. However, they were over so quick it hardly made a difference. No such drops in MP that I've seen yet. Otherwise the game looks flawless, and while the graphics aren't always jaw-dropping, the 60fps more than makes up for it.

I haven't seen many comments on the sound. MY GOD what a sound explosion this game is! I cranked it up slightly on my home theater and by the time I got to the Marine missions I was grinning like a loon. You have this huge gunfight, grenades and rocket launchers going off all over, Blackhawks circling overhead, cars exploding, people screaming, and a couple jets come screaming like 50' over your heads, throwing trash everywhere, and I was like HOLY DAMN! Then my wife yelled at me from the computer room "TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!!"

Only Bioshock gives this game a run for its money in the sound department.

 

[Lefty42o]

How can you say that, though? The gunplay is simple, the AI is terrible, and the game relies entirely on scripts. It doesn't have any of the nuances of Halo nor the creativity of Half-Life 2. It's all flash, no substance.

Multiplayer may be a different story, of course.

its feels more epic at times than either halo 3 or half life 2. don't get me wrong i love both those games as well but its almost absurd how intense the fighting is thru the game.

halo 3 had much bigger scale at times.

half life is a solid game but its intense batles are now where near what cod 4 or halo 3's scale.

once again i hate comparing games. either a game is good and fun or not. and halo 3, half life , and cod4 are just great games that are so much fun. they all do some things better than the others. you canlt go wrong playing any of those games.

 

[PhatSaqs]

The multi is crack...

 

[Lefty42o]

I bought the PS3 version, spent about 2 hours with SP and around 3 hours with MP last night. First off, it looks awesome. However, there are a few framerate drops here and there, I noticed it once or twice in SP when a lot of smoke was present, or if a particularly long shot of a city happened. However, they were over so quick it hardly made a difference. No such drops in MP that I've seen yet. Otherwise the game looks flawless, and while the graphics aren't always jaw-dropping, the 60fps more than makes up for it.

I haven't seen many comments on the sound. MY GOD what a sound explosion this game is! I cranked it up slightly on my home theater and by the time I got to the Marine missions I was grinning like a loon. You have this huge gunfight, grenades and rocket launchers going off all over, Blackhawks circling overhead, cars exploding, people screaming, and a couple jets come screaming like 50' over your heads, throwing trash everywhere, and I was like HOLY DAMN! Then my wife yelled at me from the computer room "TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!!"

Only Bioshock gives this game a run for its money in the sound department.

you need to handle that. my wife aint telling me to turn shit down lol. and yes this game sounds awesome. i play it cranked up. hearing bullets whiz by your head in the surround sound is just crazy.

 

[pxleyes]

you need to handle that. my wife aint telling me to turn shit down lol. and yes this game sounds awesome. i play it cranked up. hearing bullets whiz by your head in the surround sound is just crazy.

It may have been because it was the first day I had it, but I pumped that shit up and my gf didn't say a thing. She can deal with it to a degree, it sounds AWESOME!

 

[Concept17]

I've officially put about 4 hours into the multiplayer. About rank 19ish or so.

I'm a huge CS fan, so its rare when I find an online shooter that even compares. CoD4 easily has the most solid gunplay of any title thats come out in years. Each gun has a slightly different feel, and its much much less of a spray fest than all the other CoDs were. Spawns are near perfect. (some domination matches get kinda crazy) Also, the way UAV/airstrikes/helicopters are implemented is sooo perfect. (nothing like getting that fifth kill, bombing 4-6 players, and then sending in the heli).

Between this, CS, and TF2... I can die in peace.

I don't know why anyone would even take points off little things in SP in this game. The MP alone is worthy of the reviews its getting.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Speaking of the sound, I've played tons and tons of shooters in surround and this game has hands-down the best imaging (convincing soundstage) I've heard. Listening for opponents in multi has saved my butt more than ever, because when I hear them I know where they are with far greater accuracy than is typical. Playing in stereo would definitely hurt my k/d ratio in virtually every online match.

 

[FoeHammer]

whats it like to be that jaded... do you enjoy anything anymore?

Wow, I'm definitely not jaded. I think Call of Duty 4 looks fantastic.

 

[Kosma]

Wanted to pick this up today here in the EU but only one store was selling it early at 69 euro (no thanks) and other stores were waiting to get a clear to start selling it too ( for the normal price of 59 euro). The guy who wouldn't sell me it was actually playing it in store before my eyes. Shitface.

 

[AdmiralViscen]

How can you say that, though? The gunplay is simple, the AI is terrible, and the game relies entirely on scripts. It doesn't have any of the nuances of Halo nor the creativity of Half-Life 2. It's all flash, no substance.

Multiplayer may be a different story, of course.

You're right, but multi is very awesome.

Not a replacement for Halo 3 though, just different.

 

[siamesedreamer]

Hope it gets better than the ship level... :/

Also, it appears as if

Spoiler

the achievements are all single player related

.

 

[Brashnir]

Just finished the single player campaign. Was extremely underwhelmed. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't up to the standards set by COD2. It just didn't feel right with the modern guns. The gunplay was much more satisfying with those old, powerful WW2 rifles. The modern guns just lack that satisfying one-shot-one-kill kick, and that just pulls the whole experience down a notch.

 

[Kosma]

Hey guys, as a PS3 owner that would buy this for MP mostly, should I just skip it and get Wowhawk for 30e? Or is this really the best MP game of the forever that will have me entertained for months more then Wowhawk?

 

[AdmiralViscen]

Hey guys, as a PS3 owner that would buy this for MP mostly, should I just skip it and get Wowhawk for 30e? Or is this really the best MP game of the forever that will have me entertained for months more then Wowhawk?

I don't have Warhawk, but I'd really have to recommend this game. There's just so much there.

 

[Hammer24]

Also, it appears as if

Spoiler

the achievements are all single player related

.

This is known for months - and it got applauded rightfully for this choice.

 

[VALIS]

How can you say that, though? The gunplay is simple, the AI is terrible, and the game relies entirely on scripts. It doesn't have any of the nuances of Halo nor the creativity of Half-Life 2. It's all flash, no substance.

Multiplayer may be a different story, of course.

I'm with you. I play every FPS that comes out and this really isn't grabbing me. Which is strange because I loved CoD2, but a lot of that might have been the "next gen effect" or whatever you want to call it.

It's like a real pretty Medal of Honor. The gunplay is no big deal. In fact, this game is making me miss R6 Vegas and its far superior indoor gun battles.

Multiplayer rocks, though, so there's that.

 

[WingM@n]

Do the console versions look better than the COD4 PC single player demo?
'cause I played the demo, everything maxed out, and I am not that impressed by the graphics.

 

[VALIS]

Just finished the single player campaign. Was extremely underwhelmed. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't up to the standards set by COD2. It just didn't feel right with the modern guns. The gunplay was much more satisfying with those old, powerful WW2 rifles. The modern guns just lack that satisfying one-shot-one-kill kick, and that just pulls the whole experience down a notch.

It's not the guns, it's the game. See: Rainbow Six: Vegas for modern guns done well.

 

[ALeperMessiah]

You're right, but multi is very awesome.

Not a replacement for Halo 3 though, just different.

I agree, I haven't jumped into SP yet (only been able to game on my PC monitor, would rather do SP on my 42" LCD), but the MP is amazing. I'm really digging the level up system and the perks, adds some depth to MP that you normally just don't get from console shooters. Only thing that bothers me is that gameplay modes are included in the level up system. So only certain levels can play certain gametypes. That really restricts the player community on some of those lists, which is dissapointing.