COD4 Editorial: Lamers and flamers

BASH Editorial: Jock Yitch

Activision has finally officially stated that their Call of Duty series will continue in a new setting: the modern age. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was announced today and whereas we still as yet do not know whether CoD4 will even be released to the PC platform, rumors and leaks released to industry wags suggest it will.

Yet, not one hour after the release of the CoD4 trailer by Activision, a cursory scan of gamer forums resulted in posts that were similar to these:

The jaded:

Just saw the trailer. Arab jihadists,rogue Russian generals and military chatter. "Been there, done that" is an understatement..
- BAFOMET

The faded:

Gah! What a horrible setting. It's ether going to be a right-wing propaganda wankfest, or a limp-wristed PC pile of crap! Yay! Surely there are more wars then just WWII to base games on. There's even a few where the Americans didn't make a complete arse of themselves, so why pick this other to generate contrvesy (sic)?

-Poisoned Al

The traditionalists:

I'm a little disappointed that it's not going to be a WWII game...I'm even more disappointed, however, that this looks like yet another "Hunt the Terrorists!" game, which I find incredibly stupid...it appears that they are going to grab the low hanging fruit of a glorified WMD hunt in the desert.
-EVEWALKER

The completely daft:

Seriously, its about time. The WWII games are fun and what not, but they've reached their limit. If the actual battle was pretty lame in itself (from a gamer's standpoint, mostly because there were no lasers), then a video game about it can't be that much better. The game-play and graphics were great in all of the previous games, but the limits on weapons and movement (no agility orbs),makes the game just slow to begin with. I also propose a name change for thistitle, superpowered alienz don't have a "call of duty", they do whatever thef@#$ they want.

- FAPMaster

Those painting things black:

im not buying this crap.. i might never buy a IW game again...
-Joueflux

Can you imagine a programmer or graphic artist at IW reading these quotes? If you can, then also imagine, that you have spent the last year hunched over your computer every day so that the gaming public can get a little bit of entertainment after a hum-drum day. I guess you would expect a thank you from this same public, but on the contrary you get this tripe. Geez, you might just decide to chuck it all in and send your resume off to the group doing Super-Mario: the Las Vegas Adventures.

It is very disturbing to me that the gamers are no longer awed by the incredible realism of today's computer simulations. Games are being rendered at a level of detail we all thought unattainable only a decade ago.

Even with what comes close to a Star-Trek Holodeck in their homes, gamers have turned to contemptuous criticism against the very makers of the programs that supposedly give them so much joy. This is cheap, unschooled criticism leveled against picayune targets: the game has no lasers, I am bored with yet another extremely-detailed World War II sim, the colors are to brownish.

What a joke.

These lamers - not gamers - feel the need to criticize the artists who make these epic programs not because they have a genuine gripe, but clearly to counter their deep sense of inferiority. It always make you feel good if you can knock someone who has achieved success. Make you feel important, right?

The whithering criticism of CoD4 from these haters is not only unjustified it is damn near libelous.

If you want criticism, then let's be critical not whiny, try these on for size:

The negative:

- Yes, I do think there were some CGI effects mixed in with game footage in the Modern Warfare trailer. Wouldn't be a first for Activision. I can tell you that after seeing the CoD2 trailers I was AMAZED that the game played nearly identical to what I had seen. So I'm giving the folks at Activision a big pass on this one.

- I agree, the dogs (shown for a split second, mid trailer) were hideously rendered RELATIVE to the rest of the graphics in the trailer.

- There was no indication whether in game physics would finally be applied to the bullets in the game. This is the real elephant in the room with CoD. I can aim two miles downrange and never have to compensate for gravity. Raytracing insta-hit bullets are a sop to the arcade crowd. The game would be much harder to play - and that is what most of these elitist "critics" are looking for right? Well why doesn't anyone ever complain or want true ballistics in the game? Could it be that for all the CoD haters out there that despise the game for its arcady style - actually enjoy the arcade experience?

- There are many folks that think the WWII FPS scenario is out of style and thus embrace a change to modern war. This problem faced the flight sim crowd years ago - something I am a little familiar with. I've noticed some parallels I will share with you. When you go from WWII scenarios to modern, many times you take tactical subtlety out of the game. However, in both genres, you are managing systems. In WWII the system was the sight and the trigger. In modern scenarios the system might be complex firing systems or organizing an integrated arms attack. They both offer challenges. I like diversity as much as anyone, but I like fidelity more than anything. I would rather take a high fidelity (good graphics, good sound) WWII any day over a low fidelity game of any genre. It's the PLAYABILITY stupid!

- For me, the big negative from yesterday's introduction of CoD4 was that there was no indication of the gaming platforms that the game will support. That's inexcusable as far as I'm concerned - but probably, this was done as a pure business decision. Another pass for Activision.

The positive:

- The game trailer had a huge amount of 'tude. And attitude is very important in the marketing of the game.

- The colors and look of the game were great. There was a strong blue tone throughout - and it made the game look really cool. Yes it took some flavour from the Clancy Rainbow Six series - but that's what art is all about. They haven't copied that game - they've borrowed elements of it. We all borrow elements from everywhere when we create. It's called *inspiration*.

- The level of detail in player animation was simply incredible: sliding tackles and leg sweeps are what we have to look forward to!

- Aircraft, armor and maybe even nuclear options!

- The graphics seemed to be good enough to wow me but were not too over-the-top. I may not have to buy a new computer just to run this game when it comes out.

Conclusion

Overall, the trailer has me wanting more and I really hope the rumors are true and we get PC support.

For the lamers and flamers out there...shut the computer down for a few hours and go read a book or something.