Admin Edit: Keep your posts on the topic of hc vs sc, Any post that are deemed pointless will be removed(SanitY)
I want to try and bring some sense to those who like to argue the differences between the Softcore and Hardcore modes of Call of Duty. What I am about to explain has been tested and from my experience and knowledge of this series pretty darn accurate. Ignorance is bliss around these forums and if the name calling begins after this post hopefully Sanity will take care of it. I will not entertain that crap.

Let me start with some background. I am 40 something and have gamed for close to thirty years using both PC and console. I am a PC gamer first. I am a Hardcore gamer first. Kind of defeats one users’ theory of kids playing HC… I usually game around 10-20 hours per week along with a fulltime job, family and coaching. No, I do not sleep much.

The Call of Duty Series is what we are discussing. Starting back with CoD, CoDUO, CoD2 and 3 there was no Hardcore Mode. Why you ask? Well because there was no perk system. Weapons Killed in multi-player if shot with some accuracy. Single player took the normal several rounds but hey it also took the AI that much also. Multi-player back then was close to today’s Hardcore Mode if you ask me. Tested it and remembered it from my days of being one shot killed with an FG42 from my gamer friend von Foltermann and doing some one shot killing myself with my beloved M1 Garand and my trusty Karabiner 98 Kurz.

Light bulb going on yet?

Along comes CoD 4: Modern Warfare. Modern Weapons, Insane “Rate of Fire”, Insane “Speed of the Rounds” and Insane “Ammo Count Down Range”, "Run Speed" and then ….. PERKS! Yes, a full Perk and Ranking system was introduced. They also introduced what everyone thought to be Hardcore. However, it was kind of a false release because what was really introduced was Softcore or today’s Stock version. Without today’s Softcore the Perk system in CoD4 and World@War is kind of non-effective. Without Softcore, Perks like Juggernaut and Stopping Power would have just been rendered useless. Along with the Perk system reasoning behind this was talk of helping the “Average Joe Gamer” or “Weekender” who will be buying the game, usually the console version, compete with us monsters of the cyber battlefields.

Remember the PR guys all chatting about this before the release of CoD4? I do…

Both Modes are great for the game. They do what they are supposed to do. Softcore allows the Perk System to be used while Hardcore renders some of the hated Perks useless. However, there is a slight flaw with Hardcore. Hardcore is just a smidgen to Hardcore in my opinion. Kind of funny but it’s true. When I created The Company Weapons Modification for CoD4 my last version was to make Hardcore + the Perk System work together. I succeeded with my last release but it took a lot of work tweaking ever single weapon. Final result was a great modification in which all Perks could be effective yet you still killed. Doing this sure made everyone a bit happier on my servers.

Now the problem with Black Ops Softcore and Hardcore is the lack of defensive and offensive Perks in the game. They didn’t change the Softcore/Hardcore settings but they didn't include Perks like Juggernaut and Stopping Power to balance out Softcore. Hence, you get the bs experience of unloading a clip in a guy only to have him sprint at you with knife in hand and give you the old "Italian Necktie" while playing Softcore. On the flip side in HC you get the wallbanger who shoots you in the foot with a random round causing you to die on the spot. BS Right?

I hope this helps shed some light on the whole mess. Dev’s may say they did it for other reasons but this is my conclusion based on experience, modding the actual files and years of firing millions of rounds at Newbie's. I could talk forever about this but I am not. Agree, you may not but hey it’s your prerogative… Enjoy the chat.

i agree with you fully and i also like to see a fellow M1 Garand lover

I played a game of hardcore for the first time the other day and it felt more realistic it took a burst of automitic fire to take someone down rather than emptying a clip at someone running full speed at you with the knife.you were also concentrating much more on the sound than the minimap and visually seeing were your team is. My K/d ratio was 1 after a few games compared to about .5 in softcore , not because it was easier , but because i'm an objective based player and there was less distraction, less hellicopters etc.

Saying perks are useless in hc is kind of <edited>. I played a lot of HC in cod4, and jaggernaut was so stupidly overpowered there. Using it made you a two bullet kill, instead of a single shot kill. This really had an impact on people sniping you etc (unless you hit the head or similar).

Imo pretty much all the perks had a bigger impact in HC. Guy with matyrdom would kill you even though you were on the other side of a wall, 10 meters away etc.


Though, I like the bare-bones concept they introduced in blop, and I love that you can even run it on ranked servers, and actually give people the opportunity of playing there, without drawbacks.

I appreciate the OP's attempt at having a discussion about HC and SC. I like both modes for different reasons. They each require different play styles. I'm sorry your thread will soon be a flame war. Every, literally, every thread I have ever seen with the equivalent of HC v SC in the header always does though.

I read an article about different kind of MTG players that that game is designed for and it made me think about COD. It talked about 3 general personalities Timmy(Immersive, experience ordinated), Johnny(Expressive, creative), and Spike (in it challenge and prove himself). I think HC for me doesn't satisfies the Spike in me but it appeals to Timmy and Johnny. While Core neglects Timmy altogether. In short people play the game for different reasons and get different things out of it. Core is the gamemode for me but I can see why others would rather play HC. I need to play more barebones to get a good opinion of it but it doesn't appeal to the Johnny in me, I like playing around with perks I feel it sets me apart from other players the same as not using weapons like the Ak74 or the Famas.

honestly in Black Ops Hc isnt bad its be ALOT worse in MW2 CoD4 and WaW... i cannot stand the 1 shot kill system and reffering it close to the old days from the orginial CoD? i think not i still currently play CoD1 because i am a huge fan of it and still entertains me to no end and from my personal experience the original CoDs and HC mode have (in my opinion) few similarities... when u bring cod2 into the mix it is much closer but still way different.. i do not like going into a HC server because 1 shot in the foot with anything ur dead which i think is dumb... sure when u get shot in the torso or head its fine but anything else if u get nicked by a bullet u die, the blast radius on a grenade seems 10x as large which annoys me ALOT. I am a "softcore" gamer and always will be.. sure ill hop into a hc server here and there but its too slow..and CoD is about fast paced action.. if u wanna go slow and take ur time crouch around thats fine.

HC in black ops is MUCH better than in other CoDs.. i think its more balanced (if it can be in hardcore) and more amusing... not i still dont like it but its definitely better.


those are just my 2 cents :p

i think your going on the wrong severs if u are going on a tactical sever that what they do, but just normal hardcore dom or CTF is as fast paced as a SC mode some people would even say it is faster but that is just an opinion

I kind of agree with the OP, although I never tried MW2 so can't comment.

(This is kind of what I was going to post in my other thread but here goes anyway) ... I am also in my 40s and prefer hardcore (as stated elsewhere) on most FPS games because I prefer something involving more careful movement and tactics around maps, rather than charging around with the fastest firing weapon in the game.

I occasionally try normal servers running Black Ops - but after yet another meeting with an enemy player at close range where I fire a quick burst (and get a couple of hit indicators) with an assault rifle, only to have him charge in and knife me, I leave and go back to hardcore.

I first played CoD hardcore with various mods on CoD and CoD2. I also preferred rifle only servers where it took skill to aim and kill rather than just spraying an area with automatic fire.
The issue with CoD4 hardcore and perks was that server admins didn't appreciate how the perks worked.
The Flak jacket and juggernaut reduced damage by a fixed amount or added a fixed amount of health (respectively). So when hardcore mode reduced each player's health by 50%, those perks also needed to be adjusted, but many server admins didn't do this.

It was the same situation with the dogs in World at War - their health also needed to be reduced in line with the player's health otherwise the situation became really stupid when the dogs were harder to kill than other players.

I also agree that head and torso hits should be required for one-shot kills (the old AWP-to-the-foot issue from CS still annoys me), but equally shooting someone with a high-powered rifle and watching them shrug it off is wrong.

And for the record, I appreciate that CoD is just a game and therefore not totally realistic, but it is based on a real-world setting (modern-day environment and weapons, real-world physics) and therefore certain things make the game feel more real and certain things destroy that illusion. Ineffective weapon is one such thing, jumping in combat to avoid being shot is another.
(As with most things, I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed, just that I will tend to avoid servers where it is accepted as a valid way of playing - as I tend to avoid servers that are listed as "tactical" that don't let you run unless being shot at or fire from the hip - I think that is going too far the other way).

The other nice thing about hardcore servers is that people can use the semi-automatic weapons and still be effective - which just isn't possible in normal modes.
Yes, hardcore does encourage more camping, but it is a small price to pay for weapons that do what they are supposed to.

I would also dispute the fact that hardcore games are slower - it depends very much on the game mode you are playing. TDM seems fast-paced enough to me and certainly the more objective-based games are fast-paced. One that sticks out as always being both fun and frantic is Sabotage, where both teams play back-and-forth football-style game, fighting for posession of the bomb and then trying to get to the enemy bomb site.
If you haven't tried this I can thoroughly recommend it.
It is so much more fun than Search & Destroy and I think would just as easily (like CTF) make a good competitive game mode.

I can see some of your points but I use the m14 and still normally end up on top of the leaderboard. Semi autos are very viable in core if you have low ping.