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With the long-awaited delivery of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to
store shelves complete, Christmas has come early for all the Call of
Duty aficionados out there.
BASH marks this seminal event in the history of Call of Duty games
with a special extended version of the show. Bringing you the inside
scoop into the game is, yours truly, Jock Yitch, the host of BASH. As well, two legends from
the Call of Duty Community and both BASHandSlash.com CoD Hall of
Famers help me out:
Matt Pruitt of the Fox/IGN juggernaut planetcallofduty.com and
Rudedog of FPSAdmin.com
The show has been off the net for approximately two weeks to allow the game to sink in with everyone. One of the reasons we took our time before coming on to talk about CoD4 was that I felt all of us - our guests and our listeners - needed time to digest this game.
For instance, I have been both way-up and a few times really down on IW's latest offering. Having played it now for a few weeks, I think I have reached a consensus on it and hopefully one that hits close to the mark.
The roundtable discussion reflects all our experiences with the game. I think the most interesting points revolve around the comparisons of CoD4 PC MP vs. CoD4 XBox MP. After listening to our discussion, you cannot help but come away from the experience thinking that the CoD4 MP was tuned to XBox players and that the PC game was never balanced - and perhaps was an afterthought.
The XBox game is not at all about "precision". It is much harder to hit people at a distance on the XBox and the fight is an up-close and personal affair. A five-kill streak is hard to get on the console and rightly rewarded with an Airstrike. Not so on the PC, where even average players seem to rack up at least one airstrike per game. The end result? PC-multiplayer consists of one constant parade of airstrike or helo strikes (which require a 7-kill streak). Flying, robotic killers - be they Migs or Helos - constantly circle the battlefield. All in all...an incredibly frustrating situation for the player who, looking to show off his/her skill, more often than not, gets aced by a helo or aircraft with autoaim on.
Rudedog, who was "on-the road" as he often is and Matt Pruitt were on their "A" game when they came on to do the roundtable. Up to this point, Matt had somewhat more experience with the PC Singleplayer and Xbox MP. Rudedog had by now achieved 2nd Lieutenant status, and ...aw shucks...I was already at level 55. We all brought our own different experiences and it resulted in a very well-rounded discussion.
Show Notes:
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to a special extended edition of BASH. 'm Jock Yitch, that's Yitch with a Y and host of BASH and editor of BASHandSlash.com.
On today's special edition of BASH, the 43rd webcast we have done this year, it's the episode everyone has been waiting for...we discuss the arrival of Activision and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4.
We discuss both all aspects of CoD4 in our round table format with two senior members of the CoD community, Matt Pruitt of planetcallofduty.com and Rudedog of fpsadmin.com. We cover the single and multiplayer versions of the game and even compare it to the Xbox game.
Without further ado...here's our roundtable discussion:
1. Guest Introductions
2. General Impressions of CoD4 Multiplayer
What rocks your socks? What could have been better?
- This is not "CoD2 v2.0". This game is for the run'n gunners out there, if you are a tactical player you might be disappointed.
3. The Players:
Marines (U.S.)
SAS (British Special Forces)
Spetsnaz (Russian Special Forces)
Opfor (aka the Arab militas)
4. Gametypes
*Team Deathmatch
*Headquarters
*Domination
*Search and Destroy
*Free for all (the new DM)
No CTF!!!
* What is Hardcore?
* What is Old School?
5. In depth discussion of gameplay
a) Situational Awareness in CoD4
1. "HUD blip when firing" and the
2. "UAV" (enemy sees you even though you didn't fire your weapon)
b) Weapons
Weapons "feel"
Discuss all the main weapons:
Pistols:
M9: Good magazine, basic pistol
Usp .45: More damage than the M9, though you get less ammunition
M1911 .45: good ammo, good damage (lvl 16)
Desert Eagle: Good ammo, high damage (lvl 43). Best Pistol?
Gold Desert Eagle: good ammo, high damage, it's GOLD! (lvl 55)
Sub-Machine Guns:
Mp-5: good damage and rate of fire, good accuracy.
Skorpion: high rate of fire, low damage, short range. Disappointing weapon
Mini-Uzi: very high rate of fire, medium damage, low accuracy at longer ranges...(lvl 28)
AK-74u: high rate of fire, excellent damage, good range, good accuracy
P90: VERY high rate of fire, good damage, good accuracy at short range (lvl 40)
Assault Rifles:
M16A4: 3 round burst, excellent accuracy, high damage, med rate of fire. Deadly at distance. Jock's favorite!
AK-47: fully automatic, good accuracy, high damage, high rate of fire. High Kick. The ugly, ugly sister to the M16 - never gives it any competition.
M4: fully automatic, high accuracy, good damage, high rate of fire (lvl10). Has become the weapon of choice for CoDDers everywhere. It's a general purpose weapon and good (but not great) in just about every situation.
G3: Semi-automatic, excellent accuracy, good damage(lvl25)
G36c: Fully automatic, excellent accuracy at med-med long ranges, high damage, medium rate of fire(lvl 37)
M14: semi automatic, excellent accuracy, high damage, long range, Bad kick. Should have been a single shot kill weapon. A disappointment and you shouldn't be caught dead with one. (lvl46)
MP44: An homage to the German rifle in CoD2, fully automatic, medium accuracy, medium-high damage, short-med range. Crummy weapon in CoD4 and fairly useless in the low-recoil world of today. (lvl 52)
Light Machine Guns:
M249 SAW: high rate of fire, good accuracy, good damage, good range.
RPD: very high rate of fire, good accuracy, increased damage (relative to the SAW), good range
M60E: high rate of fire, great accuracy, high damage, good range (lvl19)
Shotguns:
Matt's favorite weapons:
W1200: Pump, short range, high damage (at short range) slow rate of fire (due to pump action)
M1014: semi automatic, short range, high damage, high rate of fire, four round magazine (lvl31)
Sniper Rifles: (one-shot one kill)
M40A3: Bolt Action, low recoil, med-high damage, slow rate of fire
M21: Semi-Automatic, very low recoil, medium damage, high rate of fire(lvl7)
Dragunov: Semi automatic, medium recoil, high damage, high rate of fire (22)
R700: bolt action, medium recoil, high damage, low rate of fire(lvl34)
Barett .50 cal: semi automatic, high recoil, EXTREMELY HIGH DAMAGE, high rate of fire. (lvl 49)
Anyone hear anything about issues with registration on Sniper rifles. Or aiming problems with any of these rifles with "sway"? **NOTE** One day after the webcast, IW said they would issue v1.3 which would fix this issue.
c) Perks
What do you think of the perk system?
Double Tap: for weapons with a slow rate of fire use double tap, the quicker you can get rounds of, the easier the killing will be (automatic weapons), but you'll sacrifice a bit of accuracy (lvl 29)
Stopping Power: very useful for almost any weapon, especially sniper rifles.......
Bandolier: For weapons that you need more ammo for... usually weapons with double tap... (lvl 32)
Slight of hand: Very useful on shotguns and LMG's as you can reload these weapons faster (lvl 20)
Deep Impact: Enemies think they're safe behind walls.... they're not! Use with heavy weapons like assault rifles (M16's, AK47). Pointless on light machine guns, and sniper rifles, don't waste this on the LMG's.
Iron Lungs: very useful for sniper rifles with higher calibers when you need more time to acquire targets (lvl 26)
Steady Aim: increases hip fire accuracy. As hip fire ability is the difference between a good player and a great player in CoD - this perk just accentuates this capability. A Jock fave!
Overkill: umm...2 primary weapons... hello? good for you multi-tasking types. Now you can pick people off from afar and if you get board - join the assualt. (lvl 38)
Last Stand: Take the enemy with you! (lvl 8)
UAV Jammer: You are invisible to the enemy when their UAV is airborne. (lvl 11)
Bomb Squad: Lets you see C-4 and claymore mines. (lvl 14)
Martyrdom: Drops a frag when you die. Most irritating thing about CoD4. In the long term, this perk will be totally ineffective as people get used to it. At least it stops the teabagging. (lvl 17)
Claymore: Gives you 2 Claymore mines. (23)
Eavesdrop: enables you to hear the other team's voice chat when they are in close proximity to
you. (lvl 35)
FragX3: Get three grenades. (lvl 41)
Dead Silence: make no noise when you walk (you can sneak up and stab people). (lvl 44)
6. Known issues with the game
- Autobalance is completely broken
- Registration issues. Real or is it just that everyone's pings are so high?
- Two patches have come out: data loss when going in and out of modded servers and the left lean glitch.
- Is IW responding to these issues?
7. How did IW fare in all its promises to the community?
8. Community reactions to the game
9. CoD4's sales performance (how is it doing relative to Orange Box, Crysis, MoH: Airborne...etc.)
10. Overall rating of the game by the roundtable panel
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