The Shrine

or, JESUS CHRIST I'VE BOUGHT ANOTHER GAME

The single-player campaign so far is pretty COD; highly scripted, AI as dumb as rocks, respawning enemies (fuuuck), but absolutely brilliant setpieces.

The multiplayer is where the money is at. It's beautiful (60 FPS! Stupidly intricate environments! Godawful textures! [they had to make sacrifices somewhere]), and brilliant (although, yet another FPS control scheme I've got to get my head around, ugh). A level grind model in a multiplayer FPS sounds like a recipe for disaster (play it more and not only will you get better at it, but you'll have access to airstrikes while your opponent is throwing sticks and stones! No balance issues there!), but it taps into some primal RPG-nerd essence in me that compels me to keep playing.

Given that the single-player game probably won't get more than a single play-through for me, unless it picks up tremendously, the multiplayer needs to carry it; and with TF2 and Halo 3 both calling to me, it's facing some competition. You've got seven days, COD4! Get your hooks into me or face being exchanged for VF5!

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:or, JESUS CHRIST I'VE BOUGHT ANOTHER GAME

The single-player campaign so far is pretty COD; highly scripted, AI as dumb as rocks, respawning enemies (fuuuck), but absolutely brilliant setpieces.

The multiplayer is where the money is at. It's beautiful (60 FPS! Stupidly intricate environments! Godawful textures! [they had to make sacrifices somewhere]), and brilliant (although, yet another FPS control scheme I've got to get my head around, ugh). A level grind model in a multiplayer FPS sounds like a recipe for disaster (play it more and not only will you get better at it, but you'll have access to airstrikes while your opponent is throwing sticks and stones! No balance issues there!), but it taps into some primal RPG-nerd essence in me that compels me to keep playing.

Given that the single-player game probably won't get more than a single play-through for me, unless it picks up tremendously, the multiplayer needs to carry it; and with TF2 and Halo 3 both calling to me, it's facing some competition. You've got seven days, COD4! Get your hooks into me or face being exchanged for VF5!

make the exchange. I need a regular to fight against...none of my friends have bought it yet ad after a bit of online play I want to battle homies rather than random douchefucks

I may just buy VF5 outright. COD4's multiplayer is seriously playing at my mind. I can't wait to play it again.

Where the fuck are you just going to exchange the game after seven days?

EB has an ultra-liberal return policy over here—you get seven days after purchase in which you can return a game bought from there, for any reason at all.

I also have this game, so invite me if you see me mindlessly roaming around on my 360. The beta really hooked me in with the perks feature. I found the single player a little underwhelming. Worst story ever coupled with mega spawning enemies that throw thousands of grenades at you. Best part was (spoiler)the airplane part after the credits.

all of the achievements for this game are for the singleplayer campaign. That's sort of bizarre considering the robustness of the multiplayer offering.

bovine wrote:all of the achievements for this game are for the singleplayer campaign. That's sort of bizarre considering the robustness of the multiplayer offering.

Not really. You get tons of people who can't/don't connect to/won't pay for Live. So many games leave at least half of their achievement points dependant on paying for a service that over half of the system owners don't have. It's actually silly to have many achievements linked to a pay service that the majority of the audience does not have (the 7M subscribers includes Silver; which means at least 4M, almost half, of 360 owners aren't even connected to the Internet at all; I'd put Gold at no more than 30%)

I'll not argue with you about how silly it is to have online achievements that you must basically pay an extra subscription fee to get. I just think that it is bizarre considering every other game does it, and the real heart of this COD offering is the multiplayer. The single player is a monotonous slog through waves and waves of ultra-stereotypical "muslim fanatics" while being all gung-ho for the military solutions to every problem. This game should have just had a singleplayer like aerobiz on the snes except more political than economic... and less based on the airline industry... and retained the multiplayer experience that it already has. I'm sure I'd be the only one who would buy it, but I'd be one satisfied customer.

bovine wrote:all of the achievements for this game are for the singleplayer campaign. That's sort of bizarre considering the robustness of the multiplayer offering.

Yeah...I know there has been plenty of bitching across the net about games that force online by tucking large amount of achievements in that area. I don't play alot of online and it personally pisses me off to no end (especially games I'll NEVER play online, like NHL).

Glad that's the case here...hope more developers follow suit.

The kind of achievements I hate (and yes, I realize that achievements aren't really worth anything anyway, but still...) are the ones where you have to do in-person multiplayer. GH3 pulled that crap for a TON of the achievements.

Lox wrote:The kind of achievements I hate (and yes, I realize that achievements aren't really worth anything anyway, but still...) are the ones where you have to do in-person multiplayer. GH3 pulled that crap for a TON of the achievements.

Or the ranked bullshit that M$ forced into Gears (I think Halo has it too). There was a few articles with Cliffy B about them removing the "ranked" portion but they were never allowed to. I would have had a lot of those achievements with the 2 weeks of multiplayer I played with that game.

Zeus wrote:

Lox wrote:The kind of achievements I hate (and yes, I realize that achievements aren't really worth anything anyway, but still...) are the ones where you have to do in-person multiplayer. GH3 pulled that crap for a TON of the achievements.

Or the ranked bullshit that M$ forced into Gears (I think Halo has it too). There was a few articles with Cliffy B about them removing the "ranked" portion but they were never allowed to. I would have had a lot of those achievements with the 2 weeks of multiplayer I played with that game.

Gears doesn't have ranked based achievements... just gay "I killed someone 100 times with weapon X" achievements.

Halo doesn't either... just achievements for reaching different levels of experience.

kali o. wrote:Glad that's the case here...hope more developers follow suit.

The problem for COD4, as bovine mentioned, is that your multiplayer experience will make up 95% of your game time. Offline-heavy achievements for it make about as much sense as offline-heavy achievements in a game like Shadowrun.

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:

kali o. wrote:Glad that's the case here...hope more developers follow suit.

The problem for COD4, as bovine mentioned, is that your multiplayer experience will make up 95% of your game time. Offline-heavy achievements for it make about as much sense as offline-heavy achievements in a game like Shadowrun.

That's why I hesitate with COD4... because COD has always been for amazing campaigns... not multiplayer, and everyone keeps saying it's the MP that's what you want.

If you've dug on previous COD SP campaigns, COD4 shouldn't disappoint. For what it is, it's masterful; it's just not my bag.

That said, there have been some pretty amazing moments. And actually charismatic characters, what the hell!

Oh, lord, the multiplayer, though. It's so much fun. It complements Halo really well: it's much faster (both just to move around, and put guys down), prettier, and the one-more-level grind towards ever more awesome weapons is heroin, seriously tapping receptors that have been cold since I stopped playing WOW.

I'm curious to see if I'm compelled to keep playing once I hit the level cap (in a million, billion years, at the pace I'm travelling at at the moment). But until then!

I was jokin around last night with your girlfriend about that fact that when we first started getting our asses rocked in team doubles I had 17 friend online and she was the only one that didn't say Call of Duty 4 by her name......fuck all of ya'll. at least I still got andrews girlfriend :p

Tessian wrote:

Zeus wrote:

Lox wrote:The kind of achievements I hate (and yes, I realize that achievements aren't really worth anything anyway, but still...) are the ones where you have to do in-person multiplayer. GH3 pulled that crap for a TON of the achievements.

Or the ranked bullshit that M$ forced into Gears (I think Halo has it too). There was a few articles with Cliffy B about them removing the "ranked" portion but they were never allowed to. I would have had a lot of those achievements with the 2 weeks of multiplayer I played with that game.

Gears doesn't have ranked based achievements... just gay "I killed someone 100 times with weapon X" achievements.

Halo doesn't either... just achievements for reaching different levels of experience.

Gears doesn't ranked-based achievement? You positive about that?

http://www.achieve360points.com/txt/g/G ... War_AG.txt

I KNOW it does, I would have had a lot of those achievements if they weren't ranked-based. I was bitching about that a lot last year.

Zeus wrote:

Tessian wrote:

Zeus wrote: Or the ranked bullshit that M$ forced into Gears (I think Halo has it too). There was a few articles with Cliffy B about them removing the "ranked" portion but they were never allowed to. I would have had a lot of those achievements with the 2 weeks of multiplayer I played with that game.

Gears doesn't have ranked based achievements... just gay "I killed someone 100 times with weapon X" achievements.

Halo doesn't either... just achievements for reaching different levels of experience.

Gears doesn't ranked-based achievement? You positive about that?

http://www.achieve360points.com/txt/g/G ... War_AG.txt

I KNOW it does, I would have had a lot of those achievements if they weren't ranked-based. I was bitching about that a lot last year.

When you said rank-based, I assumed you meant something that had to do with attaining a certain rank (like get into the Top 100 on Style X); not just any achievement that deals with participating in ranked games.

In that case I do think most are stupid... 100 kills with weapon X, Y, and Z is retarded and lazy. Halo 3 doesn't do it to nearly that degree... there's only a few small achievements that require you perform weird feats in ranked games, and as Lotus will tell you half the time everyone in a game just agrees to help everyone get that achievement because some are impossible (like Overkill on Ranked FFA?? So I have to kill EVERYONE ELSE at once?)

Tessian wrote:In that case I do think most are stupid... 100 kills with weapon X, Y, and Z is retarded and lazy. Halo 3 doesn't do it to nearly that degree... there's only a few small achievements that require you perform weird feats in ranked games, and as Lotus will tell you half the time everyone in a game just agrees to help everyone get that achievement because some are impossible (like Overkill on Ranked FFA?? So I have to kill EVERYONE ELSE at once?)

Yep, that's how I got the overkill one. If you really want to get that one it'll be easier in a couple of days when Lone Wolves is increased to 6-players. Slightly, slightly easier.

Chris Hansbrough wrote:at least I still got andrews girlfriend :p

Sorry Chris, I've introduced her to COD .

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:

Chris Hansbrough wrote:at least I still got andrews girlfriend :p

Sorry Chris, I've introduced her to COD .

FUCK YOU MAN! FUCK YOU!

I don't know if it's xbox live retardedness, but COD is impossible to play during my session today. Obviously a sign to go back to galaxy and not study for exams.

Chris Hansbrough wrote:FUCK YOU MAN! FUCK YOU!

Haha, sorry dude. Get COD! All the cool kids are playing it!

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:

Chris Hansbrough wrote:FUCK YOU MAN! FUCK YOU!

Haha, sorry dude. Get COD! All the cool kids are playing it!

ok then. I guess I'll jsut be relegated to hangin with my loser movie star friends.....damn :p

Jesus Christ bovine, you're caning this game! Which modes are you playing in? Are you switching up weapons for the challenges?

I play TDM pretty much exclusively and am ranking up fairly slowly (35 at the moment). I'm switching weapons as I complete their challenges and it is sideways-screwing my KD ratio. It's taken me a couple hundred kills to get used to the sniper rifles. I miss my G3.

Heh, he's wearing a COD piece. Your COD piece is no match for my MASS EFFECT on the chicks!

Pretty much just doing what you are doing, use one weapon until I've gotten the acog for it and then move on to another (agoc scope for the scorpion = adorable). One of my pals got the game and we make a pretty devastating combination, I think that is where I really make a lot of points.

also, not having mass effect has let me hone my skills, not enjoy an amazing space opera.... *sigh*

bovine wrote:Pretty much just doing what you are doing, use one weapon until I've gotten the acog for it and then move on to another (agoc scope for the scorpion = adorable). One of my pals got the game and we make a pretty devastating combination, I think that is where I really make a lot of points.

Ah yep, fair enough. You must just be better at the game than I am, haha! One of my other friends managed to get to my current rank within a couple of days of the game's release. You damn powerlevellers!

bovine wrote:also, not having mass effect has let me hone my skills, not enjoy an amazing space opera.... *sigh*

You've got $250 in pocket now, right? Go get it!

bovine wrote:where's the COD? Andrew never invites me to play, so I'll finally have someone to play with

Haha, next time I see you on I will send you an invite. My play sessions have been so short recently that I haven't bothered checking my friends list to see if anyone is online and playing.

Level 49 now; six levels away from prestige, fuck yeah!

My two favourite class configurations now are Sven (the first rifle with claymores, Stopping Power, and Deep Impact; named after a friend that is the best Halo sniper that I know) and Master Chef (silenced assault rifle or SMG, extra grenades, UAV Jammer and Dead Silence). You don't realise how heavily people rely on their radar till you take yourself off it.

got my tax return...propbably buying tomorrow instead of with first paycheck now...woooohooooooo cock

Chris Hansbrough wrote:got my tax return...propbably buying tomorrow instead of with first paycheck now...woooohooooooo cock

'ken A!

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote: My two favourite class configurations now are Sven

"Daah... he is Olle, you are Svën. He is Olle, YOU are Svën."

"Daah... you are my new friend, I share mit you."

there is nothing more annoying than having shit basic guns and having your sniper nest creamed by a goddamned airplane dropping bombs on your face

Chris Hansbrough wrote:there is nothing more annoying than having shit basic guns and having your sniper nest creamed by a goddamned airplane dropping bombs on your face

The basic guns are some of the best in the game (I've unlocked all of the sniper rifles and use the first one by choice, and the M16 is probably the best all-round weapon in the game).

You'll learn!

I'm with andrew on this one. The weapons you unlock (except the p90 and the G3) don't function above and beyond the basic ones. Some of the later perks (overkill) are pretty awesome, but it's surprisingly balanced considering the amount of stuff to unlock. If you're having trouble with getting bombed, get inside or kill 5 people without dieing and get an airstrike of your own.

bovine wrote:I'm with andrew on this one. The weapons you unlock (except the p90 and the G3) don't function above and beyond the basic ones.

Only one more level until I get the P90!

The P90 is a bit ridiculous. It's a highly accurate bullet hose with absolutely no recoil. I've had some murderous streaks with it.

I can't quite remember why I liked the G3 so much as it's been ages since I used it, but after an initial learning period (single shot! What the hell!) I did come to love it. I hate the M14, another single-shot assault rifle, though.

The very first sniper rifle is probably my favourite weapon in the game. With it and a salvaged P90 I feel pretty unstoppable.

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:The P90 is a bit ridiculous. It's a highly accurate bullet hose with absolutely no recoil. I've had some murderous streaks with it.

I can't quite remember why I liked the G3 so much as it's been ages since I used it, but after an initial learning period (single shot! What the hell!) I did come to love it. I hate the M14, another single-shot assault rifle, though.

The very first sniper rifle is probably my favourite weapon in the game. With it and a salvaged P90 I feel pretty unstoppable.

I just need to kill some things so I can at least get a red dot....I'm soooo tired of not being able to hit anything with muh machine guns.....I'ma gonna cry now....then go to work....then come back and shoot people in the face.....one or 2....I'll be like 2-2-37 at the end of a round because I.....AM.....THE......MASTER..........of suck

sorry but after playing for a while......I really don't like the game. I just offered to sell it to a buddy but really....I don't like it that much at all. It's just not that fun....kinda shit actually.....it may look amazing but I really am not enjoying it. at all. just frustrates and pisses me off.....complete waste of $60

I dunno....maybe we should just get a big private party going with just friends and play like that....maybe it will help it change my mind....at this point I am a bit pissed because I was actually really fucking stoked to jump on and play....and nw I'm just really pissed off and feel like I wasted money that I'll only have to spend in a few weeks when I get the first paycheck

Ugh, sorry to hear that you're not digging it, Chris.

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:Ugh, sorry to hear that you're not digging it, Chris.

it sucks too. because I was really fucking stoked to play it. and I liked it...at first....but it almost felt like novelty....it really wore off and as I said...it's become a chore to play...especially the horribly fucking retarded multiplayer system. shit even your girlfriend inviting me couldn't get me to jump back in....I just sent her a message saying well, if I didn't fucking hate the game I'd be glad to join you.......ugh...at this point I'm having trouble even turning back on the system. so I just read my Sinestro Corps finale about 5 more times working on a review.

not liking it actually really has pissed me off

by the way....is there a way to get a big private game together? Maybe that would help me get into it because at this point I'm willing to try anything to make me feel like I at least got some fun from this

Chris Hansbrough wrote:

Andrew, Killer Bee wrote:Ugh, sorry to hear that you're not digging it, Chris.

it sucks too. because I was really fucking stoked to play it. and I liked it...at first....but it almost felt like novelty....it really wore off and as I said...it's become a chore to play...especially the horribly fucking retarded multiplayer system. shit even your girlfriend inviting me couldn't get me to jump back in....I just sent her a message saying well, if I didn't fucking hate the game I'd be glad to join you.......ugh...at this point I'm having trouble even turning back on the system. so I just read my Sinestro Corps finale about 5 more times working on a review.

not liking it actually really has pissed me off

by the way....is there a way to get a big private game together? Maybe that would help me get into it because at this point I'm willing to try anything to make me feel like I at least got some fun from this

Yeah you can so if you feel up to it, count me in.

Jesus Christ, COD4 does not handle lag well. I've played for about an hour with mostly Americans and it is a completely different, completely horrible game. I've experienced lag on and off in my play experience but I've never had a chance to play completely outside of regular Australian hours, so I've never experienced such pure distilled and extended frustration. Lord, it's painful.

ACTIVATE PRESTIGE, BOVINE

DO IT DOG

why?

Levelling up is half the fun!