Anyone else playing Call of Duty?

Cafe Society
1

It came out Thursday, and color me impressed.

Since the core developers bolted from EA after they designed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, I was expecting “MoH with improvements”.

It is that, but also much more. Graphics are improved but seem to actually run smoother that MoH. Character animations are much more realistic, and some events (like manning a machine gun) have gotten a great makeover. Manning an MG-42 is an almost visceral experience now. Very cool.

The mission design is top-notch (so far). You cannot open any doors, which eliminates the “door hunt” mentality of MoH. And I have not yet experienced what I would call “unfair” levels (the Sniper’s Last Stand from MoH was one of these - you die when you move into the wrong area without killing the unseen sniper. Joy). When I die, it’s because something bad happened - either my squadmates or I exposed ourselves on the road or under a light, my grenade tosses missed, or I charged when I should have sought cover.

Other random thoughts:

I like the fluid method that objectives are updated, and the compass that shows your squadmates.

I like the sound. The music is rare, but good. The weapons sound great, and the positional audio does a great job.

It’s still a linear game, but it doesn’t really feel like one.

In about 5 hours of playing I’m (I think) halfway through the British mission, which would put me halfway through the game. I hear that the Russian campaign is great; I can’t wait to get there.

Multiplayer has only been when my (inexperienced FPS) friend wanted to try it. We played a quick objective-type game where you never re-spawned. Every time he died he reached for his (ahem) adult beverage while I yelled “OH! A Kill-cam! You got sniped!!!” To which he replied “What?”

Anyway, I’m enjoying every minute of this game so far.

Any other Dopers playing?

2

I can’t get through the mission where you have to take out planes with the flak cannon. I can’t both shoot down planes and not get sniped from the guys that endlessly appear on the roof above me.

All and all, it’s pretty darn good for a WWII mission game. The driving scenes are fun, and the large battle scenes are great. The enemy AI is what it needs to be, though of course like all realistic games, it suffers from the fact that reality is boring: it’s not like you can introduce mutant Nazis or Nazi headcrabs. :slight_smile:

I do wish that you could shoot through things that you should be able to shoot through. A limited physics engine would have been nice too, because the environments feel pretty canned. But they are still pretty fun. I just hope the Russian campaign will get back to the huge squadron battles in the US missions.

3

Well, I guess I have at least one “unfair” mission to look forward to!

And as good as this game looks, it’s still the Quake III engine down deep, so shooting through wooden fences will have to wait…

Still having fun, though!

4

Well the “shooting thru” isn’t an engine problem, just a game design decision. There’s nothing in the Q3 engine that prevents you from having intangible-to-gunfire brushes that I know of.

5

Hardware question:

The demo ran practiclly flawless on my computer with the highest details. Is the full game any more chunky? (I remember playing the UT2003 demo, and it running smooth, I bought the full version and it was chunky as hell).

I’ve got a Celeron 1.1ghz, 512mb SDRAM and a Radeon 9600 Pro. Demos can be decieving!

6

As far as I know, the demos are ripped right out of the real game. I played the demo, and then played the game through those levels again. Same experience both times, but then your experience could vary. I have a 3Ghz with 1G of RAM and a 9800Pro.

7

Ditto the performance being the same. I played both demos and the game runs just as smoothly. I have a fairly high-end system though, so I’d be surprised if it didn’t run well.

If the demos worked well for you, the game should as well.

And Apos I made it through the Stuka level tonight. It seems that the flak gun itself protects you from shots. The only time I got hit by the guys near the trucks was when I turned to try to take out the guys on the roof.

Oh, I’m also on Normal difficulty.

And dying a LOT now in Stalingrad!:slight_smile:

8

I’m on normal too, but something keeps killing me. Is there a Stuka that shoots at you from behind? The thing is, I seem to be doing really well: getting all the Stukas long before they get anywhere near me. But I keep getting hit, and finally die.

9

The Stukas only come from two directions. Call it straight ahead (the way the gun is originally aligned) and maybe 30 degrees right of that. I also shot up four of them before they could take off; I don’t know if those would come around and hit you from behind.

There seemed to be two lulls in the Stuka attacks where I could swing left and take out the guys on the roof with the flak gun. It’s pretty tight the second time, though!

I also took out two guys on the roof before I got on the gun. I know they respawn up there, but maybe taking out the first two slows down the rest.

Good luck!

10

I finished it on regular and now am halfway through on the hardest difficulty. Damn it’s a great game. Sound and music is definitely not as good as MOH, and the graphics are the same, but the gameplay and level design is much improved. Single biggest improvement is the ability to lean. Nothing blows the feeling of immersion like the “hero strafe” around corners. In this game you have to duck, cover, and lean out for the shot. Often you have to quick lean, adjust the reticle and pop out and shoot. It totally feels like war and I love working with my platoon knowing where their lines of sight are and what they’re covering and working with in concert. Sgt. Moody is a bit of a gung ho pain in the ass though. I was exhausted by the end of Pegasus and the storming of Stalingrad was up there with the Normandy invasion in MOH. Boy it must have sucked to be a Russian peasant back then. For those having trouble with the Stukas, check the rate of fire on the flak cannon because I think you’d be surprised how fast it is. When I first played that level I shot infrequently thinking there was a load time but there really isn’t.

11

Is that the one that advertised itself as “The most intense WWII experience ever?” If so, I hate it just for that. I sincerely doubt that a computer game is more intense than, say, Normandy on 6/6/44…

12

racinchikki I’ll clarify a little bit. The game was called “The most intense WWII shooter ever” by PC Gamer magazine. The game is using this quote on the back of the box.

By “shooter” they mean “game”. I don’t see this as the publishers claiming that their game is more “intense” than the D-Day invasion, just that they have developed an immersive gameplay experience.

Think of it like you think of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. An emotional, moving experience that pays homage to those who actually fought in the battles, but brings those of us who never did as close to actually experiencing it as possible.

13

That quote was obviously in the context of
a gaming experience but I get your point. The great thing about this game is that it doesn’t glorify or trivialize the horror. After playing similar games in the genre you might actually think fighting in WWII might be" fun and exciting". After playing CoD, you realize that you’d never want to have to go through that and wonder how the hell people who did could ever go on to lead remotely normal lives.

14

If they’d said “shooter” or “game” I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but the video ads playing on endless loop at the gaming store in the mall said “experience,” which rankled me a bit. Thanks for clarifying it for me, though, KidCharlemagne; it seems less heinous when you explain it that way.