COD Ghosts Multiplayer Reveal

[Wookie Mistake]

I have kind of been Call of Duty'd-out (lol, I said "duty"). The game was beginning to grow stale when Modern Warfare 2 came out, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. As the series progressed through Black Ops and into Modern Warfare 3, it got bloody annoying. I never even looked at the box art of Black Ops 2, and don't really know anything about Call of Duty: Ghost other than they claimed they are using a new engine (that looks identical to their previous Unreal build, so woopty-doo, eh?).

Overall, the light arcade shooter has worn thin. They have done little to add much of anything to the mechanics of the game. I realize that fixing something that isn't broken is foolish, but the game has been using identical gameplay formulas with the same graphics engine for the past seven years (that'd be seven games). Really. It's done for me.

At least Battlefield brings some new innovation with their releases. Battlefield 4 introduces improved physics and lighting, along with easier environmental effects and a brand new animation system. The game will present a more realistic adversary than the fantasized global Russian invasion that Call of Duty seems to thoroughly wear out. I am not saying that DICE's series doesn't have its issues (yes, EA server issues, I am looking at you), but Call of Duty is simply making the mistake of, "Let's milk this thing dry with as little effort as possible".

I hear what youre saying, I've got a few friends who are BF fans too. It's just a matter of preference, I'd enjoy either game as long as I'm playing with my friends, but I'll explain why COD Ghosts is more fun to me.

For me BF is too slow. I know that's a personal thing, but I enjoy the intensity of a fast paced arcade style FPS. Having an amazing graphics engine is cool, but only necessary if I'm watching a movie and not playing a game, especially in an online environment. Realism isn't absolutely necessary to me, it's just window dressing.

To be honest, the innovations seem more like tweaks. They've made the graphics engine smoother, and more realistic, they've made the maps' dynamics change by player action, they now have massive "wars" allowing up to 64 players on the field at the same time. Those are all really cool, but those kind of additions are expected of a game with multiple sequels.

Cod has tweaked their game too, the graphics are crisper (though nowhere near the level of the Frostebite engine), they've enhanced the sound, to make it more "enveloping" (again probably nowhere near the power of BF), they've also added dynamic maps (and yes I'm aware that BF announced them first, but the gap between the two announcements aren't large enough to suggest that Activision is "copying" EA). And BlOps 2 had massive server issues also, with so many different kinds of lag "balancing" the skill between good and bad players. The Lag was just more prevalent in BlOps 2 because of how fast paced the game was. Hopefully that changes with the new dedicated or cloud servers the systems will be using and that goes for both games.

But COD has also added a ton of new things, things that feel more like new additions for an FPS than simply tweaking. They've replaced the dolphin dive with the knee slide, making it have more of a tactical use. They've also added a lean function, where you hide behind the edge of a wall, and then when you Aim down sights you lean out to take a shot. They've added 7 new game modes, changed create a class to create a soldier, adding character customization (which in turn supposedly alters the way the AI uses your soldier), as well as adding an ability to use the soldiers you've created in multiplayer modes alongside of you. Adding 1V1 possibilities while still running a full "squad".

When it comes down to it though, I don't like to compare the two. BF is a Tactical Sim, it's like Zero Dark Thirty, the reality is what captivates you. COD is more arcade style, like a Michael Bay Film or any other cheesy action movie. I don't really care which one I play as long as I'm playing with my friends, thats what makes the games, both of them, fun to me.