Mr.Duck on 15/11/2009 at 13:14
Enjoying it like crack-covered cookies :)
Also, Ghost's skull face warmer (the right name for it eludes me, alas...) = WIN!
:D
Briareos H on 15/11/2009 at 21:06
[most of this post is made from my reply in the Eurogamer review comments section]
Damn, every media is furiously jacking off over the airport scene in a way or the other and it's rather unnerving.
Quote Posted by Eurogamer
what will shortly become the most notorious scene in gaming
To which I replied:
Naively superlative.
No, "No russian" will not become the most notorious scene in gaming, though many journos will use it as a reference and generate facepalms in their readers for the years to come. Yes, it was interesting to see such a narrative choice coming from the biggest gaming blockbuster of the year, but it will have little impact on the maturation of games as art / narrative media.
Incidentally, they gave the game a 9 and though CoD6
is often enjoyable, I expected better of both the "game" and Eurogamer. I play games mostly for their solo part, as social experience is not what I seek in escapism, so I can understand a few additional points for the -apparently good- multiplayer counterpart. The SP, however, is extremely average, borderline annoying and too short : the loose presentation of the story didn't bother me and rather made quite some sense... until it all finished so fast that it didn't have a sense of general closure. I also didn't manage build quite the same affection for the characters in all the frenzy, though I was delighted to play MacTavish again.
Thinking about it now, I find it incredible how the design assets are used and thrown away in the same minute while so much could be done with them. Think about any flawed infiltration military game of our PC past, take for example Project I.G.I or Delta Force. Now think about the time you would have spent infiltrating and carrying out various objectives in the same snow base assets as the second "real" level of the game and compare it to the 15-20 minutes it took you to finish "Cliffhanger".
I have enjoyed those minutes but in the end they left me nothing, while a successful infiltration in those other games left me with a feeling of accomplishment and a real respect for the game.
In that sense, Modern Warfare 2 is frankly disappointing as a game. An interactive first person movie with finely tailored sets yeah, but nothing as satisfying as what I'm accustomed to in gaming.
Infinity Ward is clearly made of many people who put all their heart in their project, but in the race to please Activision and create a blockbuster, they managed to build something that felt less of a game than their previous titles...
tl;dr:
- 7/10 if the multiplayer part is really that good
- not giving me the most optimistic view for the future of FPSes
Aerothorn on 15/11/2009 at 21:12
Are you saying it's relatively worse than Modern Warfare 1, or just no improvement?
Because even the developers never really seemed to make any promises beyond "it's prettier and more intense!" so I don't really know what you were expecting. Though I could certainly see how Eurogamer disappointed you!
Briareos H on 15/11/2009 at 21:26
Worse.
It's not really prettier but I find the graphics nice enough. However, it's not more intense, just shorter and frenzier - at the expense of both characterization and lasting impact.
Jason Moyer on 15/11/2009 at 21:31
The "No Russian" level would be awesome if it worked as part of the narrative. The way it's worked into the game, it basically serves no purpose. It's like someone at the office said "hey I have a press-generating idea, let's put in a level where you can kill civilians" and tried to shoehorn it into the plot in a really stupid way.
If I were Infinity Ward, I would have probably done the entire beginning of the game differently, starting the game from the perspective of an actual member of Makarov's group (who could have died in a scripted scene at the end of the mission), putting the airport scene as the second mission, and having the obligatory COD training mission take place in Makarov's compound or something. The whole jump from "ranger fighting (over-aggressively) in Afghanistan" to "promoted to a CIA operative infiltrating a terrorist group" in the span of 3 missions is seriously LOL worthy. They could have also used that opportunity to have your character lead a group in a separate part of the airport from Makarov, meaning you'd actually have to pull the trigger during that mission for reasons other than "FFS I'm not waiting an hour for these assholes to kill 4 cops".
catbarf on 15/11/2009 at 21:58
Well, it is the whole reason for Russia invading the US, which is the entire plot...
Jason Moyer on 15/11/2009 at 21:58
Yeah, good point. I should probably get around to finishing the game, huh.
Taffer36 on 15/11/2009 at 22:51
Quote Posted by MrDuck
Enjoying it like crack-covered cookies :)
Also, Ghost's skull face warmer (the right name for it eludes me, alas...) = WIN!
:D
Ghost = Gaz?
It's the same voice actor, maybe they were trying to remain ambiguous on it.
Quote Posted by Briareos H
I also didn't manage build quite the same affection for the characters in all the frenzy, though I was delighted to play MacTavish again.
I think they've gotten better at this with each game, personally. I cared quite a bit about the British characters, although the Americans were pretty forgettable.
poroshin on 16/11/2009 at 00:13
MrDuck is my kinda dude. Call of Duty = crack, for me. I couldn't care less than these games are linear and scripted. We've known this from Call of Duty 1 on. That's why I like them, because they give you a different experience from non-linear gameplay. And regardless of its linearity, it's very much immersive.
And it's plain fucking fun. :ebil:
june gloom on 16/11/2009 at 01:11
Agreed.
