"... zomg have you seen d'em d'ere Call of Dutyz "
... this is whats been echoing thorugh my head for the last week. As much as I'm glad Call of Duty is making videogames a topic in the mainstream i can't begin to define my frusturation with people's blind obsession with this game. Much like how a sports fan nods mindlessly along to a casual sport enthusiast ranting during the super bowl about how great those patriots have been I can't help but wish that they weren't talking to me about the subject. Before you start going 'oh he just hates things that are popular' hear me out, I understand why people like Call of Duty 4, it was a great game that made online multi-player fun and addictive for both casual and hardcore gamers. It did a hell of a-lot right in fact it is hard to pick out major flaws but what my problem is, is that i expected the aftermath of COD4 to be much different.
My hope for Call of Duty 4 was to suck some of the casual user base into the hard-core circle, to be blunt i wanted COD4 to be people's videogame equivalent to a gateway drug. I wanted to see people jump from Call of Duty to games like to games like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell and then to games like Shadow of the Colossus and Half Life but instead they used Call of Duty 4 as a standard for which to base there interest in other games upon. People simply tried to find games similar to COD4 and use them as a distraction for a week or two before they return to COD4. Now it was foolish of me to assume people would naturally become accustomed to games of a different artistic outlook in fact most people didn't like Call of Duty 4 for its deeper moments like the nuke blast and I guess that the mainstream isn't looking for a deep experience what they want is the Transformers 2 or Gears of War experience (More gore, more action, more violence more explosions...) . All i want is these artistic games to get a fair shake and I fear that COD is what may be preventing them .
Can You Name the Game above? If you can't never talk to me again ever ...!
The following Paragraph contains minor spoilers from the opening segment of Modern Warfare 2
I'm excited for Modern Warfare 2 don't get me wrong, it's just i can't help but feel left out when it comes to how excited everyone else seems. Is it that I'm not a huge fan of multi-player? No because when it comes down to it the single player should still be enough to motivate me to play the game. It's the potential of MW2 that has me a little uneasy, MW2 has the potential to send a message through a game without suffering sales wise because it has such a large dedicated fan base, so in my eyes if Infinity Ward doesn't jump at the opportunity the game will be a failure in my eyes. A few days back upon hearing of the opening level of MW2 my excitement rose tremendously and then came to a crashing halt. The opening level in which you are an undercover agent disguised as a terrorist in an airport and instructed to take down civilians has the potential to be a moving moment that only a video-game could portray. The bitter feeling of killing innocents in order to save millions is subject matter that movies have delt with a lot over the past decade and it is something that could be a huge step forward for videogames but then when I heard that it was an optional segment my respect for Infinity Ward flew out the window, if you have something to say as a developer ... no as an artist, you say it you don't make it optional. I'm going to steal an example from a podcast i listened to a little while back that i cannot remember the name of (sorry), would Saving Private Ryan let you skip the opening scene, no they wouldn't , because that opening scene demonstrates the brutality of war the pain suffering and agony of battle and sets the tone for the film and leaves you afterwords with a different mindset than you came in with.
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I was going to save that last segment for the review but decided otherwise because MW2 isn't out yet, i have not played it, and there is still the opportunity for it to change my mind and impress me and i just wanted you the reader to understand my mindset heading into Modern Warfare 2. Until Next Time ... See You Later Space Cowboy (!)
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