[Octopain]

First off, hello friends. I've been listening to the podcast for quite a while and occasionally lurking these forums and decided it doesn't make any sense not to have an account anymore.

I'm sure it's not too popular around here, but I was wondering if anyone had any specific thoughts or observations about the CoD series, good or bad. I'll be recording an episode of my podcast on the subject soon, though I wanted to reach out to you guys as you will surely have some insights I wouldn't on my own.

Anything and everything you find interesting about any of the games, no matter how little. Especially for 1 and 3, as I haven't played 3 at all and only played 1 years after it came out. To give you an idea, some of the things I'll be talking about:

The evolution and eventual removal of stopping power and martyrdom

How awful the loadout systems of black ops 1 and ghosts are, and how they actively discourage experimentation and creativity despite attempting the opposite

Being a jerk with the riot shield was the only reason I stuck with MW2 nearly as long as I did. Likewise, the slug shotgun was the only reason I played BO2 as long as I did

How both killcams and instant respawns are good solutions to the fact that you can die nearly instantly at almost any moment

And shoot the hinges, of course.

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

I do find it interesting that the campaigns of almost every entry since MW2 have dealt with absolutely insane U.S. invasion scenarios from a cold war mindset (Russia, China, an imaginary Latin American union). Also, how these invasion scenarios don't seem to take in the concept of mutual assured destruction/don't escalate to a global thermonuclear war.

[CubaLibre]

I assume you've listened to the CoD podcast? I don't think I have a whole lot more to say about it than that. Mostly I am disappointed that Titanfall is multiplayer only.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[diplo]

[notbov]

[TXTSWORD]

why isn't it called the CoDcast?

[CubaLibre]

It is.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[TXTSWORD]

Okay thank you that is all.

[Octopain]

I definitely listened to it, but I totally forgot it even existed. I'm not gonna relisten to it before I record mine, but I don't think I'll be covering the same ground anyway.

"serviceable, almost interesting" is the most half-hearted praise I've ever seen.

And now that you mention it, I am taking name recommendations. Other than CoDCast.

[CubaLibre]

Hall of Shooty
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Let's Play, starring me.

[GcDiaz]

CoDpiece
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Steam/PSN/Xbawks: GcDiaz

Let's bring sexy back!

[EU03]

CoDcast is already the name of the in-game streaming feature in Black Ops 2, which pretty much died with the advent of Xbox One/PS4's own stream service.

Excuse me for this long post, because I like CoD. A lot.

I've played a ton of Call of Duty since MW2, though mostly on a casual level, though I've pretty much stopped after Ghosts, with the MP being a weird sideways progression of the series, and Titanfall and all. Even so, the way that both IW and Treyarch approached balance and game design with each new game fascinated me, whether or not it was for the better or worse.

I think the downfall of the fun factor of multiplayer has been the steady push towards competitive e-sports mentality. CoD4 and MW2 were never designed to be competitive; they just gave you stupid strong perks and guns (triple grenades and One Man Army aside). It was because every perk and gun were really good that the metagame actually grew to be quite balanced. Sure, you had the forums bitching about Commando, but smarter players could hard counter with Ninja Pro. Stopping Power gave you the upper hand in gunfights, but you'd have to sacrifice Cold-Blooded and risk being targeted by killstreaks. It was very accommodating for less skilled players and campers, but it truly rewarded extremely mobile and aggressive gameplay. There was also plenty of room for fun and silly gameplay (Akimbo G18s, C4+Riot Shield). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgqZCQ7h4s0

But as the community started to grow and talk about TTKs and with e-sports exploding around Call of Duty, both studios submitted to all the complaints about "broken" competitive design.

The worst sin was completely neutering shotguns, making them extremely frustrating and un-fun to use. MW2 had them as secondaries, but they were just as viable as primaries, with extremely good range and power. Unfortunately, Akimbo 1887s were bugged, making them a popular loadout, even long after the patch. I guess it was this stigma that perpetrated the belief that shotguns were no-skill weapons and should be nerfed to hell.
(Inside story: Supposedly the reason why 1887 bug took forever to patch was one of the designers really liked the actual 1887 shotgun and refused to change it until overwhelming demand brought around the fix.)
Black Ops 1 switched them back to primaries, but made them worse than than what they were as secondaries in MW2. The only redeeming factor was that the silenced SPAS-12 had no range debuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0568df6hqY
MW3 still had worthless shotguns, but it was discovered that extended mags was bugged, making the shotguns shoot 2x the pellets, effectively making their damage twice as strong. IW acknowledged this and "fixed" the bug, but retained the buffed pellet count for all shotguns (aside from the Striker). AA-12 still sucked without having a full Specialist loadout.
Black Ops 2 made shotguns somewhat more fun to use (god bless the KSG), but still gave into complaints about the kill range of the pump action and nerfed it down anyway. There was also absolutely no reason to not run the long barrel attachment! In conjunction with the Pick 10 system, it just felt too expensive to be competitive or fun to play with.
Shotguns in Ghost are all trash, except maybe the Bulldog. That's about it.

At least the shotgun in Titanfall is pretty good.
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[Octopain]

EU03, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I totally forgot about the whole 1887 thing, definitely using that. Do you have any source on the dev liking it, even if anecdotal? I'm having trouble finding anything about it.

I hadn't really given much thought to it before, but I agree that esport thinking has screwed up this series. Man, I can't imagine how miserable it would be to actually try to play CoD competitively.

[Iacus]

I haven't played 1 or 3 either!
I hear 3 does some amusing things for it's time, but it being unavailable for PC despite being this weird cross-generation game ensured I never got to try it. I hear the Wii version is probably the most interesting?

I played a lot of 2 in multiplayer. Using the sniper rifles in levels with few players is great fun, if you use only the variants without scope. A lot of the maps are very "enemy at the gates"

I only really got into the series with 4/MW, and lost interest when the actual talent left infinity ward and MW3 was just boring, samey stuff.
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Guayaba 2600

[Ronnoc]

Why does money fly out of people when you shoot them in later COD multiplayers?

[notbov]

[EU03]

[Ronnoc]

Speaking of shotguns, remember when IW named a shotgun class after Sandy Ravage in MW3 and then he didn't use it because shotguns were poop?


I thought that was pretty funny

[boojiboy7]