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infantpipoc

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Nine Virtual Tours of One Fake Warrior

Ranking the 9 Call of Duty games I actually played by memory alone

Call of Duty series is something Giantbomb co-founder Jeff Grestmann has a fondness for. Or at least had during my first couple of years listening to Bombcast back in the mid-teens of this century. One can call the series formulaic in the recent years, but it sure went places sometime earlier. It started with immersive historical fiction, went for high-octane thrill rides with machine guns and tried its hands in military science fiction.

The series also had strong ties to Big Boy E3, 2.0 more so than 1.0. I would be speaking for many among us when I call Modern Warfare 2’s live showcase during Microsoft conference in 2009 a “tone setting” moment for Big Boy E3 2.0 (2009 to only 2019 really). Its only tie to 1.0 I can think of would be some bullshot. So, in order of yours truly playing them, here are nine cod fish in a can.

List items

  • My first and only time through its campaign: May, 2006 on PC through CD-ROM

    Aka the one introduced iron sight aiming to the Doomlike “arcade” first-person shooters. But what I remember more than the game is the opening line of a Chinese language review near the game’s launch back in 2003. It goes something like this: Even if George Lucas runs out of ideas for Star Wars, World War Two would still be a gift that keeps on giving for motion pictures, television programming, video games and literature, fictional or otherwise. 2024 certainly saw Oppenheimer winning its producer-director both Best Picture and Best Director from the Academy. And indeed, non-combatants’ real life account of WWII is not something Star Wars likely to mimic.

    However, this slippery cod fish did not become a best seller by sticking to its historical guns. And I am sure that if Infinity Ward founders were more fond of 1997’s Starship Troopers than 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, they would have made their bug hunting shooters without one rat’s ass given about the biggest armed conflict we homo sapiens has known.

  • My first time through its campaign: June, 2009 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    With the number 4 before that column in its full title, no one should mistake this one with that 2019 game. Capitalists are a petty bunch and that pettiness can play out as “buy it if you can’t beat it”. The saga of Microsoft buying Activision is one of those cases. Spencer can brag about saving other Activision brands all he wants, but we all know that cod fish was those he reports to after all along. Back in 2007, COD 4: Modern Warfare pretty much ate Halo 3’s lunch with revenue from PS3 owners. The game had the honor of being the first first-person shooter sold more than 10 million copies. One would almost think Peter Moore left Microsoft that year just because he thought EA got more potential in the 10-mil seller game.

    Back to the game, Infinity Ward’s shift from immersive historical fiction to high-octane thrill ride was, and I am trying to make it as gentle as possible, fucking shameless. Their success before 2007 was solely based on copying combat movies set in the second world war. Now, in order to reference more things, they went for a modern setting. The first 20 to 30 minutes of the game should be dead giveaway, there is “crew expandable” probably from 1979’s Alien. Then you got 1984’s Terminator and 1986’s Aliens in one line: “On your feet, solider. (T1) We are leaving. (Aliens)”. Ain’t innovation overrated in video games?

  • My first time through its campaign: July, 2009 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    I would love to point to this one when people thought Kiefer Sutherland was to blame for Snake’s lackluster English vocal performance in Metal Gear Solid V the Phantom Pain. Konami Digital Entertainment’s poor directing and short recording time were the bane. Sutherland Jr. voiced a U.S marine in the Pacific Theatre here, the character’s rank is “sergeant” if I remembered correctly. While it would not hold a candle to Gary Oldman chewing scenery with a Russian accent in the same game, it’s still a convincing enough performance of “military man barking orders”. Not a N64 game character as Grestmann would put it. I mean Hideo Kojima tried his best to make Punished “Venom” Snake into a Mad Max the Road Warrior analog, but that sure fell apart after Fury Road, how ever wooden Tom Hardy is in that one he is not N64 character.

    While it might be seen as step backwards from Modern Warfare, World At War did mark the time Treyarch came to its own as a Call of Duty developer. By finally putting blockbuster flair onto Pacific Theatre and making Eastern Front the funhouse of horror it was, World At War still managed to feel a breath of fresh air when it came out in 2008. The game’s flame thrower sure mopped the ground with its counterpart in Gears of War 2. The game’s zombie mode also cemented the “complete package” video game for its day: campaign (usually for one), cooperative and competitive. I mean Gears 2 brought out Horde mode, but it’s not like PS3 owners got to play that the way they got to play WAW’s zombie mode.

  • My first time through its campaign: likely late October, or maybe early November, 2009 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    With the reboot series going with Roman numbers rather than Arabic, no one should mistake this one with that 2022 game either. Back when Infinity Ward still got its founders there, this game does not have “Call of Duty” in its in-game main menu. Everyone went over the moon for the first Modern Warfare’s multiplayer, with its leveling and loadouts. Yours truly did not until the 2009 sequel. And I did my part to make it one of the best-selling video games, thanks to my own father!

    Well, I got a copy of the game early when someone broke street date so early some of those could be bought in miHoYo’s country of origin. It was the weekend before MP server was up, so I did enjoy the ride of its campaign. I enjoyed it so much I restarted it on a higher difficulty. Then my old man got to walk pass the monitor and knocked the standing console down and scratched the disc unreadable. Being the 19 years old little shit I was, I bought another copy just as the server went up. Thanks a lot, dad! It was more of a waste because I gave the game up when they announced the higher prices for map packs and switched Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Bringing down buildings was more of my speed back then.

  • My first and only time through its campaign: June, 2010 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    Really do not remember much. Other than the British campaign takes place in Africa Theatre and there is still no one click sprinting, this one is quite forgettable. Typical launch title of a console I might add. And maybe we can all blame the annual release on this one.

  • My first and only time through its campaign: June, 2010 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    Two, three and World At War came out in a package dubbed Call of Duty War Chest, I believe, in 2010. Which was why I took a dive into them World War Two CODs right after my sophomore year in college ended. Two and three were not memorable, but back in 2006, Call of Duty 3 introduced the concept of “bullshot” to me.

    During the last Big Boy E3 1.0, Activision brought a trailer for COD3. It began with footage from 1, 2 plus those PS2 and Xbox games, then it switched to “Closer than ever”, some footage looks too good to be true, ending with some gruesome hand-to-hand combat scene. And surely enough it was not true, with the final game featuring QTE as the hand-to-hand scene. 18 years later, it sure was nice to see that bullshit still alive and well during Microsoft’s usual vaporware parade. Those framerates during Nintendo Direct is suspicious as well if you ask me.

  • My first time through its campaign: November, 2010 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    “Rambo: First Blood Part 2 the Video Game” pretty much summed up this one. Or at least the demo during Microsoft’s conference of E3 2010. Hot damn those injured prisoners of war can kill, with guns and gunship. By this time, Treyarch started to build its own fictional history. Gray Oldman was back to chew scenery with Russian accent again providing connection to World At War. I was told that multiplayer got its own flavor, would not know too much about that, too busy with Halo Reach and the Vieatnam expansion for Battlefield Bad Company 2.

  • My first and only time through its campaign: November, 2011 on Xbox 360 with a disc

    The phrase “call of duty modern warfare three” seems to be a curse. It was a curse of awfulness in 2023 as I was told and of mediocracy in 2011 as I experienced. Not much to say other than its can be played co-op or solo mode without zombie is pretty fun.

  • My first and only time through its campaign: November, 2016 on PC through Steam

    As you can see, I took a break from the series for 5 years. Not completely voluntary. I was going to play Black Ops. 2 in 2012, but gaming budget ran out at that time with Halo 4 out first. When Ghost was panned, I stopped following the series. Then an interesting thing happened, COD went to space and I thought I got to try that. While world building left a lot to be desired, zero-g stealth and dogfights broke the firefights well enough. Too bad the series went “boots on the ground” after.
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