Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PC/XB1/PS4)

[drahkon]

Quote

The stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal Tier One operators in a heart-racing saga that will affect the global balance of power. Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® engulfs fans in an incredibly raw, gritty, provocative narrative that brings unrivaled intensity and shines a light on the changing nature of modern war. Developed by the studio that started it all, Infinity Ward delivers an epic reimagining of the iconic Modern Warfare series from the ground up.

In the visceral and dramatic single-player story campaign, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare pushes boundaries and breaks rules the way only Modern Warfare can. Players will engage in breathtaking covert operations alongside a diverse cast of international special forces throughout iconic European cities and volatile expanses of the Middle East.

And the story doesn’t end there.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players will be thrust into an immersive narrative spanning the entire game. Players can experience the ultimate online playground with classic multiplayer or squad-up and play cooperatively in a collection of elite operations, accessible to all skill levels.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare arrives October 25th, 2019.

You know...the CoD games get a lot of hate and Black Ops 4 rightly got a shit ton of bad press, but fuck me...these trailers always get me pumped. And it's Infinity Ward. They did an amazing job with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare...

Well...I guess this is me being part of the problem and buying an annual game of CoD yet again. Sorry folks  

Edit: Some more information nicked from Eurogamer and Pushsquare:

Spoiler

Quote

 

The series' now-outdated season pass model has been eliminated, meanwhile, to ensure additional maps and other bits of post-launch content don't fragment the game's playerbase.

And there's an impressive new engine, too, which you can read about in detail from Digital Foundry's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hands-on analysis.

 

(Eurogamer)

Quote

 

Alongside the announcement of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, publisher Activision said that it doesn’t want to fracture the franchise’s community anymore. According to the press release, it will achieve this by supporting cross-play and ditching the series’ controversial Season Pass. However, there’ll still be timed exclusive content on the PS4.

Despite rumours to the contrary, it looks like Sony’s marketing arrangement is still very much in place, and the PlayStation branded trailer for the new game confirms that PlayStation owners will get access to certain content seven days early. It’s obviously not a particularly big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does make a mockery of the series’ new unified vision.

 

(Pushsquare)

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

Good to see that the season pass has been ditched but i'm not optimistic that it won't be replaced with some other money making scheme. In recent years the CoD games have launched, got some good press and then patched in lootboxes, so I remain sceptical about this whole thing. Still, i'm happy to see the return of a story mode/campaign. The whole then certainly appeals to me more than last years entry.

[LazyBoy]

Are the sales for these games tailing off yet, or they still selling like hot cakes?

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, LazyBoy said:

Are the sales for these games tailing off yet, or they still selling like hot cakes?

They still sell really well. Even if they do sell less than the older games, I imagine they bring in more cash due to loot boxes/microtransactions now being part of the setup.

[LazyBoy]

Good for them I guess. Personally thought the gameplay had already gotten old by MW2, but each to their own. 

Thanks for the answer!

[drahkon]

Looking good.

I've said that I won't by this but who am I kidding. The beta was great fun.  

[drahkon]

Good old Activision fucking things up again.

• Spec Ops: Survival mode is exclusive to PS4 for one year (!!!!!!) 
• there apparently was a "fair" (as fair as it can be with these things) system to unlock stuff which is locked behind mtx but that was scrapped

Yup, not buying at launch. A couple of months later, second hand from ebay  

[S.C.G]

This is why I don't support these games any more, well... part of the reason, they just don't appeal to me any more and I really dislike Activision.

[Mandalore]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49985747

I didn't even know a mobile Call of Duty released recently. 

[drahkon]

Quote

Today, let’s address the basics for the in-game economy coming in Modern Warfare.

• We are introducing a new Battle Pass system, not a loot box system.
• All functional content that has an impact on game balance, such as base weapons and attachments, can be unlocked simply by playing the game.

Well, well, well. Obviously any kind of microtransaction in a 60€ game sucks but hey...no loot boxes. But I will still say: for now. Activision doesn't have the best track record regarding this shit.

[Hero-of-Time]

Having a Battle Pass in the thing is still pretty scummy. Fornite can pull this off because the thing is FTP but this is a fully priced game. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they pull the usually crack where they add a bunch of loot boxes and microtransactions into the game once it's been out for a month and been reviewed.

[martinist]

I never bought the last one because it pretty much focused on mulitplayer and was filled with lootboxes and MTX. Might pick this one up through since they have the campaign mode back.

[ArtMediocre]

So, despite the media backlash and bad PR this game have gotten (and the fact that I don't have time to play any multiplayer games anymore), I caved in and bought this game two days ago. 

And it is good. Really good, to be honest. There are some modes that I don't like at all, but it is good to play a CoD that is back to the roots. It gives me the same warm feeling I got when playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2. I like that I can customize each weapon with 5 attachments again, and that there are so many options :D. And playing harcore team death match with down to earth abilities and skill again is sooo satisfying. I'm not ever going to bother with buying any cosmetics, and everything seems doable when it comes to unlocking. I like the new blueprint system too, which gives you the option to get a high end customized weapon with multiple attachments at low level, which also helps level up the original weapon. If that makes any sense.. 

I still haven't touched the campaign, but that'll be for another day when the twins sleep longer and I have more time. 

[ArtMediocre]

Oh, and crossplay! I love crossplay! If any of you guys decide to get the game I can finally play with some of you. I play on PC, so I've always felt a bit isolated while playing multiplayer games. Not too many of my buddies play on PC, so this is a really welcome addition to the game. 

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, ArtMediocre said:

And playing harcore team death match

Hardcore all the way. It's the only mode where literally every weapon is 100% viable (except the knife). Even though the time to kill is relatively low in core there are still some weapons that are simply much better than others. 

[drahkon]

Campaign is done.

What a ride. I've already talked about it in the "Your 2019 Gaming Diary" thread, but here I go again on my own, goin' down the only road I've ever known:

Modern Warfare's singleplayer offering is one of the best I've ever played in an FPS. The bombastic shooting sections are perfectly placed between quiet moments of suspense. Certain scripted setpieces don't feel scripted the first time you encounter them, which is quite impressive, actually.

For an entry of the Call of Duty series it's quite varied, but in the end it's still Call of Duty. Don't go in expecting something different (especially storywise). It does, however, deliver the best CoD singleplayer experience I've ever had.

Now, the topic of "controversy". The game tip-toes around a moral line but never really crosses it. Yes, some scenes are a little "sickening", especially if you keep in mind that these things happen somewhere, right now. But there's no "real" controversy because the moral line itself stays untrodden.
Do I wish that there was one "fucked up" situation? One thematic step into the darkest corner of war? Not sure, because what I've seen in this campaign sometimes actually made me stop and calm my emotions. Which is quite a compliment to the devs and actors, I guess?

Edit: Pretty much while I was writing this paragraph Eurogamer released an article which highlights a controversy regarding the story (spoilers in that article, of course). I don't know anything about US military history (mainly because we're not told about that in school as we in Germany tend to focus on our own history literally 99% of our entire education) so this issue is entirely new to me; and to be honest: I don't really care. 

There is, however, one statement right in the opening paragraph of that article that bothers me:

Quote

This time, the game has been accused of rewriting history to place blame for controversial real-life US attacks on the Russians.

??? Yes, this game takes inspiration from real world events, but the events of the campaign are entirely fictional. And while it is, at times, certainly patriotic, it's still fiction. How anyone can say "the game rewrites histroy" is beyond me. 

Why can't we just enjoy things without complaining all the time.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed the campaign a lot. It ranks up there with Titanfall 2 as the best FPS singleplayer offering I've ever experienced. It was entertaining, audiovisually impressive and most importantly: It was pure fun. That's all I need from a video game.

 

Back to The Outer Worlds I go. And of course Modern Warfare's multiplayer. I sure hope a balance update for the Spec Ops mode will be released soon.

Edited October 29, 2019 by drahkon

[bob]

??? Yes, this game takes inspiration from real world events, but the events of the campaign are entirely fictional. And while it is, at times, certainly patriotic, it's still fiction. How anyone can say "the game rewrites histroy" is beyond me. 
Why can't we just enjoy things without complaining all the time.

I guess the controversy stems from the fact that they took a real-life incident where the US supposedly bombed civilians, and blame it on the Russians.

If the game is fiction, then why use real life incidents at all? If you are going to put real life incidents in, why change them?

The whole thing just seems very bizarre.

[drahkon]

3 minutes ago, bob said:

I guess the controversy stems from the fact that they took a real-life incident where the US supposedly bombed civilians, and blame it on the Russians.

But this is not "rewriting history". I just don't agree with wording it like that.

4 minutes ago, bob said:

If the game is fiction, then why use real life incidents at all?

Maybe they make for good action and entertainment? This may sound dark, but to be honest...that mission was fun.

4 minutes ago, bob said:

If you are going to put real life incidents in, why change them?

Fair enough.

Maybe I don't really get the controversy as it's not something I'm educated about. As I said, in Germany we don't really learn a lot about any other country's history.  

[bob]

Fair enough.
Maybe I don't really get the controversy as it's not something I'm educated about. As I said, in Germany we don't really learn a lot about any other country's history.  

All they had to do was not name the mission after a real life incident (Highway of Death) and it would have been fine.

You can get away with a lot without it being 'rewriting history'. For example if you made a game where it turns out Hitler was just a puppet and there is a different bad guy behind WW2, that would obviously be a made up story that everyone can see isn't true. However, changing the locations/participants etc of famous WW2 battles for no reason other than to paint someone else as the bad guy; the only reason to do so seems politically motivated.

I know that 'SJW' are quick to jump on any old controversy, but in this case they do seem to have a point.

[drahkon]

Hm, makes sense. While I still don't agree with the wording of "rewriting history", you do have a point. As do the people disliking the mission and its protrayal of events/bad guys.

[ArtMediocre]

Here's a pretty cool tip:

The game features a lot of secret weapons you can make in the Gunsmith

You can find most of the secret weapons in the reddit post above. I love the gunsmith for this feature, and you can really tailor your weapon to fit your needs. Just immagine, if you reeeally like the M4A1, you can use it as an assault rifle, or just built it to be a functional SMG with 9mm bullets. Pretty great feature