How not to hate CoD4.

This is going to be a pretty rambling post, just to warn people.

There are basically two kinds of FPS games that I like to play. Ones that are just casual jump in, kill some people, and quit a couple hours later with a lot less stress than before, and FPS games where I have a long term goal. Were I join a game and kill to get points, and then those points count towards some long term goal.

For the first type I really enjoyed Day of Defeat and now TF2 has filled that area.

For the other type I really have enjoyed BF2, huge battles of 32v32 on large maps where the more people you kill the more experience you get, the better weapons you can unlock / cool awards you get (Kinda like achievements in TF2).

So while I enjoy BF2 I have been looking for something new, I tried BF2142, and it was alright, but it was too similar to BF2 without the maps I liked in BF2. So I bought CoD4 after reading some pretty cool things about it online.

Bring it home, install it, look for a game, find a nice 48 / 60 player server and hop on it. Spawn. Die. Spawn. insta-die. Spawn. Look-around. Die. Spawn. Die. Spawn * I SEE AN ENE...* die. Spawn. Hey, I killed som... Die.

To make a long, boring story short I ended the round with 4 kills, 27 deaths. HORRIBLE. BF2 I have been averaging about 3:2 kill:death ratio lately and in TF2 I may not kill many people as an engineer but I serve a vital role on the team.

So after giving CoD4 a shot for 3 evenings of gaming I had pretty much given it up as a lost cause.

THEN, DJive from the chat room convinced me to join him for an evening playing on smaller servers, and I realized what I had been missing and figured out where I had gone wrong.

I had been playing with my old BF2 mindset that you needed a large server with lots of people on it in order to have fun. What I did not realize was the huge difference in map size. In BF2 you have a map so large that 32v32 people can play and it feels about as crowded as a TF2 map in 12v12. Well in CoD4 I would say the maps are about the same size as TF2 maps and I was trying to play 30v30 on them.

With a smaller server you now have time to catch your breath, look at your surroundings and then go people hunting. You notice a team mate get mowed down in a room, so you know the enmy is there and throw a flashbang into the room, then run in shooting. Or you hear gunshots through a thin wall and you can start to spray + pray.

In the first 4 hours I played, I gained about 200 experience, in the hour I played on small maps I gained well over 1000 experience, unlocked two guns and several gun upgrades. Not to mention the fact that previous to that one hour I had never had a kill streak greater than 3, and in my first round I managed to acheive a 7 kill streak twice, a 6 kill streak once, and a 3 kill streak numerous times.

So if you dont want to hate CoD4 and in fact want to have fun, skip past those 48, 60 player servers and join one that has 10 people on it. You will have much more fun.

Thats why at lower levels I try to find something else I enjoy doing. Like in BF2 I spent nearly the entire lower levels playing as a medic. I would run around reviving everybody. I got 1st / 2nd place on a few large servers.

Here is the other reason I love BF2: http://bf2s.com/player/96098868/ exhaustive stats on how you are doing. You can see I have 38 hours as a medic with 1,348 revives, 1,721 kills, and 1,724 deaths. I really had fun reviving people, mostly now in BF2 I play as sniper since I unlocked what is now my favorite sniper rifle. There are 4 main sniper rifles, The USMC regular one, the Chinese regular one, then two unlockable ones. The USMC and the 2 unlockable ones all do the same amount of damage, but the 1st unlockable can shoot through bullet resistant windows in helicopters and Humvees, and the 2nd unlock (my favorite) is more accurate over long distances.

In CoD4 I will definitely agree that it has pissed me off numerous times that the enemy had better guns, and I was ready to never play again. But on smaller servers its more about skill, and less about guns. On big servers you just cant keep track of where everyone is, and you keep getting cut down from behind, or the side, or killed by grenade spam. In smaller servers you cant really just grenade spam, and you have to react quickly. Also I was doing really well with the SAW (close quarters + 200 rounds of ammo) and the MP5 (Medium range, insanely accurate shooting from the hip). That said I still pick up other peoples guns when they die.

Haas said:

the word is that unlockables are getting into tf2 :S
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=646514
And after reading your post i mean the time i played bf2 i got 3 guns unlocked and still getting owned by better guns
mybe because EA released an expension and another one and another one all with better guns and nades.
I dont want to expend so much money in games and i don't want to buy all those expensions to keep playing a game that i already bought.

Click to expand...

Hmm... not sure if I like the idea for TF2 for several reasons.

1. its my current casual game, so I dont like the idea of having to play it to get unlocks, only one of those at a time.
2. All your stats are stored locally making hacking of them a trivial thing (Look at CoD4...)
3. You can get points from playing on private servers making stat padding a nightmare.

As for BF2, I suppose it helped that I got into the game kinda later, so I was able to get a combo deal on BF2 and Special Forces (the only two with unlocks). I have to admit the special forces unlocks are better, but as I said I got them both for like $30 at the time.

Oh well, I know certain games appeal to different people.

lerlerson said:

You know, I think this was actually pointed out to you, but I guess not. The stats are NOT held locally, at least, they seem to follow your account wherever it goes. Also, you can find them on Steampowered.com if you look hard enough.

Click to expand...

If you look at the dates of the posts, you will notice that the one you quoted was made before the clarification was made in the other thread.

Also, at the time I made the post you are referring to I thought they were talking about using kills / captures type of scores, but instead they are using achievements which I am slightly more happy about, but still not extremely thrilled.

yeah... i got seriously pwned yesterday in CoD4. Knifed 3 times in a row by the same guy. It started out as 2 v 2, and we were doing alright, then the other team left, so I switched sides and it was now 1 v 1 against my former teammate. I got slaughtered. He must of known the map about 100x more than I did because I would see him in front of me, not think he saw me, run around the corner and he would be standing there with his knife. Or I we would see each other, I would try and be sneaking and try and cut him off, but he would know some faster route and knife me in the back.

But, I did get him good a few times, he was pretty predictable in his route when he was looking for people so I was able to catch him by surprise several times.

Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare



*edit: beaten by over 6 hours... hangs head in shame for even posting this*