Pop Quiz: What should you do if you make a game that breaks records and sets the bar so high that it will take another entire development cycle for game-makers to catch up? If you’re Activision’s marketing director David Tyler, you brag your ass off. Speaking of the enormous success of Call of Duty 4, Tyler spoke to trade magazine MCV, including some words that were probably not too well-received at EA or Ubisoft. “We’re pleased to have Call of Duty 4 leading the way in the FPS genre, with recent launches such as Army of Two and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 failing to inspire,” said Tyler.
This is one of those statements you just want to sling a wet banana at, and I would if it weren’t so laden with truth, that the Vatican was having it carved into the Sistine Chapel.
While I have marched a little ways into the R6V2 campaign, I can’t help but cast a longing glance at my worn-out CoD 4 case. Call of Duty 4 just might have ruined shooters for me for a long time.
Is that a good thing?
I guess it might be, meaning that the gameplay experience that Infinity Ward delivered, literally shattered everything else ever made in its genre, and probably several others. At the same time, I have no doubt that, had there never been a Call of Duty 4, I might have enjoyed these newer shooters, like Rainbox Six, Army of Two, and Frontlines:FOW quite a bit more. Here we are months after the release of this impeccable title, and I still can’t get away from it. I MUST PLAY CALL OF DUTY 4.
Will there ever be another shooter to top COD4? I’m sure of it, but it’s going to take a while.
From what I can tell (having no clue how video games are developed) in the development time continuum, we are still in the COD4/Halo 3 era. These games that are coming out now were all in the same graduating class, so to speak. In my opinion, the projects to watch are going to be the ones that are more recently commenced, so as to possibly learn from what worked and have time to steal implement those ideas.
As far as first person shooters go, I think it’s going to be a long time before we see anything in the First Person Shooter genre that tops Call of Duty 4. It could even be Call of Duty 5. What do you guys and gals see on the horizon that could be the CoD4 Killer?
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I’d like it to be Counterstrike 2. Hopefully Valve are going to learn from the mess that was Team Fortress 2 on the consoles, take into account where CoD4 has raised the bar to and produce a great game.
I really hope that Far Cry 2 will make other shooters run for their money. First one was a blast from start to finish. Lets just hope UBI will not screw this one up…
Army of Two was a joke. Just like most of EA games it had a great commercials and everything, but it failed to deliver.
P.S Yes, I am from Poland. Pozdrowienia dla ca?ej ekipy Sarcastic Gamer! (Greetings for all)
I wonder if you and Regua are neighbors Tomasz
Imo, CoD4 stays that popular because of Prestige which seems to be the dumbest gaming mechanic ever.They expect you to trade everything for a bloody insignia.And to add an insult to the injury, even the game itself implies it’s a good thing.
If it wasn’t for prestige, the game wouldn’t still be on top.
PS: And don’t forget teh Halo 3 ves CoD4 warz! Couple of days ago, I came across some rabid fanboy who claimed that Halo 3 Movies suck and CoD4 is “The future of machinima”.People can flame for all different reasons, no matter how dumb they are.
JalkubK666? Do we have ourselves a Halo 3 fanboy on the site? *gets a LOT of angry citizens of jerusalem…ok im not even gonna finish that joke*
I wonder what they will say if GTAIV gets played more then CoD4 when it comes out.
“Well GTAIV isn’t a FPS, so it doesn’t count, we are still the best, can’t touch this.” -dancing across the room-
lol i just got the pc version over the weekend cos you guys WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT IT!
Okay I have to admit it is pretty damn good, great to see a game outsell the big boys on it’s gameplay merits.
Actually I don’t play any of them(…anymore).
It’s called having an opinion.
I really don’t think that COD5 will be anything special… then again I’m bias… I’m just so sick of WW2 games.. I just don’t care. I think there is a niche market for games set in the PRESENT. There are too many historical games and WAY too many set in the future… I think that’s one of the reasons why COD was so good. You could actually relate what was going on. The war zones look very similar to those on television, people have at least HEARD of the guns that they are using. In general… People are just able to relate to it more… as twisted as that sounds lol.
The only other game that I am looking forward to now(Post-COD4) is CALL OF DUTY 6!! Infinity Ward is the King of FPS..They started out great with COD2 and sealed the deal with COD4. It just sucks now because the only good game to look forward to now that COD4 is already out, is COD6…
“Anything else is just uncivilized”
-Charles Barkley-
I don’t know about better (because I have never played COD 4), but I am very excited about Resistance 2.
i think that it will b hard to beat cod4, unless they make number 5 as a other modern warfare or even try make a future war fare with more missions.
Oh and btw GoW2 looks like a good CoD-killer.
I think CoD4 is great for two reasons… the multiplayer game is addictive as hell thanks to the unlockables achieved by levelling, and the single player campaign is unbelievably cinematic. It’s like playing a movie.
Personally, I tend to aim toward the more ridiculous end of the genre for my top games. Games that are both over-the-top epic in story and have stupidly fun weapons to play with. This is why Resistance 2 is topping my hype-o-meter and games like Resistance: FOM, Vampire: Bloodlines and Deus Ex are in my top 5 FPS games of all time. All have great plotlines and all grant the ability to lay absolute hilarious waste to any npc in my way.
Call of Duty 4 is a fantastic game and frankly, a real breath of fresh air to the genre, but I don’t think it’ll be too long before it gets toppled from it’s mantle. Remember that just in this year alone, some of the titles coming out include Resistance 2, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Haze, Aliens: Colonial Marines… the list goes on and all are looking to be great games (potentially). And lest we not forget the impending Battlefield: BC which despite the RECENT BOYCOTT VICTORY AGAINST DLC BS (oo-rah), still looks like it could be a freakin awesome game.
To those with ps3’s who haven’t done this yet, there is an answer to your CoD4 addiction. I found this cure last week and my 360 (which I own CoD4 on) hasn’t been on at all since… go out and buy Ratchet and Clank: TOD. Nuff said.
Wow this has actually been the longest rant I’ve ever done. Sweet.
For me cod4 is now a joke after playing RSV2. Vegas is one of those games that just changes the whole rules of engagement and i think it will trump cod4 in some time and Frontlines has made a great change with 50 players and lots of vehicles.
Cod4, wacth your UAV…
well i’ll i have ever hear is how great COD4 is. So thats why I never got it. I really like halo 3 some would probaly call me a fanboy but I don’t care because im my experince halo 3 is the best game i have evry played but one day i’ll get COD4 and i’ll say Halo 3 what was thinking. im a big COD2 fan though.
I think Cod5=Crap
Treyarch hasn’t made a good game so far.
i completely AGREE with your article. COD4 completely blew me away alone with it’s campaign, and then even the multiplayer. There were just countless “whoa” moments where i was just completely floored at the detail and quality of play. I wouldn’t count on COD5 to de-thrown COD4 though because it’s going back WWII with developer Treyarch, who was responsible for the pretty average COD3. So don’t expect them to knock your socks off or break new ground.Infinity Ward has convinced me that they know how to make a game, and i don’t think they can be beat. Even the HALO developers couldn’t even do that and imagine with energy expended towards that!
Watch out for FarCry II !!! open world, crazy graphics… It will be the next revolution in FPS.
To me COD4 was way over played, but then again so was Halo 2. To me COD4 did one thing right. Change the back ground. Everything else was wrong. I mean everygame has its problems and to me COD4 has all of them, but their have the problems that everyone else likes. I mean shooting in the game mainly gets reduced to just running into a room with a large gun with your “Perks” and just blasting away at people. No Strategy in most games of COD4(( I know their can be, Ok?)) just pick your favorite gun , get in a game, and blast heads off. Done and Done.
I don’t like COD 4 and I have played the Beta and the real game alot and I do not like them. I dont suck at the game its just why win at something that is so pointless?
Im actualy the kind of guy that plays all FPS’s and doesnt get on that mindset that all games have to be sometype of format to be good. Turok Was great so was AO2 and R6V2 was great but it felt to me like an expansion pack of the original.
Good points in your article. COD4 has ruined FPS’s for me. Had to step away from them altogether for a while so as not to be disappointed.
The best FPS on the 360 prior to COD4 was COD 2, so it stands to reason that COD6 will be the next best thing.
Hopefully i am wrong and we get a killer game from someone else.
Farcry 2 looks amazing but I dont think that will be the game that knocks COD 4 off the top spot just for the reason that COD is set in reality, the guns people have heard of and forces are widely known and blamed places are real etc but for lots of games it is either set in the past (okayish) or the future( completely sucks sorry Halo 3 fanboys) in COD 4 its set in the present with real guns etc. Of course as it was made by an American company it is bound to be a little racist which it is, it is set in the middle east where your main objective is to kill people who where what appears to be a teatowel over thier head, typical American stereotype( no offence to you at Sarcastic Gamer or any other American readers)
So I think the recently boycotted Battlefield: Bad Company is the only game that is in the near future (unlike COD 6!!!!!) that can knock it off its topspot
I still enjoyed Army of Two but the problem with games like Ao2 and RSV2 is that they fail to compete with CoD4 multiplayer. CoD4 multiplayer is truly what made it so great, sp wise its a bit dated. The core game hasn’t changed much since the original CoD. It still features the endless repawns of enemies which is even worse in CoD4. That really killed parts of the game for me. The presentation and story has been turned up a notch but not awhole lot has changed since the original.
IW seemed to foucs much more of its time torwards its multiplayer. All of its challegenes, perks and weapon layouts really do put a lot of other FPS multiplayer games to shame. RSV2 has similar features but it still dosen’t match CoD4 and its the same as the first Vegas.
I don’t think something like Resistance 2 or FarCry 2 will have a hard time trying to match CoD4 campaign. For multiplayer I’d Resistance 2 has a good shot of matching CoD4. The original Resistance already features some good multiplayer.
@ seered27…
i thought infinity ward were making both COD 5&6?
Treyarch made cod3, but it flopped so activition chose to continue with infinity ward, right?
please correct me if I’m wrong, just going with what i’ve heard
well, what is infinity ward working on now?
Hey Doc, what happened to your FPS hiatus?? That probably lasted a good 5 minutes
Timesplitters 4 has me on the edge of my seat waiting. Its like the satire of SG mixed with a great shooter mixed with random, but funny comedy.
TS3 owned aswell.
@ eddiemilz….
For your info…Treyarch is the company that developed COD3 and is also developing COD5. It is going to be horrible. The company is so lame, they are creating another WW2 game for the Call of Duty franchise, even after the unbelievable success of COD4 MODERN warfare. So to answer your question, NO, Activision is stupid, they didn’t choose to drop the pathetic Treyarch developers because they want to bring a COD game to the market every year and Infinity Ward cannot create a game every year. If Infinity Ward tried, the quality of their games would be pitiful. So the only way to stop Treyarch from existence is to stop buying their games altogether. I purchased COD3 and ended up blowing chunks all over the box after my disgust for the low quality of the game. Activision if you are listening out there. “Please, FIRE Treyarch, they suck!!”
COD4 does have good strategy in multiplayer, I’m sorry to hear some haven’t experienced it yet. Play it on PC in a dedicated hardcore S&D mode with friends on teamspeak. Also there are some custom servers running capture the flag with maps that need sniper support and forces good team play to win.
socom used to lead online gaming before halo was even thought or CoD4 was thought of. so with Confrontation around the corner it could possibly beat CoD4