Why can’t I like them all?

August 4th, 2008 · 19 Comments

by Animathias

My gaming collection took a pretty big hit in late 2007 and early 2008 for reasons I’m not going to get into here. Two of those games that were lost to me were Halo 3 and The Orange Box. This left me with Call of Duty 4, a game I chose to keep not because it was better, but because it was the most fun for me at the time, and the one that this very community was leaning towards.

Well, with my last paycheck, I decided that I was going to regrow parts of my gaming collection, namely with these two games that I had lost. Woo-Boy, controversy abound! As Sarcastic Gamer’s resident grim reaper of death in Call of Duty, I was met with some strange responses when some of the many people on my friends list signed on to see me playing Halo 3.

Some of them were worried. Some angry. Some were even scared. But all of them were chocked full of questions.

Halo 3 isn’t a bad game. I know it’s gotten alot of bum rap around here for a while now, but for all intents and purposes it’s a solid game with quite a bit of life in it. The worst I’ve ever given the game is because of the sheer amount of hype it had for essentially being the next-gen equivalent of Halo 2. If they changed the game too much, it just wouldn’t be Halo anymore, and then you’re just alienating your fan base.

However, there seems to be a war going on in the underground between Call of Duty fans and Halo 3 guys. I know, it’s hard to believe. So when people on my friends list saw me deep in Halo’s matchmaking, I recieved responses like “I thought you hated Halo” or “Aren’t you a Call of Duty guy?” Well, why can’t I like them both? There also seems to be some trepidation against Team Fortress players as well, and to tell you the truth, it’s really confusing to me.

The list of differences between Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Team Fortress 2 are staggering. Besides the fact that they’re all sequels to first-person shooters, there’s nothing alike between the three of them. Each one offers a completely different gameplay experience. While I tend to do my own thing in Call of Duty 4, it certainly begs for more teamwork than Halo does. This is because in Halo, you usually live quite a bit longer than you would in Call of Duty. Besides a few certain weapons, it takes more than a couple shots to bring you down. In Call of Duty, two well-placed shots from a regular pistol will make you eat dirt.

There’s also the game modes. Now, I love Call of Duty, but sometimes I yearn for some good old Capture the Flag. That’s where Halo and Team Fortress gain some brownie points with me. There’s something about the thrill of grabbing the flag and returning it unscathed to your base, or even the constant changing of the battleground as flags are dropped and returned that games like CoD4 and Battlefield: Bad Company simply don’t have.

So tell me why I can’t enjoy all three games. Each one provides a different experience depending on my mood and what I feel like playing. Sometimes I want to feel like a super soldier who sticks his foes in the face with grenades, and other times I want to work as a team to barrel through the opponent’s base with a minigun and a medic at my back.

Now, what do you think? Do you own any combination of these games and feel they have a place to live in harmony? Or perhaps you only own one and think the other two should burn on a pile of Wiis? Let your thoughts out in the comment box below, or even head to our forums and vote for your favorite for this week’s Gamer Night.

Digg it

[Post to Twitter] Tweet This

Related Posts:

No related posts

Tags: Call of Duty 4 · Halo 3 · Orange Box · Xbox 360 · opinion

19 responses so far ↓

1 Eoco // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:09 pm

Again, like you, I enjoy all 3 games, but COD4 is probably my least favourite - I just love multiteam in Halo too much.
2 Jolley22 // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:22 pm

so true so true I like all 3 games but if I am seen on halo suddenly people question my faith to call of duty it’s like a religion.
3 Edthefreak // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:22 pm

I completely agree with you. I don’t the point of the useless rivalry between these very different games. I switch between COD4 and Halo 3 often enough, though I don’t have the Orange Box.
4 Kiltman67 // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I was really into TF2, after being a CSS fan, when it came out but after playing COD4 I did have problems getting back into it. Just started playing Halo 3 and enjoying it.

I always tend to think of multiplayer FPSs as a spectrum, with COD4 and Halo 3 (along with the Unreals) on either end with Team Fortress in the middle.
5 ninja9393 // Aug 4, 2008 at 4:37 pm

I completely agree with you here
6 FrostedStorm // Aug 4, 2008 at 4:44 pm

never once enjoyed playing halo 3, probably because I got into call of duty 4 first. Team fortress I have but never really got into it, but nether the less it was still fun.
7 Addict // Aug 4, 2008 at 4:46 pm

luv COD4 halo i like but i havnt played tf2
8 cell989 // Aug 4, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Call Of DUty offers more teamwork, and less “fiction”. I want to play “modern Combat” not comicbook material.
9 funkybuffalo61 // Aug 4, 2008 at 11:29 pm

I completely agree with you
10 fluffy_nuts // Aug 5, 2008 at 4:25 am

forget about the people who whine about what you play, you payed for it so play what you want.
Do you think I care when someone see’s me playing OverLord or Kane and Lynch. If these people only play one game then their not allowed to have an opinion
11 Quill Merchant // Aug 5, 2008 at 5:08 am

I own all three and I couldn’t agree more, they’re all fantastic.
12 CTF // Aug 5, 2008 at 6:44 am

To the guy who said COD4 is more teamwork oriented with tf2, think again, Tf2 requires more teamwork than both of those games combined due to its class based system, you cannot dominate a team alone unless they all suck horridly.

I think the games part in the Spectrum of FPS’s are as follows

Solo Middle Teamwork
Halo3xxxxxxxxxxCod4xxxxxxxxxxxxxTF2
13 kaan the cool // Aug 5, 2008 at 7:54 am

I think that Halo jesus should be switched to cod4 jesus. And I totally agree about the Halo 3 alienation part. Halo worked, Halo 2 worked so why shouldn’t Halo 3 have the same mechanic?
14 Lucifers Jello // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:43 am

I’ve said this before where I thingk that those games are to different from each other to really compare. Sure they’re are all fps, but they all have a differnet list of features. The only reason you get the “why are you playing Halo” comments is because the game is so popular people like to stand out and say I don’t play it or they like to say I hate it to look like they are better then others for not being part of the crowd. Halo is a insanly popular game, but how come I’m always running into people saying it sucks? They don’t think that. They just like to stand out.
15 iBrick // Aug 5, 2008 at 11:40 am

I still play all three of those games, even with a little GoW, GTA4, or R6V1/2 thrown in.

Fanboism is for the dogs.
16 bueatifulraven // Aug 5, 2008 at 4:12 pm

no one plays TF2. Whenever I do log on, I have to play against one person… sad face
17 NuclearNinja1429 // Aug 5, 2008 at 8:59 pm

@ raven

I play it alot, just not lately.

All of thoes games RULE!!!
18 DeusExMathias // Aug 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm

I think one of the reasons there’s such a rivalry between the fans of these shooters, is that many of them (or their parents) may only have the funds for one of them. As a result, they’ll defend the game they’ve got in the drive and poo-poo on the others simply for the reason that they don’t own the other games (yet.)

This may just be me shooting in the dark, tho.

~Deus
19 blades144 // Aug 6, 2008 at 6:51 pm

@ raven

TF2 is my favorite. If you do quick match, you will never get a good list of matches. Go to ‘Find a Custom Match’ and change the number of players to 12 instead of 16 and pick a map you like. You will find quite a few matches to join.