Call of Duty Thread - Potential return to form? Or nothing but cope on the horizon? You decide!

[TVB]

Say what you will about CoD, but when it went mainstream, it changed gaming culture for better or worse.

I'll always remember these soundbites from early-to-mid 2010s MLG montage parodies

 

[Jewthulhu]

Am I the only one that had classes based off factions you would play as? For American factions I would have the likes of M16s or M4s, Ruskies had AKs or other exotic slav weaponry if applicable, anything went for Merc factions and the likes of OpFor that were miltias or terror groups would get the scrappy old weapons

I always do that. I'd run an M4 with an acog and vertical grip, or a AK with irons, even if that loadout sucks ass. I just want to larp and have fun, and sweating with a meta loadout just isn't fun.

Fuck tryhard metafags (in any shooter), and the youtubers who shill the meta. You're actively cutting off half the game and encouraging people not to have fun.

 

[The Last Stand]

I always do that. I'd run an M4 with an acog and vertical grip, or a AK with irons, even if that loadout sucks ass. I just want to larp and have fun, and sweating with a meta loadout just isn't fun.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember the UMP45 silenced being considered "meta" in MW2. Of course, noob tubing with the grenade launcher was the way to go, particularly in Afghan. Then again, MW2 was so unbalanced, it spearheaded quickscoping on account of its loose aim assist.

That's why I could never enjoy Warzone. Being able to obtain a custom loadout fairly early in a match defeats the purpose of battle royale being a game of survival and scavenging to obtain victory. And again, you have players doing advanced movement that results in exploiting the intended moveset provided from its supposedly grounded setting.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember the UMP45 silenced being considered "meta" in MW2. Of course, noob tubing with the grenade launcher was the way to go, particularly in Afghan. Then again, MW2 was so unbalanced, it spearheaded quickscoping on account of its loose aim assist.

The fun thing about MW2 was that EVERYTHING was broken, so you could use almost any setup and have fun. Famas with noob tube? One Man Army Noobtubes? Dual 1887s? ACR? UMP45s? All of that and more, pretty much everything was on the table, even quick/trickscoping with a bolt rifle like Intervention. These days, everyone runs what the youtubers tell them because experimentation is dead apparently

 

[The Ugly One]

The fun thing about MW2 was that EVERYTHING was broken, so you could use almost any setup and have fun. Famas with noob tube? One Man Army Noobtubes? Dual 1887s? ACR? UMP45s? All of that and more, pretty much everything was on the table, even quick/trickscoping with a bolt rifle like Intervention. These days, everyone runs what the youtubers tell them because experimentation is dead apparently

It's more that gunsmith enables you to build the exact same gun - the high-DPR, zero-recoil, fast-ADS laser - several different ways, and this gun is so good that there's no point to playing anything else. In the old CoDs, you get one attachment, uno, one, that's it, too bad if you don't like it (ok, 2 with Warlord), so the uniqueness of each gun cannot be smithed away. There was no one gun that was everything, all in one package. Even the "bad" guns had unique characteristics, so you could still experiment with them and find that one way to play well with them. Add to that a run speed that has made moving methodically a death sentence, so any gun that makes you slow is just useless. Since MW2019, there's only one correct way to play: minimize recoil, minimize ADS, and run around like a cracked-out jackrabbit.

 

[Screamer_2]

It's a little bit of both of these. Back in those days of gaming, you didn't have a million YouTube channels trying to find and promote a "meta". Competitve play outside of things like Cyberathletic Amateur League (CAL for short) and local tournaments wasn't much of a thing. You maybe had two or three friends who were sweaty tryhards who would spend afternoons making no scoping montages, but those people were few and far between. The vast majority of the playerbase played at an "average" skill level.

The balance of the game itself helped keep mostly every weapon viable for play, so there wasn't ever really a reason to only run one gun with a particular setup everytime to perform well. I'd attribute this to good map design as well.

Nowadays, people literally make gaming a full-time job, e-sports has been established as a thing (declining as it may be), and everyone instantly follows whatever "X best thing" currently is and follow the trend until it gets nerfed, rinse and repeat. The modern day casual gamer would have been on the fringe of hardcore gamer a decade ago.

It doesn't help that the newer games have baked-in "skill-based" matchmaking that's intentionally designed to kick you in the dick for playing well. Gone are the days of just getting into a lobby of various skill levels, every match has to be a fucking sweatfest.

I'm from the older generation. I just want to play for fun. It's purely just for enjoyment above anything else. I want to win and do well but I don't give a damn about my overall KDR. I just want the game I am playing to be fun and to hopefully do well.

Where the biggest gripe is when it doesn't seem fair.

I don't follow twitch streamers and if I do watch any gaming channels on youtube it's just basic news. No idea about "metas" or any of that crap. So I do reckon I'm always out of the loop about a lot of that stuff.

When it comes to SBMM and games like COD. What little I know about it, is that it never actually feels like SBMM. It just feels like it matches me with people whose connections favour them. It feels unfair. Something seems majorly off. I can't react quick enough. People appear and I instantly die. Bad hit reg. Then after a while there's a game where I am god level and melt everyone. Where clearly my connection favours me.

I do have some younger people I have gamed with over the years and they were always more concerned about the pointless stuff. We'd be playing Rush in Battlefield. I'd literally arm all 8 mcoms to win the match. Yet they would comment on my bad KDR. Who cares? I won the match. Also blah blah, yes other people not doing that contribute but you still actually need to arm them to win. I would feel people were happy to lose, as long as the KDR was high. What's the point?

When I played CS:G0 and people would do warm up rounds and get super autisitc about learning spray patterns. I just wanted to play and have fun.

I go through phases of playing APEX Legends and you come across people who "RAT," a term I learnt in game from other players. The ranking is based on where you come in the game. So people literally play to not play. To go and hide in the far corners of the map until a point where the player count means they will rank up. Talk about a waste of time. If you then get to that high rank, you can't even actually play with people who are legitimately that rank because you hid to get there. I just don't get it. Who is impressed by someone that is Diamond rank in Apex?

I will say, the other side of that is probably the people who watch the streamers who are fucking retarded when playing and would rather get into a fight they have a 90% chance of losing for the thrill they'll maybe pull of some epic win. I also see that as pointless because what's the point in playing dumb in a way you'll almost certainly lose. Although I am pretty sure most of those players are just retards who lack the ability to have abstract thought. So all the reasons I know why it's a bas idea to push the multiple squads fighting with no armour and weapons never occurs to them.

 

[The Ugly One]

When it comes to SBMM and games like COD. What little I know about it, is that it never actually feels like SBMM. It just feels like it matches me with people whose connections favour them. It feels unfair. Something seems majorly off. I can't react quick enough. People appear and I instantly die. Bad hit reg. Then after a while there's a game where I am god level and melt everyone. Where clearly my connection favours me.

In COD, there is a deliberate trick that became really well-known around the time of Black Ops 1. The game has your camera lead where your body is, even with zero latency. The consequence is that when you zip around a corner, you see the enemy a split second before he sees you, even, again with zero lag, like on a LAN. The purpose of this seems to be (not that any dev will come out and say) to give people running around an edge on people hiding around corners. It's why "prefiring" has become part of the meta gameplay - you fire blindly as you round corners, at spots where people are likely to be, because if someone is waiting there, you'll kill them before they ever see you. In the game, to the person you killed, it looks like they just instantly died when you appear. In other words, lurking around a doorway basically spells instant death against good players, because there is NO way for you to get the drop on someone moving if you're standing still.

There is also another trick. Lag compensation kind of fucks up when you jump-strafe. Where you "actually" are and where you appear to be are most likely to get out of sync when you jump while strafing. So when you combine jump-strafing with prefiring around a corner, you are borderline invulnerable.

Now, I personally hate prefiring and jump-strafing, both of which are techniques that really took off during the BO1-MW3-BO2 peak, because it feels gay & retarded. I just want to play my Cool Army Dude Shoot Mans Game. Having to do it to be competitive seriously lessened the appeal of the game for me. But that is why you are getting your ass kicked.

Once you get your ass kicked enough, you get booted down to a retard tier where you are so much better than everyone that it feels like everyone else's connection must be broken. Actually, they really are just dumber than shit. I have seen retards play like this in real life. They're borderline incapable of reacting to anything on screen.

I do have some younger people I have gamed with over the years and they were always more concerned about the pointless stuff. We'd be playing Rush in Battlefield. I'd literally arm all 8 mcoms to win the match. Yet they would comment on my bad KDR. Who cares? I won the match. Also blah blah, yes other people not doing that contribute but you still actually need to arm them to win. I would feel people were happy to lose, as long as the KDR was high. What's the point?

Achievements, unlocks, and leaderboards ruined the game. The point is not getting razzed about having a bad KDR. That's what everyone dickwaves about. In games where that stat isn't visible, guess what, people actually play the goddamned game. I have way more fun in Deep Rock Galactic and Darktide now, which, yes, are PVE, but at the same time, nobody's shitting on me for my K/D during the match. The only goal is to succeed in the mission.

 

[The Last Stand]

Just noticed something, the DOOM shotgun bundle may be considered P2W (pay to win) by Warzone/MWII standards. $20 for a shotgun with impressive one shot range. If they nerf it, it defeats the purpose of paying $20 for the shotgun. If they buff it, it becomes P2W at the expense of balance. If they decrease the price, then damn near everybody will be running around with it.

Remember when Battlefield had secret weapons to unlock by doing certain tasks and/or puzzles? It would've worked better if this DOOM shotgun could've been unlocked that way or obtained as a pickup/game mode.

 

[Croaking Spider]

Just noticed something, the DOOM shotgun bundle may be considered P2W (pay to win) by Warzone/MWII standards. $20 for a shotgun with impressive one shot range. If they nerf it, it defeats the purpose of paying $20 for the shotgun. If they buff it, it becomes P2W at the expense of balance. If they decrease the price, then damn near everybody will be running around with it.

Remember when Battlefield had secret weapons to unlock by doing certain tasks and/or puzzles? It would've worked better if this DOOM shotgun could've been unlocked that way or obtained as a pickup/game mode.

Shit like this is why I hate modern-day CoD. The games still have network and anti-cheat issues (where by some fucked-up logic actual cheaters go unpunished while people are getting banned while playing single player because ActiBlizz can't get their shit to play nice with Steam) yet they have the gall to charge almost a third of the price of the original purchase for a skin from a game they had no hand in making.

What's even worse is it animation isn't even timed properly. 20 years of Doom autism has this setting off alarms in my head. That's not a Doom shotgun, it looks like a Prodeus asset. How the fuck does a skin that expensive look WORSE than the 29 year game it's pulled from?

Keep in mind, this next animation is from Weapons of Saturn mod, made for FREE for a game that's pushing 30 years old. Are CoD's efforts really worth $20?

Hell, even the chainsaw doesn't look right. Get your shit together, guys. The weapon bob from running just looks fucking goofy.

 

[The Ugly One]

Shit like this is why I hate modern-day CoD. The games still have network and anti-cheat issues (where by some fucked-up logic actual cheaters go unpunished while people are getting banned while playing single player because ActiBlizz can't get their shit to play nice with Steam) yet they have the gall to charge almost a third of the price of the original purchase for a skin from a game they had no hand in making.

What's even worse is it animation isn't even timed properly. 20 years of Doom autism has this setting off alarms in my head. That's not a Doom shotgun, it looks like a Prodeus asset. How the fuck does a skin that expensive look WORSE than the 29 year game it's pulled from?

View attachment 5455203

The Doom shotgun in COD is just this shit, but for Millennials instead of Gen X

 

[30+GameOvers]

When it comes to SBMM and games like COD. What little I know about it, is that it never actually feels like SBMM. It just feels like it matches me with people whose connections favour them. It feels unfair. Something seems majorly off. I can't react quick enough. People appear and I instantly die. Bad hit reg. Then after a while there's a game where I am god level and melt everyone. Where clearly my connection favours me.

Activision's SBMM algorithm has been trademarked and it definitely fucks with people when it wants to. It can effect your connection, the sounds you hear, the sounds your character makes, even damage your guns make. The algorithm rewards those who pay for microtransactions, SBMM gives them easier or favorable matches when they buy the overpriced bundles to give them an illusion that it actually made a difference in the game. It is scummy as hell and I can't even imagine playing more modern games anymore. It does make me appreciate the single player content that much more in some games, like Zombies/Survival/Extinction/Spec Ops ect. People forget how much replayability these games had even if you didn't play Multiplayer all that much

Just noticed something, the DOOM shotgun bundle may be considered P2W (pay to win) by Warzone/MWII standards. $20 for a shotgun with impressive one shot range. If they nerf it, it defeats the purpose of paying $20 for the shotgun. If they buff it, it becomes P2W at the expense of balance. If they decrease the price, then damn near everybody will be running around with it.

Remember when Battlefield had secret weapons to unlock by doing certain tasks and/or puzzles? It would've worked better if this DOOM shotgun could've been unlocked that way or obtained as a pickup/game mode.

I was so right to leave the franchise when I did, I could see where the wind was blowing. COD really ended up becoming Fortnite 2.0 and nothing else

 

[Screamer_2]

Activision's SBMM algorithm has been trademarked and it definitely fucks with people when it wants to. It can effect your connection, the sounds you hear, the sounds your character makes, even damage your guns make. The algorithm rewards those who pay for microtransactions, SBMM gives them easier or favorable matches when they buy the overpriced bundles to give them an illusion that it actually made a difference in the game. It is scummy as hell and I can't even imagine playing more modern games anymore.

I wonder if this is why I find some COD games really inconsistent. As I don't buy bundles etc.

In COD, there is a deliberate trick that became really well-known around the time of Black Ops 1. The game has your camera lead where your body is, even with zero latency. The consequence is that when you zip around a corner, you see the enemy a split second before he sees you, even, again with zero lag, like on a LAN.

I have heard about peakers advantage, I assumed it was just a network thing. Whose game gets updated first.

I should note I have always been a PC player. My general recollection as a COD player.

I played COD4 from release. A lot. Hundres and hundreds of hours. Right until WAW came out. Which I played solidly for about 9 months. Back to COD4. No issues at all about game play, lag etc. MW2 came out and they ditched servers for local hosting on people's machines. The gameplay felt noticeably different. Kill cams often felt significantly off what you experienced. I still played annoyed, probably more in HC for a few solid months. By then Bad Company 2 was out which I adored and was a game I enjoyed for years.

BLOPS1 came out with dedicated servers again and it felt like it was back to the COD with good gun play I remembered.

Then over the years I have gone in and out. Can't really remember how they felt. Some games I didn't like the MP (mw3, Ghosts) so played a few times and never again.

Probably the next few I put a lot of time in were BLOPS3 and WWII. I played the shit out of WWII. No idea why many others didn't like it. At one point I even went back to COD4 before the remaster (didn't play) as their were servers and it was great.

Then with the newer batch. MW1 was acceptable but these issues would creep in. Where people seem to have moved around faster than you could react. Sometimes the matches felt amazing. Others not.

Then CW came out and it seemed that maybe 1 out of 12 matches felt amazing. The rest of the time they almost felt choppy with player movement at times.

MW2 and Vanguard were better but a worse experience than MW1. I was doing some MW2 again recently and honestly it just felt like I was at a disadvantage. I'd get the drop on someone, start shooting. They'd just look at me and shred me. The number of shots I heard myself shoot. Boom Boom Boom Boom. On the kill cams would often be, Boom boom. Then sometimes really good.

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

Let's see what modern cod is doing...

Just noticed something, the DOOM shotgun bundle may be considered P2W (pay to win) by Warzone/MWII standards. $20 for a shotgun with impressive one shot range. If they nerf it, it defeats the purpose of paying $20 for the shotgun. If they buff it, it becomes P2W at the expense of balance. If they decrease the price, then damn near everybody will be running around with it.

Remember when Battlefield had secret weapons to unlock by doing certain tasks and/or puzzles? It would've worked better if this DOOM shotgun could've been unlocked that way or obtained as a pickup/game mode.

holy shit

 

[TVB]

The Doom shotgun in COD is just this shit, but for Millennials instead of Gen X

More like for zoomers, and these fuckers ruin everything

 

[The Ugly One]

More like for zoomers, and these fuckers ruin everything

Zoomers don't remember 1994. See also the Skeletor skin. Zoomers didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s. This is all clearly to gobble up money from people with plenty of disposable income, but are living in an arrested adolescence at age 33.

 

[TVB]

Zoomers don't remember 1994. See also the Skeletor skin. Zoomers didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s. This is all clearly to gobble up money from people with plenty of disposable income, but are living in an arrested adolescence at age 33.

And that's why zoomers ruin these with flashy colors

 

[The Last Stand]

Then CW came out and it seemed that maybe 1 out of 12 matches felt amazing. The rest of the time they almost felt choppy with player movement at times.

It's not even just player movement; it's how unoptimized the game feels to play. I'm not sure if it's frame pacing, network connection, netcode or bullet magnetism, but kills and movement won't register for a couple seconds. The whole game feels like it's falling apart. Of course, I'm aware it was made during the COVID-19 pandemic. It needed more time for polish. All these players wearing these flashy skins and strafing around makes it look like a slideshow.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

So, breaking from the topic for a moment...

What do you guys think about Call of Duty: Ghosts? I got the game a while back, myself; not very many people online these days, but it's still rather fun to play.

 

[TVB]

What do you guys think about Call of Duty: Ghosts? I got the game a while back, myself; not very many people online these days, but it's still rather fun to play.

I ended up playing it and I thought it was typical CoD fun. It's flawed for sure, but I still thought it's an underappreciated game that was marketed horribly during E3 2013.

 

[Jewthulhu]

So, breaking from the topic for a moment...

What do you guys think about Call of Duty: Ghosts? I got the game a while back, myself; not very many people online these days, but it's still rather fun to play.

I should pirate it and play through the campaign. Though I remember watching it on youtube when it came out and thought the idea of South America posing an actual threat to the US was stupid.

Played through Black Ops 1 recently. The campaign had a few flaws but for a video game story it was amazing.