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

[The Last Stand]

I did feel like the recoil in Ghosts was too laser-like, so TTK was too fast at range. I also thought the perk system was overly complex. I still think it was the worst COD at the time, but the ones afterward were so awful that it made Ghosts look pretty good in retrospect.

I believe with the ambitious directions that Black Ops II took with its campaign, multiplayer and co-op offerings, Ghosts felt bland in comparison. Also remember that Battlefield 4 released around the same time as Ghosts. Objectively speaking, BF4 took greater leaps with the FPS market compared to the formulaic CoD. Maybe that was the time that CoD fatigue started to set in.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

I admit, I wasn't the most fond of Ghosts starting out; part of that was the poor campaign, as you guys mentioned - mostly because of the ending, with Rorke being such a crap villain. I know parts of the story got explained in the intel you could find; stuff like the rise of the Federation and the original Ghosts got detailed a bit, though the other plot holes are still cut content.

I did have some issues with the Multiplayer back when the game first dropped, admittedly; I remember the MTS-255 not handling very well, felt VERY inconsistent. I also remember the original meta of "Ghillie Suit w/ Honey Badger AR/Suppressed M27 LMG with Grip and Thermal Hybrid Sight" that got on my nerves a bit quickly; just got tired of the CoD kiddies all camping and using that exact loadout. Still, I did come back eventually and found the Multiplayer to be pretty solidly fun; found Infected to be my favorite mode, though the other modes were fun as well. Even when I last played several months ago, I was still finding some decent matches, even if it wasn't up against a full lobby.

One thing I miss from the older maps is just the "vibes" you get from the maps; seriously, just go into a private match on one of these old games, and you'll see. It's remarkable just how many details you can find when you're not focused on mindlessly shooting each other; take the earthquake map @30+GameOvers mentioned, Tremor. Take a step back, and it becomes a lot more clear that you're fighting around a hospital, which looks rather accurate to one I visited IRL, in fact. There's medical supplies and waste lingering everything, missing persons posters lining some walls, and this general disturbing feeling of loss, especially since it's right on the edge of an impact crater. Another map, Stormfront, takes place in and around a library next to a hotel; the library's got books lying everywhere as people tried to find whatever they could to help them survive, while the hotel was turned into a haven for the less fortunate. Even where the characters spawn into a match had details; oftentimes, the Ghosts would be spawning into more "defensive" locations, trying to protect their homeland, while the Federation would be spawning in like they were moving in to attack.

Funnily enough, I remember the Shipment remake in that game, Showtime, being hated by the community; probably because it was daring to try and change up the community's sacred cow by adding in a surrounding area and having scorestreaks mix-up the mindless killing. Even this map had some great details, like the reception area having AKs hung up on the walls, ammo and attachments in cubby holes for the contestants, and even features like the announcer box, victory podium, advertisements for mercenary groups and killing competitions, and more. Even little features like the bloody wall behind the victory podium and the sign tell contestants where and how to stand for registration all told a story. And this is just one map; to say nothing of the Michael Myers map Fog with all of the horror references, the Predator map Ruin, the Death Mariachi map Departed, the pirate-themed map Mutiny, the frozen Canadian outpost Subzero... the list just goes on and on.

Ironically, the Shipment remake being a deathmatch arena fits pretty well with the CoD community these days; they just want to endlessly slaughter each other over and over in a tiny area, preferably while people give them asspats for their shit. Hell, the Fortnite-style skins of today would've fit right in with the map, honestly.

It's the same thing with Advanced Warfare; there's tons of little details put inside of all the map, ranging from map events to streaks, and it's pretty insane what you could do in that one. Hell, the Detroit map has a section taking place in a school; you couldn't see that in modern CoD, it would make all the snowflakes freak out. Personally, I found some of the latter maps to be pretty mid overall; decent designs, but they just didn't have the same OOMPH feel as Ghosts or prior CoD games. Same with IW; the game was great, significantly better than whatever the CoD kiddies praise these days, though some of the latter maps just felt really dull.

Still, at least IW has AFK glitch in Zombies to get free keys for supply drops; it's still weirdly fun to grab some rare gear and merc a few bots. Too bad AW is so dead, though; from what I can tell, you can only really find other people without any DLC, meaning that grabbing anything will basically reduce who you can even find even further, and the gameplay itself is already bad thanks to connection issues and sweats.

Of course, we all know the REAL reason why these games didn't do well; it's because of the kiddies and YouTubers that mindlessly hated everything that wasn't the same generic "small map slaughter" that encouraged Activision to take CoD where it is today. While Ghosts was the worse CoD for its time, it was still decent, and AW, BO3, and IW were all legitimately good games in their own right. After that, the franchise has just gone downhill; BO4 didn't even have a campaign and butchered Zombies, WWII was boring as hell, and while MW2019 and Cold War were steps in the right direction, Vanguard and both MW games hit record lows in terms of enjoyment. Sure, you can play decently well if you go on Shipment 24/7, and some of the goofy skins are fun, but the moment you go outside of the game's focus even slightly, like in Infected mode, it all just falls apart.

Sadly, it looks like the modern wokeshit CoDs are the only ones really active these days; sure, BO4 has a cheater problem, but even BO3 has less players from what I've found. It honestly feels like Activision just wants to force people into the newer CoD games, no matter how shit they might be; I mean, I wouldn't mind giving WWII one last chance, but the current CoDs in general are all just so... bland, despite the flashy skins and such, ironically.

Makes you wonder where it all went so wrong, frankly. It's all the main reason why I'm hard-pressed to get any excitement for BO6; the franchise has just rotted away so much that I find it difficult to find any life left.

 

[The Last Stand]

One thing I miss from the older maps is just the "vibes" you get from the maps; seriously, just go into a private match on one of these old games, and you'll see. It's remarkable just how many details you can find when you're not focused on mindlessly shooting each other;

There's one map in Ghosts that takes place in a tundra with a helicopter around the end of the map. There's a log cabin inside fully decked out with a stuffed bear on the wall, furniture, games and knickknacks on the tables, even a fireplace. I don't know if it's campaign or multiplayer, but one map/level even had this large wall between the US/Mexico border decked out with signs, graffiti, debris scattered around it.

You have to give the level design team credit for the attention to detail in their maps. I also give credit to IW for not letting Ghosts go completely off the rails with abnormal cosmetics. Even the weed themed cosmetics didn't feel out of place with Ghosts' gray, white, brown color scheme.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

There's one map in Ghosts that takes place in a tundra with a helicopter around the end of the map. There's a log cabin inside fully decked out with a stuffed bear on the wall, furniture, games and knickknacks on the tables, even a fireplace.

That would be Whiteout; takes place up in Alaska, map-specific streak being the ability to call in a crashing satellite. Still remember the multiple deaths from jumping into the helicopter's blades. Also, I still remember the old Slenderman myth that got disproved; good times!

I don't know if it's campaign or multiplayer, but one map/level even had this large wall between the US/Mexico border decked out with signs, graffiti, debris scattered around it.

Pretty sure that's Tremor, set next to the border wall, in/around a hospital next to an impact crater. Had some earthquakes going off now and again, chaning parts of the map, and you could move a few dumpsters around to get some minor cover or make climbing a certain emergency stairwell easier. Also, there was that emergency ladder in the second floor of the garage.

Sorry, I'm just a fan of the map design!

You have to give the level design team credit for the attention to detail in their maps. I also give credit to IW for not letting Ghosts go completely off the rails with abnormal cosmetics. Even the weed themed cosmetics didn't feel out of place with Ghosts' gray, white, brown color scheme.

 

[The Last Stand]

Sorry, I'm just a fan of the map design!

No need to apologize, you like what you like. In hindsight, I wish I gave Ghosts more of a shot when it came out. At least enough to play the Snoop Dogg VO pack.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

No need to apologize, you like what you like. In hindsight, I wish I gave Ghosts more of a shot when it came out. At least enough to play the Snoop Dogg VO pack.

Technically, you still can; the VO pack is still available as DLC, at least on PS4/5, and he's a pretty solid option. The game's mostly dead, but I'm fairly sure you can still get a TDM going; if not, then I'm sure Private/Custom Match still works.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I did feel like the recoil in Ghosts was too laser-like, so TTK was too fast at range. I also thought the perk system was overly complex. I still think it was the worst COD at the time, but the ones afterward were so awful that it made Ghosts look pretty good in retrospect.

The perk system was one of it's best parts. It did what MW3 started with Specialist streak(which was still here btw) and made it part of the proper set up. Do you want extra equipment, or a whole lot of perks? You can always go for a balanced mix, this game has something for everyone. I always liked this one better than Pick 10 that Treyarch stuck with or the classic Modern Warfare system.
I actually like the laser recoil since it plays well with Ghosts meta: Hold down position with your team(or as losers like to call it "camping") and earn streaks. Remember, streaks in this game are low-tech due to post apocalyptic setting, so you will have nothing more than a Heli or a Sentry Gun anyways, unless you're going for LOKI, this game's equivalent of an AC-130 or a Swarm. I loved that there is a support version of LOKI as well, ODIN, which was my most used streak since it also gives your team a free AI controlled Juggernaut if I remember correctly. Anyways, this is what the maps were centered around, good area control and each player minding their part of the map for total domination. All a good player needs is a Honey Badger and optionally a sight, and that's that, everything else is a cherry on top. No need to play autistic calculation simulator to see which gun is "the best" this time of the week, pick the gun that's available right off the bat and go to town, it's less about your loadout and more about how you use it. The movement wasn't as arcade-like as in BO2, where you could do well with just a handgun or even no gun at all as long as you ran around like a cock, this won't work here and I heard many people call the game "bad" because of it. Scrubs. I always liked more strategic, team focused games like this over the ADHD arenas later entries became. People still cry about MW4 to this day because it similarly required a bit more strategy and teamwork over something like BO4 or Cope War.
Anyways, my point is that if you are in a position to kill someone at range in Ghosts, you deserve the kill. If you don't know how to dislodge someone like that at range in Ghosts? Well, keep playing buddy, you will have to learn it sometime! Most of the maps are designed in a way that make it possible, if not difficult. That's why I mentioned teamwork, a squad that works together will pretty much always win over randoms, just like a in a real war. No 1-2 players on a team getting getting 50 kill streaks each because they saw a youtube video of how to dominate someone with a DSR-50 and 3 overkill streaks on a small 3 lane map.

I believe with the ambitious directions that Black Ops II took with its campaign, multiplayer and co-op offerings, Ghosts felt bland in comparison. Also remember that Battlefield 4 released around the same time as Ghosts. Objectively speaking, BF4 took greater leaps with the FPS market compared to the formulaic CoD. Maybe that was the time that CoD fatigue started to set in.

I wouldn't say it was "Bland" but before the DLC season hit, Extinction was the most unique part about it. It had more to do with the game requiring more team work and skill than the previous iteration of COD so many people got filtered out. People laughing at the Single Player team losing their minds over fish AI didn't help either, so most people who heard about the game wrote it off from the start.

I admit, I wasn't the most fond of Ghosts starting out; part of that was the poor campaign, as you guys mentioned - mostly because of the ending, with Rorke being such a crap villain. I know parts of the story got explained in the intel you could find; stuff like the rise of the Federation and the original Ghosts got detailed a bit, though the other plot holes are still cut content.

Rorke is actually one of my favorite COD villains. How can you hate the guy, he's pretty much just Bane, right down to the plane scene taken straight from the movie.

It helps that the next level in the jungle is one of the best in the entire game. The other one being the prequel mission in Venezuela where you have the gimmick of ducking to shoot people underwater.
BTW the ending of the game is taken straight from The Dark Knight Rises as well.

I remember the MTS-255 not handling very well, felt VERY inconsistent

This is one of the few complaints I have about the game: The meme with shotguns being nerfed to oblivion started here, arguably even as far back as BO2 with the R870 nerf early on. It never got better, I remember you could cheese people with Haymaker in BO3(I got quite a few death threats over that, in fact), but that's about it. Oh, and I guess the Double Barrel in MW4 was OP for a time? I know I fucked people up with it in the beta. At least in Ghosts you could equip EVERY shotgun with slugs and turn it into a sniper rifle, something that I got, once again, death threats and reports over since dipshits never knew that slugs exist apparently.

Funnily enough, I remember the Shipment remake in this game, Showtime, being hated by the community; probably because it was daring to try and change up the community's sacred cow by adding in a surrounding area and having scorestreaks mix-up the mindless killing

I loved that map precisely because it was different. I hate the 1-1 recreation of it in later entries, I mean it literally wasn't meant to be played like this, it was a dev map left in at the last minute even back in COD4. I do like Showtime's theme, it's fun being part of a deathmatch game show.

Of course, we all know the REAL reason why these games didn't do well; it's because of the kiddies and YouTubers that mindlessly hated everything that wasn't the same generic "small map slaughter" that encouraged Activision to take CoD where it is today. While Ghosts was the worse CoD for its time, it was still decent, and AW, BO3, and IW were all legitimately good games in their own right.

Precisely, like I keep saying the mindless hate train for anything that isn't BO2 after that game released pretty much ruined the series. Tourists and Treyarch kiddies are to blame for modern state of COD, the rot that set in is what they revel in anyways. If you weren't there, you just don't understand how much hate Ghosts and AW took at the time, it's still insane to me to this day especially when you compare how much better these games were over the newer ones(which the same people don't have a problem with, funnily enough).

Makes you wonder where it all went so wrong, frankly. It's all the main reason why I'm hard-pressed to get any excitement for BO6; the franchise has just rotted away so much that I find it difficult to find any life left.

The writing was on the wall with MW4. The game launched alright, but they made very questionable changes VERY quickly, like removing 2 of the 6 announcers because they swore too much apparently. I was very cautious afterwards, and quit playing when Warzone came out, I knew that would be the main focus from now on. This was the final nail in the coffin, Warzone indeed took over COD like a parasite. I found myself playing the free chink mobile game more than I did with MW4, but I got pissed off with that too when they removed Zombies mode. Didn't look back since, good riddance.

 

[The Last Stand]

Technically, you still can; the VO pack is still available as DLC, at least on PS4/5, and he's a pretty solid option. The game's mostly dead, but I'm fairly sure you can still get a TDM going; if not, then I'm sure Private/Custom Match still works.

I remember when Ghosts would cost a few dollars a few years after launch. I think Ghosts is dead online, more than older CoDs before it which is saying something.

Eminem's Survival song for Ghosts is THE one thing that stands out about Ghosts. Actually, almost all the characters in the campaign remind me of Eminem, especially Rorke.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Eminem's Survival song for Ghosts is THE one thing that stands out about Ghosts. Actually, almost all the characters in the campaign remind me of Eminem, especially Rorke.

God I hate Feminem, and that song is mid at best. At least "Carry On" in BO2 was much better, and "Carrion" in Zombies mode is a straight up banger. Hell, even Skrillex(remember him?) made a new song for the game, it was even a placeholder zombies easter egg song in the 1.0 version of the game.

 

[The Last Stand]

Rorke is actually one of my favorite COD villains. How can you hate the guy, he's pretty much just Bane, right down to the plane scene taken straight from the movie.
It helps that the next level in the jungle is one of the best in the entire game. The other one being the prequel mission in Venezuela where you have the gimmick of ducking to shoot people underwater.
BTW the ending of the game is taken straight from The Dark Knight Rises as well.

Who wrote CoD: Ghosts? One of them was Brian Bloom. He starred in several superhero movies. So, CoD: Ghosts tried to be a gritty superhero like movie. The execution could've been better in practice. Not the WORSE, but the plot holes ruin it. Ghosts' world had some potential.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Who wrote CoD: Ghosts? One of them was Brian Bloom. He starred in several superhero movies. So, CoD: Ghosts tried to be a gritty superhero like movie. The execution could've been better in practice. Not the WORSE, but the plot holes ruin it. Ghosts' world had some potential.

Actually, that game had like 5 writers. Classic case of "too many cooks in the kitchen", shame as the base premise is pure kino.
As for plot holes, I will just blame all the cut content and messy development, I can believe they were going places with it at some point. Bane-Rorke still redeems whats' there, at least for me.

 

[The Last Stand]

Advanced Warfare's story was alright. Kevin Spacey gave a great performance. I just hated the exosuit jumping gung-ho gameplay. Boost jumping does not gel well with Call of Duty.

 

[The Ugly One]

The perk system was one of it's best parts. It did what MW3 started with Specialist streak(which was still here btw) and made it part of the proper set up. Do you want extra equipment, or a whole lot of perks? You can always go for a balanced mix, this game has something for everyone. I always liked this one better than Pick 10 that Treyarch stuck with or the classic Modern Warfare system.

But I didn't like it.

 

[The Last Stand]

The perk system was one of it's best parts. It did what MW3 started with Specialist streak(which was still here btw) and made it part of the proper set up. Do you want extra equipment, or a whole lot of perks? You can always go for a balanced mix, this game has something for everyone. I always liked this one better than Pick 10 that Treyarch stuck with or the classic Modern Warfare system.

I like perk systems that allow for experimentation. Want to run a super fast melee class? Why not. Want two primary weapons in exchange for one perk? Go for it.

As an aside, why play Advanced Warfare when you could play Titanfall at the time? I believe Respawn Entertainment was made up of ex-IW employees from MW2.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I like perk systems that allow for experimentation. Want to run a super fast melee class? Why not. Want two primary weapons in exchange for one perk? Go for it.

As an aside, why play Advanced Warfare when you could play Titanfall at the time? I believe Respawn Entertainment was made up of ex-IW employees from MW2.

Titanfall 1 didn't have singleplayer, for one. Two, I believe that once Titanfall 2 came out it made Titanfall 1 irrelevant. Three, Exo-boosting in AW is completely different than in Titanfall, you would be more correct if you compared it to how advanced movement works in BO3 and IW. Four, there was a much bigger selection of loadouts in AW than in Titanfall, which made engagements more interesting. There really aren't that many similarities between the two.

 

[The Last Stand]

Titanfall 1 didn't have singleplayer, for one. Two, I believe that once Titanfall 2 came out it made Titanfall 1 irrelevant. Three, Exo-boosting in AW is completely different than in Titanfall, you would be more correct if you compared it to how advanced movement works in BO3 and IW. Four, there was a much bigger selection of loadouts in AW than in Titanfall, which made engagements more interesting. There really aren't that many similarities between the two.

I said at the time. AW was out when Titanfall 1 released. AW's advanced movement is not the same as Titanfall's or BO3/IW. I had more hours logged into Titanfall than AW.

 

[Anti Snigger]

People who can't emotionally handle large maps where you can't hit the kill limit in TDM in under 90 seconds are fags. Overgrown remains one of my favorite COD maps to this day, and TDM games would regularly end due to time limit. People got over it, in part because you didn't have Battle Pass FOMO driving people to try to max out their score per minute or whatever.

I think it's less the size of maps, and more the size in conjunction with layout and shape.
Take red card for example.

It is technically smaller then Vault, however, you will spend roughly half the match hiking from spawn to wherever people actually are. Hardpoint especially on this map is grueling, if you manage to get knocked off the hill, you might as well rotate, and God help you if you spawn out

 

[The Doom Slayer]

 

[30+GameOvers]

I haven't been keeping up with BO6 since the leaks happened, and, uh...I am not surprised in the slightest with what's happening right now.

Skill Based Damage is back and worse than ever before, combine that with absolutely shitty third world servers and what do you get? Black Ops 6. Absolutely disgusting. This has been going on since MW5 in 2022 at the very least, and yet people are just now finding out about it.
Also, 2xp isn't actually double XP anymore? This isn't even the first time something like this happened, apparently the 2xp tokens in MW4 or some other nu-COD game were just 1.2xp bonuses and people got mad that they were cheated out of them(don't forget, these tokens run on real time, ie if you're in a lobby, so they last much less than 2 hours or whatever).
"This has been happening for 10 years" my ass, I remember my days in Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3 and Black Ops 4 plain as day and participated in plenty of 2xp events before, the math checked out. This is something new that has been made to drive up statistics from the modern niggercattle that still plays these games, don't let yourself be gaslight by these cocksuckers.

Speaking of which...

(Skip to 6.45, he spends the first part giving a eulogy for the soon to be deceased XDefiant. RIP BTW)
Would you look at that, they're offering paypiggy 2xp, I mean 1.2xp bonuses for those who keep buying "blackcell bundles", whatever the fuck that is. I guess fucking with XP gained makes more sense now, huh?
Watching these videos of BO6 in action is incredible. How the fuck can people still play this garbage? I loved COD in the 7th gen, hell even back in 6th gen with these PS2 games(and OG of course), but once 8th gen rolled around, quality started dropping with it. WW2 completely shit the bed and I consider BO4 a happy little accident in how much fun I had with it, MW4 is where the poz started but I will admit that at the start at least it resembled a proper COD game. Everything after that? You have to let it go, old COD is never coming back. Case and point: The hitboxes. On top of everything I just mentioned, crappy servers and SBD and what not, how the fuck do you screw up hitboxes? I can't recall any other COD game where this was an issue, and all of a sudden I see clips of SMGs hitting someone 15 times, creating a ridiculous fountain of blood, and not a single hitmarker. What a fucking joke. You know, Advanced Warfare was also rough around the edges, especially the last gen version I played, but I could excuse that since the jetpack experience was genuinely so much different than boots-on-ground COD we were used to. BO6 has nothing new, and no shootdodging doesn't count, Max Payne 3 had that too and it handled it much better. It also somehow incorporated bullet time in a multiplayer setting rather well, something Activision will never risk.

I haven't heard anything about Zombies yet, so I can assume it's either extremely bad and nobody plays it like with MW6 DMZ Zombies or whatever that was, or it's painfully mid and nobody cares aside from the biggest, most desperate Zombies fans. I already put my foot down, Tranzit or bust, I don't care about the post-credits sequence that this new story is and it doesn't make the game worth buying.

@The Doom Slayer
The first two minutes of the video almost made me puke. The rest just made me depressed. I made a post last page where you could pinpoint the exact moment COD turned to shit and we got Nu-COD of today, and that was when they started to round the edges of MW4 POST RELEASE. The original vision for that game was great, then Activision started picking and choosing what could stay in and what couldn't(ie no swearing announcers). Warzone was the "xenomorph bursts out of the chest" moment, where there was no going back.

"60 million lives were lost in WW2. It was the most destructive conflict in human history."
Call of Duty: World at War(200

Meanwhile, in Call of Duty: Vanguard(2021), which is was often shilled as "return to roots" and "the most historically accurate WW2 game ever made"...

Spoiler: So much cringe I had to spoiler this shit

 

[The Last Stand]

Skill Based Damage is back and worse than ever before, combine that with absolutely shitty third world servers and what do you get? Black Ops 6. Absolutely disgusting. This has been going on since MW5 in 2022 at the very least, and yet people are just now finding out about it.

It's not "skill based damage," it's desync between the client and the server. Maybe SBMM has an effect on the connection quality and matchmaking, but "skill based damage" sounds like a conspiracy too far.