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Call of Duty 4 Announced

The fourth title in the extremely well received Call of Duty series has been announced. Infinity Ward is now working on Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat . The title will end the series' reliance on the theatre of World War II, and will place gamers into a current-day setting fighting terrorists in the Middle East. While the chance to get away from WWII will be appreciated by game-players, not everyone is happy about that hackneyed title. "What followed [Medal of Honor] were such games as Day of Defeat (Activision, 2003) and Men of Valor (Vivendi, 2004.) Ubisoft briefly bucked the trend, boldly replacing the near-mandatory 'of' with 'in' for its 2005 release 'Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30,' but soon fell right in line with the rest of its industry brethren with the 2006 real-time strategy game Faces of War. Ditto for THQ's 2006 RTS game Company of Heroes. Later this year, retail shelves will be graced with THQ's Frontlines: Fuel of War and Midway's Hour of Victory. (That's why for the last couple of years, we and a number of our peers have jokingly created our own World War II game titles, Mad Libs-style, like Call of Honor, Men of Duty, Company of Brothers, etc.)"

13 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I see a Jack Thompson case in the making by AbsoluteXyro · · Score: 2, Funny

    With all the anti-war sediment in the US right now...

    The Bush Administration is having a hard time damming up that anti-war river, huh? :P

  2. PC ports? by antdude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will there be a PC/Windows port for CoD4? How come CoD3 didn't have one? I loved the first two CoD games. :(

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  3. Modern infantry warfare sucks. by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sounds boring.

    Politics aside, it'd be one hell of a lot more fun to play as an insurgent.

    1. Re:Modern infantry warfare sucks. by endianx · · Score: 3, Funny

      Politics aside, it'd be one hell of a lot more fun to play as an insurgent. Really? Your mission: "Find crowded place. Push this button." Sounds riveting.
    2. Re:Modern infantry warfare sucks. by SixFactor · · Score: 2, Interesting
      --
      Science never settles, never rests.
  4. Yay! by Jaysyn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Another uninspired 1st person shooter. Extra points for being a sequel.

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  5. Grab yer 28.8, private! We got a carrier to board! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You never want to engage in modem warfare with NO CARRIER.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  6. Red Orchestra by Nimey · · Score: 2, Informative

    One good exception to the Foo of Bar naming rule (and a damn good game besides) is Tripwire Interactive's Red Orchestra:Ostfront 41-45.

    It's a WWII FPS set on the Eastern Front, using the Unreal Engine 2.5. What makes it different is that it tries to be realistic, within reason. No crosshairs, you have to use your gunsights, and it simulates projectile physics, so no insta-hit weapons like /some/ shooters and you have to account for wind and bullet drop. It also does combined arms (infantry and armor, and soon an anti-tank gun), and VoIP chat is integrated so you can coordinate with your squad online. There's no offline campaign as such, but you can practice with bots just like in Unreal Tournament 2004. The bots are reasonably intelligent, but FFS don't let them drive your tank.

    There's also a thriving mod community. Some make maps (10 community maps will be included in the next official update) and some make full mods with new weapons, maps, and sides, like Carpathian Crosses, which includes the Romanians and their equipment.

    The game goes for IIRC $20 on Steam.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  7. Re:uh... by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've long thought that we need an FPS set entirely (or at least mostly) in some place underwater.

    That level in the sea base in Deus Ex was one of the best. Isolation like that is wonderful for atmosphere and motivation--like System Shock, but under water. That level felt like part of a whole different game (in a good way, mind you) because the mood was so survival-horror. Scripted (or not?) flooding of various parts of the facility or ship would make for some awesome, tense scenes; if submarine movies have taught us anything, it's that the threat of drowning under 2,000 feet of water is great for building tension!

    I know that you meant set in the water, as in swimming/diving, but it reminded me of this.

  8. Day of Defeat's first release was 2001 by Pvt_Waldo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Day of Defeat came out in 2001 as a free mod, pretty much making it the first and not a copycat.

  9. Re:uh... by SixFactor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think we can even conceptualize further for a multi-player mode:

    Opposing underwater bases with underwater infantry and vehicles. Mission: locate and destroy the enemy bases. The "locate" part would require that the players would have to search, and take care not to lead enemy troops back to their base, or that active sonar (or other gear) would only be used in dire situations. Maybe even make the bases mobile but very slow. This would make it a bit different than the BF2142 Titan game.

    The "destroy" part would involve torpedoes, man-fired projectiles (think speargun, only on auto), and for the "leet," a diving knife! :-D At the serious depths you're postulating, the issue would not just be flooding, but getting instantly crushed. So a JIM suit would be needed for the troops.

    There could even be surface support ships that would need to be careful to give away their base's position, and maybe even drop ships to provide additional troops.

    Yeah, I can get carried away with this...

    --
    Science never settles, never rests.
  10. WW2 FPS by Shadukar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    WW2 first person shooters always make me wonder about something:

    The perspective on "great war" (lower case) by common people.

    See, my grandparents lived in Poland during WW2 and fought as part of polish resistance. Their perspective of what happened differs vastly from anyone else i have talked to about this. Their recollections, when they were inclined to talk about their experiences were always very guarded, they rarely spoke about what their did, but the impression i always had was one of horror and dread.

    Don't get me wrong, they did not sit at home waiting for it all to blow over. They fought, they were members of the resistance. They did what we today see as entertainment. My grandfather once remarked that if you wore two coats of fur you could run in front of "pepesza" (russian el-cheapo submachine gun) and you'd "probably be alright".

    When they did speak about their war, they are always saddened, their eyes become downcast. I sometimes get this really strange feeling of regret or embarrassment, of revulsion at the thought that they killed nazi soldiers. It is a little hard to understand perhaps, i mean, that is what war is, nazi soldiers during the occupation of some European countries were absolute animals in so many cases, killing them, in self defense and in defense of your own country, should not create such feelings ...but it seems it does. A regret and revulsion at the acts of war. Once again, please note that this is not the same as the Vietnam war where many of the soldiers in many cases realize how manipulated they were by the usa government, how wrong that war was, how they were the brutal, unjust, invaders who committed horrible attrocities against native population that neither wanted them nor needed them. We are talking about people who fought for their country IN their country, for their lives and for the lives of their families.

    Fast forward over 60 years into the future.

    "We have no great war", to quote tylor durden. We play computer games where we think nothing of gunning down people in these games. We re-play the D-DAY landing in nearly every signle ww2 shooter! The operation "market garden" is probably the 2nd most popular and GLORIOUS mission in many shooters. Myself, a person from Poland, love playing the d-day maps from German side and sniping/operating artillery then towards the end of the map fighting at close range in the trenches, etc.

    We see WW2 as an event to which we have to pay lip service, yes, it was bad, we say without any real understanding really how bad it was. We enjoy these games and think of them as fun adventures. We watch reports of death tolls in Durfur or Iraq or Afghanistan or many other places of conflict and furrow our brow thinking "hey, 95 thats 5 less than yesterday ... thats a big number ...i wonder whats for dinner ....mmm ham". It is just figures on the TV.

    We start to take "great war" lighter and lighter. "godwin's law" is a common joke, playing as nazis in ww2 shooters is a feature that is pretty much essential from most game titles. Nazi apologizer's and holocaust deniers (seriously wtf), nazi/jew jokes aplenty, etc.

    Where is this going ?

    Think on this: after WW2, for many many years the sentiment among the people of the world was "never again". As time goes by, we forget the atrocities and horror of a world war. We start to see it more and more often as an adventure, a game almost. This scares me sometimes (no i am not some crusty old fart, i am only 28) because of what it implies for the future. Next time our great leader starts to beat the drums of war, instead of standing up united and saying "oh no you le didnt!" we'll have enough people claiming "wait, did he say we can win fabulous prizes?!" so that these people who are against war will be easily dismissed. Then before you know it we'll be enjoying another great war that will be over by spring ..for sure...this time.

    Anyways, back my beloved "murder simulators" :)

    PS, original wolf3d = best ww2 shooter ever ... pressing and holding T A B gave a funny message about another id title Commander Keen if i remember correctly.

  11. Tasteless by AaronLawrence · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone else find it extremely tasteless that we entertain ourselves with games about war in the Middle East, at the same time as real people are actually being killed and injured in real fighting there?

    If I were an Iraqi, I would probably think: what a bunch of smug, thoughtless bastards.

    --
    For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke