Games Thirst Feature: Call of Duty Past, Present, and Future

What do we all think about when we hear the words “Call of Duty”? We think of a blockbuster AAA hit developed by either Infinity Ward or Treyarch, and I have to say that the franchise has come a long way. I started playing Call of Duty 8 months shy of Modern Warfare 2 being released. I have to admit that when I FIRST heard about the game from a friend of mine, I was never interested, I would hear her play it constantly while I was on the phone with her and just never thought about buying the game myself, I had a Playstation 2, and World at War had come out not to long after I had got my Playstation 2, I was just never interested enough, that is until I went to a military school in Phoenix, Arizona, it changed the way I thought about the War and made me realize that it is actual people who fight for our rights and freedom.

The time came when I saw the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 had been released and they had been out, about probably a year, and I was in college at the time, so I used my college money to purchase both a PS3 and Xbox 360, and I bought a bunch of games, among those games were the ones I was the most excited to play and that was Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War, I hoped into my first match on Call of Duty 4 and man I sucked horribly at it, I went 2-30, but I progressively got better and better, and I noticed that during each Call of Duty release, I was actually getting a lot better. Back when I started playing Call of Duty 4, I didn’t know what the term “Noob” or “Camper” meant, and I didn’t know at the time that you were a noob if you used the ol’ Juggernaut/x3 Frag/ and M16 combo. But as I played the game more and more, I meant more and more friends, and I started to see a trend going on.

This feature will detail what I think about the Call of Duty franchise, because lets face it, there are too many people out there right now bashing Black Ops II, and they haven’t even seen it yet, it happens every year, but I write this article in hopes that some of you realize that this isn’t what being a gamer is all about, sure we are the consumer and we deserve to have things we want in the game, however, for people to constantly bash the developers with vulgar and rude comments is immature and disgusting to me.

The History of The Call of Duty Community
The History of Call of Duty, spans years, from I believe the first Call of Duty, to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Every single game brought with it a different experience, and a different way to either play be it having Killstreaks, or even having new ways to tactically manuever around the map. The Map design in all of the Call of Duty games is done for a specific reason, and don’t get me wrong, there ARE rules to designing maps that designers set for themselves. Every single Call of Duty to date, reguardless if people think it is true or not, have brought a new way to play the game being it adding new killstreaks, or adding new weapons or perks, or even designing the maps differently. I am not one to disagree with a lot of the community that the last few Call of Duty Games have been copy and paste in a certain sense, elaborating on that statement, I believe that the developers and designers put there heart into the game, they have a deadline as to when the game needs to be finished, and everything done to the game is subject to approval or disapproval by Activision supervisors, so I for one agree with a handful of the community members, but the ALOT of the community and you know who you are, voices there opinion on the games, is not the right way to go about it, a true gamer will support his or her favorite game, in this case Call of Duty, no matter the problems, all you can do is provide feedback and hope the game changes. A lot of the feedback players give to the Call of Duty developers is highly considered but don’t make it in for a reason, they don’t just sit there and say, “Oh this guy wants this and that guy wants that” They take every idea into consideration, if it doesn’t fit, then it wont be in, move on and think of other things to give feedback on. I know I am not talking much about history, but in a sense for the last 2 years, this has been the history of Call of Duty Community, the same stuff happens every year, people complain and complain and still buy the game.

THE HISTORY OF CALL OF DUTY

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, gamers had everything they could ever want be it Guns, Attachments, Maps, Perks, Killstreaks, Etc, up to now, every Call of Duty has had these, but there is numerous differences between Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the last few games released. When playing COD4, players would immerse themselves into chaotic street battles taking place on a Russian Ship at Sea, shooting away any enemies in there way, this is what made COD4 such a blast to play. Now like all games, COD4 had its issues, be it 3x Frag Grenades hurling through the air and killing you constantly, or getting that kill you needed to be one step closer to your next killstreak, then getting killed with that Martydom, or even occasionally getting pwned by that one guy hiding in the back of map, shooting you with his M16. Aside from it’s exhilarating multiplayer, COD4′s Campaign, brought players into the footsteps of SAS (Special Air Services) Member, “Soap” Mctavish, known by his Squad Leader, Captain John Price as Soap. Of course as well all know, Call of Duty puts you in the shoes of not one, but two soldiers shoes, the other faction being the U.S. Marines, where you play as Sergeant Ramirez, with the Marine Recon Team. You spend a lengthy time, pursuing Ultranationalist Amhir Al’ Asad, forgive me if I have that wrong, under the orders by the Ultranationalist Leader Zachaev. I wont go into the story too much so not to spoil it for those of you who haven’t played it yet. My point is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was THE Call of Duty of its time.

Now let’s skip World at War and go further in the past to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In my opinion, World at War was an amazing game, save one extremely beast gun, the MP40.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

When Modern Warfare 2, was first released, millions of players played it hours and hours on end, I myself have over 400 hours on the game. Modern Warfare 2 brought an entirely new expansive Multiplayer to the front lines, adding in new Guns, Maps, Perks, Attachments, and introducing Customizable Killstreaks, which of course was the iceing to the cake, when gamers found out. However, many gamers did not like this idea, as they were more accustomed to the classic 3,5,7 Killsreaks (UAV, Airstrike, and Helecoptor) I for one liked this recipe myself, and was a bit skeptic about the new Killstreaks. Once the game launched in November of 2009, people could not wait to hop on and pwn them some “Noobs”. The game had its fair share of issues like all games, however these issues seem to become more and more with each Call of Duty, if you weren’t getting continuously spammed by Air Support, you were getting killed with the infamous OMA/Noobtube Combo, which angered players greatly and caused them to abandon the games for a good amount of time. However, the one true aspect of the game, I felt was the most valuable to the experience was the Campaign once again. Continueing off of Call of Duty 4′s Story, Modern Warfare 3, puts you in the shoes of a U.S. Army Ranger named Private Allan, however your place in the Rangers doesn’t last long, as you are selected to be apart of an elite Task for called Task Force 141, headed by General Shepard, joined by an old familiar name, Captain Soap Mctavish joins you as a highly experienced soldier in your fight against the next generation Ultra Nationalist Leader, Vladamir Makarov, seeking revenge against the Americans for the death of his mentor Zachaev. But, as many know, some things are not what it seems, and the fight is now towards your own nations men, General Shepard also seeks revenge against the U.S. for unrelated events occuring before COD4. All in all, this game was amazing, but unfortunately, fell due to idiotic people.

Now we take a jump into the not so distant past with Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops, was for some people a welcome and refreshing break, from MW2. Black Ops brought an entirely new and innovative way to play the Multiplayer, instead of the traditional, level up and unlock things, they incorporated a currency system, which allowed players to gain X amount of COD Points from regular Multiplayer matches, or the new Wagermatches. The Wagermatches in it self, brought in an entirely new way to play Call of Duty, with modes such as Gun Game, where you went into the map and use a preset number of classes, gaining a kill with one weapon would allow you to advance to the next weapon, the first player to get a kill with every weapon, was declared the winner, which was an amazing addition I might say. One in the Chamber was another fun addition, which allowed you to run around the map with just a pistol, with one bullet, allowing you to shoot your one bullet, to gain another, or knife another player to gain a bullet. Although Wagermatches were fun, players also got to pick from new Guns, Perks, Killstreaks, Attachments, Etc. Of course as well all know well enough, every game has its own faults, and with Black Ops, the faults weren’t too bad, save the Ghost Perk, which allowed you in its basic form, be undetectable by ememy radar, or air support, which was causing anger between gamers. But as well all know, no Call of Duty fails with its Campaign. Black Ops’s Campaign put you in the shoes of CIA Operative Mason, whom is under some sort of mind control. I will refrain from spoiling the rest of the story.

Now we arrive at the present, with the current up-to-date Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the biggest entertainment launch of 2011, bringing in a gross of $775 Million the first WEEK. Modern Warfare 2 definately has its fun points, such as the new and improved Spec Ops mode with the new Survival aspect of the mode, which puts you against increasingly tough AI with each Wave you complete, this in my opinion, added a small fraction of replay value to the game, however not only did Spec Ops intrigue gamers, it was the Multiplayer we were all hoping would be new and exciting. MW3′s Multiplayer gave us new Guns, Maps, Attachments, Perks, and the addition of the new Strike Packages, which would give you access to one of 3 packages. Assasult Strike package was the first, which included deadly air strikes like the Reaper, and the AC-130. The Support Strike package allowed players to play with team work in mind, however as we all know, that not everyone in Call of Duty knows how to play as a team. The last strike package is the Specialist which afforded you every perk in the game after seven kills, which made you a deadly killing machine. However, once again Infinity Ward did not fail to WOW us with the campaign, which puts you in the shoes of two soldiers, returning from MW2 is Captain Soap Mctavish, and Captain John Price, accompanied by a trusted friend Yuri. The Story takes you to new locations and different parts of the country, you continue to chase after Makarov. I will end this here, as I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. Further more, the games developer, Infinity Ward, has failed to address certain, bugs, and tweaks the games desperately needs, however, I believe MW3 is a fairly good game, and is worth the buy, aside from the most overpowered gun in the game, the Type 95.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

The Future of Modern Warfare….Is Black. After just being revealed on the first of this month, Call of Duty: Black Ops II has already far surpassed its prodesseors in terms of pre-order sales, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is shaping up to be the best Call of Duty to date. Being set in the 80′s during the first Cold War, Black Ops II puts you in the shoes of Call of Duty: Black Ops Hero’s Alex Mason and Rick Woods. Black Ops II has you galavanting in afghanistan on a horse, chasing after the villian of the game(YES I SAID VILLIAN). For the first time ever however, Call of Duty comes into the future, the year 2025 to be exact, where the use of Drones and Smart AI Robots. The game itself is promising to be the most amazing Call of Duty of all the rest.

The Future Of Call of Duty

The Future of Call of Duty looks to be promising, after Black Ops II release, Infinity Ward is due to release there next game, perhaps they can take a few lessons from Treyarch in terms of being more unique. However, the future for Call of Duty is not certain, we can only sit back and watch as the games take shape from year to year, and hope that each developer learns from each other. Reguardless, I will forever hold Call of Duty close to my heart, as it is my favorite franchise by far.

That wraps up this Games Thirst Feature, I hope you all enjoy and maybe take what I say to heart.

Let’s start a discussion with this, what do you guys see happening in the future of Call of Duty, and remember, be respectful, be mature and above all, have an open mind.