Call of Duty 4

[KallDrexx]

So I loved the singleplayer.  Unfortunatly, I can't play multiplayer because there are no non-punkbuster AU servers (and my network here at the office can't connect to punkbuster for some reason) but I hear everyone raving about it.  What is cod4's multiplayer like?  I haven't been able to find a good explaination anywhere.

[schild]

It's like Battlefield 2 with less suck (and by suck I mean vehicles and morons).

[LK]

I don't know about the morons part.  I just think you aren't looking hard enough.

[stray]

Vehicles suck? Since when?

[rk47]

Battlefield 2 needed a lot of fixes because of abuse.
Helis that can TV guide from 700 m away is basically unkillable when camping a HQ. Infantry AT sucks dick and AA emplacements can't SEE or LOCK beyond 600m.
Blackhawks with twin miniguns and two engineers = win.
These are just two things I have most experienced in BF2 servers.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/hell-briefing-1.php?page=1
this is just pure gold hollywood military flick stuff 

[Trippy]

More like BF2 with different suck.

You can read impressions of MP in this thread if you start reading from around page 2. Try to find a US West Coast server without a ping check to try it out, there are plenty that aren't running PB.

A simplistic comparison is either BF2 with much smaller/denser maps (so small that the shotgun is a very good weapon on most of them) or Counter-Strike with instant respawns (though there's actually a game mode that's just like CS where one team has to plant a bomb and there's no respawning).

MP is very deadly. It's not "one bullet one kill" (unless you are playing hardcore mode) but it's close. If your FPS skills aren't up to snuff expect to die A LOT at first.

In addition to the deadliness of the guns there are the grenades to contend with. Because of the size of the maps and the instant respawn it's basically like teams have an endless supply of grenades to throw and on some maps in particular, like the one you where you fight on a ship (it's like the very first SP mission without the lower level), the nade spam is really bad made even worse by a particular "perk" called martyrdom where you drop a live grenade when you die. If you look at some of the popular servers that are running stats programs grenades are always at the top of the weapon kill lists.

On top of the thrown nade spam there is the under barrel grenade launcher, aka the "n00b tube", to contend with. If you've played BF2 it's exactly like that.

Then there are the air strikes and helicopters. If somebody gets on a kill streak they can call those in. And now we're back to BF2 where eveybody but the pilots hated the jets and helos except that the maps are much smaller so it's much more likely you'll be "in range" of them. If you are on a particularly bad team the entire map, except for the beginning, will be a never ending stream of air strikes and helicopters.

If a sniper rifle is the only weapon you use when given the choice MP is not for you. Sniping in single-player is hella fun. Not so in multi-player. If you are the sniping type I can go into much more detail why this is so.

So basically if you are looking for something like CS with a ton more action because of the instant respawn (i.e. less turtling, more running and gunning) or BF2 with smaller maps and no player-controlled vehicles then you might like CoD 4. But again expect to die a lot at first.

[KallDrexx]

Cool thanks.  I'll try some other US servers then (the 3 or so that I tried kicked me immediatly for high ping T_T)

[rk47]

Agree with trippy right there. COD multiplayer is a bit badly balanced but no one cares because you have insta-spawns. BF2 multiplayer took a little bit of training and some tactical common sense (prone in certain spots, claymores, mines, c4, squad forming) with all the tools that the commander have, a good team will almost never need to rely on some super hot kill streak guy to win the battle for them, but amazing air support and armour can really bring a tear to my eye when playing the medic supporting our little men on the field. I still miss that stuff and sometimes ponder if I should reinstall BF2. BF2142..I didn't buy it. 

[Fabricated]

Battlefield 2 needed a lot of fixes because of abuse.
Helis that can TV guide from 700 m away is basically unkillable when camping a HQ. Infantry AT sucks dick and AA emplacements can't SEE or LOCK beyond 600m.
Blackhawks with twin miniguns and two engineers = win.
These are just two things I have most experienced in BF2 servers.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/hell-briefing-1.php?page=1
this is just pure gold hollywood military flick stuff 

That sounds like Ace Combat alright.

[Venkman]

I agree with everything Trippy said, including the sniping thing. Many CoD2 maps are good for sniping, but these dense/packed cities and villages just aren't. Medium-range machine guns with those holographic sides though... fun stuff. And yea, I loves me my n00b-tube (though only for a bit) :)

I've only seen about a dozen maps though I think.

[Trippy]

I've seen screenshots of wallhackers posted in the various forums and so there's definitely cheating going on. On the other hand I've shot and killed people through walls/objects only using the radar as a guide so it's kind of hard to distinguish between the two.

No Radar in hardcore mode, and I don't walk around guns blazing. I'm not saying it happens every time I get killed, but it's happened often enough to have made me very fucking suspicious. If you've seen screens, then I am going to assume that some of the kills I've been were haxed. Some would have just been dumb luck to suddenly look at the corner/stairs/etc I came around. I do the same. Some are a bit more dodge.

Are you using Dead Silence? I've only tried a handful of hardcore games but if it's anything like CS wearing a good pair of headphones and listening for players moving around is critical. Also you do get a radar if your UAV is up so you would need both that and UAV Jammer to really "hide" yourself from the opposing team.

[Nija]

Sorry if this has been posted, as I just skimmed the last two pages and ctrl-f'd for BOT

But.

There's a hilarious bot out for COD4. I've been waiting for something like this. What happens when you have predictable trajectories when you shoot through entire buildings?

Bots that shoot through entire buildings. Oh, and the instant respawn doesn't help. It does help the funny, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnvTXgX14mA

Also, http://netcoders.cc/forum/call-duty/11247-cod4-level-55-rank-all-guns-mods-unlocked.html

[LK]

At that point, why even play? What are you trying to do?  I'd quit a server the instant I saw someone get 10 headshots in a row within a second of each other.

[Sky]

Cheaters enrich online gaming and offer true competition for the best players. Only lamers who suck would complain.

[AcidCat]

Got it yesterday, installed it today, nearly to the end of the SP campaign and boy oh boy, did the ending to the USMC campaign piss me off.

I thought that part was awesome - when's the last time something like that happened to your character in a game? It really set the tone for what the stakes were for the remainder of the game.

[LK]

I also saw it as a possible and expected reaction of American aggression.  There is a high probability that the leaders the US Government would go after might stop giving a fuck and just nuke an army that's trying to take him, destroying his own city, people, and army in the process.

[MrHat]

So, SP goodness aside, has anyone tried this game on 'elite' mode or whatever multiplayer? where youd ont' have any help from anyone?

[Nerf]

We're up to level 38 or so in multiplayer, been mostly just doing Free-for-All though, xp seems to flow alot faster that way.
It's alot of fun on the ps3, and at least you don't have to worry about the hax0rs.

[Trippy]

So, SP goodness aside, has anyone tried this game on 'elite' mode or whatever multiplayer? where youd ont' have any help from anyone?

What do you mean by no help? There's hardcore mode where everything is much more deadly and you don't have a radar unless your team's UAV is up and other HUD elements. There's also FFA mode as nerf mentioned above.

[Nerf]

My biggest complaint thus far is lack of more FFA modes, the maps are entirely too big for an 8 man match, and they should really be limited by gametype.  Theres only a few maps that are an absolute blast to play in FFA, although with 16 people they would all be a hell of a lot more fun.  I want hardcore FFA, and I want autokicks for people with insanely high pings.  No, it's not any fun playing in the same server as some random guy from slovokia who breaths heavily into the mic at a constant pace and has a ping of 800, I can't hit lead a target that's skipping around like a cracked up doubledutch champion.

Not sure if we're going to buy or not, I do love the grindyness, it keeps me warm at night, although I'd like for the prestige classes to offer somthing than other "You can do the same grind, but FIVE times, for shiny logos that all look pretty similar!"

[Trippy]

Now that I've maxed my level and have unlocked all the attachments I care about I've been dabbling with the Search & Destroy gametype on Hardcore mode. S&D is just like the Counter-Strike de_* maps where you have two bomb targets and one side plants the and other side defends. You also don't respawn when you die. One change from CS is that you automatically switch sides every 4 matches. I'm slowly remembering some of my ancient and atrophied CS skills but it's a lot more challenging since the CoD 4 maps are much more intricate than your typical CS map with many more hiding places and corners/areas to check.

In Hardcore mode you have many fewer hit points (I think it's 30 instead of 100) so obviously things are a lot more deadly. You also lose most of your HUD elements so you can't see your crosshair, ammo and inventory, and you don't have a radar unless your UAV is up. One annoyance is that the large map still shows your teammate positions but you don't see your little radar without the UAV even if it's just to mark your teammates so you have to constant hit ESC to see where your team is. Friendly Fire is on in this mode which can make things quite interesting if you are used to tossing grenades and firing willy-nilly.

The combination of not respawning and dying more easily means things are slower paced with a lot more camping going on. Claymores are *extremely* popular as well -- so popular that some people actually use the Bomb Squad perk so they can "see" them (the perk puts an icon on your HUD when there's one nearby even if the line-of-sight is blocked or obscured). Grenade spam is still a problem, of course, and are even more deadly because you have fewer hit points so they effectively have a larger kill radius and you don't get the grenade HUD indicator. But what's really annoying are air strikes and helicopters. With air stikes people save them to the start of the round and then nuke the (fixed) starting spawn point. Helicopters are also extrememly deadly cause it's insta-death if they target you unlike in normal mode where you can often run or get behind cover if you are being fired upon. One server I played on has rules against using ASes and Helos because they are so deadly.

[AcidCat]

Even playing on normal modes I'm starting to find the Helos and Airstrikes the main annoyance in the game, worse than 'nade spam which a lot of people complain about but I really don't mind. The helos and strikes are just kind of insult to injury when you're on a losing team and getting steamrolled anyway, there is a constant stream of them.

[Azazel]

I really agree on that. Despite personally nearly never being able to call them in. I just hope I can finish up those achievements before the inevitable nerf...

[LK]

Mounted Machine Gun drops a chopper in about 2 seconds.  Airstrike is only really good for one kill, assuming you're in the area of effect.

[Nerf]

Mounted Machine Gun drops a chopper in about 2 seconds.  Airstrike is only really good for one kill, assuming you're in the area of effect.

2.5-3 p90 mags with stopping power will drop it too, or like 1.5 rpgs. Helicopters hurt the most in free for all, where noone wants to stop to shoot at it for fear (and rightly so) of getting ganked while trying to take it out.  This lets the helo run its course and dominate everyone, it's not nearly as big of an issue in team.

[LK]

Another fear is that if you're firing on it, it will focus on you.  All it takes is 1 RPG and about 3 bullets to drop a copter, assuming the RPG hits that is.

[Nerf]

I don't think I've ever had it focus on me right after/during I shot the copter, if anything it seems like sometimes they'll fly to another part of the map after the first mag.

[Azazel]

Not many people bother carrying RPGs, as they're mostly useless in MP. Especially in FFA games.

In team-based games, I'll usually respawn with a stock-RPG class to take it out, then change back to a custom class afterwards..

[Morfiend]

Ok, so I'm caving to the hype and will be picking this up soon. Question is, PC or Xbox?

[schild]

PC. Next question.

[Jimbo]

But the Xbox360/PS3 gets Prestige Mode, where you get to start over and get a new insignia by there name!  And once you level up, you can do it again!  For ten times!

Oh and the bonus on Xbox360 you get to listen to the great people playing it!  http://www.pvponline.com/2007/11/09/nov-9-2007/

And don't forget the fun controller that the xbox360 has...well it is nice, but it sucks if you are used to keyboards and mouse, so you have to pay extra for an adapter that isn't supported.  Microsoft just needs to come out and support keyboard and mouse for all games.

But most of my friends have an xbox360, so it was easy to grab and play it with them.  Oh yeah, I didn't have to upgrade the xbox360 to get CoD4 to run...plug and play is bliss at times.

[LK]

You don't have to Prestige.  It's up to you if you want to do that.

Live Community is ass.  Play with friends.

Controller takes getting used to but this game helps you out with that.  If you really suck, there's always the grenade launcher.

Keyboard and Mouse support for consoles will not happen anytime soon for one reason: too many buttons.  TVs typically are not placed on desks either.  It is a throwback to how the first consoles were designed to be used, sure.  It would be interesting to see someone make a console that is intended to be used like a PC.  Oh, wait.  I think that's the Mac.

[Cim]

Question, is there co-op in this game?

[Trippy]

Nope.

[Cim]

Blargh.