Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare – a seminal game (Picture: Activision)
As Modern Warfare 3 becomes the latest entry in the long-running series, readers discuss their favourite Call Of Duty sequels.
With the new Call Of Duty out this week, the subject for this weekend’s Hot Topic was what is your favourite entry in the franchise and do you consider yourself a fan?
Although it’s often considered fashionable to berate, because of its popularity, most people were happy to reminisce over about the series. Although it was notable that the majority of favourite games came from the Xbox 360 era and most are very wary about the new Modern Warfare 3.
Not this year
I’ve bought every Call Of Duty on release day since Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This one is still my favourite, with both a great story and amazing multiplayer.
However, this year, at least initially, I’m not buying the new one. The stories of it being DLC for last year’s game, and the short campaign, have put me off. That, and I’m enjoying Forza and Dead Island 2 at the moment.
I will buy it, but when it’s cheaper, possibly next year.
Manic miner 100 (gamertag)
Ups and downs
I don’t know if I’d call myself a fan now but there was a period of about five years or so, after Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare where the series was on fire. It was hugely popular and it deserved to be, with great innovation for single-player and multiplayer and fantastic multiplayer. It set the standard for the era and it maintained its quality very well.
I think it was Ghosts, in 2013, where the cracks first started to appear and after that things became more variable. I think the worst period was last gen though. I don’t think I really enjoyed any of them, didn’t play some of them at all, and it all seemed to be falling apart and only aimed at existing fans.
I’ve liked the first two Modern Warfare reboots though and thought things were getting on back on track but Modern Warfare 3 sounds terrible. I’m certainly paying full price for it, but will consider Modern Warfare 4 if that’s a proper game.
Trepsils
The forgotten one
Call Of Duty will forever be seared into my heart from when it was born. The original, especially the first two console offerings on the GameCube: Finest Hour and Big Red One.
They were great and I’m surprised they’ve not been remastered ever since. Back then, with only Medal Of Honour (typo intended) it was so novel to be able to play as British and Russians too!
I’d go so far to say, despite being more underpowered, the console Stalingrad level in Finest Hour is more hard hitting. The moody sunset and all the cinematics made computer games feel like they were finally maturing into a respected artform.
Also, considering the recent offerings, they were also pretty lengthy games!
Levels would take like 30 minutes each to this plod-along gamer.
Being in the time before DLC and microtransactions, and only split-screen multiplayer (on GameCube at least), it was definitely a different era.
Incidentally, the bloom effect in Big Red One was great and I’ll always be fond if this often untalked about history of the series. And above all they always remind me of Christmas in my young teens, hence a big part of my gaming heart.
Tundrastrider
GC: Call Of Duty 2: Big Red One is considered a spin-off, not a mainline entry, which is probably why it gets ignored nowadays.
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Part of balanced and varied diet
I would say I am a fan of Call Of Duty, as I have played them relatively consistently over the years, since Call Of Duty 4, albeit missing a few along the way. I‘ve always enjoyed the campaigns, as they are just pure dumb fun with great set pieces and fast paced storytelling. The gunplay is the best around and is probably a reason why they have maintained their popularity, as you know you’re getting a solid experience in that domain.
My personal highlights are the original and new Modern Warfare trilogies (not yet played Modern Warfare 3) and Cold War which, for me, had a really interesting setting and characters. A potential game set in the Gulf War would be interesting but I’m less enthused about the World War settings, as I think enough games have chosen that time period and there’s only so much scope to expand on it, so hope they are not revisited.
Multiplayer, whilst I’m fairly terrible at it, fills the gaps when I don’t have much time to play and is a good break between longer more intense games. They do need to sort out the cheating though, as that really dampens the experience!
Overall, it’s a staple of my gaming diet and will likely continue to be so until they remove single-player elements.
Drew5u75
Pick up and play
I love playing Call Of Duty. If I’ve got a spare 15 minutes, I’ll play a quick game and it will sometimes turn into an hour. There’s so many game modes, weapons, and perks that it’s hard to get bored.
I always moan near the end of the lifecycle of the recent games because they game devolves from an, admittedly arcadey military shooter to a brightly coloured laser gun arcade shooter.
Modern Warfare 2 was a great example of this. When it first came out I loved the loud footsteps creating a necessity for slower gunplay. It made playing games a much more tense experience. I guess I was in the minority and now everyone is jumping around on pogo sticks dressed as a fat clown shooting their glow in the dark gun at me.
I loved the reboot of Modern Warfare and had to buy Modern Warfare 2; these have been my favourites since the originals. I’ve not pre-ordered Modern Warfare 3 and doubt I’ll buy it unless it’s under half price as I have enough content with this game playing the occasional game of Warzone and I still have DMZ missions.
I do miss having killstreak bonus kills counting towards your killstreak. It means getting the AC-130 is just out of my reach in most games, whereas on the original Modern Warfare 2 I had it every other game. But I think the playerbase is a fair bit stronger than it was then and everyone would get it, making games unbearable.
TommyFatFingers
Modern warfare
I don’t tend to think of myself as a fan of anything pop culture, as that makes me think of mindless zealots that devour anything Marvel or Star Wars or whatever. However, I will say I have enjoyed most of the Call Of Duty games I’ve played and am always interested to see what the new ones.
This year’s looks terrible, admittedly, but my favourite is Call Of Duty 4 which had a really innovative story campaign, whose influence on modern gaming is, I think, underrated nowadays.
Timth
More: Trending
One and only
So, Call Of Duty, eh? It’s a funny one, but for one of the biggest game franchises in the world I can tell you exactly which one my favourite is – because it’s the only one I’ve ever played. That is the original release of Modern Warfare 2, which I picked up in a bargain bin in Sainsbury’s for £2 (PC version).
And it was… fine? I’ve never really been bothered about multiplayer first person shooters, so I just did the campaign. Had no complaints about my £2 purchase but compared to, say, Half-Life 2 from a few years earlier I wasn’t really that fussed.
Of those type of military shooters I had a bit more of a soft spot for Medal Of Honor – maybe because it was released before Call Of Duty, but even then I only played one or two of those. Whatever happened to that?
I tried a couple of Battlefield games, but the lack of cohesive narrative bored me.
I do love a first person shooter though. I remember playing the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Dark Forces, and Half-Life, then as they progressed Half-Life 2 being such a high watermark. Recently been enjoying the Wolfenstein reboot.
One thing I don’t get is how anyone can play using a controller, probably because I’ve always used mouse and keyboard, but I just can’t do it!
I remember trying a Call Of Duty game on my nephew’s Xbox a few years ago, I couldn’t shoot for toffee! It didn’t help that he hadn’t inverted the vertical axis (I blame flight sims for my need to do this), but even that wouldn’t have helped much.
Anyway, whatever floats your boat. For those that love these games, enjoy! Although this latest one sounds like a disaster.
If and when they appear on PC Game Pass I may give some more a go, but to be honest there are so many other games that are more my bag.
Have fun gaming y’all!
The Dude Abides
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As Modern Warfare 3 becomes the latest entry in the long-running series, readers discuss their favourite Call Of Duty sequels.