I recently wrapped up my time with three re-releases for the PlayStation 3: Call of Duty: Classic & the God of War: Collection which includes both God of War I & II. They were interesting experiments to say the least. The idea of re-releasing old classics with visual touch ups and fixes is fantastic. I can enjoy the gaming of old without having to endure the technical hiccups or deficiencies of the past — well, that’s the idea anyway. The three titles I played were fine examples of the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of re-releasing titles like this.
Call of Duty: Classic
Call of Duty: Classic was supposed to be an enhanced console port of Infinity Ward’s popular PC shooter of 2003. I thought the PlayStation 3 would be able to handle this game, but I was wrong. The game barely maintains 30 frames per second at times let alone 60. These technical problems are mind boggling.
I can handle the need to lean and shoot via the directional pad. I can also handle the unforgiving checkpoints. What I don’t understand is the total lack of care that went into this port. Modern Warfare 2 loads faster and runs better; a 2009 game can somehow stream and load off a disc faster than 2003’s Call of Duty. And as a cherry on top of this putrid mess, they permanently assigned the L2 and R2 triggers as aim and fire.
Do yourself a favor and play the PC version if you want to relive Call of Duty.
I’ve accumulated nearly a day’s worth of Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and I thought I would share some of my thoughts with the game. It’ll be brief and segmented for easy digestion.
Here goes:
Perks
Commando – This perk reminds me of the Plasma sword found in Halo 2; the lock on and teleportation towards the target. I feel the range for this is a smidgen too much
Marathon – Is there a reason why this couldn’t be “Extreme Conditioning”? If there’s one thing which highlights how arcadey Modern Warfare 2 is, it’s this perk.
Weapons
Akimbo – It’s a fun ability in any other game, but it feels so out of place in Modern Warfare 2. Especially when you pair up Model 1887 shotguns.
M16 – The M16 was my ‘Long Range’ weapon of choice in Call of Duty 4, but it is (understandably) less effective in Modern Warfare 2. What irks me about this weapon is the inability to actually hit someone from a great distance. I see them, but I can’t hit them with the M16’s bullets.
There was a point in time when nearly everyone picked up Infinity Ward’s games for their single player campaigns. But after the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, those days are evidently over. Some say it’s because the draw for multiplayer is so strong. Others say it’s due to the fact that Infinity Ward hasn’t done anything noteworthy with their single player campaign in quite some time. It’s a bit of both, in my opinion.
Screenshots of this Wii port of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were not flattering at all. It looks like a PSP game in some of those screenshots. We laughed and were all very skeptical about Treyarch’s porting capabilities. But after having seen some of the footage of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Reflex, I’m pleasantly surprised with how it looks. It’s not that bad.
It’s not that bad when you’re comparing a Youtube video of it against your memory, but once you stack it side by side? You can see the cuts they made. You can’t tell by the video, but the game is actually running at 30 FPS. Is it a huge loss? I don’t think so. Especially considering that if you’re really serious about Modern Warfare, you’ll be playing it on the HD consoles anyways.
So Infinity Ward axed dedicated server support which was a significant blow to the advantages of going with PC. But after the most recent revelations, the remaining PC die hards have no reason to pick up this version if they wish to diverge from Infinity Ward’s ‘vision’ for Modern Warfare 2.
The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will also have the following changes:
lose the console command,
lose the ability to kick troublemakers,
support up to only 18 players,
have no mod support,
no more leaning,
and no control of who will host.
But it will have graphical settings, text chat and mouse support! Which is good right? That’s the bare minimum, Infinity Ward. That’s what we’ve come to expect when Capcom or other console developers port their console works over to PC. For former PC developers, people expect the kind of features that was already in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Here’s a handy comparison chart courtesy of NeoGAF’s Puck:
Infinity Ward drank the console Kool-Aid and are now comfortably addicted. At least they’re paving the way for other former PC only developers.
Call of Duty: World at War (2008) / DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Halo 2 (2004) / Xbox
That’s a surprising list to say the least. Where’s GTAIV which sold for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Where’s Halo 3? I would have liked to have seen the rest of the list since I’m curious how many of the storied franchises fared.
Hardware
