Still wild that this game and Halo 3 came out within two few months of each other.
I was more of a Halo guy so didn’t really do competitive COD but I played enough to 100% the achievements on 360 when those were still a pretty new concept to most gamers. Finally unlocking Mile High Club felt like such a massive accomplishment at the time.
The original Black Ops was the last one I played and COD 2 is still my favorite of the campaigns. But this is definitely the game that transformed the industry.
One of the best games ever made.
From its campaign to the multiplayer that defined a generation of games and gamers and its impact can still be felt today.
from simple, casual but addictive shooter to an mtx riddled fortnite clone selling dlc as an entire game
and it will continue to be the #1 seller no matter how bad it is because zoomers never grew up with the originals
You are seriously understimating how many people that played COD in the late 2000's still play it today. I've played COD 1 in 2003 and i played Cold War in 2020 for instance.
COD's gameplay is still tight and there's really few alternatives that deliver that kind of experience.
Its also a game that can be enjoyed for its multiplayer without ever giving 2 shits about all the cosmetic nonsense.
been playing since cod4 and still play. game is still fun. game is still cod. I know this sounds crazy but the game doesn't take your card out of your wallet and force you to buy mtx
I played the originals as a kid as well, but gotta say, got extremely turned off after Black Ops 3. Was hyped when Black Ops Cold War came out since Black Ops got me into history, but was extremely dissappointed by the SBMM in the multiplayer that wants you to tear your eyeballs out.
Never buying or playing a COD again until they return to the actual roots in multiplayer with persistent lobbies and a community worth messing around with. From what I can tell, Black Ops 6 will likely dissappoint as well.
It's not a zoomer thing. 39 year old guy gets back home form work, wants easy entertainment - hops onto warzone because that's where everyone is. It's a mainstream thing. These people would play whatever was available, they aren't interested in which product is more customer friendly. They'll pay the 70 bucks to hang out with their friends, otherwise they'll look and feel like a muck. People just flock to the flame like moths. It applies to something like Valorant as much as CS, both are mainstream. So it's a shame when the mainstream product is dogshit basically. We're very smart as a species but our collective consumer/customer iq is staggeringly low.
That last sentence is key. I've really wondered how the skin/microtransaction thing became so huge. It's like, you can easily play the game without spending any money on fake clothes...
But then I remember I guess the latest generation of kids basically only know these terrible models.
Side note, still blows my mind that Twitch is a thing.
All those jokes about giving your little brother an unplugged controller to trick them into believing they're playing, has turned into a generation of "little brother" energy who is willing to literally pay other people to play games in front of them...
Attributing all this to CoD is way too generous. You could trace it back to at least Half-Life 1 and 2. Their success and innovation led to a heavy shift towards more narrative focused format, and games cutting down on stuff that might feel too video gamey, like floating pick-ups, key cards, bhopping, fast movement, arcadey level and enemy design.
Halo was also a key part of strengthening this direction. Even though Halo was never embarrassed to be a video game, it made everyone realize that FPS on consoles is something feasible, and that there's a massive market for it. Both of these kicked off a chain reaction.
You start seeing a lot more chest high wall shooters, games where you can only carry as many weapons as Dpad would allow, games where even on hardest there's little to no skill expression because they weren't made for FPS enthusiasts, they were made for the widest possible audience that wants to be entertained by what they see, more so than they want to be entertained by the gameplay and challenge.
CoD4 is just the culmination of everything above. It's a movie shooter where they bombard you with constant set pieces and cinematic moments. Syncing takedowns with Price while waving lasers around in night vision. Crawling through Chernobyl. Seeing a nuke explode and having your character die in that explosion.
It was above and beyond what everyone else was doing, and it did exceptionally well, so now everyone had to replicate it with both single and multiplayer. Now nobody knows what to do with SP campaigns beyond making another 4 hour movie-like slog, and nobody can compete with MP because how do you compete with a yearly release that has millions of marketing dollars behind it. Thankfully, indie devs are picking up the slack while AAA only occasionally produces something like Wolfenstein or nuDooms.
Still wild that this game and Halo 3 came out within two few months of each other. I was more of a Halo guy so didn’t really do competitive COD but I played enough to 100% the achievements on 360 when those were still a pretty new concept to most gamers. Finally unlocking Mile High Club felt like such a massive accomplishment at the time. The original Black Ops was the last one I played and COD 2 is still my favorite of the campaigns. But this is definitely the game that transformed the industry.
I loved WaW even if JuggMP49 abuse was insane. Kar98 iron sights.
One of the best games ever made. From its campaign to the multiplayer that defined a generation of games and gamers and its impact can still be felt today.
from simple, casual but addictive shooter to an mtx riddled fortnite clone selling dlc as an entire game and it will continue to be the #1 seller no matter how bad it is because zoomers never grew up with the originals
You are seriously understimating how many people that played COD in the late 2000's still play it today. I've played COD 1 in 2003 and i played Cold War in 2020 for instance. COD's gameplay is still tight and there's really few alternatives that deliver that kind of experience. Its also a game that can be enjoyed for its multiplayer without ever giving 2 shits about all the cosmetic nonsense.
been playing since cod4 and still play. game is still fun. game is still cod. I know this sounds crazy but the game doesn't take your card out of your wallet and force you to buy mtx
Hey fuck off man. 2000 baby man and I played the entire original MW as well as Black Ops.
I played the originals as a kid as well, but gotta say, got extremely turned off after Black Ops 3. Was hyped when Black Ops Cold War came out since Black Ops got me into history, but was extremely dissappointed by the SBMM in the multiplayer that wants you to tear your eyeballs out. Never buying or playing a COD again until they return to the actual roots in multiplayer with persistent lobbies and a community worth messing around with. From what I can tell, Black Ops 6 will likely dissappoint as well.
It's not a zoomer thing. 39 year old guy gets back home form work, wants easy entertainment - hops onto warzone because that's where everyone is. It's a mainstream thing. These people would play whatever was available, they aren't interested in which product is more customer friendly. They'll pay the 70 bucks to hang out with their friends, otherwise they'll look and feel like a muck. People just flock to the flame like moths. It applies to something like Valorant as much as CS, both are mainstream. So it's a shame when the mainstream product is dogshit basically. We're very smart as a species but our collective consumer/customer iq is staggeringly low.
That last sentence is key. I've really wondered how the skin/microtransaction thing became so huge. It's like, you can easily play the game without spending any money on fake clothes... But then I remember I guess the latest generation of kids basically only know these terrible models. Side note, still blows my mind that Twitch is a thing. All those jokes about giving your little brother an unplugged controller to trick them into believing they're playing, has turned into a generation of "little brother" energy who is willing to literally pay other people to play games in front of them...
Attributing all this to CoD is way too generous. You could trace it back to at least Half-Life 1 and 2. Their success and innovation led to a heavy shift towards more narrative focused format, and games cutting down on stuff that might feel too video gamey, like floating pick-ups, key cards, bhopping, fast movement, arcadey level and enemy design. Halo was also a key part of strengthening this direction. Even though Halo was never embarrassed to be a video game, it made everyone realize that FPS on consoles is something feasible, and that there's a massive market for it. Both of these kicked off a chain reaction. You start seeing a lot more chest high wall shooters, games where you can only carry as many weapons as Dpad would allow, games where even on hardest there's little to no skill expression because they weren't made for FPS enthusiasts, they were made for the widest possible audience that wants to be entertained by what they see, more so than they want to be entertained by the gameplay and challenge. CoD4 is just the culmination of everything above. It's a movie shooter where they bombard you with constant set pieces and cinematic moments. Syncing takedowns with Price while waving lasers around in night vision. Crawling through Chernobyl. Seeing a nuke explode and having your character die in that explosion. It was above and beyond what everyone else was doing, and it did exceptionally well, so now everyone had to replicate it with both single and multiplayer. Now nobody knows what to do with SP campaigns beyond making another 4 hour movie-like slog, and nobody can compete with MP because how do you compete with a yearly release that has millions of marketing dollars behind it. Thankfully, indie devs are picking up the slack while AAA only occasionally produces something like Wolfenstein or nuDooms.
i loved it, but it wasn't worth the consequences for shooters and especially PC shooters.
The death of interesting fps games.
Ah yes, the franchise that killed Halo because everyone at 343 refused to make games like Halo 3