Well, I have succumbed to it. I have been playing Call of Duty.
What? ...no, not Black Ops. That shit is... well, shit. I've been playing World at War. And compared to when it was released, I'm enjoying it a hell of a lot more! Is it just me, or has it all come full circle again? In 2007, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was fresh, new, and interesting. People were suffering from World War II fatigue. The future was lame and boring, too. It was time to take a look at actual modern warfare, and CoD4 delivered in spades.
After CoD4's release, many series tried to replicate the success of a modern setting. Russian terrorsists became the new go-to badguys. Nuclear World War III was the new looming threat. Varied, interesting locations were replaced with dusty Fictionikistan places. Battlefield, Medal of Honor, ARMA - we all packed in our antique 1940s-era weapons, and "war" games - previously historical in nature - became "realistic military simulators".
So, the release of World at War was a confounding one. CoD4 just SAVED us from WWII! Why are we going back? This is how I felt when playing World at War for the first time. The game was, as far as I was concrned, incredibly lame, daddy-O.
So with Modern Warfare 2, especially towards the end of 2009, the modern setting did start to get stale. Right? With games like Bad Company 2 and the new Medal of Honor, the modern setting has became stale. I mean, Black Ops is set in the Cold War, but that's still pretty goddamn modern. It's still most of the same sort of weapon and level design philosophies. It's irritating. I mean, science-fiction shooters aren't going anywhere - we still have our Halos and Half-Lifes and Gears of Wars. But when I want a war shooter... sometimes I don't want to be in -ijikistan or Russia! Maybe I don't want to be playing with up-to-date military hardware. Maybe I want to be... in another war.
So yeah. World War II. I think modern warfare isn't going away any time soon. I tell you what though; breaking out World at War, the feel is so different now. At release, World at War a"lame WWII shooter". The weapons were old. The tactics were hackneyed. It was boring old World War II, shooting Japanese and Nazis. Now? Handling these weapons is so refreshing! Maybe I just have a weakness fo WWII-era pistols, but this hardware is so much more fun to use than the modern stuff. Sure, the accuracy is awful and the reload times are long and it's OLD, EW - but it's so interesting. It's funny how time has turned World at War and its WWII contemporaries like Brothers in Arms into more interesting games. I can't speak for everybody, maybe modern warfare will be around forever, but I think this seachange can only last so long. War shooters will have to advance without tripping over the science-fiction shooters' well-trodden ground, and when forwards doesn't work, I think we're bound to go backwards sooner or later... anyway. Food for thought.
In other news, there are very few games I'm looking forward to now. Telltale's Poker Night at the Inventory is one, and Super Meat Boy on PC is the other. I'm also waiting to see what Crysis 2 can pull out of it's magic hat of tricks.
Other gaming news? Hmmm. Kinect is apparently alright. I've heard the technology is good, games range from average to awful. Makes sense I suppose. I'm hoping it does well, so Microsoft doesn't lose too much money on it, and so it doesn't split the developers in half with "needs Kinect" and "doesn't need Kinect". There needs to be concensus. I'm hoping Kinect becomes must-have soon, but there's nothing released thus far that aleviates it to that status. A technologically impressive gimmick isn't enough to save Kinect from dodgy third-party support and a lackluster launch line-up. But hey, PlayStation 3 started this way and now it's holding its ground fairly well. However, PlayStation 3 has Blu-ray. Kinect does not. And Blu-ray is the future of HD, y'know.
Okay, that's enough of my rant I suppose. I'm thinking of making a page with with the reviews of this blog (within the blog), for easy reaching later. I posted up my very old LIMBO review but it got stuck way back in the archives - not good! And I have a whole lot of contributors who will most like do guest spots sometime. Articles like "Obscure Games You Have to Play" and "Lets all Kick Bobby Kotick in the Balls" on the cards! Next up for me though, I'm thinking of doing like what I did with movies on main blog and doing a Top 10 Favourite Videogames of All Time. Not easy though, games are subject to a bit more personal scrutiny than movies are. Regardless, that's all for this pointless update. See you next time, y'all!
Andrew Deavin wants an antique pistol now. They're such elegant weapons. Truly a work of art and craftsmanship. Nailing Nazi bastards in between the eyes with a handgun is one of the highlights of his gaming life. And no, he doesn't want the straightjacket fastened much tighter.
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