All I can say so far is WOW!  Only had time to do single player last night because of TV shows but it still sucked me into playing till 1am.   

The graphics are great even with the settings not maxed out.  It playes well on my P4 3.6 2GB Nvidia 7900 machine altouth I bet with SLI or newer video card I coould pump up the graphics to max.  Not as much control over the graphics in the old CoD games but simliar to FEAR, BF2 and BF2142.

The in game control are simliar to amost all FPS including the CoD line.  Still have a melee attack which they say is nife but when seeing a bot do it still looks like a rifle smack down (which is what he was using at the time).

The health system is like the other CoD’s with health going down and then replunishing as you are not taking damage.  There is no med kits or medics.

Weapons, a subject close to my heart.  Alot of auto weapons in the game fitting modern combat.  Last night I used a G36, G3, M16/M203, SAW, Mini-Uzi, AK-47, Javelin, RPG7, Flashbang, Grenade, MP5, Colt 1911, RPD, Skorpian, SPAS, Dragonkov, M82 .50cal sniper rifle and some western semi auto sniper rifle I didn’t recognize.  Each wepons has it own little advantages and disadvantages.  Several of the main rifles have Laser/scope combo.  There is a breath movement but not as bad as CoD2 but you can also steady you breath also with looking down barrel.  I’m not use to how the ammo counter works and it is a little harder to see where you are at except when firing and reloading.  You get 2 weapon slot and can pick up fallen weapons to fit the need at the moment.  Flashbangs really work as I fouond out when I flanked on a mission and one of the SAS troopers tossed one in as I charge into a room full of bad guys.  Too bad it caught me in its blast.  Snipers in camo in the single player game are really hard to see in the grass and some had suppressors which could make them really hard to find.  Have to see how it is in the muliplayer part

I haven’t had the time to do the rankings which can give abilities so have to figure that out tonight and try some of the servers that are out there.  Looks like a couple thousand was up last night although I didn’t find a counter like the others have.  Several maps style (Free for all, Team Death, Destroy Objective, etc) according to the server list

The maps are of a really good design and I can see the community being able to do alot with custom maps.  Vehicles that are around can be shot up and as they catch fire they can blow up as I found out as I was using one for cover.  Some wall and most doors can be shot through, depending on the power of the weapon. The is a place to look at the mods you have downloaded so I figure the mod community will be hard at work for this.

In the single player missions you play a SAS trooper call Soap and a US Marine Force Recon Sgt. Jackson.  And man do the Marines get the short end of the stick.  The single player is fairly short since I believe after 4 hours I’m most of the way through it but it is fairly interesting with being in a Cargo ship when it takes a couple anti-ship missles, to nukes, crawling through a advancing enemy line of troopers and BMP-2’s amoung several interesting situations.

And one of the cool parts which won’t be in the multi-player part is when I got to be a gunner of a AC-130 Spectre Gunship. 

I will post more on the multiplayer tomorrow after I give it a shot.

Any flamethrowers?

Havoc - 07 November 2007 09:27 AM

And one of the cool parts which won’t be in the multi-player part is when I got to be a gunner of a AC-130 Spectre Gunship. 

One of my favorite aircraft.

No flamethrowers that I have seen and since they are not used on a modern battlefield I doubt it.    I forgot to mention the claymores.  In single player you can use by trip or clacker.  There are no gas grenades either so far including smoke which I can see as a problem.  Kinda wonder what some of the mods are going to be out there for it.  There are ranked servers to get “perks” in muliplayer so I need to see how all that works.  From the sounds of it attachments like the M203, laser and scopes as well as certain weapons are “awards” for certain ranks.  Things like attachments you can only use one at a time to keep from becoming a walking death machine.

Okay time for the next update.  If you are thinking about CoD4 for the single player part don’t unless you have $50 burning a hole in your pocket.  While the single player part is great it only took me 6 hours to get through.  Great story line, and fun stuff you don’t get in the multiplayer but not worth $50.

Multiplayer
I managed to paly in MP mode for a couple of hours last night.  FIrst it much like the other CoD’s.  There are not squads inside the team to better functionaly like the BF series.  There is no friends list like most of the new FPS MP games so you can find your friends easy, I really miss this feature from the BF series.

Spawning is like the other CoD’s also.  There is not a team area it moves around as your side takes/overruns an area.  And it doesn’t seem really random in the spawn area which can lead to alot of spawn camping from snipers if they get a good position since there is no spawn protection as I found out several times as a enemy was overrunning the spawn area.

Like many of the new FPS games out there you choose a “class” to spawn as with only 3 to choose from start with.  This class determines what equipment you get to start with.  As you play you gain ranks which I will talk about in a bit which unlocks 2 more class and then a little latter on allows you to create 5 custom classes so you can mix and match some gear.

In CoD4 MP you can rank up from Private to General with a ton of steps in between.  At least 52 “levels”.  With the raks you gain stuff.  To gain ranks you get xp in the game.  Ever kill is +10xp, assists are +2 and depending on game types you can get it for objectives as well.  No xp lose for deaths which is good since I got my butt kicked to start with.  At some levels you unlock challenges, which seems to be every five levels with “perks” scattered.  The challenges are like Marksman and Expert for diffferent weapons.  Marksman is kill a set amount of enemies with the weapons.  Expert is so many headshots with the weapon.  So far I have see up to 3 ranks of each with the numbers changing 25 then I think 75 and 150.  Each level gives stuff for the weapons, different camo, scopes, attachments like grenade launcher and siliencer.  As for regular perks it is like better stopping power for the rounds, more sprint endurance, more HP, Last Stand, radar jammer and problably more but didn’t look at all of them.  Now this ranking is not kept on a server but I believe in your profile so play on a different machine or reinstall you lose it (might be a way to copy files for the reinstall have to look for that).  But all said in 2 hours I gained 12.5 levels so it is not hard unless you really suck and then you just find a server suckier people to go kill on.

The Maps are like portions of the single player maps of various sisze.  Not sure if the maps are server size based like the BF maps where the map area is bigger on larger player servers.  In BF there were 3 sizes for maps for palyers up to 16 then 32 and then 64.  I played on a 32 player server last night and wasn’t bad for most of it but not sure if I have seen all the maps but I doubt it.  A couple of the maps were smaller and provided intense running gun battles. 

You don’t have access to vehicles, these are mostly pure infantry battles.  I say mostly because of a couple fun things.  At a 3 kill streak you can call up a enemy radar (spots enemies on the map).  At 6 kills you can call a airstrike in which is a pass by a low level fighter that drops a line of bombs in a area you select on the map.  At 7 kills you can call in an attack chopper which circles to battlefield firing at your enemies with mini guns (bad to be on the recieiving end btw)until a time runs out or is shot down as you can damage with any weapon.  Most end up shot down and you get more xp for this.  Some of this is based on rank I think because I could od some of this till I gained some rank.

Friendly fire I don’t know about.  On the server I was on it would shake up the person shot but not do damage.  Not sure if this is a server setting or not.  With no friendly fire this could be exploited with grenades, claymoores, mounted MG’s, etc.

Lag got bad at times but there was some people on that ran the server and they said they were working on it.  Even saw the connection intrupeted symbol several times.  I do know some of the same or similar commands are there for frames and stuff but the limit is much higher.  I guess built in max fps is 133 now.  The game does recogniz if you have a SLI or Crossfire setup which is why I guess the basic max fps is higher even though the graphics are much better.  I need to find a twink guide or log into a server that is emepty so I can play with the console without somone trying to kill me.

Some of the weapons will be interesting.  You can use a Barret M-82 .50 cal sniper rifle latter on and a Desert Eagle pistol is availible as a sidarm.  I can get neither right now

Okay back to work now but will answer questions if people have them about CoD4 and if I know the answers.  Might post more if I think something I missed.

Ya’ll looking at doing cod4 sat nites in the future?

I doubt we are switching but I follow whatever Mac and them want to do.  I just posted the CoD4 stuff so they can see it if they want to in the future or like me play alot of stuff on the side.  I did a ton of Battlefield 2142 before this.  Besides I doubt Extreme has a mod out this fast and there are alot fewer single shot weapons on CoD4.  On the plus side when I play alot of another type of FPS game my CoD2 game suffers so I should die alot tomorrow. 

Knowing Mac, there will have to be a WWII mod for it for him to play.

COD 4 Comic

intelwalk - 09 November 2007 10:40 AM

Ya’ll looking at doing cod4 sat nites in the future?

Nah, we tend to lag behind. Maybe when CoD 6 comes out we’ll switch to CoD 4

And yes, Ash is correct. There would have to be some sort of WWII mod for CoD4 before I’ll play it (and have Remagen and Southern France and U-Boat Base)...and be available for the Mac!

Man, Havoc ... nice review of CoD4! Very impressive. I’ll probably take a look at it when it comes out for the Macintosh. Sounds like the game is based mostly around automatic weapons, though.

We are gonna have to promote you to Reviews Editor here at Team Housewares.

Ash - 09 November 2007 04:20 PM

Knowing Mac, there will have to be a WWII mod for it for him to play.

I’m ready to play a World War I mod

I got a survey from EA the other day because I own MoH: Airborne and one the questions was rating the areas the MoH could do and one them was WWI and the Civil War.  I can see a WWI one but can you imagine a Civil War one?  Okay guys march out into formation, line up shoot and then get shot.  Other ones they were asking about is Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Future, Modern (not sure how this difers from Iraq), Bosina and one other which I can’t remember.  I think alot of the companies are thinking about moving away from WWII for a bit but it seems like the “Modern” market is starting to get hammered also so to be different I don’t know what some will do.  Okay back to gaining rank for more toys!! 

Yeah, I agree with ya on the Civil War war one. There’s wasn’t really any strategy and everyone just stood in a line. No bunny-hopping or flanking.

Maybe someone should do a Cowboys and Indians themed game. That one would be single-shot weapons only (and an assortment of knives). Instead of Jeeps, there would be horses!

The Medal of Honor guys already came out with a Vietnam based game called Men of Valor. I wanted to check it out, but unfortunately, it never made it to the Mac.

Mac - 10 November 2007 03:31 PM

Yeah, I agree with ya on the Civil War war one. There’s wasn’t really any strategy and everyone just stood in a line. No bunny-hopping or flanking.

Now that’s my kind of game - stand and deliver - the only move you need is the “LEAN”

People complain about rifle reload times now. Imagine how long it would take to reload a musket. On our 12 player server, each round of Civil War CoD would take about 2 minutes as we stood in front of each other and fired… even with THE LEAN