30 Things That Suck About Call of Duty 4

Posted 04-03-08
Written by: Chris Jensen

This was originally posted on our sister site InfoAddict. Click here for the original article. Be sure to check back there often for some more news.

 

First, a disclaimer: I haven't played a better multiplayer first-person shooter since Counter-Strike. I love Call of Duty 4 and play every single night on the Xbox 360. But my love for the game doesn't mean I'm blind to a ton of problems that I think suck. Not all of these problems are the blame of the game, as several involve the people who play it, but it still counts.

 

Beg to differ? Did I miss additional suckiness? Let us know by posting in the comments.

 

 

 

1. Ruins Every Other FPS

 

One of the great things about CoD4 is that players can shoot through walls and kill hidden enemy combatants. Unfortunately, this has single-handedly ruined every other FPS on the market, as I can't seem to get out of the habit of shooting through walls, which has zero effect save for wasting ammunition.

 

 

 

2. Grenade Fests

 

Sometimes you enter a round and the entire experience degenerates into a grenade-fest, with every player throwing primed grenades into a choke-point. Before you know it, it's raining grenades, reducing CoD4 to something more akin to Dodgeball.

 

 

 

3. Tom Brady Grenade Tossing

 

My brother and I coined the term “Tom Brady'd” a few months ago. It applies for those times when someone lobs a hand-grenade impossibly far and takes you out. You see the Tom Brady a lot on Crash, when people huck grenades to the top of the three story tower. I'm of the opinion that throwing grenades over a far distance should be a perk and not something anyone can do by simply aiming their head high. Want to throw grenades like Vladimir Guerrero? Use up a perk.

 

 

 

4. People Who Claim Every Weapon That Kills Them is a Noob Weapon

 

I've lost track of how many times I've heard players bitch and moan about being killed by Weapon X because it's a “Noob Weapon”. It doesn't matter which weapon they speak of as once you tabulate the totality of their comments, you realize every weapon is a Noob Weapon. Everything, that is, except the weapon they prefer.

 

 

 

5. Wet Work

 

It was a dark day indeed when Wet Work was introduced into the Team Deathmatch playlist. It's a pretty useless map that quickly degenerates into nothing more than grenade tossing. Fortunately, Wet Work is skipped by player voting more often than it's actually played.

 

 

 

6. No Multiplayer Achievements

 

All of the achievements found in CoD4 are shoe-horned into the single-player campaign, which is kind of lame. Infinity Ward tried to explain this move to Game Informer by insisting they didn't want to change how people play multiplayer just to earn some achievement points. Valid argument, sure, until you realize they do it anyway by having a ton of challenges you can complete for additional XP. So what's the difference? You have a challenge called Airborne that demands players shoot two enemies while in mid-air....and that doesn't change how one might approach a round? Infinity Ward's argument is overruled!

 

 

 

7. No Campaign Co-Op

 

'Nuff said.

 

 

 

8. No Incentive to Rollover Levels

 

After you peak at level 55, you have the option of starting over and earning all weapons from scratch, including challenges. The only benefit is that you get a little icon next to your name that changes shape and color, indicating your rollover level. That's it. All this work for a little, useless icon? I rolled-over once and don't plan on doing it again as there just isn't enough incentive. I earned these weapons, I want to keep them!

 

 

 

9. No Character Customization

 

Offering even rudimentary character customization could have gone a long way in CoD4, especially if used in conjunction with rolling-over levels. How cool would it be to earn a nice patch for your arm or a different hat for your head based on how many times you've reached the level-cap?

 

 

10. Party System Sucks

 

Despite claims from Infinity Ward that the Party System was optimized in the last patch....it still sucks. More often than not the Party System selects a lame host that lags like hell for at least one member of the party, which makes finding a stable game next to impossible.




                    

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