I know it's been easy to dunk on the COD series for almost a decade now, but what made this one different? I thought they had MTX for the last few games and the gameplay always seems to be the same as the annual sports games, but did it finally hit the wall where the majority of their fan base sees all the issues?
Seems like COD should just be a service at this point and you pay for the new yearly xpac. I hate suggesting that but that's what the series seemed to be since OG MW2. Guess it's just milk the money until enough people say enough
They'd probably make more money that way. Which I think is why they're moving towards it.
Even if it was the same money, people buy it when it comes out so they spend money making it for a year, and get all the profit at once.
Skins sell constantly, and keeps them profitable everyday. With a hyper focus on "quarterly earnings" this keeps stock up all year even if total profit on the year is the same. They want that sustained profit.
I think Black Ops 2 was the last best all-round CoD game. Had a good campaign, great multiplayer and fantastic zombies. Black Ops 3 was good for the zombies. Treyarch were CoD's final hope after the other studios games fell of a cliff and they also fell apart after BO3.
I personally think BO2 has amazing ideas, but stunted execution. It was held back by being part of COD instead of a stand alone game. There were development time limits, and certain gameplay limits that couldn’t be pushed.
The ideas in the game included branching mission outcomes with later repercussions, side missions controlling an AI squad, picking loadouts for missions - including being able to replay missions in the past using future weapons, and social stealth areas. There’s more but, that game really makes me wish it had been spun off into something new.
The article says that early reviews are let down by the campaign. Egregious asset reuse on a rushed campaign.
I know a lot of people don’t care about campaigns in COD, but I do. Once a game’s one year MP cycle is over, all that’s really left is the campaign.
The asset reuse in the campaign doesn’t bode well for multiplayer either, since that means more than likely obvious asset reuse there too. Which makes the whole thing look and feel like an overgrown, overpriced DLC, which is apparently what it is.
FWIW I played all console/PC CODs from the very first game to the first Modern Warfare reboot (except for Black Ops 3). Lot of highs and lows in the series, but each game had something to memorably set it apart. MW3 seems to have nothing to draw people in.
Starting in 2005 there has been a mainline COD released every year.
It’s made slightly better by the fact the studios rotate, which gives the games a two year development cycle instead of one, but it’s still pretty tight.
Yes and no. A two year development cycle is pretty reasonable for a linear game where the engine and foundational mechanics and elements of design are already in place and well understood by all involved. Even animations and assets are to a certain degree acceptable to reuse. Given those constraints, there have been some pretty good COD games.
That’s just the development side though. The crazy part is selling a new game where multiplayer is a large element to people every year. I don’t know if I’m more baffled by the publisher for deciding to do it, or for audiences for putting up with it. I’m personally very sluggish to switch away from an MP shooter that I like. Which is the reason why I stopped trying to keep up after MW2, and only played the other games on a delay and primarily for single player.
The map is all on the Warzone map. Shit you not. Watched Charlie confirm it - if you've played warzone you've seen every locale in mw3, with obvious differences in set pieces like cars and signage.
This one was about 4 hours, but you can do it faster.
And absolutely sucked balls.
The new zombies is really fun, but pisses of zombie fans for not being the same thing, and pisses off dmz fans because it's not dmz. It's like both smashed together