Why Call of Duty Has Failed in Recent Years

Adnan Riaz assesses why the Call of Duty series has been failing in recent years.

[ape007]

simple, because the old legendary IW is no longer developing the game

[LaFleur]

The state of IW right now is shocking. Shadow of its former self.

[ape007]

hopefully the new rebuilt IW make ghosts good, im seeing that ghosts is looking better than BO2 and MW3 but still not as exciting as CoD4 or MW2, i hope they do it

[Statix]

@ape007:

The sad part is, Infinity Ward isn't even making Ghosts' multiplayer. Raven Software is in charge of developing that portion of the game.

[Ghosts]

i dont think its failling over 1OO million play Call of Duty
http://images.vg247.com/cur...

[LaFleur]

I agree, I have high expectation for Ghosts. However, they've done this in the past with the other titles so I'm not holding my breath for it. Hopefully Ghosts is good but I don't think it will touch MW or Mw2

[ape007]

CoD 2, MW1 and MW2 were some of my favorite games in this gen and if not of all time

the Original IW games had such STRONG IN YOUR FACE personality, slick intense gameplay, great atmosphere/soundtrack, top gfx(at their time) fantastic pacing (naughty dog is now the king of pacing after IW gone), good story etc...

"THAT" magic is lacking in every CoD that came after MW2, the only non IW COD that i liked a lot was BO1(still not as good as IW stuff)

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

@apeoo7. I've read those exact words before. .. literally

[cHaOZ_ZoNE]

The magic of COD died the day they decided to develop MW2 for console first and then for PC.

Instead of developing a game with massive features and then reducing it so consoles can take it, they went the other way and quality overall took a hit.

BLOPS1 did a great job of comming back to at least some of the aspects that made MW1 a great game, but all in all the series just went downhill starting with MW2.

[ape007]

i respectfully disagree, MW2 is full of IW magic, same "CLASS A CoD" feel, not having it on PC might be a little disappointment but it's nothing compared to the firing of original talent of IW, that's the main hit

[cHaOZ_ZoNE]

MW2 was class A COD for people who did not play the greatness of MW1 on PC. MW2 was magic in the sense that it picked up and started the whole Youtube commentary thing.

As for the IW team, the only magicians work for EA now and produced (I have played it) what I consider is a real step forward in the series with Titanfalls.

[NarooN]

MW2 was f***** terrible. The campaign made no sense and the multiplayer was terribly unbalanced and broken, and it always blows my mind how people praise the game, as if they were oblivious to how broken it really was.

*Marathon - Lightweight - Commando bastards everywhere

*Commando allowing people to slide through bullets and knife you from half a football field away

*Introduction of death streaks

*Emphasis put on stacking overpowered killstreaks, which led to increased camping

*One-Man Army allowing people to have infinite ammo and thus infinite overpowered explosives

*Aim-assist hand-holding quick-scoping nonsense

*Kept Stopping Power but removed any way to counter it

*PC version was stupidly gimped to have no real user-hosted dedi servers, no mod support, etc.

I could go on... That game was broken. Sure, it was fun to play with friends, but it was impossible to take it seriously. MW2 was the start of the series going downhill.

[maniacmayhem]

MW2 is the best in the series in my opinion.

I tried the later games and just lost interest real fast. There was enough in MW2 that made it fresh and new for that time.

[Statix]

I fail to see your argument. What "massive features" did COD4 have that future installments (MW2, Black Ops 2, MW3) didn't have?

[cHaOZ_ZoNE]

Answer is as simple as single words: Mods, custom maps, no paid DLC.

Cod4 had the magic of being arguably the first modern shooter and bringing a new type of "arcade trash MP" into the scene while providing Zombie mods MP, vehicle mods, Mario maps and the DLC came out for the price of zero cents. You could say that all the "New magic" in MW2 was old magic while taking away the ability to mod it back in.

[Veni Vidi Vici]

I could start and end with TRUE dedicated servers without lag compensation.

I could continue with what chaoz already said with Mods, no DLC(DLC ruins the game and fractures the community), etc.

[Statix]

@cHaOZ_ZoNE:

COD4 DID have a paid DLC map pack (just one, however). As for your other points, mods and custom maps aren't standard features for console games anyway, so the vast majority of players weren't affected whatsoever.

@Veni Vidi Vici:

Again, the omission of dedicated servers was not an issue, because COD4 didn't have dedicated servers on consoles. Thus, the VAST, vast majority of players weren't affected. I understand that some PC players might feel disappointment in some of these features being missed, but they are by far in the minority, as they are comparatively a small player base compared to the tens of millions of console players.

As for lag compensation, COD4, MW2, and Black Ops 1 all utilized reasonable lag compensation algorithms, and they were not that different from each other. It wasn't until MW3 (which came after the original Infinity Ward died) that a radically new lag compensation system was implemented that royally screwed the playability of the online component.

[Veni Vidi Vici]

I don't get how anyone can say MW2 was any good considering it introduced one of the worst features in gaming history: P2P.

P2P alone ruined COD for me.

[up2snuff]

I see it this way.... MW2 was the most fun but also the most aggravating. When you were in the right lobbies it was truly great. When you were in lobbies with Noobtubers and M/L/C nerds it was terrible. After MW2, BO1 was drab as hell. Thankfully they removed some obvious problems but then they nerfed the guns and Killstreaks, not to mention ruining the sound engine and creating a new problem of Ghost Camping.

[Grimhammer00]

ready for mind blown?

COD ghosts squads....sounds cool right? up to 4 plyrs and their squads can play vs. AI horde mode.

Sound new to you? consider this....mw3 2plyr co-op killstreak reward - call in a squad for assistance.

don't be fooled people....GHOSTS is looking better than past cods to me; but woefully less exciting than BF4 or KZ.

A lot of smoke n mirrors coming from GHOSTS is all I'm saying.

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

I'm still looking forward to cod ghost even though your right

[cHaOZ_ZoNE]

I still dont feel blown away from Ghosts. Activision has proven in the past that they can make everything look good, just to come out with the biggest bullsh** ever.

[Dazel]

Releasing a game a year was it's biggest mistake, as far as originality goes. However for all those who got bored, many more became hooked and Activision got rich.

[CerebralAssassin]

Its sales prove otherwise.

[LaFleur]

This isn't about sales. Did you even read it? It's talking about the standards failing. Sales has nothing to do with it, people will buy it regardless but that doesn't mean the content is as good as it use to be.

[CerebralAssassin]

Nope. I sure didn't read it. Didn't care to. Its not failing anything. Not in sales. Not in "standards". We as gamers and consumers set the standard by letting them get by with sequal after sequal. It has a new name. Great. It has a new story. Awesome. Can I still hop online in a few seconds with my friends and play new maps and mess around with "new" guns? Yes I can?!?! Sold.

as for its content being as good as it used to be is a matter opinion. Everyday I talk to someone that loves blackops but hates modern warfare. If its the same thing every year why does it matter which one you play? Personally im excited for the new additions to ghost. I dont want a different game. I dont want it to change. It wouldnt be cod if it did. You want change. Buy something else. Atleast you know what you are gonna get when you put the disc in.

[up2snuff]

I agree it has nothing to do with sales. Some people will be happy buying COD regardless of how ridiculous the game becomes. Pretty low standards they are settling for if you ask me. I didn't buy BO2 and I wont be buying Ghosts either.

[up2snuff]

Why is COD worse? Simple....it continues to get further away from what made it great with everyone wanting the game to "change" instead of just improving. These people don't want to play COD, they want to play something else...let them. Death Streaks, Support Streaks, Target Finders, Thermal, heart beat sensors, motion sensors,shock charges, black hats,pick 10 system, quickscoping... all fails. Go back to good maps, good guns, 3 balanced perks, EARNING your killstreaks and then COD will be great again. Quit handholding the noobs.