Last night I played CoD4’s campaign. Then I played Ghosts and cried.

Call Of Duty is dead, but it’s still walking. Its head was cut off long ago, but it’s still running around crazily, flailing its arms around violently. It’s an abhorrent scene once you have the perspective of comparison.

[Sarcasm]

COD4 was still a military shooter and the multiplayer was ridiculously fun and addicting.

After that, it just became plain ridiculous.

[xPhearR3dx]

Hey now. I thought WaW was amazing. The maps were great, guns felt just right (Aside from the MP40) Zombies were introduced, kick ass DLC. Loved it. MW2 was great too until all the glitches happened. Remember the javelin glitch? Those two games after COD 4 tried new things (3rd person in MW2) and made each title feel fresh, while improving gameplay. After those two, it was copy & paste, copy & paste. Shame.

[-Alpha]

Good old days of COD4 and WaW. I remember disliking MW2 so much but now I remember it nostalgically.

[neoMAXMLC]

World at War definitely had the absolute BEST multiplayer out of all CoD games. CoD4 still has the absolute best single player.

[Irishguy95]

MW2, the maps were just too random for me. And the killstreaks dominated the games. And the perks too, no I hated that game.

[reko]

@phear

you have mp40 B***** running around and only using that gun..waw was alright.. cod4 was special!

[Gazondaily]

I absolutely loved MW2. My friends and I played that to death. We would hardly ever lose a game and it was really a battle amongst ourselves to get the tactical nuke.

[AliTheSnake1]

how is cod4 campaign better than mw2. Hell no.and that can't be an opinion. It's like saying Uncharted 1 is better than 2.
MW1 was great for its time. But mw2 had everything much better. Better story, better twists, more variety in missions, better level design, characters,villains, script, music score, I could go on. And black ops topped that too.

[kneon]

WaW was the last COD in which I actually cared about the multi-player. I totally gave up on the series after BLOPs.

[PLASTICA-MAN]

"Call Of Duty is dead, but it’s still walking. Its head was cut off long ago, but it’s still running around crazily, flailing its arms around violently. It’s an abhorrent scene once you have the perspective of comparison. "

So COD is now:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Kleptic]

CoD 4 came at a perfect time for me...Instead of upgrading a PC (as up until 2006 I only played games on PC for the most part), i went with a business laptop for work and a PS3 for gaming...

and CoD 4, way more so than Halo ever did, was the perfect competitive multiplayer game to make me not miss PC shooters whatsoever...and it also FINALLY took me out of World War II...after around 1000 hours of Return to Castle Wolfenstien's multiplayer at the end of high school and 4 years of college...I didn't need anything related to WWII for a long time (and i still think RTCW is the best WWII multiplayer ever made)

but CoD4 was perfect at the time...less mess of having to rely heavily on random team mates...easy to play 2 10 minute matches, and walk away from, etc...and i never missed a mouse/keyboard because the entire game was built around a controller...

World At war? No way for me...played the single player, and about 5 hours of multiplayer...my friends and I went right back to CoD4...just couldn't cope with back pedaling into the 1940's again...

then killzone 2 hit, and i was ready to get back into team based stuff, but still didn't have a PC...and i haven't had the want or need to pick up a cod ever since...

Its definitely dead for me until major changes are made...and now doing the opposite of last gen (heavily relying on a higher end PC now instead of a console), CoD just doesn't seem to have kept up with everything else anymore...to me at least...to each their own...but personally, CoD 4 is still the finest CoD made so far...

[Khajiit86]

WAW was my favorite.

[UnHoly_One]

The Campaign in W@W was partially ruined by the ridiculous amount of grenades thrown around.

Every single enemy in that game apparently was able to carry 25 grenades in their pockets.

I'm talking about Veteran difficulty, anyway. That was seriously crazy.

[DEAD-DEVIL-DISCO]

loved mw1 and tbh what fps fan wouldnt. but i bought mw2 and it just felt unbalanced to me and i couldnt compete anymore. last cod game i bought. i always kept a close eye on the other ones, but with the research i do to choose games, cod still put me off. sometimes good things must come to an end.

[Pandamobile]

COD4 is THE military shooter in my opinion. Overall, COD4 is the best military game ever made when you consider how amazing both the single and multiplayer of that game.

I've always favoured Battlefield's multiplayer over Call of Duty's, but COD4 is definitely better than any single player Battlefield game DICE has ever made.

[xPhearR3dx]

I liked Bad Company 2's campaign over any CoD campaign, but that's just me.

[mikeslemonade]

I'd agree with the multiplayer but the single player was nothing special. It was scripted events after scripted events which has led to ugly copy-cat developers that have since been making scripted games.

Life to date for the best shooters for this generation:

Best multiplayer: COD4
Best single-player shooter: Bioshock 1

Going even further COD4 is the best game this generation. I don't care how you spin it but COD4 is the best and I'm willing to debate about it.

[Benjammin25]

Ha ha. Better than the last of us? Um, nope. Not even close.

[neoMAXMLC]

Edit. Whoops read that wrong. I should sleep.

@Mikeslemonade, you would seriously even attempt to debate why COD4 is the greatest game this generation even though you just wrote off its single player for reasons that can also be applied to its multiplayer?

@ben, thought you were replying to pandamobile at first. I hope youre ready for that debate on why you think its better than COD4. :p

[Superherox70]

How is regen health and extreme lineraity any good?

[Consoles4kidz]

Best Multiplayer: Counter Strike 1.6 and Source

Best Single Player: Halo

Imo, those were the best FPS experiences for each mode in my lifetime thus far.

[DEAD-DEVIL-DISCO]

ive been in and out of love with so many games i couldnt agrue which is the best. theyre all like ex bitches to me. but id have to go with rainbow 6 vegas 1. i fkn owned everyone so thats my baby

[wsoutlaw87]

It was my first ps3 game and I was sad when I beat it. Then I tried mp and loved it when I thought I was never going to give mp a chance. Now after how disappointing mw2 and black ops were I didnt even play mw3 or ghosts. I only got the black ops games later for zombies.

[joab777]

The next installment will b the most important yet to its survival. It will come on the back of titanfall, which will scratch the CoD itch...until u r bleeding!! I know it was near impossible to expect so much this time around with next gen etc. But Activision has 1 shot...with treyarch...to do something to move this game forward...or not. If not...it becomes EA's universe that we live in...cuz titanfall will b a juggernaut.

[Sideras]

I can give CoD4 creds for being a solid game and feeling fresh and all, but nothing, no shooter, will ever come close to CoD2.

Fuck all that perk crap and built in wallhacks, CoD2 was pure skill and it didn't need any pseudo RPG elements to reward you, you rewarded yourself by getting better without cheats.

[BoriboyShoGUN]

yeah COD2 was a classic!! COD4 was beast too but these perks got way way way way out of control. Its all about perks and figuring out whats the cheapest shit you can put together to get kills. To make it worse now they have videos online telling you which weapon is overpowered and what attachments to put on it etc. The competition is shit too, I havent played COD in at least 6 months but I guarantee I can throw it in and go off for like 27-3 or some BS like that. Where on BF im getting my ass thrashed by these level 100 bastards :D

[Gardenia]

I think COD4 was fun because of it´s simplicity. Right now they added so many things in the game it´s not even fun anymore. And of course the community was cool back then

[ShadowReaper14]

@gardenia love you for saying that I couldn't agree anymore.

[Blaze929]

CoD4 and Black Ops 2 have the best CoD stories to date. CoD Ghosts was a damn joke though. They really just played everyone on that.

[Bobby Kotex]

I agree. I skipped World at War, but after I bought MW2, I left Call of Duty for good. It's amazing how many sheep out there are still buying these mediocre games.

[Ps4Console]

WAW was one of the worst ever as voted by after WAW people got really tired of the game , MW1 was the best .

[ShadowReaper14]

Cod 4 multiplayer was so good because It had simplicity. The other cod games strayed away from the simplicity which made Cod4 so addicting and fun to play.

[timmyp53]

cod4 is the pinnacle of the series.

[Sarcasm]

Yeah and COD4 was still somewhat believable. While not a simulation shooter, it was just perfect. The single player had *gasp* a story, and who can forget the Ghillie sniper mission. Thinking about it, I might go back and relive that classic.

[SaturdayNightBeaver]

than god we are always free to do that. COD4 and that mission = gold

[spicelicka]

agreed, it was just brilliant. I remember showing it off to my friends and family who were all amazed.

It had a lot of scripted events sure, but these scripted events were innovative in the sense that nothing of that caliber had been done before. All set pieces were places expertly, and the Ghillie sniper mission is one of my favourite missions ever.

This is what caused all the problem though. After that the developers basically streamlined the scripted events till it was literally like a movie, and they were just thrown in for the sake of it instead of how they were tactically inserted (pun intended) in COD4.

Now i feel like throwing up at the single player, they only give you 2 inches of space to move in for 2 minutes before shoving a scripted event down your throat with no sense of purpose or excitement.

[brave27heart]

Cod4 was a fluke. A combination of the right ideas at a time when there was nothing like it around. They'll never make another game as good as Cod4 again.

[Campy da Camper]

I'll never forget the end of "All Ghillied Up" on veteran difficulty. I finally beat it by setting 184 claymores before the enemy's flooded into the ferris wheel area and then camped inside a ticket booth with my sights in the door shooting any foot that appeared. I was a camping fool but it worked, hence, my name.

[Pandamobile]

COD4 wasn't a fluke.

It was a blossoming franchise's peak. If COD4 just came out of no where, and then declined in quality from there, that'd be a fluke.

But Call of Duty 1-3 was a progressive refinement of the original formula that made Call of Duty games amazing. COD4 was a risky title, but paid off big. After that, Call of Duty was in the hands of Activision and who was ready to ride this money train into the next decade.

[mafiahajeri]

Your all wrong COD 2 had the best MP then COD 4.

[SpinalRemains138]

Kasserine and Cassino are the greatest Call of Duty maps ever.

[PoSTedUP]

havent touched a cod single player since. didnt get MW2, bought MW3 for the MP, will not touch blackops2 at all, and now im done with COD. man who woulda thought a franchise starting out so epic would be milked into a pile of ****.

[Jeedai Infidel]

Activision has quite the track record for doing that to games: 1. The Tony Hawk series 2. The Guitar Hero series 3. The Call of Duty series. I eventually became bored of all of those series because of over-saturation.

[spicelicka]

This makes me scared as hell for Destiny, i can't imagine what Activision will do to it in 10 years.

[Jeedai Infidel]

I hope Bungie has more control over Destiny than Activision gives Infinity Ward and Treyarch over COD. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.

[PoSTedUP]

yeh its a damn shame, even the cabelas hunting games whch i use to love, are now generic piles of.... really makes u sick ya know.

[monkey nuts]

Infidel; the thing that worries me about activisions involvement with bungie on destiny is the price they're going to be putting on the final product. They charge through the nose RRP now for an average (at best) COD, which never drops in price as much as other publishers' games even when the next title in the series is released. Plus it looks like they've started other pubs' raising their prices too, next gen titles look to be retailing for £49 to £59 which is far above the £39 games have mostly always retailed for here in the uk, which when considered with the fact next gen is supposedly easier to develop for (x86 /no cell) seems like a step too far.

[T2]

I credit cod4 for being the first fps I touched since doom2 ... It pulled me back in but sadly ive moved on from cod never to look back

[reko]

cod4 was my s***

[victorMaje]

MP might be fun but I actually felt sad after playing Ghosts' SP. Nothing compares to COD4...still hoping for a new FPS which will give the same experience COD4 did...

[Pandamobile]

Here's hoping that TitanFall scratches that itch next generation. It's got the core of Infinity Ward that created Call of Duty 4, AND it's not being published by Activision.

I'm willing to bet that Respawn Entertainment was given a blank check to do whatever they wanted with, and little to no outside intervention from EA. As a result, the team making Titanfall is ~75 people. Compare that to the probably 250-1000 people working on Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed or Battlefield. The team making Titanfall is pretty tiny in comparison, so it's no wonder the graphics don't look as fancy as BF4 or Ryse or something. But I think that with such a tight-knit team of talented people, we're going to be amazed at how fun Titanfall is.

(Add to that nearly 4 years of development time, when 99% of game releases today have less than 2)

[Jeedai Infidel]

After this month's date is off my checklist, March 11th, 2014 is next in line. Games.

[Majin-vegeta]

All Ghillied up best fkn sniper level.

[Statix]

COD4 and other earlier Call of Duties just were able to immerse you into a world; atmospheric levels one after another that told a story almost entirely through the setting and visuals alone. The games were so adept at simply presenting a narrative in subtle ways, rather than forcing a script down your throat through literal, artless cinematics and mediocre NPC conversations.

In terms of gameplay, the way the levels and AI were designed, they created epic battles in large-scale environments. You really felt like you were fighting an entire army at times, across huge war-ravaged terrain and battlefields. Recent COD campaigns I've played have been a lot more on-rails and linear, relying on the old formula of bombarding the player with scripted sequences (usually involving explosions and/or slow-motion room breaches) every 2 minutes that have just become trite and yawn-inducing at this point. Both COD4 and MW2 had some very interesting, and exciting non-linear levels (The "Loose Ends" level where you protected a mansion from a hoard of soldiers, as well as the stealthy snow level "Cliffhanger" come to mind). I don't remember the last time I played a non-linear level in a COD game since MW2.

The All Ghillied Up level was a revelation at the time, because it had a veteran soldier who is your superior leading you through a tense sniper mission and extremely foreign, treacherous territory. It was also just one mission out of a few where the game held your hand through an AI partner, so it was a nice change of pace. From what I've played/seen of recent CODs, Activision is just abusing the hell out of this originally successful partner mechanic. Almost every level now involves another character holding your hand, funneling you down a set path. The novelty of this idea has completely worn away, and it's not done as well as COD4 either. After seeing some walkthrough videos of Ghosts, is there even one level where there isn't an AI partner holding your hand, and you just go it lone-wolf for a change?

[Statix]

Serious question: Which one has the better single-player campaign between the two? Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts?

I intend to buy one or more of these games primarily for the multiplayer component, but the story mode also plays a factor, especially with launch of new consoles in which case I'd want something that can act a demonstration of the graphics and cinematic experience my new machine is capable of (at this point in time, at least).

From the little footage I've seen, it would appear that Battlefield 4 has the more polished, higher production quality campaign, maybe due in large part to the performance of Michael K. Williams.

[theEx1Le]

Whilst completely underwhelming story wise, Battlefield 4's campaign will have the 'awe' you intend to show off. It is enjoyable and you get unlocks for the MP by completing it.

[Jeedai Infidel]

Psst, I'd go with the one that has jets. And jet skis.

[ArchangelMike]

BF4 all the way, the plot is thin, but very enjoyable. Especially if you play for the points.

[Soldierone]

If you want visuals, then Battlefield. If you actually want a single player that at least attempts at a story, Call of Duty.

[76erz24]

I know many disagree but I think the best overall cod game is MW2

[reko]

commando,last stand,martydom, acr, quick scopers,one man army noob tubes..also spawn killing.. the best? heck no!

[Ravenor]

If it didn't remove the dedicated servers on PC, and they hadn't introduced the stupid dual wielding I would agree. Modern Warfare 2 had some decent maps and the weapons weren't totally borked like Blops,MW3 and Blops2.

[Pandamobile]

I can't agree with you on that one after the fiasco with the PC Version.

I ended up buying BLOPS and played it for a week or two, but MW2 is what ruined the series for me. Went back to Battlefield and have never looked back.

[Jeedai Infidel]

The game was jacked, but I had the most fun with the MP out of all of them because of the friends and family I played with, those were some laughtastic times then.

[MythicalBlade]

Haven't played a COD since Black Ops 1. Thought about getting back into it with Ghosts but the MP just looks so bad. I can already sense the rage quits!

[Lionalliance]

I really love CoD 4, after that, it just went mediocre.

[floetry101]

Call of Duty 4 is a rare breed of game and a total classic. Always hoped new iterations of the game would surpass it. So much so that I stuck around with the multiplayer of every title up until MW3, when I knew it was done.

While now the title is overtly complex online, Cod4 had a minimalist and streamlined design that revolutionized online shooters. It's a joy to pick up and play, even now. The maps are just extraordinarily good when you think about it. A masterwork of design.

Won't be playing Ghosts. I don't outwardly despise Call of Duty, but it's obvious where it begins and ends.

[GinkgoID]

While it continues to make a billion $, nothing will change. Why should it if people keep buying it.

[Pascalini]

Stop moaning

There's nothing better apart from bf4 which you could argue is a different style shooter

The thing about cod is it's just so damn playable online- that's why people buy the game

Sales are crazy for cod even with ghosts and that's because people love playing it all year round online

How many other shooters can do this? Games like Kz can't compete with the numbers as they are not fun like cod

[BlakHavoc]

Agreed, online gaming is the future. I still enjoy single player offline gaming and will always prefer that kind of gaming to online gaming, but I can't deny the addiction of multiplayer, specifically COD. COD is no way the best game around but it may be the most addictive because you can play everyday until the newest installment comes out. I personally think games like Tomb Raider, GoW, TLOU, UC, Mass Effect and plenty others are better but that's only cause I enjoy a great campaign more then playing online with other people. Ghosts wasn't that great to me, but games like that are great to play while you wait for the next Tomb Raider, TLOU, etc to come out.

[LakerGamerEnthusiast]

Ahh I too remember COD4. If I'm not mistaken that title came at or near the launch of the PS3 and I remember my cousin getting a ps3 with that game when it came out. I had an Xbox 360 at the time and he called me to tell me how he got a ps3 for Christmas while I asked for an Xbox 360.

He eventually invited me over and we tried some games on his ps3 and on my Xbox 360..he had COD4 and kept pushing me to play it and try it out. I eventually did and fell in love with it instantaneously. After playing some SP I jumped into some MP matches and still remember how much fun I had playing it even though I was such a noob at it. lol

I eventually got COD4 and bought it for my eventual ps3(After my Xbox 360 unfortunately RROD on me) and that was the ONLY game I played for some time. Since then I've felt as if they've tried to push a yearly title down our throats with less than stellar gameplay and graphics. It truly is a shame what the series has become and it brings sadness to my heart. This series was the talk of the class in High School and among my friends as well when we chatted in Lunch and after school.

Here's hoping Activision salvages the series before it's too late but I ain't going to hold my breath. All good things come to an end I guess.

[RE_L_MAYER]

Modern warfare 2 is still my favourite...if only it had zombies

[mixelon]

I missed COD at the time and finally got around to playing it last year. Without any of the nostalgia or anything, it seemed pretty bland. Well.. Very bland tbh. The single player wasnt particularly memorable. I don't really get it.

FPS ive enjoyed more than, and thought objectively better than COD4s sp:

Stalker, Far Cry, Bioshock (all of them), Metro, crysis (1), Killzone2, Halo (all of them) Obviously HL2

If COD4 was genuinely the "best" fps this generation we must've had an awful generation considering LAST generation we had Timesplitters 2.. Apples to oranges, but what the hell - i hope this next gen something more interesting gets big, regardless of the platform - Titanfall and Destiny at least have something interesting going on.

[cyclindk]

Love the call of duty zombie metaphor, clever, and it brings some life to the article. Wit.

[ape007]

CoD 2, CoD4 and MW2 are the three best ever

black ops 1 and world at war were good too

[MuhammadJA]

cod4 was fun at the time, but no one denies how the multiplayer got improved with the sequels.

let's be honest here, would anyone really go back to playing cod4 after playing cod ghosts or black ops 2?

[JackStraw]

and then you decided to write this crappy, whiny rant. okay.

[Stevino123]

In my opinion, the whole MW series is my favorite. Ghosts is ehh, I like how they brought something new with the multiplayer, I just hate the Fu$@ing Dog in multiplayer.

[jahfen83]

I love Ghosts! Multiplayer is still fun and addictive.

[BlakHavoc]

COD has become just that though, a Multiplayer game, they should just stop making a campaign cause their a waste of time. But I agree, if you just want to have a fun couple hours with your friends, play COD online.

[e-p-ayeaH]

In terms of gameplay CoD Classic and CoD2 singleplayers are the best because those gave purpose to every weapon there´s in the game unlike many shooters.

CoD4 and MW2 were the new bread of military shooters with shorter singleplayer experiences but with awesome cinematics and cool missions and interesting locales to visit.

[Underworld]

Meh, don't care what others say, I still enjoy CoD. The multiplayer is fun to me.

[KillrateOmega]

Best single-player mission ever. Period.

CoD4 was absolutely amazing. It actually had an interesting story with several epic, memorable moments. However, All Ghillied Up stands out from the rest. I remember playing that mission and blowing a hole through the front of my pants it was so epic.

[DomceM]

COD is created for the lowest common denominator demographic.

[quaneylfc]

hahaha what a girl :P

[BlakHavoc]

I'm normally a fan of this franchise but Ghosts was just plain rushed and you could tell from the minute you played the game. The campaign is all about explosions, it reminds me a bit of the transformer movies with no story worth a damn and just action, action, and more action. Even Graphically this game seemed a little disappointing, I did not really enjoy the multiplayer like I have on past COD's, and it definitely is a downgrade from BO2.

[Tales RPG addict]

MW1 was the only COD game I ever cared for.

[SpinalRemains138]

1,2 & 3 for me. The WWII versions were amazing. Then the franchise got ruined when everyone started playing. Killstreaks, perks, and the removal of War ruined the game.

[static360]

always laughed a bit every time i read that title