So, I just got done watching the Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer reveal. Now, I am just going to get this out of the way up front–I am a Battlefield fanboy. And I’m not alone. The Battlefield fanbase grows larger with each installation of the franchise and for good reason–it’s a better game. For you Call of Duty fans out there that are (for some unknown reason) reading this, brace yourselves and get ready to spew forth your retorts. To quote the movie 300 , “This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.” This is an exercise in sheer fanboyism, and some, if not all, of my points may make no sense and have no basis in reality. You have been warned.
You Bring Down A Bus? We’ll Bring Down A Skyscraper!
Dynamic maps seem to be a theme that has emerged through this multiplayer reveal. Just let it be known that Battlefield came out with it first. During the Ghosts multiplayer reveal, it was shown that you could “change” the maps through interactive set pieces such as dropping a bus off of a cliff, knocking over a gas pump, or blowing a hole in a wall. On the other side of the coin, Battlefield 4 recently announced that you will be able to change the face of a map through Levolution. We only have one example of Levolution so far, but it is spectacular. Basically, you can bring down a skyscraper. And besides just Levolution, you have been able to blow holes in walls and knock down buildings in Battlefield for years. It seems that Call of Duty is playing a little bit of catch-up in the realm of dynamic maps. Unsuccessfully, I might add.
Call of Duty, Now With Girls! And Eminem.
Now, I’m not against females in the military. I’m not against females in combat. And I’m certainly not against Eminem. What I am against is using them as a cheap marketing ploy. And while Battlefield remains basically female-avatar and Eminem free, I think that if included, they wouldn’t be used as a sales tactic. Well, maybe Eminem would. But the ability to choose a female character would just be another feature to an already lengthy customization engine for Battlefield . And why did presenter giggle when he said, “You can play as a female?” Shame on you, Activision.
Call of Duty – Now You Can Jump Over Stuff!
This is actually one of the biggest gripes that I had with previous Call of Duty games–mantling. When playing Battlefield , traversing the landscape is fluid and intuitive. When doing so in previous Call of Duty games, I couldn’t pull myself up onto anything I couldn’t crouch jump onto. I always felt boxed-in like a rat in a maze. It seems that Activision is again taking another play out of the Battlefield handbook here and making its world a little easier and fluid to navigate. Again, though, Battlefield did it first. But fair is fair, during this event they also unveiled the ability to slide into cover and dynamically peak around corners. While I think these are interesting additions to the movement scheme of CoD , I just have this to say–your knife mechanic still sucks compared to Battlefield . Yeah, I went there.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the points that I found interesting in today’s Call of Duty event. Feel free to disagree. Like I said, this is an exercise in fanboyism, not fact. But just to show that I can be fair, I will ask these two questions: Does Call of Duty: Ghosts look like a decent FPS? Sure it does. Will it be better than Battlefield 4 ? Not a chance in hell. See? Fair.