Call of Duty | 3 Battle Passes In

Call of Duty for me is a love/hate relationship. On one hand it is my go to guilty pleasure. I enjoy playing it for the laughs, and the grinding. It gives me something to work towards, and with the latest installment there is so much more to earn, and unlock. With the battle pass being as generous as it is it gives even non-paying players a reason to grind. On the flip side of all that is the glaring problem that is the online multiplayer. That, and matchmaking. It is plagued by a handful of problems. These problems include the usual player mischief as well as decisions made, and implemented by the developer in such a way as to steer the player base towards a certain type of experience. With the latter I'm talking about the throttling of players' internet speed when they opt out of crossplay. They seem hellbent on forcing crossplay despite the community collectively calling it out as bad. I've personally known before the cross console play was a thing that going up against PC and mobile gamers was a major issue. With different controls, and netcode between the platforms there are both advantages, and disadvantages to some. This of course still has not been addressed by the developer.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare Battle Pass | Impressions

Battle passes have seemingly become a staple of live service games these days. A common creation goal for game developers, and publishers to implement for business sake. On average they'll cost you, at base level, around ten dollars. That, and commitment to grinding for each reward tier in order to be able to get the most out of what you paid for. Most battle passes are centered around experience point earnings, and will utilize the game's XP system in order to make your ascent up the tier ladder either cumbersome or quickly progressed. In the case of Fortnite's battle pass the XP earned is fast tracked via events that allow the players to capitalize on significant bonus XP for completing certain missions or feats. In Modern Warfare's battle pass though you creep along at a snail's pace on a per kill basis in multiplayer or Spec-Ops until you unlock a tier with an XP boost that can be used to amplify your experience points earnings for 30 minutes to an hour. Even with the boost though the grind in MW, per tier, can take several matches to complete, and in a battle pass that is filled with filler rewards such as XP tokens and lesser items it makes the grind to 100 all the more tedious, and demanding of your time. Once you buy into MW's battle pass for 1,100 COD tokens ($9.99), and the season begins you will have 60 days to complete the 100 tier pass, and unlock everything there is to unlock. While the grind is doable if you clear at least 2 tiers per day it is the artificial lengthening of the pass, and the filler materials that take up potential item unlocks that makes the whole thing less than desirable.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4)

The hype. The theatrics. Does Black Ops 4 live up to it all? That's likely the question going through the minds of those who are on the fence about buying into the new experience. With a team based multiplayer returning with 8 game types centered around a new specialist team based combat system, a Battle Royale mode that was meant to be a contender to Fortnite, and a Zombies mode that looked to be more serious than ever one would think there was proper effort put into the construction, and creation of these online only experiences. Unfortunately corners were cut, and that which seemed promising ended up feeling more like a gimmick than a properly fleshed out Call of Duty experience. A mixed bag of tricks that were thrown at the gamer with the obvious intention of having at least one of the three modes be enjoyable to them. While I found the main multiplayer alright, Blackout less than so, and Zombies good I can't help, but wonder what Treyarch was thinking.

Well ... CoD WWII Got Good

After my candy coated meltdown about CoD WWII being an abomination, and bastardization of a pivotal war in human history I logged back into the game to find it did a near 180. As if on cue the developers fixed two of the main issues I was complaining about. The loading times are greatly improved, and you can now back out of matchmaking after a match. The whole matchmaking bit looks entirely new for some odd reason, and it is itself a huge improvement over what once was. So, adding back in a little of that maple syrup flavored sweetness I think the game is alright now, albeit with the inclusion of the usual community tampering. The experience is probably more along the lines of an "8/10" at this point, and that is me still tacking on the historical inaccuracies I mentioned in the previous write up. The whole diversity for diversity sake BS. I close with a slow congratulatory hand clap from yours truly to those at Sledgehammer. Way to pick yourself up out of the trenches, and soldier on!

Let's Talk - "How to Make a Proper FPS"

In the FPS (First Person Shooter) genre universe there are several different sub-genres. You have arena based shooters such as "Unreal Tournament 3", horror survival shooters such as "Doom", competitive shooters such as "Call of Duty", and even offline shooters just to name some. As a long time FPS fan it has come to my attention over the past several years that developers of these types of arcade style experiences have lost touch with what made them so great in the first place. The introduction of such things as larger maps, poorly executed spawning systems, and lag compensation have almost ruined the genre completely. Factor in the corporate greed of companies who want to take your money, and run with it while giving you a less than finished product, and you'll have a proper "coup de grace". As a gamer I want to think that there's hope for this genre, but the cold hard fact is that it's likely never going to see the golden years again. With the crowds that such games attract, and the type of developers who worm there way into the genre in order to make a killing off of doing much of nothing for the gamers I find that my feet are firmly planted in the reality that the FPS experiences of yesteryear are a long gone thing of the past.