IGN Kind Of Likes Call of Duty 2

A 8.5? I May Wait For The XBox 360 Version Then

Not that it's going to be any different, but if it's not a spectacular title, I'm thinking I may just get it for a platform where I don't have to worry about system specs.

And CoD 2 is about the grisliest game I've seen get the ESRB T rating. There's no blood and guts splashing all over the place, but you will have dying soldiers attempting to drag themselves to safety, only to be bludgeoned to death by a nearby enemy. And they'll scream bloody murder when they die. On the other hand, the only blood you'll see is when you shoot someone, and the profanity stays firmly in PG-13 territory. And there's none of the chunky dismemberment we've seen in Brothers in Arms.

One of the other things I noticed is that CoD isn't as oppressively scripted as the first installment. You'll typically only have one path to one objective, but the game often breaks things up by putting you in a battlefield and giving you a batch of locations you have to reach, typically to kill people or blow something up. And in these situations, you can choose what order you want to go in. There are still the dreaded minefields painted into areas that diverge from where the level designers want you to go, and objects piled up just so at key junctions, funneling you down one arbitrary path.

Interesting.

I found the demo pretty amazing (even though it's yet another WW2 title) and am considering picking this up for the PC. I'll probably want to play through the first Call of Duty and its expansion though.

EDIT: Somewhat related to the grisliness - I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw a German soldier feel his head after I shot his helmet off.

I felt the demo was exactly like the first game, just a bit prettier (particularly the smoke effects).

For me, its all about the MP. The health thing is worrisome, but the review stated that it is very steep in MP. That is good.

This is a problem though:

IGN wrote:

In addition to deathmatch, team deathmatch, and CTF, you'll also get an HQ Mode and a Search and Destroy Mode.

No Base Assault? No Domination? No Behind enemy Lines?These are MP modes that were in the previous one, but you can't include them in the expansion? So you get us used to these game modes and then nix them in the next installment? So what are they going to do add these in the expansion so I have to shell out the $30 for the modes that I enjoy?

Its like they decided to take one step forward, 2 steps back with this one. No Grenade cooking, no pistol, not many new maps just updated MP maps from CoD, No satchels. Lets just dumb it down for the console, yeah thats a good idea!

One..big.. GRRRRR!

I usually don't care for overly serious military games, especially WW2, but go figure... I thought the demo was awesome.

I'm almost tempted to pick it up. Almost.

I'm in the same boat as Green. On the one hand, it's an intense experience you can't get in any other game. On the other... it's ANOTHER WWII game, an experience you can get in about half the FPSs out there.

Meh, I had fun with the demo. I never played multiplayer in the original CoD, so that doesn't concern me too much. I'll probably pick it up for the 360.

edit: just read the review, and it seems like the guy's big objection is the new health system. In their score breakdown thingy everything got a 9.0 except gameplay, which got an 8.5 due to his dislike of the "regenerating" health. I rather liked the new system in the demo...okay, it's unrealistic, but not any more so than scrounging for health packs that magically and instananeously repair your most greivous injuries.

I think I'd prefer to worry about keeping a medic alive through the missions that could heal you. That'd be vaguely realistic. The medic gets shot, you better not! Things that rhyme are true.

I'm curous as to what was the first shooter with a regenerating health/shield system? Surely there was something before Halo, eh?

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I think I'd prefer to worry about keeping a medic alive through the missions that could heal you. That'd be vaguely realistic. The medic gets shot, you better not! Things that rhyme are true.

MoH: Pacific Assault had that, and it was okay. Was it somewhat more realistic? I guess. Was it more fun than the CoD2 system? No. It was actually kind of a pain in the ass, because you had to rely on the often sketchy AI of an NPC medic.

"Johnny, I could use some help over here!"
"I would totally patch you up, but I'm stuck running as fast I can around this f*cking board!"

I dunno, I can see the benefit of either approach, but I thought the system in CoD2 demo was fun, and I'll take fun over realistic any day.

Mayfield, those modes you asked about WERE part of the expansion not the original COD.

I'll have this game today sometime....

And gamespot.com's review is equally lowballing it at 8.8, in my opinion. Even though the footage that is played through the review is nothing short of awesome. Watch it and weep.

I think this has mainly to do with the overal glut of WWII shooters to date which is making it harder and harder for any new game to excel. CoD2 does excel just like that, however.

karmajay wrote:

Mayfield, those modes you asked about WERE part of the expansion not the original COD.

Yup, and the lack of them is what I was whining about. Why not keep them in other that to get people to buy an expansion? This is basically a remake of the original CoD with different controls and better graphics to me. I believe you are supposed to *add* something to the genre when making a sequel, not just make a money grab.

Please tell me what they added because I see nothing but things taken away.

From Tom Chick's review at Yahoo:

And this is the crux of what makes Call of Duty 2 work. When something is this well done, just because you've seen it all before doesn't mean it's not worth seeing again.

Over at his forum he has this to say:

I haven't really played Quake 4, but I certainly prefer Call of Duty 2 over both F.E.A.R. and Serious Sam II. It's much more consistently creative, engaging, and impressive. It's easily the best single player shooter for the PC this holiday season.

Just bought 2 copies for myself and the wife. 6 CD's! Installing now.

I would also say that a game that is 2 years old and has such huge amounts of players STILL PLAYING that the new single player game and updated graphics and maps for MP is well worth it.

"One example is the healthmeter in this game - there isn't one!"
Now that's interesting. But I feel kinda dirty to want to get this game. "WWII games are overrated and overplayed! Woo, no healthmeter!" Yoink*

I kinda couldn't figure out this no-healthmeter in demo at first. And re-healing. There's something Zerg about it.

I personally think the regenerating health system that halo made popular is one of the best things to happen to the genre in years. Realistic or not, bring it on!

I personally think the regenerating health system that halo made popular is one of the best thing to happen to the genre in years. Realistic or not, bring it on!

It's fun in the right circumstances, namely "arcadey" shooters. I hope it doesn't become commonplace, though. There is a certain level of danger and excitement you feel when you're running low on health with no way to heal yourself that drastically changes the way you play a game.

LockAndLoad wrote:
I personally think the regenerating health system that halo made popular is one of the best thing to happen to the genre in years. Realistic or not, bring it on!

It's fun in the right circumstances, namely "arcadey" shooters. I hope it doesn't become commonplace, though. There is a certain level of danger and excitement you feel when you're running low on health with no way to heal yourself that drastically changes the way you play a game.

Conversely, when the developers know that the player can enter each situation with full health it opens up the ability to make each firefight a real epic and challenging experience, no need for smaller areas with little filler guys to kill.

Damnit! Okay, so I didn't want to shell out $10 extra for a DVD special edition. I bought the 6 CD version at Best Buy...got it home...opened it up...and they've packaged the frickin' special edition DVD with all the extra content in my CD version. So, that mean's they're asking me to pay $10 just to get the software on DVD.

Why, oh why, can't they just put software like this, which would be a dog on older computers, out on DVD?? Edit: without charging me more money!

MP is really fun. I mean really. I own with the trenchgun (shoygun).

Heath regen is nice and does not detract from the gameplay.

Seems like there are some changes to the normal gametypes. For instance in HQ, once the HQ is set, the defending team doesn't respawn until the team is dead or the radio is destroyed. This does make the game less lopsided if one team is stacked.

firesloth wrote:

Damnit! Okay, so I didn't want to shell out $10 extra for a DVD special edition. I bought the 6 CD version at Best Buy...got it home...opened it up...and they've packaged the frickin' special edition DVD with all the extra content in my CD version. So, that mean's they're asking me to pay $10 just to get the software on DVD.

Why, oh why, can't they just put software like this, which would be a dog on older computers, out on DVD?? Edit: without charging me more money!

Wait a second here.. while I understand the "Why is a DVD ten dollars more?" thing, shouldn't you be happy? Didn't you get the DVD version for the CD price?

Thin_J wrote:
firesloth wrote:

Damnit! Okay, so I didn't want to shell out $10 extra for a DVD special edition. I bought the 6 CD version at Best Buy...got it home...opened it up...and they've packaged the frickin' special edition DVD with all the extra content in my CD version. So, that mean's they're asking me to pay $10 just to get the software on DVD.

Why, oh why, can't they just put software like this, which would be a dog on older computers, out on DVD?? Edit: without charging me more money!

Wait a second here.. while I understand the "Why is a DVD ten dollars more?" thing, shouldn't you be happy? Didn't you get the DVD version for the CD price?

The DVD special edition came with 2 DVDs. The game and the DVD special features. I think he meant that the CD version ships with the special features DVD. So the true extra $10 for the DVD version is just the DVD version of the game, since both formats have the special features DVD included.
I shelled out the extra 10 for the DVD version. I'll probably never even watch the special features, I just prefer having the game install from a single DVD.

Bean is correct here - the CD version comes with the DVD special features, which I'll never watch.

I could understand them charging me $10 for a special features DVD.

I played the Demo version on the 360, looked pretty. I was totally pissed about a lot of other things though. Your guy has a Spidey sense for grenades (which suck BTW, you have to be practically on top of it to get hurt), has the Halo style 2 weapon that he swaps around. The enemy AI had horrendous aim (I was 15ft away in a doorway (the only access to that area) and he was prone with a freaking LMG, and missed me!), and you could crouch behind something and go from being nearly dead to perfectly fine again in a few seconds.
8.5/8.8 sounds about right, it was fun, but not really hard; it looked pretty but personally I expect more from a shooter.

firesloth wrote:

Bean is correct here - the CD version comes with the DVD special features, which I'll never watch.

I could understand them charging me $10 for a special features DVD.

Ok, now it makes sense.

I thought you got the DVD version of the game. Yeah, that's pretty silly.

Ok, I bought this yesterday even though I had reservations about it. I figured I played the first one for the past two years I owed the company some money :). So I played the single player for about a half hour, then went straight for multiplayer. I am so-so about that game.

#1. It feels like MoH now. You can lean while moving, no cooking of nades, and they added the shotgun. So the 2 hours I played last night feel more "run and gun" than CoD did. The 3 servers I visited confirmed this, with smg's and shotties abounding. If you like that style of WWII shooter then all the power to you, but that does not make me happy as I hated MoH.

#2. Rifles are less dominating. in CoD you could do very well with a regular rifle and a pistol. Here your pistol is much more difficult to hit with, and the rifle takes some getting used to as you have to lead alot more and it is not very accurate at long ranges.

#3. The maps are great. Even the revamped oldies are well done. I played Brecourt, Dawnville, and Carentan last night and they all felt like they added something to the maps while keeping the same "spirit" of gameplay in them. Plus they feel much larger because you can't run anymore.

#4. Saw 2 people with aimbots, already. One guy who knew exactly where you were, even behind buildings, so he had skins. Hackers hate Killcam as I call them on it in game and for some reason they leave. Hopefully this game gets punkbuster quick because it could degrade real fast.

#5. The hardware requirements for multiplayer is *much* lower than the single player. It must be the scripting and added effects in SP, because I was barely able to play 800x600 with 2xAA (GF 6800 NU). In MP I was able to bump up to 1028x768 4xAA.

I don't know what to do with it right now. I might be trying to return it and exchange for Civ IV at this point. Maybe we shall see after one weekend with it.

Going to pro-cure it on a lunch break.

Are CoD2 GWJ Thursday Nites a possibility?

Are CoD2 GWJ Thursday Nites a possibility

I doubt it. COD has never had a big GWJ following.

I believe that's because games without so-called "shanking" were considered not manly enough.

Visited BestBuy and got my copy. What a cruel plot -- to package a DVD version in a $59 Collector's Edition only.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

I believe that's because games without so-called "shanking" were considered not manly enough.

Visited BestBuy and got my copy. What a cruel plot -- to package a DVD version in a $59 Collector's Edition only.

Its because the DVD costs them $10 more to make than 6 CD's...