Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

When I bought my PS3 in April, I still had a bit of a wait for Grand Theft Auto IV to come out, so I asked the guy in the shop what game to buy. His recommendation was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. "It was game of the year, last year," he said. Apparently it was.

The single player mode isn't all that exciting. Interesting, but hardly mind blowing. But the multi-player game is incredible. Lots of strategy, interesting moments, problem solving, and head shots. Lot's of head shots. 2,900 as of this evening in fact.

Of course with any kind of game that involves interacting with others, you get some people who spoil things because of their inherent stupidity. So I decided to make a list of my pet peeves with people in the game. I may add to the list if anything comes to mind.

My favorite online game is the rather basic mercenary deathmatch. Two teams of six just kill each other as much as possible for ten minutes, or 75 kills, whichever comes first.

So here's my list, not exhaustive, and in no particular order:

1. Blocking the way. Please don't stand in a doorway or somewhere else that prevents others from getting past you. It's stupid and just likely to result in you and your team mate getting killed.
2. The noob tube. I saw on a forum that the gun mounted grenade launcher has been dubbed the noob tube by people who have played the game for more than a couple of hours. While it can be a good killing tool now and then, some people seem to spend the whole game using it. The problem with this is you gain no experience with your weapon, thus depriving yourself of bonus XP points and fancy skins for the weapons. Why throw away all those bonus points and weapons upgrades? Makes no sense.
3. Stupid noises. Thankfully, the rating of the game seems to limit the number of kids online talking smack over the microphone. I don't even possess a PS3 mic personally. But I do get to hear people talking shit, singing, playing crappy music, or heavy breathing. It is pretty damn annoying. Although one night I got to hear a woman spend an entire ten minute game berating her husband for wasting his time on the PS3 instead of getting off his ass and doing chores. She was evidently unaware that the rest of his team could hear her rant. It was quite amusing.
4. Disconnecting. This is more of a software issue than a person issue. At the start of the game, a player is randomly chosen to 'host' the game. If this person disconnects, or quits the game, it can end the entire game for all 11 other players. Personally, I think that if people do this a lot they should be excluded from hosting any more.
   

So as you can see, it's a pretty short list. The game is really good. As someone who used to be quite familiar with computer programming (68000 assembler was my language of choice), I can't even imagine what kind of genius it takes to write a 3D engine like this one. And graphically, it is astonishing how much attention to detail was put into the game.

I am grateful to the guy in the store for his recommendation. It is an amazing game, and will probably provide many more hours of fun for me. I'm half way to the coveted gold cross, and have not become bored yet.