Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

StolenName — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:32:12 GMT

When you're asked constantly to grab the Javelin and you mentioned you're picking off the snipers, did you notice how they keep coming back and you eventually have to just give up, run through the gun fire and grab the damn gun? When I played, at first it pissed me off that the enemy just kept respawning, "GOD I just want to move on! Why do they keep coming back?" Then, it dawned on me, the only way to make ground is to make gallant attempts at PUSHING into the enemy attack. I didn't appreciate this feeling until I eventually picked up my 5.1 surround system which REALLY made me feel like I was under fire.

THEN, you're sitting calmly in a gunship. Exchanging chatter with the pilot while raining fire from the skies and watching your men on the ground, HEARING their desperation, when all you're doing is peering down a scope out of harms way.

The multiplayer has the same intensity as the single player. You REALLY feel like you're being overwhelmed when the helicopter starts blasting away team mates and the airstrikes hiss and boom blankets the skies and echoes down the streets. It's claustrophobic and really forces you to think out of the box.

I don't have a game of the year and I'm not sure COD4 would be it but be damned if I don't come back to it night after night.

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

joeboy101 — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:50:12 GMT

CoD4 deserves Game of the Year over Halo 3 and other games for so many reasons. And one of them, which I am sure Rolf will find out soon enough about, is the absolutely awe-inspiring multiplayer. Multiplayer that not only awards twitch play, but players who think out their strategy, work in teams, flank, choose their roles well, and so forth. Much more deeper with unlockable weapons, mods, and skills.

For me though the single player was good, much more character driven and engrossing that Halo's, but there is one point in the game, about 1/3 of the way through that change how I felt about the game entirely. And I'm sure if you have played the single player campaign, you know what I'm going to say.

**SPOILER WARNING**

That moment is when the nuclear device is detonated killing tens of thousands of civilians and US Armed Forces, including Sgt. Jackson, the US Marine you have been playing. What's worse is the unspoken irony that the reason you didn't make it completely out of the blast radius is because your chopper stayed behind to save a wounded pilot from their crashed chopper. That act of mercy ended up killing yourself and your squadmates. And as intense as the explosion scene is, the following short segment where you wake up in the chopper wreckage, dying, getting outside to see the utter death and devasation before collapsing.

That's not just playing the game there. That is a development crew trying to get a player more emotionally invested in a game than they have been before, and the scene works brilliantly. Or at least it did in my case as it got me REALLY fired up to take down the group responsible. This sort of playable cutscene, which is also used in the first scene of the game after training, The Coup, gives a player a whole other type of perspective. And in this game, it isn't pretty at all.

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

BaddMutha — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:03:18 GMT

@Joeboy101 - Being relatively new to the CoD franchise, I was unaware of Infinity Ward's storytelling abilities. Therefore I had no compunction with sitting in the living room while my roommate was experiencing the spoiler moment you described. Even witnessing it with no context (as I had yet to play the game), it ruined the moment for me when I finally got there myself, knowing what was going to happen. I missed out on the overwhelming emotional impact of the scene by being naive.

Dammit.

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

joeboy101 — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:59:16 GMT

@BaddMutha,

Oddly enough, your in luck. More develoeprs, it seems, are using the gameplay engine for thematic sequences without taking the player out of their perspective. For example, though a mediocre game, The Darkness had a very cool scene relatively near the beginning where you visit your girlfriend, talk with her, sit down with her on the couch and watch 'To Kill a Mockingbird' together. You don't have to watch the whole thing, but kudos to the developer for actually having the entire movie for watching.

No combat, no danger, no frantic rush or strategy even needed. Simply an interactive plot point used to develop characters. The result? When your girlfriend is placed in danger later, its not just 'your girlfriend'. You have a context to place the situation in and that ends up internalizing the emotions involved to a much better degree. It keeps the player engrossed in the game while advancing the plot in a very personal nature.

This has been seen in RPGs for a while now due to their heavy plot nature and need to advance storylines irrespective of combat happening. First person shooters though are only coming around, but the affect it can have in the game, especially when done well, is very striking. Infinity took it to the next level in CoD 4 by using innovative ways to advance the plot, but while keeping the game moving. The AC-130 and Ghillie Suit missions are prime examples of where the player's perspective is shifted to view the plot from other angles and characters. Movies do this too, but when married to an interactive nature, scenes like the opening coup make a far greater impact than just reading a background and set of mission objectives.

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

BaddMutha — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:42:59 GMT

@Joeboy101

I agree with your points. Interactivity during what may have otherwise been a cutscene is a tactic I hope more and more developers embrace. One of the best examples that comes to my mind is the Half-Life series. The player never leaves Dr. Freeman's perspective; not to deliver a cutscene or relay story bits. It results in total immersion in the game world, and they perform the feat very successfully. It is up to the player to determine how involved they get with the story. Those who care can examine the extremely detailed environment for story clues (i.e. newspaper clippings, the ramblings of passersby, television stations), and those who simply want to experience the shooter aspect of the game can do just that. It demonstrates excellent game design by a very skilled design team.

As someone from Bungie (in some long-deleted ViDoc) said, would you rather watch some awesome event happen or take part in it? Half-Life and CoD both allow the player to experience story points while still completely immersing the player in the world and the character. We're seeing what will hopefully become a widespread and effective gameplay mechanic in its infancy today.

re: Our Xbox 360 Correspondent Selects His Game of the Year--And In a Shocker, It's Not Halo 3

Webnet — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:51:24 GMT

@BaddMutha and Joeboy101

Rather than give you the direct nitty gritty of the story I consider it more engrossing to give hints at what is happening. Playing through Gears of War and learning about small bits and pieces of the the past and looking at the environment's decay builds a sort of cinematic feeling. In the Matrix 1 you know what happened and why it happened but you don't know about all the things that are happening. In Gears of War your in hell and you learn about how you got there by the dialog, not a lazy cutscene that explain all the mysteries. Whether Epic was able to fully accomplish that is up you.

With Call of Duty everything is explained in the game engine and left me quite interested in the world. I became engrossed with characters like Griggs, Gaz, and Captain Prince early on and I feel like Infinity Ward did a great job with that aspect. They explain the backstory extremely well by letting you play through it, which is why I wish quick time sequences and too action packed cutscences should die. I love watching a great video as much as the next guy but I want to play a lot more than watch. Call of Duty did a great job at this and other developers should take notice.

After saying all this I have to say that Half Life 2, Episode 1, and Episode 2 are my games of the year. I want a game that makes you care about the characters by developing them throughout the story. - SPOILERS - When Eli died I felt like I lost someone I had known. When Alyx was injured I felt I had to save her because I didn't want to see her die. There were so many moments in Half Life that showed amazing game development.

Call of Duty is fun and I still log on to own people on Xbox Live. I loved the story and all the different sequences it threw me into. But the best experience I have had all year has to be playing through Half Life 2 (EP 1 + 2). The way they told the story was amazing. I want to learn about the universe and the characters, I am even going to go back and play Half Life 1 because I can't get enough of Gordan Freeman.