Call of Duty and Me

I haven’t been a fan of the Call of Duty series for a very long time. It was just never a series that drew me in. A big part of that may have been the sheer multitude of WW2 games that were flooding the market. In years past, I have been a big fan of the Halo series. Not because I contend it’s an ultimate implementation of the fps genre or anything, but just because I found it very fun. I like the aspects of shields and that ability to regenerate (given enough time). And when I wanted a more realistic experience, I tended to turn to my PC and play a mod of Half-Life (Firearms being the one I played most frequently).

When my cousin got into Call of Duty, I got a chance to play the games without having to buy or rent the game which was a big positive. I played a little co-op story (I love co-op games) with him in Modern Warfare and World at War. I could see how the series became so popular but it still didn’t quite feel like my kind of game. But over this past summer that all came to a very abrupt change! My cousin had finished the campaign and been playing the zombie game at the end of World at War. He thought I’d like it, and when we got together for him to show it to me and let me play it, he was absolutely right!

I had borrowed Left 4 Dead from a friend and played it for a couple of months. It re-energized my desire to play games on XBox Live! I throughly enjoyed it. So, I was expecting a similar gameplay experience when I played WaW zombie mode. But to my surprise, it was an experience I enjoyed even more!! The feeling of being more about surviving than progressing through an area a-la L4D, the variety of weapons available and the fun strategy that went into trying to survive as long as possible whether playing single player or 4-player.

So, now I have logged a decent number of hours in CoD. I’ve played some, but not all, of the story of WaW, multiplayer deathmatch and zombie mode. So now, I would definitely consider myself a fan of CoD even though I still feel as if I’m a better player in the Halo universe.

And even with that said, Halo: ODST is “meh” for me. I may end up owning it at some point but I won’t be getting it on day 1 and am not overly excited about it. But Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2… that can’t get released soon enough. I can’t wait!

They even play Call of Duty on The Office (such a brilliant tv show!!).