Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. Why I prefer Call of Duty 4 to Halo 3
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Oct 16 2008

   Note – this is an opinion – I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from Halo 3. Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 are both fun games, and I enjoy both of them. In my opinion however, Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer is much stronger and more fun than Halo 3’s.
   
   Here are what I think are the strongest points of CoD4’s multiplayer:
   
   Starting Equipment
   Unlike Halo 3, or most FPS’s for that matter, you have the ability to choose which weapon(s) you start with when you spawn. Better yet, you can switch between up to 5 different custom classes during the game, if the situation requires it. Say you have a submachine gun and are being destroyed from long range. Might as well put that sniper class you made to good use. What if they get a helicopter? Bring in the guy with the RPG to shoot it down.
   
   Leveling and XP
   Whereas Halo 3 uses Exp to determine your skill and match you with other players of similar skill, CoD4 doesn’t. As you gain XP, you gain ranks, but it doesn’t use those ranks to match you with people with similar ranks. Instead, it unlocks new things for you. Initially, you can only start with a few select weapons and perks, but as you level up, you unlock new weapons and perks to take into battle. This can be considered a good or bad thing. On one hand, it gives you an incentive to keep playing multiplayer to unlock all the goodies. On the other, you aren't exactly on a level playing field until you start unlocking better weapons and perks. Once you reach the level cap of 55, you have the option to enter “prestige” mode, which resets you to level 1, locks all the weapons and perks you had unlocked, and lets you grind back up all over again. You can do this up to 10 times, and each time, you get an extra star next to your rank symbol. It seems kind of pointless to put yourself at a disadvantage like that, but I find it strangely satisfying to see a “+10” pop up on screen from killing an enemy, or to see the “You’ve been promoted!” alert when you reach the XP requirement for the next level.
   
   Overall atmosphere
   The feelings I experience while playing Call of Duty 4 is something that just isn’t matched by any other shooter on the 360. Unlike Halo 3, there is a lot of narration that describes what is going on in battle. You are alerted by a voice queue whenever the enemy gets a UAV (reveals enemy positions on the map) up, launches an air strike, or calls in a helicopter. This can be extremely helpful from a tactical standpoint, and the voices that call these things out are done very well. There is a sense of urgency in these voices, and it doesn’t get annoying. Likewise, these vocal queues will also tell you when your team gets the UAV, air strikes, or helicopter.
   
   Speaking of these three bonuses, you may ask how you get these if you’ve never played the game. You get the UAV for going a 3-kill streak, the air strike comes at 5 kills, and the helicopter at 7. That’s another thing I like, is getting rewarded for doing well. Sometimes though, it becomes absolute hilarity. Sometimes, you’ll get paired off against people that aren’t too good at the game, and have a bunch of guys on your team with air strikes and helicopters at the ready. It makes the game completely unbalanced on occasion. Also, this can happen against you, which is incredibly frustrating, and is a perfect epitome of futility.
   
   Call of Duty 4 is not perfect, however. For one, sometimes it seems to make enemies invincible for no reason at all. I emptied 10 rounds from my gun into a guy yesterday, and he turns around and kills me with his pistol. Naturally, that’s pretty irritating. It’s possible that lag was to blame, but it certainly wasn’t me. These questionable kills are annoying, but it is just a game.
   
   Also, you can’t take guests online. This isn’t a big deal for people like me, who have relatively few friends with the game. If they play, they’re at their place anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I can’t have them join as a guest. Still, there are other people that have friends over to game with, and they’re the ones that could use the guest feature. Sure, you can pass the controller from person to person, but it’s much more fun to get everyone involved at the same time.
   
   Quite possibly the worst thing about CoD4 multiplayer is when you try to set up a LAN for it. When system linking, you can’t have more than one person per system. Halo 3 definitely wins this category. With Halo, you can have up to 16 players on 4 systems and 4 TV’s. With Call of Duty, you’d need 16 systems, 16 copies of the game and 16 TV’s. Needless to say, that is utterly ridiculous. I found myself at a LAN party with a few friends, and a bunch of other people in June, and Call of Duty would have been damn awesome to play in a big group like that. Why they didn’t have Halo-esque LAN options is beyond me. You can have 4-way split screen, but why can’t you system link it? It doesn’t make sense to leave that feature out of the game! To quote AVGN, “What were they THINKING?”
   
   In conclusion, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 are both fun games, but I think there is just more incentive to play Call of Duty.

   
   

   ---

   Send To A Friend

Dynafire has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Oct 16 2008

   Great chronicle Dynafire! I agree with a lot of what you've said here.
   
   The local multiplayer element is the biggest downside to CoD4, especially because we develop tournaments and a CoD4 is practically impossible to support a big turn out with. It's also a drag if you have friends over and you're forced to watch others play, versus bringing in the guest element and letting them play some social matches. I have to wonder if the new CoD will have this addressed!
   
   I also think the parties in CoD4 are less friendly and talkative than in Halo 3. When I'm on the microphone, I like to talk (not to mention share GoG), so Halo 3 has more marketing and networking value I've found...not to say that I haven't connected with CoD4 players though
   
   Overall, I think these games are too different to say one is better than another. Both are awesome games and demand some serious respect in the current FPS world. Thanks again for your informational and in-depth thoughts on these two super-popular titles!