Support NeoGAF

[NinjaBoiX]

Say what you like about the Call Of Duty franchise - played out, creatively bankrupt, has a stranglehold on the genre - all valid criticisms, those core mechanics are polished to a fine sheen at this point. In my opinion they’ve been at the top of their game in terms of how the game feels to play on a fundamental level since CoD 4, and they’ve simply been honing with each release.

I’m playing Modern Warfare 2 (2022) at the minute and god damn, I can’t think of many games in any genre that have perfected the controls to such an extent, it’s simply glorious to interact with. There’s nothing about that controls that feels poorly tuned or awkwardly placed to me, it’s FPS perfection (again, saying nothing about the content of the games if you know what I mean), and with the money and manpower at their disposal I really can’t see it being bettered.

Thoughts?

 

[AJUMP23]

Nothing is unassailable. Someone will come up with something that has a core mechanic the people love and eventually overtake the leader at some point. In 1990 people would say Nintendo was unbeatable but then came Sega and did things to change the game. Nothing is forever.

 

[gothmog]

Unassailable? No. They have a feel that many games try to emulate. Destiny also has a similar thing where no matter how shitty the content is the mechanics are always chef's kiss level of satisfying.

I would argue that's why it is difficult to emulate or beat. It's not that it does anything special but it in and of itself it is special. When I want to play COD I just want to play COD and nothing else is going to replace that and satisfy.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Nothing is unassailable. Someone will come up with something that has a core mechanic the people love and eventually overtake the leader at some point. In 1990 people would say Nintendo was unbeatable but then came Sega and did things to change the game. Nothing is forever.

Fair point, but given how little room there is for creative freedom in terms of how an FPS controls, how long they’ve been iterating, and how much money the publisher has to keep them leading the pack, I can’t really see anyone bettering them at this point.

You make a good point about Sonic and Mario, but in the realms of fantastical platform games developers are limited only by their imagination and creativity. FPS games are a lot more stifled in terms of that freedom, they don’t have a lot of creative wiggle room other than honing the act of moving around an environment shooting things.

 

[AJUMP23]

Fair point, but given how little room there is for creative freedom in terms of how an FPS controls, how long they’ve been iterating, and how much money the publisher has to keep them leading the pack, I can’t really see anyone bettering them at this point.

You make a good point about Sonic and Mario, but in the realms of fantastical platform games developers are limited only by their imagination and creativity. FPS games are a lot more stifled in terms of that freedom, they don’t have a lot of creative wiggle room other than honing the act of moving around an environment shooting things.

We need a third thumbstick.

 

[gothmog]

We need a third thumbstick.

Foot controllers or bust.

 

[NickFire]

It is second to none in the fast paced FPS category (mechanically). But I think theres a chance someone can top it. Wont be easy, but starting from a current gen only design wouldn’t hurt.

 

[Gojiira]

Say what you like about the Call Of Duty franchise - played out, creatively bankrupt, has a stranglehold on the genre - all valid criticisms, those core mechanics are polished to a fine sheen at this point. In my opinion they’ve been at the top of their game in terms of how the game feels to play on a fundamental level since CoD 4, and they’ve simply been honing with each release.

I’m playing Modern Warfare 2 (2022) at the minute and god damn, I can’t think of many games in any genre that have perfected the controls to such an extent, it’s simply glorious to interact with. There’s nothing about that controls that feels poorly tuned or awkwardly placed to me, it’s FPS perfection (again, saying nothing about the content of the games if you know what I mean), and with the money and manpower at their disposal I really can’t see it being bettered.

Thoughts?

When nothing changes, its pretty easy to remain as polished. Now again Im not saying they aren’t well made etc but CoD really is the definition of lowest common denominator, there’s no innovation, no real advancement in any aspect.
But beyond that, CoD isnt even the best shooter on the market, in terms of mechanics/fun/playability/responsivenes or whatever metric you choose to use, Destiny 2 is the best on the market. Bungie does have years more experience and it shows.

 

[Hunnybun]

Given the scope of the games, maybe they've perfected something. But someone, probably by using new tech, will expand the scope and change the genre, and if COD can't respond quickly enough then it'll be in trouble.

I don't play multiplayer stuff but isn't that essentially what happened with PUBG and Fortnite? CoD responded quickly but I don't think that's always guaranteed to be the case.

 

[killatopak]

I thought it was easy?

 

[NinjaBoiX]

We need a third thumbstick.

Foot controllers or bust.

Joking aside, I think a VR shooter has a chance of beating CoD in terms of core mechanics for obvious reasons.

The problem there is that VR may never become truly mainstream, and moreover even if/when it does, will any developer that steps into that space ever have the time, money and manpower to get to the level that CoD’s devs have been afforded?

 

[gothmog]

Joking aside, I think a VR shooter has a chance of beating CoD in terms of core mechanics for obvious reasons.

The problem there is that VR may never become truly mainstream, and moreover even if/when it does, will any developer that steps into that space ever have the time, money and manpower to get to the level that CoD’s devs have been afforded?

I love VR shooter mechanics. They do get old after a bit having to manually reload your weapon. It's one of those real world is not as fun as having movie mechanics with unlimited bullets and massively oversized clips.

 

[AJUMP23]

Joking aside, I think a VR shooter has a chance of beating CoD in terms of core mechanics for obvious reasons.

The problem there is that VR may never become truly mainstream, and moreover even if/when it does, will any developer that steps into that space ever have the time, money and manpower to get to the level that CoD’s devs have been afforded?

No way VR competes on that level.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Lol DOOM(or any other arena shooter) eclipses COD to Venus and back in terms of gameplay design.

 

[Black_Stride]

TitanFall.....by proxy Apex Legends.

Legit if TitanFall 3 launched today with a full campaign all the weapons, attachments and perks (instead of locked in heros you pick your perks) from Apex Legends for the multiplayer I could easily see it holding the top spots consistently.

Have some objective pilots only playlists for the titan playlist dont use preset titans.
Keep the AI soldiers populating the map for the less skilled among us.

TitanFall 1 multiplayer was better than TitanFall 2 in my opinion, but It launched at the wrong time on the wrong console and with no traditional campaign to even get enough people interested.

If TitanFall 3 launches today and with the popularity of Apex Legends bolstering its hype levels I say it sells.......part 1 and 2 had better mechanics and was a tighter experience than COD in my eyes.
It felt like what COD should have evolved into.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

So the poll is skewing more towards “no” at this point, after an early lead on “yes”,

But those voting no, what game do you think currently has better mechanics?

Lol DOOM(or any other arena shooter) eclipses COD to Venus and back in terms of gameplay design.

I’d argue that outside of military sims, Doom (specifically 2016, I didn’t like Eternal) is a good shout, so buttery smooth to play!

Rage 1 is a solid shout too, and definitely Destiny.

 

[NightmareFarm]

So the poll is skewing more towards “no” at this point, after an early lead on “yes”,

But those voting no, what game do you think currently has better mechanics?

I’d argue that outside of military sims, Doom (specifically 2016, I didn’t like Eternal) is a good shout, so buttery smooth to play!

Rage 1 is a solid shout too, and definitely Destiny.

Shadow Warrior 3, Splitgate, Prodeus, etc.

Realism holds games like COD and Battlefield back in terms of game design.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Yes, the shooting mechanics and overall feel of the guns is incredible. The sound, the animations, the punchy feedback that you get from every shot... I wish more games had gunplay like the Call of Duty games.

 

[Shifty1897]

20 years spent with a basically unlimited budget mastering the art of a first person shooter. I'd love to see the source code for something as simple as their aim down sight mechanic.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I am getting interested in buying the game.

I have hated COD with passion due to yearly releases since PS3 era. But I guess it's worthless. Might as well just play it.

 

[HTK]

Everything in CoD is generally top TIER except few design choices which could be remedies but aren't because you have to aid Lil Jimmy No Hands as much as you can.

Personally, I think CoD is hurting itself by being too casual, and only catering to the lowest common denominator type player. That's why it always dies down rather quickly over time.

 

[jufonuk]

Core mechanics wise street fighter 2 helped to create them and Everything onwards have be refining them.


Other games. Tetris perfected it out the bat and so did super Mario 3 and world.

Super Metroid also
BotW

To name a few

 

[Hunnybun]

I love VR shooter mechanics. They do get old after a bit having to manually reload your weapon. It's one of those real world is not as fun as having movie mechanics with unlimited bullets and massively oversized clips.

The problem is that that's not the 'fun' part of gunfights and war (of course, none of it is REALLY 'fun', but anyway). The fun part is the danger, the destruction, the action and chaos. VR games should concentrate on trying to recreate those things.

Even if you could somehow have a perfect recreation of war but with none of the consequences, the reloading etc would still be nothing more than a chore.

 

[Represent.]

Best FPS mechanic by far. Not even close. No other FPS feels as good to play.

 

[ChoosableOne]

I prefer Call of Duty for its high player count/quick matchmaking, short rounds and enjoyable online modes. There are many better games than COD(like CS:GO, Insurgency, some BF games, Rainbow Six, Hell Let Loose etc) but they either take too long to play or take too much time to get good at it. Otherwise, why would I play a game that uses the same mechanics for years where all weapons have the same recoil?

 

[manfestival]

As far as actual game play mechanics I think MW2 is a step back from MW19. However, the game does feel great otherwise.

Now on the other hand. MW2 has some QoL things, features, and etc that let the game also shine. The Gunsmith(not a fan of the methodology to get things) and firing range are really fantastic. The options within the game seem to be abundant as far as modes go. Then there are the raids(not sure if this is more warzone now but it comes with the base game so meh) and those are really nice. Also initially I thought the battlepass system was really meh but it grew on me and I ended up liking it over other implementations. I do think Fortnite is still king.

 

[01011001]

nope, and it hasn't been for a long time.

hell, with Modern Warfare 2 they actually somehow managed to make the aiming worse on controller than in any other CoD title before, which is mainly due to aim acceleration that is extremely noticeable and not adjustable.

Titanfall took over the crown back in 2014, and since then Titanfall 2 further improved from there, with Apex Legends taking these improvements to a more grounded shooter.

I mean, the simple act of sliding feels so much worse in CoD than in even Halo Infinite, let alone Titanfall and Apex.

and Apex has way better and more controller aiming settings... even Battlefield these days has better options than CoD

 

[rodrigolfp]

Like the pathetic semi aimbot? Sure.

 

[BadBurger]

I have a slightly different answer: I think their games are tuned in a way to appeal to the broadest possible audience and it would be easy to emulate, but for some reason every competitor that enters the space decides not to ape them.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I have a slightly different answer: I think their games are tuned in a way to appeal to the broadest possible audience and it would be easy to emulate, but for some reason every competitor that enters the space decides not to ape them.

That’s just the thing though, it clearly isn’t that easy to emulate, otherwise competitors would simply ape them. I think it’s one of those situations where when things just WORK, it’s easy to take it for granted. But it’s clearly incredibly difficult to make things feel so perfectly tuned, others have tried and failed to varying extents.

20 years spent with a basically unlimited budget mastering the art of a first person shooter. I'd love to see the source code for something as simple as their aim down sight mechanic.

This is what I’m getting at in a nutshell, I bet they have entire teams dedicated to the weight feel and timing window of ADS for the weapons alone so that a heavy LMG feels suitably cumbersome to aim as opposed to a light and nimble MP5 for example.

 

[Mossybrew]

Yes, the shooting mechanics and overall feel of the guns is incredible. The sound, the animations, the punchy feedback that you get from every shot... I wish more games had gunplay like the Call of Duty games.

Yup, pretty much the gold standard for the pure enjoyment of shooting a gun in a game.

 

[The_Mike]

Given they keep doing these games annually then yes, the core gameplay in unmatched by anything on the market.

 

[RyRy93]

Does the series have proper manual leaning like Siege yet?

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Given they keep doing these games annually then yes, the core gameplay in unmatched by anything on the market.

This is pretty much my point, yeah.

And it’s not even as if they’re in that sports game trap where you can’t just update the teams and be done with it. New guns and maps is plenty for most to but the new CoD, but people expect sports games to feel different year on year to justify the purchase. Which must suck for the devs who might feel like they’ve nailed it on a particular yearly release, only to fix what wasn’t broken just to “sell” the game.

Does the series have proper manual leaning like Siege yet?

No, but it seems like it would be easy to implement. Just map it to the left stick while mounted I guess?

Maybe next year, $70 add-on,

 

[nikos]

The game's core mechanics are what makes it horrible.

Aim assist alone was enough for me to finally uninstall it forever. Watch those rotation aim assist videos. As a mouse player I want to play against people, not assists.
Audio is complete shit. Especially footstep audio which is probably the most important cue for survival, especially in Warzone.
Weapons are constantly not balanced. Every update brings a weapon that's broken so you can pay for blueprints/skins for it, then it's nerfed just as the next broken weapon is released.
Bullshit mechanics made to assist players that aren't as good, such as Ghost perk, Heartbeat Sensor, Dead Silence, Bomb Drones.

The list goes on. I was never able to get into it until Warzone, then it pretty much became my main game until recently. I guess it has always been a console/controller game, so I can't hold any of its bullshit against it. I'd just rather play games that reward skill and having half a brain.

 

[Black_Stride]

Best FPS mechanic by far. Not even close. No other FPS feels as good to play.

Doom, TitanFall, Siege, FEAR......no FPS comes even close?
Is COD the only FPS you play?

 

[rodrigolfp]

I guess it has always been a console/controller game

Well, no if we remove every assist like in older CoDs without crossplay.

 

[nikos]

Well, no if we remove every assist like in older CoDs without crossplay.

If the game had input based matchmaking, I'd give it another chance.

 

[rodrigolfp]

If the game had input based matchmaking, I'd give it another chance.

I still play CoD4 and BO2 some times.

 

[Puscifer]

Unassailable? No. They have a feel that many games try to emulate. Destiny also has a similar thing where no matter how shitty the content is the mechanics are always chef's kiss level of satisfying.

I would argue that's why it is difficult to emulate or beat. It's not that it does anything special but it in and of itself it is special. When I want to play COD I just want to play COD and nothing else is going to replace that and satisfy.

Pretty much why I started playing again, I definitely skip some years but I have to say ghost alienated me for nearly the entire generation but the BLOPS 4 beta feeling like overwatch with real guns and that dragged me back in kicking and screaming.

They removed so much annoyance and fine tuned everything to the point I went from cringing at the idea of another COD to welcoming it. Speaking of, I'm waiting between may or June because that's when we usually see news!

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Doom, TitanFall, Siege, FEAR......no FPS comes even close?
Is COD the only FPS you play?

I’ll give you Doom, and particularly Titanfall, both games are fantastic to play.

Not so sure about Siege (the core mechanics aren’t THAT tight, it’s more the tactical gameplay that surrounds it), or FEAR (which is more about the cleverly coded AI and slow-mo, I’d argue the core mechanics are actually pretty poor which can be excused given it’s age).

 

[LostDonkey]

No. I prefer Battlefield.

Cod is good, but it's a very twitchy quickscope fest whereas Battlefield is more calculated and tactical. To me at least.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Hands down, best gamepad layout for shooters. And just about every other shooter copied them.

Back during the 360 era when shitloads of shooters came out all aiming for FPS sales, every game pushed their weird controls and illogical layouts. Now, every shooter's core button layout seems like COD. Only difference are some things may be mapped differently to the d-pad or a face button not used a lot.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

I don't even think it has the best mechanics...

what it has though is mindshare. Once a game has that `it` factor, where the average Joe just looks at it as the defacto game in a specific genre,it becomes really hard to beat.

 

[Jigsaah]

Apex Legends. Behold the wisdom of the this man.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

No. I prefer Battlefield.

Cod is good, but it's a very twitchy quickscope fest whereas Battlefield is more calculated and tactical. To me at least.

In Battlefield’s heyday I’d agree with you, Bad Company 2 was my go to! You could have a great match purely playing a supporting role, spotting, repairing, reviving, etc. I topped many a scoreboard doing pretty much only this, maybe C4ing a few tanks,

But as much as I enjoy 2042 now it’s been patched to fuck, I feel like modern Battlefield is too hectic, which is where CoD’s strengths lie.

Hands down, best gamepad layout for shooters. And just about every other shooter copied them.

Yup, pioneered so many now obvious control inputs:

Sprint on L3 (some people dislike it, but they’re objectively wrong, it’s the movement stick FFS!), melee on R3 (OK, I’ll agree that’s more controversial but I still think it’s the most logical place for it), mounting on R3 (I won’t hear an argument against this, click the aiming stick to aim better?), they’ve just nailed it.

And then the more seemingly obvious stuff like offensive grenades on the shoulder button near the attack trigger, support grenades near the more passive trigger, etc.