Tag: Call of Duty

Call of Duty Vanguard multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 16, 2024

I already wrote about this at least once, but Call of Duty Vanguard take on weapon mods follows Call of Duty Cold War, but in the context of World War 2 it’s even more hilarious.

I did learn a couple of historical facts, though. For example, reflex sights were invented back in 1900. I thought it’s a rather modern invention, because the US army didn’t adopt them until 2000s.
Most people play the Blueprint Gun Game. It’s a deathmatch, but every time you land a kill, you get a new random gun. It’s a fun one, although due to the cosmetics, sometimes it’s hard to understand what you’ve got: is it a machine gun or a sniper rifle?

Tags Call of Duty, Vanguard

PC Gaming

Call of Duty Vanguard

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 27, 2024

Completed Call of Duty Vanguard.
And… we’re back to Stalingrad. And now there are sniper duels. Can’t escape this, I guess. There’s an episode similar to Modern Warfare 2020, when you have to sneak around and stab a boss multiple times before he dies. And also there are hard-to-kill machine wielding brutes that came out of Wolfenstein.

Then we’re in Lybia. There are a few fun guns there: ITRA Burst, NZ-41. Nothing ground-breaking, but again, a nice set of missions. Oh, and you get to play with the Warmachine, but only for a few minutes.

Then there’s the Berlin ’45 episode. I mentioned that I like when Call of Duty games switch characters. But that’s the first time they do it mid-mission, and it’s great, actually.

I won’t lament about the game being “too short”. It’s just long enough for me. What I do like is that unlike Call of Duty Cold War it’s a complete story: you don’t need to play 4 more seasons of multiplayer or buy some comics to see it through.

Tags Call of Duty, Vanguard

PC Gaming

Call of Duty Vanguard

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 26, 2024

Of course there’s Stalingrad. But I’m not complaining. I like the storytelling approach where we switch between characters, instead of having a single character that is a Mary Sue. Stalingrad is alright, no sniper battles at least.

Then there’s Midway. I don’t know why Call of Duty insist on putting planes in those games. It’s not annoying, but also not very fun.

Then we’re in jungles of Papua New Guinea. Wade for some reason has a “slomo”+”see through walls” focus ability, something other characters lack. Since we’re fighting against Japanese, there’s plenty of exotic weapons, like Type 100 SMG and Type 11 LMG, that requires you to aim with your left eye 😬

Tags Call of Duty, Vanguard

PC Gaming

Call of Duty Vanguard

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 24, 2024

With the mounting mechanic, the game feels like Battlefield, may it rest in peace. But I’m not complaining, this makes the campaign far less chaotic. Interesting that you can also mount corners.
The entire game feels like a tribute to Inglorious Bastards, so it’s no wonder that the Nazi villain cosplaying Landa.

From 1945, we jump to 1944, D-Day, but at least not Omaha Beach this time. A paradrop instead. Just a cutscene, really, nothing fancy. We then have a brief stealth episode. Stealth never worked in Call of Duty, because they never bothered with visibility or sound markers or queues. But we’re taught that you can shoot through wooden floors.

The violence is a surprise. A mean, it’s a 2000s level of violence, with heads and arms blown off. I got used to dolls without even bullet holes in them.

Tags Call of Duty, Vanguard

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2023

This weekend Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer was free, so I gave it a try.

It’s like Modern Warfare 2.5. Few of the maps are the same I played last year. And funnily enough, the arsenal I unlocked last year, because there was some double-XP promo in Modern Warfare 2, is still there. So I dominated with the fully upgraded RAAL.

I found that I didn’t enjoy it, though. Felt very mechanical.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 27, 2023

The game does offer some interesting ideas around leveling weapons. Some weapons are unlock by leveling up your character, that hasn’t changes.
But in Cold War, most of the weapons had same set of upgrades which you had to unlock for each. And the way to unlock weapons is that you use weapons from the same category.
In Modern Warfare 2, you unlock weapons by “platform”. AK74 has the same platform as RPK, so you have to level up the former to unlock the later.
Also, leveling up a weapon unlocks attachments that are shared between all weapons. You can add a silencer to your LMG, but only if you unlock it by leveling up a particular sniper rifle.
Most attachments also support tuning, which is a bit mindboggling for me. That means that not only the attachment provides some tradeoffs, like accuracy versus Aim Down Sight speed, but you can also make those tradeoffs more prevalent.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, multiplayer

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare 2 (2022) multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date April 24, 2023

Me before Modern Warfare 2 (2022) free trial:
– Why nobody likes it?
Me after the free trial:
– Oh, OK, now I see…

The most played Cold War mode is Demolition. It’s fun, because it requires some teamwork: one team needs to blow two bombs, another denies them. In Modern Warfare 2… there’s no Demolition.
Instead, everybody plays on a map called Shipment, which is so tiny that your enemies can spawn on top of you. So it’s a constant bloothbath.

The funny part is that since the map is so small and requires no skill, I’m constantly at the top, just firing my LMG in all directions.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, multiplayer

PC Gaming

Cold War multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 28, 2023

I continue to play Cold War multiplayer an hour a day.
Meta is heavily dominated by SMGs. That’s a surprise, I was expecting sniper rifles. SMGs also have the widest variety. There are just 4 LMGs, but 12 SMGs.
With the crazy customization the game provides, you can also make an improvised LMG from a SMG:

Tags Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Cold War multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 16, 2023

Surprisingly, I enjoy Cold War multi-player a lot.
I didn’t enjoy Modern Warfare 2019 multi-player much, though. And I’m not a good player for sure. Not enough reaction, not accurate at all. Not sure if it’s the low skill bar or that most of the people moved to the two newer installations in the series. But I do manage to hit people here and there, and get that gun porn from customizing all the weapons.

Of course everyone looks like a bunch of clowns. That’s GenZ “expressing themselves”.

It gives that feeling of progression, though. After almost every match you get something, be it a new weapon attachment

Tags Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Cold War

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 12, 2023

Completed Cold War.
In Cuba, you’re given the choice of saving just one of your teammates. Why someone would save a bearded Israeli dude instead of a hot British chick is beyond me, though.

The real fun starts on the next mission, though, back in Vietnam. Adler tries to guide your memories. But you can disobey him, so he has to invent different scenarios on the fly. By the end of it, it becomes quite crazy.

The main plot twist is quite similar to Metal Gear Solid 5. Bell is an invented identity, part of the MK Ultra program. In reality, he was one of the high ranking terrorists, that got shot during the airport ambush. Later, Adler implants some of his memories and a keyphrase (hello, BioShock) in order to create a bond between him and Bell, and to control his actions.

Final mission is a slight disappointment, though. Perseus escapes, and we never even see him. In that term, the ending of Black Ops was much more satisfying.

The game is also very short. Even with collecting all the evidence, solving the puzzles and disobeying Adler in Vietnam on every turn, the campaign ends extremely quickly. Which is a shame, since that’s one of the Call of Duty games I enjoyed the most.

Tags Black Ops, Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Cold War

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 12, 2023

Now there’s a proper stealth system. You can also highlight enemies, pick locks, carry and hide bodies, and use enemies as human shields. This isn’t Hitman or Splinter Cell, of course, but still something.
Disco-arcade episode inside the Soviet base is brilliant. The moment when you go from Soviet brutalism to that neon and disco vibe:

Storywise: US decided to mine all the major European cities with neutron bombs, in case Soviets invade. Now a Soviet agent stole one of those bombs.
Interesting that they tie in Zakaev, the main villain from Modern Warfare.

The game does switch between characters. We play a bit as Mason in Yamantau, and get his signature glitches. Then we play as a KGB mole, Belikov, for a while.

Attachment mechanics in Call of Duty were always a bit wonky. So there’s no surprise that some Soviet soldiers have AK-47 so much customized it becomes RPK-74:

While finding some cool weapons like the Hand Cannon is a lot of fun, it’s also a bit pointless, since you don’t have a loadout before a mission.

Tags Black Ops, Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

Cold War

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 8, 2023

Black Ops is probably my favorite part of Call of Duty series. At least the first two. And Cold War doesn’t disappoint.

It’s 1981, but we deal with an KGB agent that was active since 1943. Must be quite old by now.
Interesting that there are two perks you can choose at the beginning of the campaign. You can also customise your character a bit. Not a fan, I prefer the approach some other Call of Duty games took, where you switch between predefined characters. But whatever.
We go back to 1968, Vietnam, of course. I like how the weapon choice is more subtle: you’re given M16, but if you look around the base, you can find a Stoner 63 and some other arms.

I’m not sure the part where you pilot a helicopter was necessary.

In any case, it gets show down pretty quickly.

Tags Call of Duty, Cold War

PC Gaming

About Call of Duty: Vanguard

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 27, 2022

There was a free multiplayer weekend for Call of Duty: Vanguard. And I was surprised how much I appreciated the craziness of this game.
Customized boring as hell MP40 looks like something from steampunk:

Charlton automatic rifle (NZ-41), a total rarity:

And I have no idea what these supposed to be:

I don’t care. Those are great.

Tags Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Vanguard

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 25, 2022

Completed Modern Warfare (2019).
We manage to kill the Old Terrorist, but the brother-terrorist escapes to St. Petersburg. That’s unexpected.

There is a bunch of “minigames” along the way. One is to cut the wires of the suicide jacket.

Another is to survive Russian torture (nobody told them Russians don’t torture with water).

We meet with Nikolai, another character from the original Modern Warfare. Also, turns out Kyle Garrick is now Gaz. Previous Gaz was I white guy.

That’s also the first mission we actually get to pick our weapons. At least we’re given a choice of three pistols.

Origin shotgun is fun, because it has that distinct handle on the side, and also a suppressor. At the last two missions you are given a lot of cool tools: incediary shotgun, and even minigun. Wish they would give them earlier, though.

Don’t remember when was the last time I was so invested in Call of Duty game. Maybe Black Ops?

We capture Hadir, but almost immediately trade him to the Russians. We then go after general Barkov in his gas-producing plant. Alex decides to “become a hero” and blow the plan himself. Farah manages to kill Barkov.

At the end they mention some old “friends”: “Soap” I remember well, as well as General Shepherd. Had to remind myself who Riley was, though. They also mention Zakaev, so I wonder if we’ll get yet another recreation of the most famous “sniper mission”

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 24, 2022

There’s a mount mechanic, which I remember mostly from the Battlefield series. While in cover, you can stabilize your weapon, especially LMG. And you can also peek around the corners.
It seems they got rid of the endless waves of enemies.

First indication that this is a reboot, and not continuation of another Modern Warfare – Griggs is alive again. Originally, he died in the ending of Call of Duty 4.

We capture leader of the terrorists who hides inside a hospital. Typical. He’s brought to the embassy, but the mob storms it, and manages to free him again.

Sniper mission is super fun. Bullets actually fly in arcs and you also need to take wind into the account. Absolutely solid.

The plot twist is great as well, I haven’t seen that coming. Turns out we were fighting alongside the chemical terrorists all along.

And I was wrong about this being Syria. In the episode in the past the fathers head turban and poppies point to Afghanistan. Even if you ignore the Russian invasion. But then, father gives his children cellphones. So, it’s an interesting amalgam.

Also interesting that as I child, you can’t shoot straight, because the gun is too heavy.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare (2019)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date June 23, 2022

Haven’t played Call of Duty for a few years now, and didn’t feel like I miss much. But decided to give Modern Warfare a try anyway.
For some reason I’m struggling to see enemies in this game. In the first level, there are very bright fires or lights.

Then in the London mission, civilians and terrorists look very much alike. There are no hit indicators, and no crosshair highlighting either. Maybe that’s on purpose, though.

Whole point of London episode, besides re-introducing Price, is to show that Price is willing to sacrifice a single civilian in order to save the others.

There’s no way to compare weapons in-game, it seems, so I tend to stick to the one I am given.

Storywise, US Marines and CIA are trying to capture Russian’s chemical weapon shipment.

But then some version of “ISIS” captures the truck instead, killing most of the marines. Next day, there’s a terror attack in London.

We then join kurds in “Syria”, where Russians are being Russians.

In “Syria” there’s an interesting mechanic to the series where you pick up junk and make silencers out of it. It’s not crafting, but still something I haven’t seen in Call of Duty.
Of course there’s no Modern Warfare without some crawling under a truck or two.

Or lying in the grass without moving.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

За вес долга

Post author By Aleosha
Post date December 19, 2021

Может кто-то пояснить, чем объясняется что Call of Duty весит 180GB?

Мне просто уже сложно понять чего там столько.

Tags Call of Duty

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare Remastered

Post author By Aleosha
Post date April 16, 2021

Прошел Modern Warfare Remastered.
Закаев не оставляет смерть своего сына просто так, и угрожает запустить ядерную ракету. Отправляемся за ним куда-то в Алтайский край. Griggs попадает в плен, но мы его быстренько отбиваем.

Закаев пускает не одну ракету, а сразу две.

Пробиваемся в бункер и отменяем пуск.

На мосту Закаев накрывает наш грузовик с вертолета. В перестрелке гибнет Griggs и Gaz.

Price из последних сил толкает Soap’у пистолет. Убиваем Закаева. Soap’а эвакуируют, Price’а пытаются откачать.

Играется Remaster лучше многих более поздних Call of Duty. Особенно той мути про космос с Джоном Сноу, и хрени с любителем пощупать за булки Кевином Спейси.
Модельки и эффекты подтянули что надо. Стрельба как обычно хреновая, ее нормально сделали только в Black Ops, кажется. Зато не помнил, что тут пули пробивают некоторые поверхности.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare Remastered

Post author By Aleosha
Post date April 14, 2021

Берем генерала в Азербайджане. Тот говорит, что боеголовку не подрывал, а просто выполнял приказ Zakaev’а. Price моментально от него избавляется.

Переносимся на 15 лет назад, когда Price под McMillan’ом пытался убить Закаева в Припяти. Почему-то помнил это миссию куда более сложной.

Бегаем по азербайджанской ферме, в ожидании вертолета. За нами прилетает негр Griggs, который чудом уцелел после заварушки на Ближнем Востоке.
Выходим на сына Zakaev’а. Этот лысеющий тип который вез президента на казнь в самом начале, кстати. Окружаем его на крыше, но он пускает себе пулю в голову.

Вот сколько жаловались на то, что Call of Duty мол “корридорный шутер”. А многие миссии тут весьма открытые. В Азербайджане вообще можно зачищать дома в любом порядке. На Алтае тоже можно проходить по тихому.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare Remastered

Post author By Aleosha
Post date April 13, 2021

Давно заметил, что абсолютно не помню финал этой игры. Помню снайперскую миссию в Припяти, помню ядерный взрыв, финал не помню. Решил переиграть в Remaster.
Играем за “Soap” McTavish’а, новобранца SAS. Первая миссия – перехватить судно с ядерной боеголовкой, которое направляется в Йемен. Судно подрывают истребители, успеваем спастись с манифестом.
Где то в горах Кавказа спасаем информатора Николая, от которого мы о судне и узнали. Вертолет подбивают. При поддержки AC-130 прорываемся к своим.

Middle East, генерал Al Asaad совершает переворот и казнит президента. Морпехи пытаются убить мятежного генерала, который вещает из телецентра, но оказывается, что это просто запись. Затем долго защищаем застрявший танк. Затем помогаем спасать пилота подбитого вертолета. В итоге, генерал подрывает ядерную боеголовку. Так Paul Jackson становится героем.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare