Call of Duty 4 Beta

Disclaimer, this was written late at night/in the morning and it riddled with grammatical blasphemies, has small, simple words, no beginning or ending. Feel free to point out errors in the comments.

Gameplay is where Call of Duty 4 shines the most. Veterans of the previous installments in the series know that the COD series strives for Hollywood-realism and the newest installment doesn't disappoint. The dozen or so weapons available in the beta are balanced and nuanced in every way. Assault Rifles such as the M4 or AK47 can shoot through wood and other thin materials while heavier weapons like the SAW and sniper rifles can even penetrate thicker surfaces such as cement and sandbags; this brings cover to a whole new level of extreme. The beta currently has four different types of games, "Team deathmatch," "Free-for-all," "Team Tactial" and "Team Objective." "Team deathmatch" and FFA consist of 12 players (or 6 per team) and the player or team with the most points is the victor. In "Team Tactial," two teams of 2-3 players try to plant a bomb or defend the bomb site with no respawns(ala Counter Strike). These games are very nerve racking and intense, unlike larger skirmishes, the success of your team is a product of your skillz and ability to work as a team. "Team Objective" comes in a large scale version of "Team Tactial" and CTF flavor.

You can customize your weapons with unlockable camos and attachments such as suppressors and scopes. While (at least in the beta) you can't customize the physical appearance of your soldier you have three different "perks". While you naturally have your generic traits such as increased damage and increased health, COD4 introduces several innovative perks including "Last Stand". If your soldier is "killed" with last stand, you instead fall to the floor, whip out your pistol and try to take your assailant down with you. You also receive double points for kills when you dispatch a hostile this way. To level up, you need experience points and depending on the game type, you get between 5-50 experience points per kill not to mention other points for completing objectives and winning. After about five hours of play I reached the max rank for the beta, which is 16; the final game will have enough ranks to you occupied.

The graphics have a very smooth feel due to the fact that it run in a beautiful 60fps. Motion blur, bloom and focusing effects make "jaggy edges" almost nonexistant. Textures aren't nearly as sharp as in Gears of War but but the whole "blurrish" feel of the game makes high resolution textures almost unnecessary. Trees and grass have a very "lust" feeling to them. Other special effects such as dynamic smoke, lighting, and other sprites are excellent.

While there are only four levels in the beta, they are the perfect size; not too big, not too small, small enough for an epic 1vs1 duel and inclusive enough for 12 player shootout. The four levels included in the beta are intuitive, easy to memorize and unique.

The game's user interface is simple and minimalistic, which makes it easy to hop in a quick game of Call of Duty or manage your weapons. The game controls on the other hand have a slight learning curve and the look sensitivity is either, too low damn slow, really slow, not bad or fucking ninja fast (i.e. you breathe on the stick and your view rotates 360°); in other words: I wish there was a 10 point scale or slider bar for look sensitivity. The game controls however are very logical and convenient after you spend some time to get accustomed with them. The online part is good but not without flaws; when you use XBL's matchmaking service "play now" you will either join someone's game or create your own. While it may take only 30 seconds to get into the game (*COUGH*WARHAWKTAKENOTEPLZ*COUGH*), if you join a laggy game you will need to suffer through (and run the risk of getting D/C'd) or quit and auto-rejoin a new sever... this seems to be more of a flaw with the XBL matchmaking system than COD4 but it is a problem nonetheless. A few times I was playing on a perfectly fine server when I started lagging, warped under the level and eventually died a mysterious death. Call of Duty 4 is still in beta, however.

Had I just spent $40 for the online feature of this game, I would be completely satisfied.