Sweeping a forgettable movie review under the rug, the first thing that I wrote for this site was a piece ranking the blockbuster entries in gaming’s $600 million elephant in the room, the Call of Duty series.
(Before we begin, I want to participate in an American tradition and do some revisionist history. I ranked Ghosts over Modern Warfare 3 for the sixth spot on that list, and that wasn’t correct. Yes, MW3 is profoundly bland, but I was on too much of a Ghosts kick while writing that to realize that it deserved that bottom spot. The multiplayer is rather sloppy and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Also, f**k that ending.)
I hold these games very close to my heart, in large part for nostalgic reasons but also because, well, they’re pretty damn good. Check the Metacritic database. Each game in the series hits all the bullet points for quality gaming: tight controls, beautiful graphics, exciting gameplay, and a high fun-factor. The annual releases have attempted to tweak and change mechanics to keep things fresh, but the groundwork was laid expertly.
Well, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare came into existence in 2014 as the new kid in school. The developer, Sledgehammer Games, was making its first Call of Duty as the lead studio, and had big ideas in mind. The innovation: exosuits, which allow players to leap around the map with boost packs and provide special futuristic abilities. Also, they nabbed Kevin Spacey to anchor the single-player campaign as the leader of a private military corporation.
After neglecting to purchase the game at launch for logistical reasons, I finally got my hands on it recently to take it for a spin. Where will it rank? Is the multiplayer well-designed? Is Spacey’s motion-captured character more of a Frank Underwood or a Keyser Soze? Was that a spoiler? No. It’s Kevin Spacey.
(Before we begin, I want to participate in an American tradition and do some revisionist history. I ranked Ghosts over Modern Warfare 3 for the sixth spot on that list, and that wasn’t correct. Yes, MW3 is profoundly bland, but I was on too much of a Ghosts kick while writing that to realize that it deserved that bottom spot. The multiplayer is rather sloppy and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Also, f**k that ending.)
I hold these games very close to my heart, in large part for nostalgic reasons but also because, well, they’re pretty damn good. Check the Metacritic database. Each game in the series hits all the bullet points for quality gaming: tight controls, beautiful graphics, exciting gameplay, and a high fun-factor. The annual releases have attempted to tweak and change mechanics to keep things fresh, but the groundwork was laid expertly.
Well, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare came into existence in 2014 as the new kid in school. The developer, Sledgehammer Games, was making its first Call of Duty as the lead studio, and had big ideas in mind. The innovation: exosuits, which allow players to leap around the map with boost packs and provide special futuristic abilities. Also, they nabbed Kevin Spacey to anchor the single-player campaign as the leader of a private military corporation.
After neglecting to purchase the game at launch for logistical reasons, I finally got my hands on it recently to take it for a spin. Where will it rank? Is the multiplayer well-designed? Is Spacey’s motion-captured character more of a Frank Underwood or a Keyser Soze? Was that a spoiler? No. It’s Kevin Spacey.