30 Things That Suck About Call of Duty 4

Posted by Chris Jensen | Apr. 03, 2008 11:35AM PST | 43601 views | 6 comments

FILED UNDER: Features, Opinion. Games.

 

30 Things That Suck About Call of Duty 4

 

First, a disclaimer: I haven't played a better multiplayer first-person shooter since Counter-Strike. I love Call of Duty 4 and play every single night on the Xbox 360. But my love for the game doesn't mean I'm blind to a ton of problems that I think suck. Not all of these problems are the blame of the game, as several involve the people who play it, but it still counts.

Beg to differ? Did I miss additional suckiness? Let us know by posting in the comments.

 

1. Ruins Every Other FPS

One of the great things about CoD4 is that players can shoot through walls and kill hidden enemy combatants. Unfortunately, this has single-handedly ruined every other FPS on the market, as I can't seem to get out of the habit of shooting through walls, which has zero effect save for wasting ammunition.

 

2. Grenade Fests

Sometimes you enter a round and the entire experience degenerates into a grenade-fest, with every player throwing primed grenades into a choke-point. Before you know it, it's raining grenades, reducing CoD4 to something more akin to Dodgeball.

 

3. Tom Brady Grenade Tossing

My brother and I coined the term “Tom Brady'd” a few months ago. It applies for those times when someone lobs a hand-grenade impossibly far and takes you out. You see the Tom Brady a lot on Crash, when people huck grenades to the top of the three story tower. I'm of the opinion that throwing grenades over a far distance should be a perk and not something anyone can do by simply aiming their head high. Want to throw grenades like Vladimir Guerrero? Use up a perk.

 

4. People Who Claim Every Weapon That Kills Them is a Noob Weapon

I've lost track of how many times I've heard players bitch and moan about being killed by Weapon X because it's a “Noob Weapon”. It doesn't matter which weapon they speak of as once you tabulate the totality of their comments, you realize every weapon is a Noob Weapon. Everything, that is, except the weapon they prefer.

 

5. Wet Work

It was a dark day indeed when Wet Work was introduced into the Team Deathmatch playlist. It's a pretty useless map that quickly degenerates into nothing more than grenade tossing. Fortunately, Wet Work is skipped by player voting more often than it's actually played.

 

6. No Multiplayer Achievements

All of the achievements found in CoD4 are shoe-horned into the single-player campaign, which is kind of lame. Infinity Ward tried to explain this move to Game Informer by insisting they didn't want to change how people play multiplayer just to earn some achievement points. Valid argument, sure, until you realize they do it anyway by having a ton of challenges you can complete for additional XP. So what's the difference? You have a challenge called Airborne that demands players shoot two enemies while in mid-air....and that doesn't change how one might approach a round? Infinity Ward's argument is overruled!

 

7. No Campaign Co-Op

'Nuff said.

 

8. No Incentive to Rollover Levels

After you peak at level 55, you have the option of starting over and earning all weapons from scratch, including challenges. The only benefit is that you get a little icon next to your name that changes shape and color, indicating your rollover level. That's it. All this work for a little, useless icon? I rolled-over once and don't plan on doing it again as there just isn't enough incentive. I earned these weapons, I want to keep them!

 

9. No Character Customization

Offering even rudimentary character customization could have gone a long way in CoD4, especially if used in conjunction with rolling-over levels. How cool would it be to earn a nice patch for your arm or a different hat for your head based on how many times you've reached the level-cap?

 

10. Party System Sucks

Despite claims from Infinity Ward that the Party System was optimized in the last patch....it still sucks. More often than not the Party System selects a lame host that lags like hell for at least one member of the party, which makes finding a stable game next to impossible.

 

11. Weapons Poke Through Walls

I think I'm hidden behind a wall. Suddenly, I'm under fire and, eventually, dead. How did the enemy know where I am when their UAV isn't activated? The answer comes when watching the Kill-Cam, as you suddenly witness your weapon somehow poking through solid matter, inadvertently exposing your whereabouts. For a game that allows people to shoot through walls, this is a pretty nasty bug.

 

12. What Happened to Insta-Kill?

Infinity Ward made claims during the beta of CoD4 that they would have a feature called Insta-Kill. This was supposed to immediately kill players who cheat by gaining access to specific areas that are not meant to be accessible. One popular spot for losers to hang-out is the roof of the house on Vacant, giving them an unfair advantage. Insta-Kill was supposed to solve this problem, but it's missing-in-action and has never been brought up since.

 

13. Spawning in the Middle of a Firefight

Infinity Ward said they created more spawn points with the latest patch but it really hasn't solved the problem in any noticeable way. I, and everyone else, continue to spawn right in the middle of an intense firefight, wracking up deaths through no fault of our own. Back to the drawing-board, boys.

 

14. Hearing People Bitch Endlessly

This complaint can be issued for just about every online game ever created, but there's just something about CoD4 that brings out the worst in people. My favorite is when complainers bitch about whiners. Think about that for a minute. All hail the mute feature. Sure, I'm complaining in this article, but I'm not forcing you to read it!

 

15. Players With Excessive Negative Kill/Death Ratios

Look people, in Team Deathmatch the goal is pretty f'n simple: kill more than you're killed. Every time you die you give the other team points. This complaint is aimed towards the dill-weeds who wrack up impressive score like 4 kills/24 deaths. Congratulations, you earned the home team 40 points and handed the enemy 240. When the goal is for a team to hit 750 points, your inability to survive more than 20-seconds is detrimental to the collective goal. So do us all a favor: go play Free-For-All.

 

16. No Dedicated Servers

I don't think it's a secret that a peer-to-peer multiplayer infrastructure sucks. It may save the developer money, but it blows for the rest of us. Finding a stable game with decent latency is a nightmare and makes CoD4 far more frustrating than it need be.

 

17. Host Migration is Lame

Prior to the last patch, if the unknown host bailed during a round, all remaining players were sent back to their points of origin, forced to find a new game. Infinity Ward made it seem like they had come up with a good solution, but when the patch finally arrived, their answer was found wanting. Now the round still ends, but hey, you get to play with all the same random people you were just playing with. This isn't what we wanted. We want the round to continue onward without restarting. No one gives a crap if they play with same peeps. If they did, they'd simply form a party.

 

18. Air-Knife Attacks

Chalk this up to lag. How many times have you managed to sneak up on a sniper and drive your knife into his back, only to be rewarded with no kill? Countless, I'm sure. Of course, what happens next is the sniper turns around and disembowels you. Worse is when an enemy somehow slices you up with a knife from ten-feet away, because in their reality, they're right on top of you even though you see them as being quite distant. Thanks lag!

 

19. Running Doesn't Appear on Radar

I personally think there's far too much running around in CoD4 without any repercussion. Somehow you can run upstairs like a maniac without making any sound. How about when a player starts running it makes them appear on the radar? Or at least appear to enemies within a short distance? This would serve to minimize the lameness of clopping around without raising your threat level.

 

20. Kill-Cam Giveaway

At first, I liked the Kill-Cam as an interesting novelty. Now, I hate it. While it may minimize camping by giving away your location...it also minimizes camping by giving away your location. Ask a sniper what they think about it.

 

21. Martyrs

Okay, I guess it's only natural that Martyrs suck. I mean, they are Martyrs after all. But I think we can all agree that it's a little too easy to rack up kills by running right into the thick of action, knowing your corpse will explode soon thereafter. I'm not in favor of getting rid of Martyr, though I would like to see an overhaul in how it's activated. Someone with the Martyr perk should only drop a grenade when they are actually carrying one in their hands. Simple as that.

 

22. Red Dot Sight on Sub-Machine Guns

A Red Dot Site on an Uzi? Paahleease. What's next, a tripod-mount for the Desert Eagle?

 

23. Not Enough Custom Slots

You have 6 custom slots from which to create various kits, which just isn't enough. I could easily have 6 different kits for a single weapon, kits for different maps, etc. At the very least, open up more custom slots as you gain levels.

 

24. Unsupportive Team Players

How many times have you been pinned down by enemy fire while your teammates, ten feet away, just stand there with their thumb up their ass? They wait for you to finally die and then jump into action, taking out the enemy. Hey buddy, how about getting your head in the game while I'm being shot at? Little help here? If the enemy is concentrating on me then it should be an easy enough matter to poke your head out and finish them off while they're distracted.

 

25. Every Gun That Kills You is Overpowered

Similar to Every Weapon That Kills You is a Noob Weapon, Every Gun That Kills You is Overpowered is a popular forum topic. At one point or another, every single weapon is overpowered and needs to be modified, adjusted, tweaked, toned-down, etc., all because it killed you. Perhaps you're underpowered?

 

26. MP44 Has No Upgrades

One of the last weapons you get after all that leveling up is the MP44. You'd think it would be a kick-ass weapon, but ehh, not really. It's the only weapon that doesn't have any upgrades, unless you count a digital skin, which I don't. If the weapon were any good on its own then there wouldn't be a complaint, but frankly, it plays like something you get when first starting out, not a valuable reward for hitting level 52.

 

27. Knife of Instant Death

The knife is just too easy to use. While it takes several bullets to kill someone, for whatever reason, one swipe of the knife is enough to make you no more. I'd rather see the knife slow down your movement or make you bleed-out over a specific amount of time. If you need an instant-kill blade, then there should be a perk created for it. Alternatively, how about the knife can kill someone instantly with a back-stab, but not from the front?

 

 

28. Golden Desert Eagle Only Lasts One Level

At level 55 you get the sweet-looking Golden Desert Eagle. Packs the same punch as the standard Desert Eagle, just looks cooler. Unfortunately, you only get to enjoy this bad-boy for a single level, unless your refuse to roll-over your XP. How about all players who hit level 55 can retain the Golden Desert Eagle no matter what? What's the harm?

 

29. No Detailed Statistics

Leaderboards are fine and well, but what I really want is some detailed statistics. I'd love to know how many people I've killed with a specific weapon, what my kill streak was with a particular weapon, which player have I killed more than other? I don't want to have to go a website to see this info, either, like other games demand. I want in-game, detailed stats...please?

 

30. Can't See Party Members on Radar

I like to play in a two-party group with my brother. Unfortunately, when the round starts, I usually lose track of him as he becomes just another arrow on the compass. I'd love the ability to see where he's at so we can stick together. How about making party members display as a different color on the radar so we can help each other out?

(Source: InfoAddict Original)

Tags playstation 3, xbox 360, lists, call of duty 4