Quote #2 - All quotes
"I didn't like John Howard. I don't trust bald people." - Randy
"I didn't like John Howard. I don't trust bald people." - Randy
Part 2: Black Friday
FOLLOW ALONG AT HOME!
From 1:53 onwards
"Black Tuesday" / Level 1
As soon as our unskippable and non-interactive cutscene assures us that Infinity-hammer has not forgotten about its past, we completely disregard the past in favour of introducing this game's plot filler, the Delta Force. You see, all installments of Modern Warfare thus far have followed two stories. 1. the actual story, complete with recurring characters (known as the SAS in MW1 and TF141 in MW2), and 2. a random US military team (Force Recon in MW1 and the Rangers in MW2). The actual story is, obviously, the only one anyone cares about, seeing as that's where all of the plot development takes place. The US military team "storyline" (if you want to call it that), usually amounts to either helping the main storyline (as in MW1), or simply showing the effects of the main storyline back on "home US ground" (as in MW2).
One thing I will give Black Ops is that the entire campaign focused on the one storyline. It did jump around a little, occasionally showing other characters, but all these characters were associated with the main protagonist (Mason, if you forgot his name) somehow, and were relevant somewhat to the story. Again, however, I'm only praising Black Ops's story, which we've already established, shouldn't have been the game's only strong point.
In Modern Warfare 3's incarnation of the time consumer, you play as a character named Sgt. Derek "Frost" Westbrook, yet another entry in silent playable characters. This is the first time where the playable character of the US military story is referred to with a nickname instead of just his last name, where as in the past, nicknames were reserved only for the hip and trendy main storyline protagonists.
The loading cutscene is standard fare for a Modern Warfare cutscenes. Lots of 3D wireframe, lots of random modern technical-looking imagery appearing and disappearing too quickly for you to realise how non-technical it really is, and LOTS of military jargon. I've always wondered whether Infinity Ward has expected anyone to understand all of the acronyms and wording used in these military levels/cutscenes, or if they just throw them in to sound intelligent. I wouldn't even be surprised if this wasn't real military jargon, and was in fact just random. Infinity-hammer could probably get away with it, considering how most of the teenagers playing the game have no military experience.
The important (or, main) storyline doesn't really suffer from this however, it's usually one of the characters giving an admittedly bad ass sounding monologue (then again, how do you not sound bad ass if you're being voiced by Lance Henriksen).
Anyway, while it's not particularly easy, it is possible to filter the jargon and focus on the actual words. Upon doing so, you learn that Russia is attacking New York, and it's hard to retaliate because the Russians have set up a jamming device. So, our first mission in Modern Warfare 3 is to take down an antenna. Can we take down Fox News Radio while we're at it?
We wake up to the sound of someone yelling "RPG!" followed by an explosion. I'd make a witty comment about how Infinity-hammer is implying CoD will never have enough story to be a role-playing game... but I won't.
We then fade in from the blackness to a flipped army vehicle with electronics stereotypically sparking. We are sitting in the rear-left seat (insert Friday joke here) and we quickly learn that everyone else has already left the toppled car and ditched us (I guess we're playing as the "Private Pyle" of this team).
That is, except for the team leader Sandman, who despite being caught in his seatbelt, still has the nerve to tell Pyle (us) that we have to "get switched on". Pyle then opens the car door in a maneuver that (according to the laws of gravity) doesn't exactly make sense, or at least shouldn't be nearly as easy as it looks.
Opening the car door reveals a plane that flies directly into a building. For a game that's post-9/11 (and takes place in New York of all places), it's surprisingly downplayed.
We get out of the burning car along with Sandman, who gives us a clip for our gun, forcing us to realise that Pyle has been carrying around an unloaded weapon into a warzone.
Sandman tells us the antenna is not far away, and we can walk from here. I guess Sandman hasn't seen Pyle's walking.
Now to understand how the rest of this level plays out, let's establish that when I first started playing through MW3, I didn't get the ingenious idea to record the footage. In fact, I played the first two missions (not counting the prologue) off-camera before I got the idea. The idea was heavily debated in my mind because in actuality, I really didn't want to play the first two missions again just to record them.
The game thrusts you into a heavily damaged street, fighting presumably angry Russians (although considering MW2's major twist, they'll probably end up being the good guys anyway). There's little more context than that, and in reality it plays more like a "waves of enemies" kinda thing.
Eventually you push through, and your dispensable team spits out:
Please tell me I'm not along in thinking that "Grinch" says "No shit." exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The remainder of the level is pretty mundane. While I like the attention to detail, and how much work went into the environments, a lot of which will inevitably be ignored by most people, the gameplay from now on pretty much involves; shoot bad guys, stuff explodes, follow Sandman to the next area, repeat. This is a common complaint about the Call of Duty series in general; its inherent lack of strategy. Unfortunately, it's a problematic area for Call of Duty, as its lack of strategy, while to many "gamers" is its major flaw, to non-gamers, its lack of required "gaming ability" is what makes it so easy for the average person to pick it up, and eventually get good at. It's both its main reason for criticism and for success, and CoD is definitely successful, meaning that going after the casual market is clearly more effective. Activision knows this, and I'm sure Infinity-hammer does too. If not, then I'm sure Activision executives would have crushed any suggestions of coding in something deemed "too difficult" (unless it was not optional).
The point is that this level showcases the majority of gameplay skills required to complete the game. The fact that it's not much is intentional. Also, consider that while MW1 and MW2 featured a pseudo-training/tutorial/configuration section at the start of the game (similar to Halo 1 and 2). In MW3, such a training stage is oddly absent, meaning that this level must have to function as a tutorial stage. It is also possible that Infinity-hammer believes that by this point, everyone knows how to play first-person shooters, and if they don't, they won't be playing MW3. Still, that's a careless approach to take, considering how many newborns are playing on Xbox Live these days.
It takes a very long time, doing the aforementioned, shoot, explosions, follow method for the majority of the level's remainder. Once you reach the top of a broadcast tower, however, things do start getting interesting. You set explosives on the tower, and are bombarded by more angry Russians on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.
This time, however, you can do away with your gun and instead get Predator Missiles. A Modern Warfare staple, but somewhat entertaining to use nonetheless.
But then, oh no!
Damn, a Hind. If only we had some sort of explosive missile that can fire almost any range and...
Oh, well I guess that works too.
The mission ends with The Dispensables boarding a helicopter (that the game calls a Black Hawk). You take control of the gun, obviously as Infinity-hammer is aware (albeit, intermittently) of the ADHD rate in their fanbase.
You get to unexcitingly shoot more enemies on rooftops (where'd my Predator go?), and then several other Hinds start following you. Towards the end, MW3 threatens to rip off MW1 by having the plane you're in spiral out of control, but this time it doesn't crash.
And they all lived happily ever after.
STAY TUNED FOR "HUNTER KILLER"
READ PREVIOUS PART
Posted by slimac55 on November 13th 2011 | 1 comment | Tweet
From 1:53 onwards
"Black Tuesday" / Level 1
As soon as our unskippable and non-interactive cutscene assures us that Infinity-hammer has not forgotten about its past, we completely disregard the past in favour of introducing this game's plot filler, the Delta Force. You see, all installments of Modern Warfare thus far have followed two stories. 1. the actual story, complete with recurring characters (known as the SAS in MW1 and TF141 in MW2), and 2. a random US military team (Force Recon in MW1 and the Rangers in MW2). The actual story is, obviously, the only one anyone cares about, seeing as that's where all of the plot development takes place. The US military team "storyline" (if you want to call it that), usually amounts to either helping the main storyline (as in MW1), or simply showing the effects of the main storyline back on "home US ground" (as in MW2).
One thing I will give Black Ops is that the entire campaign focused on the one storyline. It did jump around a little, occasionally showing other characters, but all these characters were associated with the main protagonist (Mason, if you forgot his name) somehow, and were relevant somewhat to the story. Again, however, I'm only praising Black Ops's story, which we've already established, shouldn't have been the game's only strong point.
In Modern Warfare 3's incarnation of the time consumer, you play as a character named Sgt. Derek "Frost" Westbrook, yet another entry in silent playable characters. This is the first time where the playable character of the US military story is referred to with a nickname instead of just his last name, where as in the past, nicknames were reserved only for the hip and trendy main storyline protagonists.
The loading cutscene is standard fare for a Modern Warfare cutscenes. Lots of 3D wireframe, lots of random modern technical-looking imagery appearing and disappearing too quickly for you to realise how non-technical it really is, and LOTS of military jargon. I've always wondered whether Infinity Ward has expected anyone to understand all of the acronyms and wording used in these military levels/cutscenes, or if they just throw them in to sound intelligent. I wouldn't even be surprised if this wasn't real military jargon, and was in fact just random. Infinity-hammer could probably get away with it, considering how most of the teenagers playing the game have no military experience.
The important (or, main) storyline doesn't really suffer from this however, it's usually one of the characters giving an admittedly bad ass sounding monologue (then again, how do you not sound bad ass if you're being voiced by Lance Henriksen).
Anyway, while it's not particularly easy, it is possible to filter the jargon and focus on the actual words. Upon doing so, you learn that Russia is attacking New York, and it's hard to retaliate because the Russians have set up a jamming device. So, our first mission in Modern Warfare 3 is to take down an antenna. Can we take down Fox News Radio while we're at it?
We wake up to the sound of someone yelling "RPG!" followed by an explosion. I'd make a witty comment about how Infinity-hammer is implying CoD will never have enough story to be a role-playing game... but I won't.
We then fade in from the blackness to a flipped army vehicle with electronics stereotypically sparking. We are sitting in the rear-left seat (insert Friday joke here) and we quickly learn that everyone else has already left the toppled car and ditched us (I guess we're playing as the "Private Pyle" of this team).
That is, except for the team leader Sandman, who despite being caught in his seatbelt, still has the nerve to tell Pyle (us) that we have to "get switched on". Pyle then opens the car door in a maneuver that (according to the laws of gravity) doesn't exactly make sense, or at least shouldn't be nearly as easy as it looks.
Opening the car door reveals a plane that flies directly into a building. For a game that's post-9/11 (and takes place in New York of all places), it's surprisingly downplayed.
We get out of the burning car along with Sandman, who gives us a clip for our gun, forcing us to realise that Pyle has been carrying around an unloaded weapon into a warzone.
Sandman tells us the antenna is not far away, and we can walk from here. I guess Sandman hasn't seen Pyle's walking.
Now to understand how the rest of this level plays out, let's establish that when I first started playing through MW3, I didn't get the ingenious idea to record the footage. In fact, I played the first two missions (not counting the prologue) off-camera before I got the idea. The idea was heavily debated in my mind because in actuality, I really didn't want to play the first two missions again just to record them.
The game thrusts you into a heavily damaged street, fighting presumably angry Russians (although considering MW2's major twist, they'll probably end up being the good guys anyway). There's little more context than that, and in reality it plays more like a "waves of enemies" kinda thing.
Eventually you push through, and your dispensable team spits out:
Please tell me I'm not along in thinking that "Grinch" says "No shit." exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The remainder of the level is pretty mundane. While I like the attention to detail, and how much work went into the environments, a lot of which will inevitably be ignored by most people, the gameplay from now on pretty much involves; shoot bad guys, stuff explodes, follow Sandman to the next area, repeat. This is a common complaint about the Call of Duty series in general; its inherent lack of strategy. Unfortunately, it's a problematic area for Call of Duty, as its lack of strategy, while to many "gamers" is its major flaw, to non-gamers, its lack of required "gaming ability" is what makes it so easy for the average person to pick it up, and eventually get good at. It's both its main reason for criticism and for success, and CoD is definitely successful, meaning that going after the casual market is clearly more effective. Activision knows this, and I'm sure Infinity-hammer does too. If not, then I'm sure Activision executives would have crushed any suggestions of coding in something deemed "too difficult" (unless it was not optional).
The point is that this level showcases the majority of gameplay skills required to complete the game. The fact that it's not much is intentional. Also, consider that while MW1 and MW2 featured a pseudo-training/tutorial/configuration section at the start of the game (similar to Halo 1 and 2). In MW3, such a training stage is oddly absent, meaning that this level must have to function as a tutorial stage. It is also possible that Infinity-hammer believes that by this point, everyone knows how to play first-person shooters, and if they don't, they won't be playing MW3. Still, that's a careless approach to take, considering how many newborns are playing on Xbox Live these days.
It takes a very long time, doing the aforementioned, shoot, explosions, follow method for the majority of the level's remainder. Once you reach the top of a broadcast tower, however, things do start getting interesting. You set explosives on the tower, and are bombarded by more angry Russians on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.
This time, however, you can do away with your gun and instead get Predator Missiles. A Modern Warfare staple, but somewhat entertaining to use nonetheless.
But then, oh no!
Damn, a Hind. If only we had some sort of explosive missile that can fire almost any range and...
Oh, well I guess that works too.
The mission ends with The Dispensables boarding a helicopter (that the game calls a Black Hawk). You take control of the gun, obviously as Infinity-hammer is aware (albeit, intermittently) of the ADHD rate in their fanbase.
You get to unexcitingly shoot more enemies on rooftops (where'd my Predator go?), and then several other Hinds start following you. Towards the end, MW3 threatens to rip off MW1 by having the plane you're in spiral out of control, but this time it doesn't crash.
And they all lived happily ever after.
STAY TUNED FOR "HUNTER KILLER"
READ PREVIOUS PART
Posted by slimac55 on November 13th 2011 | 1 comment | Tweet