I'm going to go buy it today on my way home from work :)

Why is it that all I ever hear about this game is how "fun" it is to "call in airstrike after airstrike and helicopter after helicopter on helpless noobs" who are being forced to spawn over and over again in the same location? This doesn't sound fun at all to me. This sounds incredibly unbalanced and broken.

I haven't played this game enough to be on either the giving or the receiving end of this, but I just don't see that as fun. That said, I have enjoyed the time I have soent with this game, even if I do think it is broken. I will probably end up picking this title up with this deal.

In a land of chipmunks, an angry gnome is king.

Whatever is stacked about the spawning system in CoD4 is, I believe, not beyond being overcome by teamwork. We have been in those bad spawn cycles before, and have been able to turn the tables. Even when your team gets boxed in, if your team is decent they can turn things around.

CoD4 is the balls!

Gnome,
I've been on both sides of it. It's actually not an easy thing to achieve. You can really only do it the way I speak of in the domination gametype. This gametype has three stationary territories that you have to hold. We have a pretty good strategy for domination at certain maps such as Strike (I think) and Ambush. Each map generally has two territories that are favorable to hold. If you can ever capture both AND control all avenues of approach to the territory closest to the enemy AND not push forward enough for the enemy to spawn behind you, THEN you can get the effect I'm talking about. As I said, It's pretty tough to accomplish and takes a lot of teamwork. At Strike we actually developed positions for each player to hold after we capture A and B. Shyzza watches the alley to B, I watch another alley and a small gate, and Slayer, Willdabeast, Phoenix, and Oculus developed their own positions for watching A.

As I said, it's not easy, but it is great fun when you can pull it off. The end result is that the enemy must run through a corridor that you are "camping" with your weapon firmly pointed at it. You rack up a lot of kills because the enemy team doesn't communicate and run through in mass. That's where the air strikes and helos come in.

I hope you pick it up and get online with us.

The multiplayer (especially Team Slayer) is fun for me because it is similar to H1 in that you can kill someone in about one second and get on to 10-15 kills in a row without dying several times per game. It's a game of map and spawn control. It's got some H1ness to it.

Nothing beats getting a 16 kill sniper streak while holding down a base. And having grenades that actually have some killing power.

This game is just fun. I wouldn't say the game is unfair or broken. The team that knows what they are doing, and better understands the spawns will generally win.

If the spawns were completely random I don't think I'd like it as much. Objective gametypes would essentially turn into a crazy ass run around like crazy and get a 1:1 kill ratio gametype instead of a game where artificial "fronts" to the battle exist. It's quite easy to get out of a spawn cycle if you communicate.

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"Oculus is just this guy, you know?"

I played the training and first mission. So far I am liking it.

This is a welcoming place, so you CoD4 haters just need to leave!
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J$D

I've got friends here at work that have been LANning COD4 on their PCs, and they only need 1 copy of the game to do so. They invited me to their next LAN, so I will let you know what I think about the PC version, w/ mouse and keyboard as opposed to gamepad.

This was the final nudge I needed and I've picked up COD4 now. Played a little with Midnight, Foulbreed, and Jaywhy the other night. It was fun and I'll definitely be playing, but I don't see myself abandoning Halo 3. They're both good games and I enjoy different aspects of them. I could use some COD4 multiplayer achievements though.

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.