When Call of Duty Took Itself Seriously

[@theWheezy]

Maybe it's not a big deal, but I like to think Call of Duty games became memorable because you could quickly identify it (plus the amazing gameplay). I hop on these newer games and feel vastly disconnected when jumping between modes. It has an overall theme and setting, but I'm not crazy to think they don't care much about that right? I personally think they have backtracked a lot, and only care about advertising their game with iconic characters from other franchises and famous celebrities. You could also make the point that a rebooted series (modern warfare & black ops) makes it all forgettable because we already had all that. You can agree or disagree, but going all in on a theme and sticking to their guns I believe can make a game drastically more appealing when playing and talking about. I'll give Cold War props, it's the one modern COD game that has a strong theme. Great menu, one of the best soundtracks, and very strong narrative. You can see that very fast in the game and within the marketing. Very strong themes. Credit for used clips/audio in description ^^^ Trying to slowly build a discord server, come join up! join the discord community >>> discord.gg/Nb5NfT6AWX If you enjoyed the video, consider supporting me. These videos I am heavily passionate in making, but KZbin doesn't pay well and isn't stable. No need to do so, but the option is there: www.patreon.com/thewheezy

[@Crazinator]

It's not stupid bro and everything you said was completely true everything that made Call of Duty serious was the reason players loved it the whole point we're just soldiers going at it and War instead we have these Goofy weird cameos of people from Hollywood movies or from other games or cartoons and such basically fortnite Call of Duty used to take itself serious but now it doesn't and is one of the reasons why I stopped playing it and for those that actually think it's better and think they should add more goofy stuff are the ones that never even played the original or just flat out didn't like it because it was too real for them but yeah Call of Duty doesn't take itself serious no more

[@sbudaforever]

Are you a pro player?

[@WTF-Viper]

i feel like i found my own voice. this is EXACTLY what I want to be talked about. we are letting our game loose its soul Infront of our eyes and people are ok with it because they say things like. "Chill out grandpa" instead of growing up themselves.

[@Crazinator]

@@WTF-Viper exactly bro and whenever you mentioned at this game needs to be good they want to say some stuff like over your Boomer or you're just old or something like that buddy it's what really made the game good

[@Deenyoro]

No it is a big deal. The ugly skins definitely take me out of the game and made me stop playing it.

[@Lordbobomb]

CoD used to be a trendsetter, now it's a trend chaser. Games used to try to be like CoD. But now CoD is trying to be like Fortnite.

[@captainszasz5836]

You say as fortnite has been trying to mimicking alot of cod/warzone's mechanics.

[@flamingscar5263]

COD was never a trend setter, it always followed the trends, its just that the trends it followed used to be good now its "the era of the crossover" as Ive been calling it, fortnite started this whole "put other characters and real life people in your game" trend

[@rexthewolf3149]

@@flamingscar5263This isn’t a new thing to COD they’ve been doing stuff like this to a since bo2 skins packs, AW exo clown, ghost has a Snoop Dog Announcer. The community just has a selective memory when it comes to this stuff.

[@Nazrat84]

No because Fortnite built it's entire empire on chasing other trends and still is. Call of Duty Warzone was still Call of Duty. There's also the fact CoD predates Fortnite with it's shift in aesthetics to be more cartoony and action-figure like, meaning Fortnite might have also taken that from CoD rather than the other way around.

[@plank5370]

​@captainszasz5836 nah n1ĝĝà same goes for cod they copied they whole battlepass at first now they copied the whole collaboration skin śĥ1ť

[@SuperSealMan777]

Funny to think that they took themselves more serious when they were so "bombastic and hollywood", and now when they're trying to be "realistic and tactical" they cant seem to take themselves seriously. Wut.

[@theWheezy]

I wouldn't mind if they just stuck to that "realistic and tactical" theme as long as it doesn't affect gameplay (MW2022) and it didn't have walking advertisements everywhere completely devaluing their theme. Older CODs with their hollywood appeal still had grit and knew how to be badass without being completely unbelievable. Something can be unrealistic, but believable.

[@andreivaldez2929]

Even if they want to do "operators" for cosmetic sales they could keep a serious aesthetic that doesn't feel out of place. MW2019 had a few operators added like that but that went away since the flashier stuff sells better.

[@SuperSealMan777]

@@theWheezy I whole heartedly agree. However that would simply be too easy and or beneficial.

[@dimebag667]

​@@andreivaldez2929Doesn't MCC have the ability to not see other players cosmetics? Just give everyone the ability to not see stupid skins, and pointless effects. Or ban mtx. That would be nice too.

[@rexthewolf3149]

@@dimebag667 MCC’s MTXs aren’t paid and the filter only disabled stuff that wasn’t in the original games.

[@M3RKMUS1C]

Very well said, the main identity of those COD games were tied to the factions, announcers, and average soldiers fighting on distinct, unique maps. I think the best way forward is to take a chance on creating something NEW while also reimplementing these old features that made the games iconic. Great video!

[@iJustWannaRoxk]

Bombaclartttt

[@Brotha_Iz]

Faze booce sighting

[@Squareheed]

holy shit a washed up has-been

[@FutaCatto2]

MW 2019 was very controversial towards media it made me fall in love with the franchise. It really showed the grittiness of modern day conflict both civilian and military. MW2 2022 ruined the Campaign with its MCU dialogues between Soap and Ghost. Very few people saw this which led to MW3 2023 today.

[@Feeeliixxx]

Im gunna be a BIIIIIG BOOOOOOYYYYY

[@fall_down_a_well6409]

A thing that straight away puts me off the current games. The menus. I’m an 18 yo who can barely decipher where anything I want is anymore I feel like I can’t even track progress on weapons anymore because I don’t even know which weapons I even have anymore.

[@Beanie-Sandals]

In addition to downloading all of the extra crud trying to launch the game and still fails to launch, even though I had everything downloaded, I couldn't find where anything was in the menus easily it's so confusing... it's a video game, not open Linux coding terminal, it shouldn't be this complicated

[@userseveneleven]

wow ur so different from your generation

[@koburrr]

yeah they couldnt stick with the traditional game menu tabs/bars because they have to "be creative" nowadays. Instead they ended up making the screen look messier.

[@J-Rod7]

This is good to hear tho. It's one of my biggest gripes, menus/customization are a mess it's not just COD, it's all too overstimulating. Devs are focused on barfing out more and more crap and it overwhelms the user. ​@@userseveneleven

[@steveharveysmustache3988]

For real. I remember when you turned on cod and you had 3 options on the screen: campaign, multiplayer, spec ops. I tried to play the recent mw2 and the menu was just indecipherable. Felt like I was using the most confusing streaming service known to man

[@youraveragemedicmain866]

the fact I could tell when you used BO2 or BO1 OST songs just by their iconic theme really shows how much COD has really changed from now.

[@theWheezy]

love BO2's main theme specifically. Something about it makes it peak for me

[@austinbale3289]

Imo BO2 theme was the best out of all CoDs

[@cpt.martinwalker6268]

​@@austinbale3289 Pretty dark that theme

[@Beanskiiii]

Yeah change happens after so many years who cares. Grow up. You guys are grown ass men. Get a grip

[@R3TR0J4N]

BROO same

[@512TheWolf512]

When games wanted to be art, vs when games wanted to exploit toddlers for money

[@redlight3932]

they found their market..

[@mikeg5238]

@@redlight3932thank fortnite that’s when a lot of devs realized how much they can exploit kids by using micro transactions

[@mikeg5238]

Mw2 came out when I was 8 and I played the shit out of it loved every second not one single micro transaction all skins came from actually playing the game and doing challenges back when devs actually put passion into their games and didn’t just put them out as a cash cow with minimal effort put into actual gameplay

[@haramlasagne6685]

@@mikeg5238 this shit started waaaaay before fortnite

[@_Micah_Bell]

@@haramlasagne6685 yeah but fornite made it more popular

[@uhoh1321]

10 years ago i would've never imagined COD fumbling their entire franchise. Damn.

[@Bms010]

In past 10 years I've seen so many ips both in gaming, music, TV shows ECT so many amazing projects and franchises that purposely drove themselves into the ground.

[@turkeysandwich1998]

Neither did I, or think Halo would fall, or battlefield but here we are corporate A holes always ruin stuff eventually

[@uhoh1321]

@@turkeysandwich1998 Honestly, I'm glad we are getting to a point now though where independent studios are able to make higher quality games to rival the corporate giants. Like how battle bit revived a dead genre for battlefield players. Even though it's not on the same scale I will always stand by studios who make games for fun/art/enjoyment and not for profit.

[@Johnny_Awesome]

Agreed. My CoD glory days revolve around throwing potatoes as grenade tutorial in CoD2. That was 2005. So I heard from friends that MW2 really was good but that's also already 15 years ago.

[@Crooked_Man]

Wish I could fumble into billions of profit

[@yungharold5281]

Your videos are insanely good. The production value, using music to shift the tone and overall the amount covered in a single video. Phenomenal. Well done!

[@wendigoactual8325]

Dude i miss being just 75th rangers vs SPETSNAZ and ghosts vs federation.

[@jollygrapefruit786]

Back when you could identify if someone was friend or foe based on their uniform, father then the color above their head.

[@mininggypsy499]

Ghost seems to be the last good game and the begining of the downfall

[@scrotiemcboogerballs4159]

Did you seriously say Ghosts vs Federation?

[@scrotiemcboogerballs4159]

​@mininggypsy499 Nah MW3 and BO2 were. Ghosts was probably one of the worst CODs ever made. It literally was the WORST COD ever made when it came out.

[@Tama-zephyrwindlass]

Yup ​@@mininggypsy499

[@Spark51001]

The OP 40 spawn in theme from BO1 is 6 seconds of absolute bliss. Adds so much character and gets you hyped to actually play a round.

[@gabrielwiktorowicz3281]

If you like it I recommend listening to Rooftops by Sean Murray. It’s the full song

[@onesaucynougat7471]

It’s from a full track from the campaign called rooftops like the other person in the comments said. It’s really good and the whole song builds up to the one bit that plays when you spawn as OP 40.

[@theWheezy]

those themes hit incredibly hard, didn't realize how much I loved them until exploring them all again

[@Spark51001]

@@gabrielwiktorowicz3281 cheers king, much appreciated

[@sur.viv.e]

FR OP 40 SPAWN THEME IS GOATED

[@D3R3bel]

Its the same shit for me with battlefield. I remember back in battlefield 4, you had RU , US and CN teammates all shouting callouts not just in an accent, but in their fucking native language. It created such a sense of immersion and authenticity that was really nice. It even bled into gameplay, allowing you to quickly tell if someone in their peripheral hearing was an enemy or teammate, and over time you could even come to understand the callouts without even seeing what your teammate nearby was calling out. Then you come to battlefield 2042, and everyone is the same, theres no sense of team, everyone are just operators.

[@dr.kinky.lenny69]

2042 ruined its chances of ever being an extremely succesful game the second it announced operators

[@pneumaticslap3344]

Zoomie. If you dont remember the Bad Company era, you're a wee bab... those were TRULY the days, the numbered titles were the decline, 3 was fun enough. But NOTHING has captured the feel of Gold Rush/Rush with a squad of 4 friends in BC1/2... Jihad ATV was the shit

[@platyhelminthes2877]

Bad Company 1 was such a fun game. It was my first taste of what Battlefield was all about. A truly immersive combat sandbox. I unfortunately skipped over Bad Company 2 (I was in high school, and money was tight), but I was able to experience BF 3, 4, 1, and 5 at their peaks. 3, 4, and 1 all gave me that same authentic BF experience, and they were all fun in their own ways. I even got some enjoyment out of BF5, despite its numerous issues. But when 2042 came out, I knew I was done with the franchise. I want nothing to do with "specialists", "operators", "heroes", or anything of the sort. @@pneumaticslap3344

[@Skumtomten1]

Just don't buy or play modern games, its simple. I returned to my favorite games growing up and they are much better than the new stuff. Graphics aren't even that much worse, but gameplay and feeling matters, and thats were those games shines. Not to mention you save cash as well, not having to upgrade your system and buy new games. There are sites like gameranger that allows you to play online on many games that had their official server taken down, it it works really well.

[@narcleptik]

10000% agreed

[@NSDro56]

4:50 when you heard this theme song, you just knew it was about to get REAL

[@MrPoopcorn]

Man I miss old cod. I never thought battlefield would stop being realistic too lmao

[@sussyman9034]

Battlefield is still kinda realistic

[@Soliye.]

@@sussyman9034 No it's just straight garbage. And the fact 2042 is what we get with them only focusing on Multiplayer is tragic. They have similar issues to CoD. Just like Rainbow Six Siege and Halo. It's really a plague in general that immersion has left multiplayer FPS games.

[@Visstnok]

@@sussyman9034 Yeah, wingsuit black punk chicks are very realistic.

[@urosmamic4172]

​@@Soliye.Well,well,well that was fun -that one cringe operator

[@Ebola419]

@@Soliye.the devs that work on these things are all liberals that are scared of guns.

[@truebacon133]

It's also adds readability. In older CODs you know what team that person is in at a glance and also what weapon type they are using. (Perk in BO1) Each character was specifically designed to stand out against the others besides Sniper/Ghost class. You don't get any of that with operators, which is also why every few months there's another skin the community calls P2W

[@Anothergingerman]

This. readability should be one of the top three things any team based game should focus on, this is also where bf 2042 failed so hard, both games have to rely on bright red fucking outlines likes its overwatch, its not hard to theme the sides and keep them different, but cosmetics have and will forever come before game design now

[@mniakan754]

What you say is absolutely true for the most part until someone used the overkill perk with the famas in black ops 1

[@GangstaFred_528-CASH]

I remember during the vanguard beta was like the same 2 characters from the story I knew it was only downhill from there

[@tylerdewald6916]

That fucking groot skin ruined it when a skins 50% see through and your still on old Gen playing new gwn players its damn near impossible to see along with the fact the fucking skins load in the game in an instant but my player has to stand still and die for the 1st minute till guns and textures load you'd think they'd prioritize in the load the actual game play but considering the code loads custom characters first just showed how little they gave a shit

[@sandalogaming6766]

@@tylerdewald6916I have a few buddies on new Gen consoles who still have that problem of having to load in textures while the match is still on going. It’s not a generation console thing, is just the game that’s coded in Italy’s finest pasta 💀

[@richjennings63]

World at War made me open a history book when I was only in 5th grade. The emotions I felt while playing through the campaign were strong and it actually made me want to know more about the world around me.

[@samrunsads]

same!!

[@skater17894]

I like your comment man. I remember when I first saw the cod 3 campaign trailer in 2006, my parents tried to hide it from me since I was a Jehovahs Witness haha but my grandfather was a Geography Teacher in the 70s and 80s and told me all about WWII.

[@speedy_fast]

I also like the grit from the real war footage, as a kid playing it felt heavier of a story knowing some of those clips during cutscenes really happened

[@NostalgicGamerRickOShay]

Play Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault if you want a Pacific campaign that is actually historically accurate.

[@slicedtopieces]

Back when even something as commercial as a Call of Duty game still played somewhat of a service to the public in conveying even just a little bit of history.

[@TJ_Shredder]

Most of these kids playing today would have nightmares if they ever played world at war 💀

[@ryeguy7941]

I was at my best in World at War.

[@Duggy22]

This guy acting like he’s never been scared of anything

[@TJ_Shredder]

@@Duggy22 oh nah bro nazi zombies scared me i wont lie

[@themrlupo3591]

I played that game when I was 4, best game ever, I don’t know how but 4 year old me could consistently hit all the zeroes in the black cat mission yet current me can hit like 10 of them maybe 😂

[@SublimeSoundwaves]

Codwaw is the best ww2 campaign ive ever played the characters the music, everything it’s like im there i still remember sgt reznov the characters are soo cool back then

[@oshmeister9880]

Love how games are rated M for mature and the companies still pander to kids to take the more serious adult themes away. I played M rated games as a kid but I didn’t want them to be childish games. I liked them for what they were.

[@docileyoke]

Hold on, so strong language, suggestive themes, blood and gore, dismemberment, etc. Is pandering to kids?

[@oshmeister9880]

@@docileyoke no but taking the realism away and creating this animated type feel and these “operators” makes it feel less like COD and more like Fortnite.

[@docileyoke]

@@oshmeister9880 That's where you're wrong, call of duty was was never realistic, It was just military themed, and it still is, the only difference being skins are involved, you are playing call of duty for the wrong reason if you play it for immersion/realism, 360 no scopes are NOT realistic, Running full speed with machine guns is NOT realistic, etc. If people wanted immersion they play battlefield, if people want a quick fast paced match of an arcade shooter before school or work, they play call of duty. The only time call of duty takes it self seriously is the campaign. And that's how it's always been. They never took away anything, the "Operators" are still military themed, it's just there skins (that are optional) that are different. Because generic copy an paste mil Sim skins wouldn't work and wouldn't be compatible with call of duty's arcade shooter genre.

[@oshmeister9880]

@@docileyoke yeah yeah yeah it still doesn’t feel like COD and definitely seems to follow in the animated lame footsteps like what Fortnite has.

[@docileyoke]

@@oshmeister9880 It doesn't? The game doesn't even look animated..

[@shaggytoph]

This is what "they're just cosmetics, just ignore the shops" gets you.

[@sausageman4706]

People who say that don't realise it ruins the experience for others who don't buy the cosmetics but still getting shot at by Nicki Minaj lol

[@divinecomedian2]

Yeah, it's not something you can ignore in a MULTIPLAYER game. I wouldn't care if I don't have to witness it.

[@TiL_Deimos]

i tried downloading it today, didnt even make it through a warsone game, i was confused with the menu for 10 minutes, it feels like im surfing on a game store 😂

[@liammbiscwit]

You realise no one was buying the realism skins right and everyone wanted the new, colourful skins ? Literally everyone wanted it. I myself have only bought one skin since 2019 but to make it sound like it's not the players who did it is crazy. If they didn't sell then it wouldn't have been added. So blame the players next time not the company. Although this whole video is saying a whole lot of nothing and worded in a bias way. This is literally an arcade shooter not a mil sim

[@NotAdachiPeople]

@@sausageman4706Simple: they could add an option to essentially make you see all other skins as default skins so it doesn’t break the immersion

[@Soliye.]

What hurts most is knowing we'll never get to experience it again. To think that, as a kid, I "couldn't wait" to see how these games would be with future tech... Fuck was I off with my predictions.

[@blvckl0tcs750]

nah yall just dickriding nostalgia. the amount of newer titles treated like shit for 0 reason bewilders me. even cold war did a good job in what it was

[@drew3045]

​@@blvckl0tcs750you're either 15 or you're terrible at the games and have no idea what you're talking about

[@el-uomo-y-el-chapo]

​@@blvckl0tcs750 the video wasn't necessarily about new cods being shit, it was about the lack of cohesion and theme behind the newer entries. I agree that Cold War was ok (kinda), but even that game suffers from the Fornite syndrome.

[@KORUPTable]

Same happened to us Halo fans, thank god 343 finally made infinite playable and returned Halo back to what made Halo good with some new gameplay features. Sure some of the cosmetics are dumb but atleast it's not fortnite level corporate garbage thrown into the game for the heckin kiddos

[@charliereg7221]

@@blvckl0tcs750 they dickride their own nostalgia, they rebooted the whole franchise and turned it into fortnite.

[@aneekes.]

YOU’RE TALKING SENSE. I knew, many of us feel same way about new call of duty games.

[@deancarr4507]

I often wonder how the guys that created CoD 1-3 feel now, seeing what their franchise has become

[@narrow3601]

​@@felixaderwait really?

[@MooNAtyX]

@@narrow3601 yeah, the head of activision Bobby Kotick sacked them after MW2 because they were basically visionaries, trying to make art out of their game, and Activision just wanted to make billions... I wish the reality was a bit more complex than that but sadly it's really what happened. Infinity Ward, the guys that made COD1 and 2, saw their franchise being given to treyarch for COD3, Treyarch fucked up several times before achieving something like Black Ops, so IW decided to create their own franchise within the franchise : Modern Warfare. It worked so well and made activision his billions, but they hated each other by that point and when infinity yard wanted to keep advancing the state of COD further towards an idea looking like Titanfall he just sacked them... The people left there were barely good enough to make a pale copy of MW2 : MW3. When the people from Infinity Ward got sacked they finally could work on their dream Titanfall, under their new name Respawn. Activision, knowing exactly what Respawn would want to work on, told their studios to increment a shitty version of jetpacks in COD, simply to outshine Titanfall three years in a row, just to say COD did it first. It really is a tragic tragic story. If only Activision and the geniuses at IW/Respawn would have been able to work together, the last ten years of the video game industry would have looks vastly different. Very sad

[@holos1345]

@@felixader at least Apex Legends maintained their art direction with every season. Unlike Warzone where its a free for all

[@CalyGamer13]

@@narrow3601​​⁠​⁠​⁠Yeah, they got pushed out by Activision. They held the rights for CoD, but Activision would gain them if they were ‘lawfully/ legally’ fired.

[@The-Enemy-Medic]

@@holos1345 apex maintained their art direction? if you mean the 20 dollar legendary skins and the drip fed lore I guess your standards are pretty low for what Titanfall's "art direction" is supposed to be.

[@alsenar2]

Talking about the menu: Remember World at War or Black Ops 1? Those menus were just incredible on how they set the mood for the whole game.

[@steveharveysmustache3988]

Now they’ve got the “streaming service” ui that’s infuriating to navigate through

[@Mike-xp8zc]

You code break out of the chair in BO1 and play arcade zombies om the computer You can't do anything remotely close to.that now smh

[@NERGYStudios]

And the fricking background music on the menu in MW2, specially the Spec Ops theme. They put more effort on that track itself than entire modern games.

[@Villager_U]

Bo1 menu is goated, probably the best in cod history

[@bob2600]

Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but MW2's menu is the best. The menus are clean and intentional in their layout and they serve their function. The current iteration is a jumbled mess and nearly incomprehensible

[@AnUnusualEg]

It really hits hard when you go between old cod games and the new ones. The feeling of just being a soldier in a war that has so much brutality now turned into a bunch of celebrities shooting each other yelling absurd lines really killed the vibe cod used to give.

[@princeswisher704]

I was on mw3 last night and I heard 21 savage say “I see an opp” I was like bro

[@jeremyvelazquez8600]

Don't forget the coloring bullets

[@talon9639]

@@princeswisher704 lmfaoo that is soo disappointing

[@rayhezbroham7297]

@@jeremyvelazquez8600mw2019 tracers were cool, they did them so well. But I agree now that they’re the most eye sore thing ever in the game

[@Bloke-98]

That is exactly my issue with cod and now battlefield too. I don’t want to be a unique super operator with special abilities. It’s so much more immersive when I’m a nameless soldier in a realistic-ish setting and scenario

[@adrian.o4495]

when loading into a mission felt like you were actually going into battle

[@lostinspace466]

You hit the nail on the head here. COD used to have a distinct personality that tied serious, meaningful stories and themes to polished and unique gameplay. Now, the series is a bastard child of greed and vanity. What they’ve become is disgusting.

[@fireemblemaddict128]

COD has always been a propaganda cow game for farming military recruitment numbers. It's just openly a circus now.

[@JesusChristTheHoly]

Lmao liberal much?

[@WillyShankspeare]

@@fireemblemaddict128 I can't take this comments section seriously with people defending the games that brought in any faction with any gun nonsense. Russians using TAR 21s because why not?

[@louisfrederich8777]

They didn’t became it. Actually since the release of the OG Modern Warfare 2, Activision fired the leaders of Infinty Ward and the rest of the team followed because they lost their head leaders.. All that so Robert Kotick could do what he wanted with the Call Of Duty series. You can even go further than that. Much of the Infinity Ward guys used to be the ones that made the first Medal Of Honor which was incredible. They were called « 2015 » at the time. Since EA wanted to it themselves, Activision bought 2015 and ask them to make a concurrent for Medal Of Honor -> Call Of Duty (which were literally called Medal Of Honor Killer at that time). Let’s go way later in time by skipping the fact that Treyarch went in the circle and Activision liked them better because more obedient.. Let’s go to a few months before the release of MW2 (OG). Infinity Ward ask if they could do a more futuristic Call Of Duty. Robert refuses BUT he knew exactly what they wanted to do with it because they presented it. Few months later after the release of MW2 (OG) the two leaders of Infinity Ward are fired and so follow the rest of the team as I said. And guess what ? They go make Titanfall. They made the game they wanted and because Robert knew exactly that they could destroy his leader ship in FPS since they were the guys that made it he asked his teams (Treyarch and the new recruits of Infinity Ward) to create futuristic Call Of Duty. It wouldn’t be a problem if the games are bad because they’ll still makes sell and more importantly since it’s call of duty, that would make people sick of futuristic gameplay year after year. And there you have (I think Advanced Warfare) for the release of Titanfall 2 that corrected all the problems of the first one. And boom ! Just like that people wouldn’t buy Titanfall 2 because they didn’t want any futuristic things no more. But I swear to god if you guys had launch it to could have see that the gameplay is all that Call Of Duty should have been ! Now let’s go even closer in time. 2019. Apex Legends goes out. A game put in the “set” of Titanfall (you can clearly see the similarities if you played both). The game worked great in the first year, it’s even one of the favorites part of Apex for a bunch of players… and boom again.. Warzone go out in 2020 😂 Anyway I talk too much but I felt like I had to tell that story (very shortened though). Excuse myself by advance for my English it’s not my native language I tried my best. Thank you for the people that read me 😂

[@MrKrewie]

@@WillyShankspeare for the sake of game balance i suppose more than to appear realistic, its a game after all...

[@kjgames888]

Another point: these new, fancy cinematics DO NOT belong in Call of Duty! A huge part of the immersion in older cods was made by always being in the POV of the protagonist

[@train_go_boom2065]

I miss environmental storytelling in games

[@googleisevil8958]

Imagine Mason's meeting with JFK if it was done the Modern CoD way. Fuck BO1 had the best immersion of all other CoD games.

[@kjgames888]

@@googleisevil8958 absolute facts !

[@X2011racer]

They're trying to copy the cinematic techniques seen in Halo and Perfect Dark, where when a cutscene begins, the camera cuts away from the player's POV and uses typical camera angles to capture everyone's faces in these scenes, and the camera panning back into the player character's POV when it ends.

[@nullvoid5532]

This reminds me on how Gears of War 5 added WWE, Terminator and other cosmetics... it made it goofy in my opinion, and that's not counting the trash story.

[@civilprotection3114]

I’d like to point out the fact that during the loading screens for the Pacific missions in World At War, they showed actual executions/ war crimes committed by the Japanese during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. WAW is one of the only games I know that shows you real footage of human beings being murdered. The devs didn’t want to just make a game, they wanted to show how horrible war is and how people can do horrible things to one another.

[@mattgent8599]

World at war will forever be the goat for not only it's replayability but also for its open and honest effort at showing the brutality of war.

[@R3TR0J4N]

the game was so grounded, in addition of the detail which was such a welcome one for its linear scale as small things were noticeable amongst the chaos..

[@ShadowReaper-pu2hx]

No one would dare to portray Japan in a bad light today.

[@HelghastStalker]

And on the Eastern Front too. You see both victims of Generalplan-Ost hanging from nooses, and an SS officer getting executed as he's tied to a pole.

[@WestBeachFLboy]

That and the fact that you could shoot limbs/heads off in game. They went hard AF with WAW

[@mildlyangryguy6292]

The Groot skin in the new MW3 absolutely affects gameplay. It's actually ridiculous how many times I've died to someone with that skin because I can't see them due to it blending in with many of the map environments.

[@Li-Fu7]

They will always push for pay to win to some degree because they know certain players will always seek it out and will be willing to pay for it. There's no way they pushed a Groot skin out and didn't wonder if it will help people blend in with the environment more, they just care more about profit potential and only care about balance so far as they make it seem like they care about balance.

[@naviennisshanth8195]

one of the most impactful moments in the entire cod history has to be the nuke blast in cod4. it was shocking to most players because the USMC's approach of going all out action movie actually failed, which was quite unheard of at that time in the gaming scene where badass = automatic win

[@jordanhendrix2619]

The original MW series was insanely good. I mean, you can just listen to the soundtrack and feel like you’re playing the game. And so many main characters were killed, it wasn’t trying to be a happy-go-lucky experience.

[@anoby1175]

My first memory of COD was the nuke scene.

[@mingyuhuang8944]

It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.❤❤

[@f1ibraaa]

In-game first person cutscenes need to come back. It’s way more immersive than having actual cutscenes and thats something i LOVED about cod campaigns. The classic ones are so iconic, like when bowman died in BO1 or when ghost and roach died in mw2 and no russian as well. It makes it all streamlined and immersive

[@zachm9202]

I agree. If I wanted to watch some 3rd person cutscene I would watch a movie. The 1st person aspect was way better.

[@Rasengan456-g5z]

True

[@TREVORVADER]

Same. It was so much more immersive back then

[@mightza3781]

That was the design philosophy of the original COD games to make you feel like just another solider on the ground.

[@smrdljivogovno3]

even steven spielberg agreed with this

[@bradenfiducia3248]

I’ll forever remember the ranger that hands you that M4 in the downed chopper then gets fuckin domed 6 inches from your face.

[@Mr.X-A1]

Yess, what a game mw2 was!!! Peak gaming

[@jamesgilbert2862]

That was the best campaign I have ever played. I recently found the version where they redid the graphics for just the campaign, it's still the same incredible story, but now with more immersive graphics. If you can find it, it's worth getting.

[@scottcole1423]

TAKE THIS AND STAY DOWN! 💥

[@pumpituppowell]

00:29 goosebumps

[@marcuspoole44]

Shivers

[@Boxingblocks9778]

No one mentions the fact that zombies back in WaW and BO1 used to base it's story on historical blueprints and classified experiments. Of course, it's not realistic but it was inspired by them from real life in some way.

[@blvckl0tcs750]

almost every existing cod title does this

[@Frank-qn7de]

remember when zombies were just a wonderweapon from the germans to make super soldiers and the illuminaty had ties with all this but then in bo2 they decided they were gonna take the marvel-esque multiverse magic BS route with time loops and 2 alien races fighting with zombies themselves being almost an afterthought, what a massive waste of a story in my opinion but atleast ultimis (the OGs) were cool

[@it2spooky4me79]

​@@Frank-qn7deI personally like the multiverse story, plus they made great characters, I could care less about dumb old Nazi zombies, the story was good and so were the characters, and that's all I care about, in the end the multiverse was destroyed anyways.

[@im_justin_u9493]

@@Frank-qn7dezombies was always about the zombies in Black ops the multiverse wasnt a multiverse it was a looping timeline shit rn zombies is the only mode that isn’t complete shit. There was always magic in zombies the aether was a thing since world at war element 115. Pack a punch is literally a magic machine.

[@devketchem1955]

True bro

[@biggreen1456]

I despise that COD became the "McDonalds" of videogames, it's almost embarrassing to tell my friends my fond memories of COD when this modern shit is what they think of

[@caiuscosades1791]

It's even worse when you get called old because you played the OG games from the 2000s/2010s.

[@GraemeGowling]

I HVAE DONE IT WITH COD BATTLE FEILD FORTNITE HECK EVEN MINECRAFT I FEEL ASHMEDD OF PLAYING THESE GAMES NOW BUT BACK IN THE DAY I WAS PROUD

[@RustCohle072]

​@@caiuscosades1791Those would be little kids who have never had any real responsibilities in their life, haha!

[@redline841]

Tough shit. It transitioned from PC to Console focus 2009 and it was all downhill from there. Death of Dedicated servers meant it was all over.

[@noobguy9973]

@@caiuscosades1791 Bruh ı've played DOOM 1 (1993) what does that make me :D

[@Afineaddition]

We need this identity back. The franchise was at its peak from 2007 to 2012.

[@NexusKin]

I'd argue it was from 2003-2012. Those original WW2 games were also super fun.

[@flyingbeast7902]

@@NexusKin yeah i grew up on cod 2, i learned basic english from it, because i played it so much, one of the best games at that time.

[@feixue1005]

Only way to get it is to leave and support the games that have kept the identity alive

[@TeurastajaNexus]

You forgot the first Call of Duty and its expansion United Offensive. Shame on you.

[@MooNAtyX]

the head of activision Bobby Kotick sacked the people that made COD1, COD2, MW1&2 after MW2 because they were basically visionaries, trying to make art out of their game, and Activision just wanted to make billions... I wish the reality was a bit more complex than that but sadly it's really what happened. Infinity Ward, the guys that made COD1 and 2, saw their franchise being given to treyarch for COD3, Treyarch fucked up several times before achieving something like Black Ops, so IW decided to create their own franchise within the franchise : Modern Warfare. It worked so well and made activision his billions, but they hated each other by that point and when infinity yard wanted to keep advancing the state of COD further towards an idea looking like Titanfall he just sacked them... The people left there were barely good enough to make a pale copy of MW2 : MW3. When the people from Infinity Ward got sacked they finally could work on their dream Titanfall, under their new name Respawn. Activision, knowing exactly what Respawn would want to work on, told their studios to increment a shitty version of jetpacks in COD, simply to outshine Titanfall three years in a row, just to say COD did it first. It really is a tragic tragic story. If only Activision and the geniuses at IW/Respawn would have been able to work together, the last ten years of the video game industry would have looks vastly different. Very sad

[@Metro593]

Somebody from the golden ages of COD should step up and create their own title

[@CAJfur]

The main thing that I miss is having factions. My favorite part about cod was just feeling like a soldier in a war, especially being able to hear what they are saying in their native language. You don't really get that anymore. Having "factions" in mw3 mp (current cod) doesn't even make any sense. I'll be on the spetsnaz side, and I'll be playing as this Irish guy named Conor.

[@theWheezy]

You must not remember Conor McGregor being a highly decorated Spetsnaz soldier as a side hustle :)

[@TheLenientgravy441]

One of my favorite memories of BO1 was playing in Hanoi or one of the other maps with the Viet Cong. being able to identify where the other team was at; based on the language they spoke. Say when they threw a grenade, or some other action that required a voice line. It’s entirely absent in the new games. Everybody sounds about the same, so there’s no added depth to the gameplay.

[@mingyuhuang8944]

It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.😢😢

[@HatlessTea]

My Team vs Enemy Team

[@Nile-oz2go]

Ghosts started this shit when they introduced only 2 factions compared to COD4-BO2 where we used to have many factions with unique theme and tone.

[@Papiness]

As a kid then, World at War taught me much about the gravity of war and despite the fun I had, the weight of it always stuck to me and was never just a spectacle or novelty

[@gentlyvillainous]

World at war and big red one are some of the best games imo I terms of story and impact, the weight and sadness of every death are unmatched.

[@jase276]

World at War is definitely the best CoD. A great story mode that I could play again and again that was extremely heavy. And the funnest multiplayer known to man. Then add in zombies? shiiiii

[@Casual_Lifestyle]

@@gentlyvillainousabsolutely loved The big red one. It was my first COD game

[@Markizas.Karabasas]

cod 4 > waw > cod 2 and 1

[@JimmyPizzaDelivery]

@@Markizas.Karabasas First Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was simply put, the greatest. For me at least, I can always go back to the campaign, and always have a blast. Also, cheats.

[@Almassy22]

Dude.... I've been looking for a video like this for YEARS, in less then 10 minutes you described how call of duty lost its "war theme" and became a soulless game, with forgetable maps and characters. At the end of the day it's good to know that I'm not the only one like this

[@PossiblySheep]

W profile picture

[@filiperubin]

True, I feel the same when playing the newer titles. Even though it doesn't change the gameplay, it feels a bit "ughhhhh" when I play a match full of colorful characters and weapons.

[@MILSPEC_SOLIM]

agreed

[@NicoKuba]

Preach

[@MercurialDecree]

Hopping on this band wagon. Fck the new cods

[@raimondjarv1672]

Respect for this video. I really miss that war game used to be dark and serious. Now sliding some pink pop music singer on her ass around the room, inside and and outside.. games had metal inside. Like MW3 when you got lvl up...! Or that "Search and destroy" while metal playing in the background

[@spartan300zx]

I miss a simple homepage with campaign, multiplayer to select. Now I need a PhD to understand the damn homepage.

[@streamlove2]

This! I swear

[@Braybro-ci4pt]

Fr bro

[@gabrielnefriol9039]

Yeah !

[@armintor2826]

I remember when they changed the front icon of CoD2019 to make it the EXACT SAME as Warzone and i literally wasnt able to tell which was what

[@spartan300zx]

@@armintor2826 I couldn't even find the damn campaign, WHICH IS WHY I BUY THE DAMN GAME FOR lol

[@TheActMan]

great video! Agree with pretty much everything you say! Keep up the great content!!

[@nicko4348]

hello act man

[@jim122]

TheActMan! You legend!

[@WeedShaggy]

Here before this blows up. Train go boom.

[@theWheezy]

Thank you very much, you too! Been a watcher for a while now

[@RickySama240]

Ayoo Actman! 😄

[@Pixelblut]

I am so damn glad to have experienced the peak of the franchise.

[@novas702]

all long-time players of COD all did have same experience, Call of Duty 2,3 COD 4 MW, World at Wars, COD MW 2, 3, COD Black ops 1,2, even COD Ghosts is good, too (its bad is not normal), and also the reason I always enjoy the remastered MWs more than rebooted ones (even they dont have multiplayer)

[@mingyuhuang8944]

​@@novas702It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.😢😢😢

[@itsgottiitv]

same here dude . something we will never get back.

[@ADMICKEY]

​@@mingyuhuang8944 meanwhile being in a full lobby with Viking skins in a Viking themed map in fortnite: Also, military skins fighting other military skins in a cod map made by a fortnite player: Also OG skins being on the OG map during season OG:

[@mangothemike]

Call of Duty then: The Dark Knight Call of Duty now: Batman & Robin

[@OXY187]

Call of Duty then: - Battles and secret operations that happened in real life are presented in a videogame that allows you to witness the history while playing a game and having fun. - Believable setting and an atmosphere in a could-happen real life scenario. - Brutal and horrific sides of real life warfare and its effects on soldiers. Call of Duty now: - A huge circus with goofy characters and colorful skins. - Making money is in mind. - Feels like a soccer arena.

[@voraxumbra1]

Call of duty has almost no historically accurate depictions of real life wars/battles. Theyre all either inspired by or just loosely based on real events.... that were grossly misrepresented to make it more fun. If youre looking at any call of duty for history, then... idk what to tell you. Maybe pick up a real history book. Because youre learning fanfic.

[@djtrac3r935]

@@voraxumbra1 thats not what he said, call of duty back then was all about showing the grit and brutality of war and the effects it has on society. World War 3, the US being invaded, Civilians being murdered by terrorists to try and pin blame on the US for organizing it. By brutal and horrific sides of real life warfare, they likely mean that the game is portraying the effects warfare have on soldiers, the civilian populace, and the governments of the world. The game has completely lost its soul and it no longer feels like its trying to portray the brutalities of war, but now is setting up the British SAS/TF141 as the heros of the world.

[@joannanawrothenormie910]

True

[@edmundliankalang5925]

That last point hits harder because there was Messi in COD.

[@souldream6770]

I include new Ghost into this circus too because he is too badass. OG Ghost more like simple human. He can panic, he can scream and he doesn't have silly mask, he has simple balaclava.

[@the_greenfox]

Your point about previous campaigns jumping from "nobody" character to "nobody" character was excellent, and something i never realized how much I appreciated it. The old approach focused on stories and not characters, which was infinitely better imo.

[@bearsausage8599]

Random Rifleman>Industry plant character skin

[@DoNotSubscribetoMePlease]

It not only put you in different perspectives but also made awareness that anyone you know might’ve been through this, living human beings go through this exact thing to protect the nation they love and the people they know. Not just some same protagonist who is going through all these wild adventures with a few friends along the way. That’s what made those campaigns meaningful because the world didn’t really depend only on YOU, but on different individuals doing their job to be able to succeed.

[@Archiephiu]

Totally agree with you, that made the first to Call of Duties so great and memorable

[@Yan-tz9pn]

Tbf, only the American characters were nobodies. Dimitri and Soap are fan favourites. Roach was kinda a nobody too tbf

[@nallyg4314]

That’s the whole reason these characters they got to milk to death were iconic in the first place! Nobody gives a shit anymore, and it’s funny/sad to think that now the younger generation who never played those CODs, these “hero” characters are just cool “because I said so”. It’s emotionless and lame, at least there’s finally about to be a crossroads

[@SwaddleBeard]

I recently started playing with friends and family who haven’t touched a COD since the BO2 days and their reaction always comes with questions asking things like “why is it like that now?” and “why did they do it that way?” Then of course for me to only give them this almost depressing answer of “this is just what COD is now….” then I get to watch them eventually decide they don’t wanna play because it’s not what they remember.

[@frossy365]

Man.. I miss the old days

[@mingyuhuang8944]

It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.😢😢😢

[@divinecomedian2]

Why would you subject them to that slop? I'm done with new CoD games and wish more folks would vote with their wallets as I have.

[@Russell46]

In Black Ops 6 I don't know why they bother having the maps say things like "Iraq - 1991". Because it doesn't really feel like I'm fighting in 1991 Iraq when a purple-haired-robot-woman melts me with a dragon-scaled laser gun. I find the gameplay fun, but the immersion is ruined.

[@ca_lcium]

MW2019 had their own announcers for each faction. For some reason, two of these announcers were axed for release from the Coalition side, leaving them with only one, while Allegiance had three different announcers.

[@Vberar]

The British guy from the Coalition was the best❤

[@GrainOnTheGo]

I think a customization system I always think about was all the little things you could unlock for your classes in Ghosts. You had kit pieces unique to the Ghosts and Federation troops. It all fit and was a little bit of change you could have and often didn't feel out of place with the universe established.

[@coltforceplayer]

Ghosts 🤢

[@LegoMonthMan]

@@coltforceplayerGhost haters hating on the game when they never played it:

[@jesseroberts1041]

@@LegoMonthManHonestly, I don’t remember it being too bad.

[@user-hx5oe9iz1h]

It wasn't that bad really

[@Spiinellii]

i loved ghosts back then and now idc

[@bradleykalinoski99427]

Everything you touched on has happened to battlefield too. I remember playing bf3 and 4 and feeling so immersed in these massive battles. Russians vs Marines or China. Proper announcers with accents from their native nations using vehicles that correlated to those countries. Now its "operators" that are the same for both teams, generic announcers and everyone using the same vehicles. It destroyed the whole vibe of the matches. BF4 to me was peak large scale multiplayer shooter. Now its a shell of its former self and barely a military shooter.

[@ArcticChonk]

Battlefield 1 was the last immersive game in the franchise imo. Sure, over the top as hell and unrealistic but the atmosphere and immersion was amazing.

[@HansKlopek]

Diversity hires are in charge now.

[@comradelemon6928]

thats why i genually play portal mode more than i do the other modes

[@comradelemon6928]

@@ArcticChonk agreed but theres mods where you can change the unit skins to be more realistic, if you look type in bf1 realistic ww1 skins or whatever it will pop up in nexus and you'll see what i mean and i also miss the classic rifle class servers only cause that made immersion perfect!

[@Pikwhip]

BF3 is probably my all time favorite FPS. It was ground breaking when it released. Couldn't play it enough.

[@MichaelBlek]

I finished COD 2 more than 15 times when i was a kid and games were limited, COD 1 somewhere around 8 times and the same for COD 4,5, MW2, MW3. I also liked Black Ops 1! After Black Ops 2 i faded as a COD fan because i was never into multiplayer PVP style games and the campaigns were not so good like they used to. Sometimes i turn back to older games and i can find that joy over and over again. A joy that i cannot find in newer games!

[@zaheersarang6466]

Stopped playing CoD around 2012 and honestly. I'm not missing anything by the looks of it

[@richychhay8368]

Yup, you're definately not. The recent MW2 is fucking garbage to the max level. Dont ever buy it.

[@badguystreetman]

If u like zombies then i recommend playing Black Ops 3 but if you don't just stay away

[@aaronlarsen8412]

You made a good choice but imo Black Ops 3 was the best video game I've ever played

[@badguystreetman]

@@aaronlarsen8412 It has a really bad campaign mode to be the best in my opinion but for the zombies part i kinda agree

[@Wishmaster787]

​@@badguystreetmanBO3 is a very mixed bag. The campaign and multiplayer was rotten but it was also the absolute pinnacle of Cod Zombies.

[@CardinalAngel]

I totally agree with this video. I feel like long-term, these newer games will have their legacies forgotten due to them not having a cohesive theme. Also, the new games especially the rebooted MW series are so hellbent on using nostalgia that they forget to actually make some new stories/characters to be nostalgic about. Vanguard tried but failed due to bad, quippy MCU-like writing. It's WW2... But at least It's comforting to know that I can always come back to these iconic games and play their campaigns or hop on zombies!

[@nickysimi9866]

Right!! That's what I've been saying, these newer games feel like mcu movies, I miss the regular soldiers in mp and in each storyline too. Yes, they still had special ops shit, but they had that meat grinder line infantry aspect too

[@jaredmiller9149]

They played it really safe with main characters too. They killed three main characters in mw3 2023 when they'd kill at least that many per game in the old trilogy. There were stakes to the games that made them exciting

[@rexthewolf3149]

⁠@@jaredmiller9149that comes from the fact that the reboot games have a smaller cast. The old games had more throwaway characters.

[@piotr78]

The missiles! We have to find THE MISSIIIIIIILES!

[@jaredmiller9149]

@@rexthewolf3149 it showed that there was a bigger world happening besides what the main cast were going through and that nobody was untouchable. The newer games were so self contained it made it feel like nothing was going on outside of what the main characters did

[@spellwhomstve1]

A good analogue for this tonal shift is comparing OG Ghost to Current Ghost OG Ghost: A normal and otherwise unremarkable TF-141 member with a cool mask that is introduced in MW2 and dies in MW2. Current Ghost: An edgy, invincible badass with a deep voice and an intimidating posture. He has survived the game he was introduced in and its sequel.

[@meh-pd7tr]

I think I saw a comment describing the remake as an Avengers group. It made me realize how they felt less grounded and just felt like typical action movie star heroes than just soldiers who could die at any moment. Also, Makarov was absolutely wasted in this remake. He barely had a presence at all

[@co7769]

Thing is, we remember him so fondly PRECISELY because they killed him. We saw this cool soldier with a cool mask and name, we wanted more of him and then they just took him away, making us want him more. Its like when you enjoy the mistery of something more than the answer itself.

[@JustAdude291]

current ghost is so cringey with the halloween mask and cape, it's unbelievably lame. I'm just glad Soap was kept grounded

[@vlima7164]

the funny part is the voice actor for the current ghost sounds nothing like that in real life, its a completely fake tough guy voice he puts on in the game which is super cringe. OG ghost just had a normal british guy voice, and was cool purely because of his lore and otherwise quiet confidence + his mask. Simple balaclava with some spray on it. Current ghost wears a halloween costume while in the field its such a joke. No one in the military dresses like that and if you did youd get laughed at.

[@JustAdude291]

@@vlima7164 totally agree

[@Reverse876]

watched a couple of your videos now and you are very well spoken. good comparison's and editing.

[@fj7509]

Call of Duty is at its best when you're a small piece of an incredibly massive puzzle. Playing as lesser-known foot soldiers in the Modern Warfare campaign, then seeing how each piece flows together with each faction you were a part of, then having all those factions team up under the same goal was SO cool to see. The Modern Warfare mission where task force and delta squad team up to rescue the Russian president's daughter was one of the coolest missions ever because of how everything led up to that moment

[@AJayZy]

You’re 100% correct man. I remember everything about those campaigns because of how cool it was when Delta touched down in post gas attack France to help out the GIGN/track down the bomb maker

[@domskey]

Sandman, do you copy? Sandman, are you still there?

[@nickthompson1812]

Dude… you just hit me right in the nostalgia. Big Red One. Man, I loved playing as numerous countrymen all fighting the same enemy. CoD 2 and 3 were the best story modes for these reasons

[@peachout6227]

ah man, you make me wanna go down the rabbit hole again

[@honzabalak3462]

MW2019 was the last game with a clear goal and thematic identity. Even then it was walking on the very edge of what we'd consider "consistent theme" in the golden age of CoD. Sure, it had operators but the factions made sense. And even their most funky skins looked mostly grounded. The locations of MP maps were also tied to the campaign - Urzikstan, Kastovia, England. Not a bloody mess of random locations with no military value like in MWII & III. WZ in 2019 era felt immersive too. It expanded the story and it took place in the world around the multiplayer maps.

[@WellyWonkaDonka]

MW19 caused all of these issues lol. Hence why its an abhorrent game. Blops was on the edge of the cliff and mw19 was like lets just jump right off into the casuals market fully. Fuck having a skill gap fuck having a soul. Nostalgia bait all in. The whack on probably the worst BR on the market compared to pubg, apex and fortnite. Sadly it worked and its killed cod for anyone who likes what cod used to be.

[@PieroMinayaRojas]

​@@WellyWonkaDonkayeah dude we get it you hate the game now stop spamming

[@HowlingWolf518]

Eh, the "goal and themes" bar keeps shifting - if somebody started out with CoD2 in '05, they're likely still upset about stuff like aim assist and killstreaks.

[@Pearloryx]

@@PieroMinayaRojashe literally had 3 comments throughout the channel. Maybe you need to define spam first 😅

[@deejaythedj313]

Thank you! When I was talking about this shit since CW, People keep mentioning “well 2019 had cosmetics and anime girl operators” yeah but they were still hella grounded and made some sense in the game. It was kinda airsoftish but still had some military influence. Now? Bitch is that HOMELANDER?…with a GUN?! HOMELANDER?! A GUN? Adding 21 Savage is a funny idea but like…shirtless? If they added a celeb in 2019 like the Spec Ops guys who their models were based on, they were at least kitted tf out. This shit now is ridiculous and no consistency and I hate it

[@lethalfumes]

Darktide is a great example of having micro transactions while sticking to the theme and not being silly

[@Biggssyyy]

Theyre not really allowed to be silly lol. Games workshop is very tight with their settings and what they can and cant do. Every little thing has to be approved by them for it to be in the game. Still, solid comparison though

[@mileator]

They've got fucking pirates in the game right now and it's still feels entirely thematic and appropriate.

[@mingyuhuang8944]

It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.😢😢😢​@@Biggssyyy

[@armintor2826]

​@@mileator thats the imperium for ya. Mfs can be dressed in 15th century nobleman dressings and as long as they have a bionic eye or some cables then it fits the bill lol

[@pokadoka444]

or battlefield 5 or 2042 they never add anything unrelated but still make it look cool

[@THEGR8ONE87]

This is very true thats why in the beginning of mw19 was so good and remembered too the operators felt like in the OG mw2 and the theme of military realistic warfare. As soon too many cosmetics came it started to fall apart as often said what great would have been a toggle button to deactivate those skins

[@krypttt]

loading up cod and hearing nicki minaj say "i need a f r e ak47" will forever haunt me until the day i die.

[@gharretje]

I had to look up whether that's really a thing. It is. Damn

[@ADMICKEY]

Why? Can't you just, forget it?

[@krypttt]

@@ADMICKEYbro we went from having missions about world wide terrorist attacks and realistic multiplayer to nicki minaj emoting, i can’t NEVER forget

[@Notwoodcrawler]

Kalashnikov was rolling in his grave when they wrote that line

[@my_guyzer]

1:50 gave me instantaneous chills..! This screen use to idle when i was doing homework, waiting for the boys, or when I was taking a break/eating... You can't deny the nostalgia and flashbacks this menu produces years later!

[@LN_997]

One thing I miss is the attention to detail, like the voice lines you use examples if you listen closely at 3:16 the announcer has no radio filter over their voice because the EMP would have knocked out all radios. It's stuff like that really made the game

[@SerfinBird]

I noticed it too. He also sounds more strained like he's trying to scream so everyone too. Its such amazing detail

[@King-we2vc]

thats fire its like the actual soldiers on the battle field are telling each other that

[@lorenzoniccolai1519]

I have to say only one thing: you made me cry, those games were my childhood, seeing how childish they became and every year i hope to see a beautyful come back with what you have said in the video. Thanks a lot bro

[@Dra1n__TV]

You said everything that I've been thinking about the recent CoD releases, they have no soul, no character, no immersion. Great video, Rangers lead the way!

[@theWheezy]

Heck yeah! Thanks for the dono, rangers indeed lead the way!

[@VonCraft]

As a graphic designer, I look at it as call of duty has lost its 'branding'. In every aspect. From the lack of music, annoucers, the focus on operators in a bid to sell skins like fortnight and overwatch. The grounded-ness of Cod used to go beyond just the font on the screen but as the very examples you talk about in this video. Each cod game felt different and I remember World at War being quite gritty compared to earlier entries that I had played. My favorite being Call of Duty 2, The big Red 1. Gamecube. It was very band of brothers but not nearly as visceral as WaW but each felt at home as great experiences. Now it does feel like.. cod lost its 'flavor'. And I love history. So Call of Duty's WWII campaigns always were a massive pull for me. I wish they'd go back to that. Exploring an era. Having an identity that also has something to say that feels unique to that game. For me, I think the writing fell off after black ops 1. I think narratively, those are my favorites. I knew to dodge the storm that was WW2. Bleh.

[@dav786]

There are so many conflicts they could base a new cod game on, make it gritty, remove operators... But one can only dream

[@tagus100]

The Mil-Sim skins in MW19 were amazing and it is a crime they were not released in the store once the seasonal updates had ended.

[@shaggytoph]

but anime skins sold a lot back in mw 2019, so that's why they deviated from making them

[@tagus100]

@@shaggytoph Should never have done it in the first place.

[@shaggytoph]

@@tagus100 but people were literally asking them on twitter for those skins, IW delivered & it gave them a lot of money, sadly there was nothing we could do, whales always win

[@halfasoap1172]

One of the coolest moments i've ever had in a campaign was fighting through Vorkuta, taking cover from the DShK behind the coal carts and pushing towards the tower. The sense of desperation and resolve as unarmed prisoners throw themselves at the enemy so that their allies might escape.

[@neatdoggos5937]

"Follow the Queen. Brrrt." What queen?

[@jawnjawnson525]

Yea you’re dead on. I had no idea how fire those mw2 announcers were. I heard that Spetznas voice and got chills

[@Zeitgeist608]

I got chills when I heard the BO1 announcers. Just pure nostalgia man

[@sleepyashi]

I always hated the "cod was never realistic" arguement. There's a huge difference between how a game plays and maintaining artistic/tonal integrity

[@GoatedJoyBoy]

cod isnt realistic tho it was more realistic back then but def not now thats not how war is fought at all

[@Pack_Watch]

@@GoatedJoyBoywho cares

[@John-X]

Call of Duty 4 almost felt documentarian at times. The big action set-pieces didn't feel _too_ Hollywood-like, the dialogue was realistic and they didn't talk like cool movie guys with catchphrases and gruff voices, the group of soldiers just felt like a group of soldiers instead of Marvel Characters & you could just believe what happened could actually happen to some soldiers irl. Now it just feels like a bad cable tv show, or a new MCU movie. :/

[@nick_woow]

I think the word you are looking for is plausibility. Basically, while things where not necessarily 1:1 to reality, it still managed to follow it's own rules in a way that made sure you could get immersed in the story. It's how in stories with magic people don't question that characters can throw fireballs

[@TitanBeats]

IMO campaign is the theme of the game, Multiplayer non-tactical skins is gonna happen, if it doesn't, people are gonna ask for it.

[@charliegi-ei9ux]

I was always sucker for OG COD's multiplayer factions signs, like spawn themes, announcers etc. Finally someone brought this up, thank you ❤

[@DarthNinjaYT]

as someone who plays COD yearly, it’s hilarious to see the cosmetics in Multiplayer start realistic / grounded, and then by Season 2 they go all out wild.

[@phillipsproductions3143]

Mw3(2023) just forgoes all of that and is starting off with whacky shit out the gate. At least with mw2019 and mw2 had some cool milsim stuff at the beginning

[@JP-xd1vs]

I went from putting thousands of hours in MW2, MW3, BO2 and early CODs to not touching a game in years. SBMM, micro-transactions that are cooler than anything you could earn on your own, unfinished releases, and blatant abandonment of realism pushed me away. Obviously COD’s mp gameplay isn’t realistic and is entirely meant to be an arcade shooter, but having that connection to the campaign felt special, intentional, and gave me that G.I. Joe feeling I wanted as a kid. It’s so sad to see where the franchise is now.

[@Darkendesire]

I feel that 100% I have been playing cod since cod2 going from buying a cod every year to only couple years. cod mobile is alright for it being free lol

[@Moody801]

I stopped at BO1. It got too ridiculous after that. I gave MW2019 a shot and liked it but then it got overrun by battle royale type bullshit and I stopped playing and moved on to Insurgency Sandstorm, ARMA, and Squad.

[@kenshinyang7375]

​@@Moody801 Arma is fun but can be very silly too

[@SuperFriendBFG]

@@kenshinyang7375 True, but with ArmA you have way more control, thus you can make it far less silly.

[@JesusChristTheHoly]

No it’s called corporate greed. Nothing to do with getting older although these days it might

[@th3rm4l__]

You spoke out my heart in this video. I can't possibly bond to these goofy ass modern games that don't take themselves seriously and don't have a strong identity/thematic behind them. Each new release passes like water under the bridge and gets easily forgotten because they are just so senseless and lack strong essence. The older CoDs (especially the MW series) evoked feelings in me that I haven't forgotten to this day and it's been more than a decade since then. They felt like actual experiences that absorbed me into them to make me understand what they conveyed. Back then the games weren't only fun, but playing them from start to end felt like finishing a really good book due to the impeccable and splendid way they were presented. RIP old times. I feel bad for the new generations that won't get to experience any of this and what it feels like. Love the vid and the script, you earned a sub.

[@TheAnalyst_]

yeah stuff like this made me fall out of my hobby of gaming, now I just read books and train now

[@Explorerda]

Bro I remember people including me hating on World at War multiplayer for having red dot sights for weapons... Never imagined then that they would stoop this low by now.

[@Joe45-91]

Yea, I did too but at least you were still playing as a soldier and not some morals for hire merc team out to get h itler.

[@rayhezbroham7297]

It’s kinda crazy how great MW2019 was and how fast it went downhill after that. MW2019 was honestly a near perfect CoD game. Yes the maps were rough, but the gameplay and the setting was so good that I could overlook a bad map

[@lethweiblackbelt]

Two words. Consumerism🤝greed

[@dryspongeyt7353]

MW19 was good AT FIRST, but halfway into the lifespan when they started all the collab skins it really started to go downhill.

[@finkamain1621]

@@dryspongeyt7353 Once Warzone was released is when they ended up putting mostly goofy skins in each BP and store. Remember when they even cancelled the last season because Cold War was coming out, then they ended up releasing the RAAL MG and Makarov pistol months later and added Soap to the store to buy. They basically cut up the last season to sell everything for more money

[@americancapitalist9094]

That was the last one I played. It reminded me so much of the original MW2 which in my opinion is still ultimately the best.

[@docproc144]

@@dryspongeyt7353 Facts, it started out as a cool tactical COD game, then came the outrageous skins and shit. I remember when the wildest thing COD had were your calling cards and some of the camos you unlocked for your guns.

[@OhRaez]

I remember getting butterflies in my stomach, coming home from school, just FIENDING to play CoD4 or MW2 with my friends. It was so simple compared to now, but they genuinely were the best CoD games. Skins mean't how skilled you were, perks were earned, your choice of gun mean't who you were, your clan tag was serious bizness, just such good times lol

[@AJayZy]

[1337]

[@Ryan-oe4hb]

This was me but with the Black Ops duo of games lol. Used to spend hundreds of hours playing bo1 and bo2 as a kid, back when they were good and not train go boom. Better days

[@OhRaez]

@@Ryan-oe4hb Bo1 was my favourite for the lore. Those map packs were hyped like crazy for the zombies; everybody was getting them. Bo2 went a little outlandish imo, but that was even more hyped with the spawn of KZbin CoD commentary and gameplay guys. The best part was, it was all released as *finished* content. Nothing was completely game-breaking broken. You had a couple out of map glitches here and there, but those were just pure fun. Such good times.

[@CoverBrazilian]

I remember as a kid playing MW2, I’ll never forget feeling like I was immersed in a war, with the ac130 above sending bombs whistling past me. I even remember a kid over the mic say “yoo… that was intense”. The game made everything feel real, like you were actually there. I would get goosebumps playing. The theming of the game made everything feel real, which is what video games are supposed to be. They’re supposed to immerse you into a different reality.

[@altyresloweffortdump9138]

I completely agree, dude. In fact, even the people who make indie games somehow miss the mark on this. They design their stories and plots around.. well, generally accepted writing structures. It FEELS like im playing a video game. This somehow awakens what little emotion I have left in me after my recent... head impact. Its M rating was definitely deserved, especially when its sense of grit is somehow designed in a way that... oh dear. all the people involved in politics... theyre missing the fucking point. Im gonna see if I can get a playable Treyarch CoD game soon. I need to scare myself into being productive.

[@averagechadlegionary5824]

Not just COD but all AAA games are like this, corporate and soulless. They’re all inoffensive and safe to maximize profits. No risks anymore, no more Michael Bay inspired horrors of war scenes but instead MCU levels of writing and dialogue. It’s why in my eyes modern gaming is the death of creativity, at least in the AAA industry.

[@KLK01]

What was great about the old cod games was that you didn't even need an indicator over the player's head to know who the enemy is. Now it's all confusing.

[@ahdkfknsbcienfnsk]

yes, the scaling of players is completely ruined and you can feel it most in iw's recent games. everyone is short and move in a strange manner that doesn't translate well to the gunplay, bf2042 suffers from the same thing

[@scatman8963]

if they look like nicki minaj they are the enemy

[@Galaxy-jy9wl]

How in the living Fuck are you confused even today at who is your enemy?

[@PancakeNL]

Yeah I’m just chasing red dots on a minimap only to drain their HP bar when you see them, since every gun is basicly the same. Very boring and predictable, repetitive gameplay.

[@JCRF]

The different factions in MP made it seem like other battles that happened in the campaign that the hero characters weren't there for. That's what was cool

[@sheldonjplanktonn]

Can't believe they had a my team vs enemy team a few games ago. What a joke of a franchise

[@undercover1790]

@@sheldonjplanktonn A veteran was interviewed not long back about his time during the battle at stalingrad where his team successfully fought off the enemy team. Activation went so far with preventing you from playing as the germans that they removed any identity vanguards multiplayer had.

[@sheldonjplanktonn]

@@undercover1790 - that was absolutely ridiculous. It was funny to see Act Man rip it apart 😂 Such a dead franchise

[@ChrisCash720]

Og mw2 was peak. Linear story, great mp, og ghost no stupid skull plate

[@spakentruth]

To chronicle it even further. Back in those days they were able to hire heavy hitting figures in acting, composing, directing in the industry. People like Gary oldman, Hans Zimmer, have been in too many legendary projects. The storytelling and the game had to have some chops to make legends in their fields want to work with you. Even with those tight schedules they had they pulled those games off.

[@BOTSamJ]

Its almost like the people working on it had passion and a desire to make the best thingnthey could as compared to profit first no matter the cost

[@dulappen494]

You just made me realise that when casuals talk about how call of duty used to be more realistic, what they actually mean is more serious. Cod was never realistic, it was always an unrealistic fast paced arcade shooter, but the theme used to be serious, that is what changed and I think that's what it should return to. The gameplay mechanics shouldn't try to be realistic, but the theme, the setting and just the overall feel of the game should be.

[@sunburst8810]

nah cod existed before modern warfare. OG cod was genuinely realistic

[@poorman9259]

you're probably more casual than those people if you just realized this

[@richpryor9650]

@@sunburst8810 Yeah, nothing says realistic like picking up health packs that instantly heal you. This dumbass talking about Unreal tournament like its ARMA.

[@hillweggs641]

"casuals"-🤓

[@painthuret]

Bring back the deep voice annoncers !!!!!

[@5hane9ro]

The consistency of the art direction & tone is part of what made golden age & classic CoD feel like pieces of art instead of the awful corporate product it is now.

[@ryanstone2676]

I largely agree, I would like to add that the "operators" effect gameplay as well. that split second where you have to distinguish "is that Nicki on my team?" is deadly in a game as fast as cod.

[@SFGreggs]

I mentioned that in a reddit comment the other day, and had a guy try and argue against it by saying it was obvious who was on the enemy team since they would have either no name or a red name if you were aiming at them. While yeah that's fine but like you say any kind of split second confusion could mean you die in a game like cod. It's just an unnecessary thing you now have to think about when you see another player. This is the problem with people who tell us to "just ignore it and it won't affect you." It does affect me because while I'm not buying skins, other people are and I now have to remember what team skeletor is on before he shoots me.

[@chrisx5680]

In Black Ops 1 and 2 multiplayer , the characters spoke in different languages, Russian, Spanish, Arab, Chinese all according to the nationality or faction. I love that detail, even some killstreaks like the VTOL or the Lonestar, the pilots of those aircrafts, spoke in the respective language of the faction you were playing as. … that was real inclusion tho hahaha 😝

[@unsenorllamadoukko5795]

In World at War mp, if you win as the Wehrmacht, you'll hear an actual Austrian painter's speech

[@HaloFTW55]

Their languages could be better. The Russian and Chinese spoke was so badly accented

[@ajw8752]

@@unsenorllamadoukko5795wow how random who could that be

[@Texansfan59]

Bo2 is the goat cod has been downhill ever since.

[@MHPAM]

@@unsenorllamadoukko5795just say hitler, youtube doesn’t censor their comments as much.

[@spoopy5477]

I think playing as an unnamed ground soldier makes it feel like when you die, you're a new soldier coming to the front. It also makes it feel like the war is much bigger.

[@devindalton4688]

The very first level of Battlefield 1's campaign does exactly this and it's awesome.

[@venator5]

Red orchestra 2 single player even emphatised that the fact that you had to pick your next soldier.

[@lewisjones284]

"I wasn't going to play COD this time around, but now that Nikki's in the game, I've changed my mind" - Absolutely no one

[@ClearGalaxies]

I like Nikki.. 😢

[@Munnwort]

you'd be surprised actually lmao

[@ADMICKEY]

You'd be very surprised, I Still remember back in fn C1 S7 someone bought the bp only for Lynx.

[@Kero-zc5tc]

There’s a difference between buying a skin cos it’s good and cos it’s silly, like when people buy ugly skins in Fortnite just because it isn’t good

[@elijahherstal776]

@@ClearGalaxies it's okay to have Down's Syndrome

[@MUZZER81]

I try an explain this to my little brother all the time. Its so sad to see a game franchise/story i loved as a kid just completely unrecognisable.

[@ryanevans8642]

Thank you for talking about the music and the announcers. It’s so sad to think about how intense the game used to feel, just because of the audio aspect.

[@blinddog]

0:52 - "...more impactful" then helicopter falling to the ground. I don't know if it was on purpose but hats off, true epic moment.

[@theWheezy]

It was one of those editing moments where I didn't intend it, but noticed it and thought "nice!" 😎

[@AstroJenkins]

@@theWheezyAccidental edits are the best. Especially with music.

[@dhsjakacjenal]

Thank you for making this video. I’ve been saying forever they don’t take themselves serious anymore. THIS SERIES USED TO BE AN OMAGE TO VETERANS

[@shizzyranks]

vid was so immersive i adjusted my keyboard on match begin countdown

[@Mark-MTZ]

Well done, much more polite way of say what many of us have felt. The original MW2 music set the tone for each match. Spot on. Thanks

[@ThePearsonProject513]

So happy to see someone made a video of exactly how ive felt growing up over the years

[@frostburn3736]

I truly miss the good, old days. Back then when you had to paid for the game and you got THE game, the story, the music, the setting and THE THEME. All paid and accounted for. But no anymore...

[@TurbanCatMccoy]

*COUGH* Capitalism *COUGH*

[@crusaderkaiser2000]

@@TurbanCatMccoy nah. just corporatism.

[@_Axel_G_]

I'm a bit late to the topic but the main difference between then and today is that today people don't give a shit if the game has completely nonsense elements, they just look at the gameplay aspect and that's it. For me that I still care about "theme" is like seeing bugs bunny appear inside the latest Alien movie, but for what it looks like, the majority of the gaming community are totally fine with a complete mixture of themes