Games

I haven’t played every COD by any means, but my understanding is that you stopped on a good note. Every recent COD I’ve tried feels like an absolute mess - mostly because of the aggressive cash shops that bog down the menus, and immersion-breaking skins/tracers etc. which I personally don’t enjoy seeing at all, like a gorilla and the clown from Saw. There are always bugs and crashes that literally never get fixed. Regardless of all that, they generally feel soulless and sloppy. There aren’t many FPS offerings these days, and Activision clearly knows they don’t need to be competitive. They just push a new one out the door every year, knowing fans love to hate the games and buy them religiously.

I did enjoy MW 2019 for a while, but MW2 did not hit the spot. Vanguard was extremely disappointing. Before those, my last COD was BO2. I’ve been on the fence lately about buying BO3 (2015) for a good zombies experience every time I see it on sale. But I know I would be playing solo because of the veteran stage those zombies players are in, and I have a feeling I’d get screeched at if I don’t know every meta strategy, so I end up passing on it every time.

Personally I’d say skip the Sledgehammer games and be skeptical and cautious about IW games, but give Treyarch’s next BO game a try if it doesn’t turn out to be an obvious bomb.

They’re almost all wildly successful and popular though, so there must be many fans who disagree - YMMV.

MW2 (the current release) is a broken, buggy, unfinished mess that has only gotten progressively worse with each update. They did eventually add some very basic features that people had to beg for several months after release. The game is drowning in hackers and toxicity with no end in sight; and runs about as stable as someone taking anti-depressants and anti-psychotics at the same time. It honestly feels like they're rushing to get to their next game as quickly as possible so they can leave this trash heap in the past, while continuing to bleed their current user base dry of as much cash as possible. Their fans are likely hoping that maybe THIS time, Infinity Ward finally learn from the mistakes of the past (but they absolutely won't).

From a basic cash value standpoint, MW2 has been a ripoff. The game started at $70, and immediately they bombard you with in-game ads to buy a $30 pass that's only good for 60 days. Half of the multiplayer content is locked behind this paywall. Each new release of content is $20-30, and they release more DLC packs on roughly a monthly basis while ignoring the core issues ruining the game. With each new update, the style of the game gets closer and closer to looking like Fortnite. If you refuse to buy any of that stuff, you end up with 1/10 of a game that will be decommissioned soon. If you were to go maximum whale mode and buy everything they're pushing to have everything unlocked, you're probably looking at close to $1000.

If you're missing old CoD/Battlefield vibes, just go buy Battlebit Remastered for $15 and have the time of your life. It's been a couple of months since release, and it's still near the top of the Steam charts.