dawnville

At this point it's safe to say I'm as pumped up for Call of Duty as I was in the Spring of 2000 for Diablo II. I spent most of my weekend game time re-playing both demos, which included the exclusive "Dawnville" that I mentioned last week. As always the current issue of PCG doesn't disappoint - well written reviews of BF1942: Secret Weapons of World War II and of course their cover story, Call of Duty (93%!!). The fact that the press got a hold of a release copy of the game is good news indeed - CoD is scheduled to blast its way into my local EB on October 31st. I'm absolutely buzzing with excitement. I played the new demo on Saturday afternoon and I couldn't even put my impressions into words this weekend. Even now I'm having a difficult time - you truly have to experience it for yourself.

The tagline for CoD has always been "No One Fights Alone". As I said in my review of MoHAA:Breakthrough that's essentially what's wrong with the typical War shooter: you're the lone hero versus countless enemies. After playing through the chaotic "Dawnville" demo, seeing my squadmates react to enemy fire and warn about incoming grenades - it was a truly cinematic and immersive experience. And hard. From what I've read the game doesn't get any easier, and these first couple of demos are just the beginning of the game. Both the graphics, textures and player models really get the chance to shine on "Dawnville", because it takes place in the daytime. A lot of care went into all of the weapon models as well, making it seem hard to believe that this is the same Quake III engine that was used to build MOHAA.

My only sneaking suspicion at this point is the lack of a multiplayer demo. With a game like this, squad tactics will be an even bigger part of the game than it was with Medal of Honor, and with less than two weeks to release I'm surprised that Activision hasn't provided us gamers with a small map to try out. Given that multiplayer in Medal of Honor was smooth on LAN and Internet play, and incredibly easy to set up, I can't really see this being a problem with CoD. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. A Q&A with the President of Inifity Ward and two of the designers went up at IGN Action Vault today. I feel dirty for linking to them, but whatever. My appetite for more CoD information at the moment is insatiable.

will the fight for our sanity be the fight of our lives?