User blog:Magma-Man/Treyarch or Infinity Ward?

Lots and lots of debate has gone on between the idiotic fans of this franchise (not you guys, we're in the minority, you can't deny this series has a horrible fan base) between which developer is better. I've never had an opinion until now, since I have played through every Call of Duty recently. Here is what I think.

Spark Unlimited
How are these guys still around? Finest Hour was awesome, for the first two levels for atmosphere alone. The rest of the game was a no check-point unforgiving rage fest of annoyance that went over-budget, released late, and was generally all-around poor. We all know what Activision's response was to Spark proposing they make a sequel to Finest Hour:
 * Made: Call of Duty: Finest Hour
 * Also known for: Legendary, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Turning Point was even worse, Legendary I have yet to have an opinion on but I see IGN gave it a 2.5 so that tells you something. These people are simply incompetent.

Whoever made Final Fronts
Meh

Infinity Ward
These guys are good developers, but not as good as they once seemed. While other games have aged just fine such as System Shock 2, Call of Duty 1 and 2 both are actually quite boring if you play them today. It's just some cinematic WW2 battles done on a limited and outdated engine, it's slow, clunky, and boring. Whoopie, what made for a new fresh and fun experience a long time ago has been over-done, as well as done much better. I revoke the "Classic" status from 1 and 2 because being a "Classic" would indicate it would survive through the times.
 * Made: Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
 * Making: Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty 4 is only given as much praise as it currently has for the same reason 1 and 2 had their praise, it was new and exciting when it came out, and the ones that say it's still the best Call of Duty are blind as a bat due to Nostalgia. It's a good game yes, but it's also dull and basic compared to the newer Call of Duty games, the story is bland with few memorable characters and those who are memorable don't get much development and only have basic personalities.

Modern Warfare 2 was definitely the best game they made, as the multiplayer was Call of Duty 4 over again, but moar, the campaign was also far more exciting and enjoyable. Unfortunately the writing still wasn't great, the campaign was enjoyable the same way as a James Bond movie is enjoyable, it's just dumb, cheesy, action movie fun. Characters barely have personality, they only exist to be "cool," Ghost being the ultimate example, and the story never even saw fit to finish itself properly, but instead to sequel bait.

The mutliplayer is also the most horrendously unbalanced CoD4+ multiplayer along side Black Ops 1.

Modern Warfare 3 was underrated, but that's only because it was hated on by everyone. Didn't exactly deserve that much. However it's campaign was very poorly written, being bland, predictable, and much less exciting then MW2's, save for a couple of emotional moments, well one emotional moment. Soap's death was sad, whoopdie-doo. Go read Where the Red Fern Grows if you want sad.

Multiplayer was very fun and I feel very well balanced, no offense Shadowshot but most of the stuff you complained about I found no problems with and have come to the conclusion you just got killed by it alot and over-reacted. Anyway the problem here is that it's the same setting as the last two games as well as almost every other shooter out there at the time of release.

Treyarch
Well, playing through the series again, I have discovered that while BRO suffers from alot of the problems 1 and 2 have, it's still alot better, simply on the basis that it's characters are actually well written and not bland filler.
 * Made: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Call of Duty 3, despite being my least favorite Call of Duty upon release, has proven to have been the least affected by age of the "classic" trilogy. It's still bland and forgettable by today's standards, but it's the least of the bunch.

World at War was just amazing. It's story could have had a bit more to it but almost every second of it's campaign was glorious action, the pinnacle of what Call of Duty 1 and 2 set out to achieve, and a direct contributor to 1, 2, and 3 being as unenjoyable as they are now.

Black Ops 1's story was vastly under appreciated. People get worked up about the brainwashing part of the plot, but then they forget the jumping off of cliffs at the end of a snow mobile chase in MW2. If you aren't too thick you'd probably realize that Black Ops 1's story is actually extremely well written, paced, and structured. It was very enjoyable and it's characters were actually fairly well written. The quality of the writing was very unnatural for the series, and it was something we saw return again in Black Ops 2.

Black Ops 1's multiplayer was also some of the best Call of Duty has to offer when the balance issues aren't getting in the way of the fun. Interesting settings and weapons that were a ton of fun to utilize.

Black Ops 2's story was even better written then Black Ops 1, even going as far as to shun cliched evil villians and actually creating an interesting antagonist. While I originally was hesitant about Woods being back I'm actually glad, his character was very enjoyable in Black Ops 2, and I feel the comparisons much of the community made to him and Ghost were undeserved. Black Ops 2 also was just alot more fun then anything Infinity Ward had made, not counting MW2. It's multiplayer is still the best in my opinion also, having some of the most fun weapons, alot of fun maps (and some garbage ones) and over-all good balancing, certainly better then what was found in Black Ops 1.

Oh and zombies.

Infinity Ward
Two games that were amazing on release but unimportant and pointless today, one game that was fairly good, one game that was excellent single-player wise but cheesy, and one game that sucked single-player wise and had good buy uninteresting multiplayer.

Treyarch
Two games that were amazing on release but sort of unimportant and pointless today but still a good time, one amazing game that was a large contributor to the previous games being bland, another game that has balancing issues in multiplayer but a fun very well written and structured campaign and a fun setting, and another game with a very well written campaign that may have had some pacing issues but was a blast over-all, and a very fun multiplayer that I feel outdoes all the previous Call of Duty multiplayers.

Can't forget zombies.

Which do you think is better? Discuss in the comments below. Infinity Ward Treyarch