I really don't care about how it looks. I think it looks great on my computer with a mix of medium and low settings, actually. I just wish the framerate were a bit higher, that's all.. and not for looks either.

I think my accuracy is being effected by the game performance, which is what bothers me most. I find myself relying on pray-and-spray tactics entirely more often than I'd like to. The thing is, if you play smart, it hardly matters. Though it may matter enough to convince me to sell off my PS3 for the extra funds.

Yes and I'm loving it.

The master server list seems to be down. WAKE UP IW, FIX IT, I WANNA PLAY!

Gotta beat it atleast twice for them Achievements! Thats 10hrs. And if you play it with skulls on then - oh wait.

I finished Halo the day I bought it.. I don't see the big deal.

I just played a crazy game of Sabotage on Crash: Here. It lasted for the entire round duration, and we planted the bomb at the very last moment. Pretty intense. I called in several Helo's and Airstrikes.. yet somehow managed to keep missing people with them. Between that, and the guy planting the bomb to score himself some last minute extra credit, they ruined my screenshot. That game was EPIC.

Amazing game on the whole. The additional game modes are great. I was a little upset that there was no traditional CTF, but considering the great variety in what is there, I don't really mind much anymore.

Games like that also make leveling up a breeze. In the end, it was worth nearly a thousand XP, and pushed me into the next rank. I've noticed the amount of XP you need to rank up is getting significantly larger now.. but still, 2004 XP isn't hard to get.

FPSOTY! Multiplayer at least. I won't really comment on the SP since I haven't touched it. I'll give that award to Halo 3 for now.. but I haven't played Bioshock either.

What a great year to be a shooter fan. I can't wait til the league season starts.

I'm actually pretty happy that I'll be done with it by the end of the week (hopefully). The point of this game is not about leveling up to me, but I would like to have all of the kit equipment and perks available. I would have played the game just as much this week if it weren't for the experience system.

I enjoy the compeditive nature of the game.. if I really wanted to level up, I'd go play oblivion or something. I'm playing so I can practice, and learn how to play the game well enough to compete. Even if I weren't going to be competing, I'd still enjoy the basic compeditive nature of the game. The people who played BF2 the most, often use the unlocks less than anyone else (since they're banned in competition in that game).

Thankfully, this isn't like 2142, where you have to unlock the most basic of all equipment. I mean frags... seriously?

One review house says 5 hours (another 6-9) but I haven't heard any reliable 4 hour comments... that said, I know a couple people who took over 11 on the 2nd most difficult setting, so I will see for myself. Most FPS are pathetically short these days with a trend of many being under 10hrs--SP definately isn't worth the money in that regards for me (going to the theater is much cheaper per hour--short SP games are definately rentals). Orange Box and Bioshock be the exceptions here. If you are looking at value for Single Player then FPS is definately not the genre to invest in as most of the big FPS this year--CoD4, Halo 3, UT3, and the like have very short campaigns for SP. I remember the era when SP was pretty standard in the 20 hour range :|

Of course games like Mass Effect and The Orange Box break away from that trend.

And I am off to play CoD4 now.

Grift, what kind of framerates were you seeing with your 6800GT?

Mostly 30fps @ 1024x768, most settings low, textures medium and I believe model detail on high. I've tried pushing some settings lower, but it doesn't do much.. I think my CPU is holding me back too. It seems a little unstable here and there, but it's playable. I just see myself playing this game a lot, a lot more than my PS3.. which is why I'm considering pawning the latter to help fund an E6850 and an 8800GT. It would make a huge difference.

And yea.. most FPS are terribly short. I haven't played one recently that isn't, really. I guess Orange box (HL2 + Ep 1 + Ep 2) is considerably long, but that's a little different. At least this game has a multiplayer mode that's really, really compelling, unlike something like Prey which you finish in 6 hours and then you're done with it for good.S&D is good, but not necessarily my favorite. I'm really enjoying a good game of Sabotage (which is basically the same as Halo's "Single Bomb" mode) and Team Deathmatch is always a good time. I think we're going to be playing S&D in TGL though, so I'll probably be playing a ton of it.I think it's probably best that we keep disagreeing. If you ask me, the theme you're talking about is sorta like telling a basketball player that he has to unlock his sneakers before he can actually play the game the way it's meant to be played. But ya know what? Basketball has been played for ages, so why don't we mix things up a little and make new players play barefoot? :P

The sports comparison really doesn't help your argument. A sport is not something where the rules evolve depending on the players experience.. and neither should a standard MP FPS game. But thankfully, the impact that it has on COD4 is really quite small by comparison to some other games (2142).. it's at least not so significant that it takes away from the fact that it's an otherwise stellar game.

It's unfortunate that developers think compeditive games need this kind of progression. They're plenty compelling enough without it, and there's plenty of evidence to support that statement. People play thousands upon thousands of hours of compeditive FPS games without the want or need to progress a rank as a means of supplying themselves with new equipment. Some people might think that it's unfortunate that you progress so quickly in Call of Duty, I think it's a blessing.