So in honor of Call of Duty Modern warfare 2 being released in a few hours I decided to ruin everyone’s parade and explain why I favor Treyarch over Infinity Ward. And I can promise you it’s not because the P.C. port of MW 2 is a overall worse game because my $1,000 dollar computer can barely contain a old 2004 game without shuttering. (sigh all that money*cries*) But before I do that lets break down both companies and their accomplishments shall we?

Infinity Ward
Rough average of reviews*
Call of Duty: 9.2
Call of Duty United Front: united offense: 8.7
Call of Duty 2: 9.1
Call of Duty 4: Modern warfare: 9.4
Call of Duty Modern warfare 2 : N/A


Treyarch
Rough average of reviews
Call of Duty 2: Big red one: 7.9
Call of Duty 3: 8.3
Call of Duty World at War: 8.5
A planned gamed about the cold war: N/A

*= not the exact measure but what I read from gamespot’s overall score that adds every online score from other websites..also COD finest hour has been omitted because it was made by Spark interactive..I don’t think that was treyarch

Now I know what you are thinking…”payne you just shot yourself in the foot..this proves Infinity Ward is the better company look at the scores there is no doubt in my mind you sir are wrong.” well I have to admit I did in a way shoot myself in the foot…but actually no wait..I didn’t.



First let’s get things out of the way. There is no doubt in my mind the first call of duty, the expansion united front and Call of Duty 2 are one of the best WW II FPS games of all time. To me they were fun and portrayed a realistic W.W.II setting and just awesome. I remember some great moments from Cpt. Price and killing the endless waves of Nazi’s..ahh good times. But then the “other” call of duty games came out and to be honest they sucked yes even COD 4. I didn’t like them the things I loved about the franchise were either tossed away or reused so much that I got bored of them. To me COD is a less than stellar franchise that is too overly hyped for its own good…but anyway back on track. I honestly do believe that Infinity Ward isn’t trying anymore to make great games like COD2. All they did was give the franchise a fresh coat of paint add faster weapons and change the Nazi’s to terrorists.

Yes Infinity Ward is content using the same engine that to me has gone stale. For example in COD 4 how many times do we have to push ahead while both allies and enemies constantly spawn and take up the same positions as their fallen comrades? COD4 is about modern day combat. Seriously I killed about 40-75 terrorists (that would make the cover of any news paper) who were content about standing over their dead comrades bodies and taking up the same formation as them. Also it’s amazing that when you move up everything changes. The enemies stop spawning, and you and your team moves on..sorry not buying it terrorists are not a army like the Nazis. There is no way that I could take one 40-75 by myself and combat a few hundred more. I tolerated it back with COD 2 because I said (more like lied to myself) “its ok Germany had a huge army.” I am sick of the game waiting for me the game feels more like a controlled battle than a frantic one.

Also when you make a sequel to a game I want some better visuals. Ya I know I sound petty I know. But the little blood cloud “pff” sound you get when shooting people got old and fast. Plus why can’t you open doors? Seriously…and there is a very little lack of support from Infinity Ward. They made one measly map pack for COD 4 (their highest selling game) and even then the maps sucked. You play right now and no one plays those maps they always veto it. When I (rarely usually to test my connection) play I rarely ever get to see the new maps. And I never found the multiplayer fun I always found it average at best. It had horrible spawn points and I just never enjoyed it as other FPS games. Also they scrapped both the Co-op and vehicles which to me seems to bring the series down, because the previous installment included it. Now I could go on but I still have another company to talk about. (and I can see you rolling your eyes screaming NO MORE!!)





So Treyarch the one gaming company that gamers love to hate for some reason. Now I will not be a hypocrite and say their games don’t suffer from the same faults as Infinity Ward’s games. Because they do but they don’t roll their eyes and go “whatever” they sit there and go “well…we have a crappy engine but let’s mix some things up so the gamers won’t have that bad of a time.” COD 2 big red one was their first COD game and a great game. The main problem though was the fact Call of Duty 2 just came out and no one paid attention to it that much. COD3 was a less than interesting game that really stayed in the minor battles of the war. (I mean who cares about Canada..lol j/k) But it did have the inclusion of vehicles, co-op (both online and offline) and huge maps. But Call of Duty World at war was to me a major breakthrough for the series why? Well I will tell you.(oh the suspense)

The game is once again bogged down with the typical you move enemies won’t spawn thing. BUT it was gritty it portrayed war as horrible, sick, inhumane and more…yet isn’t that war? Isn’t war one of the worst things humans can do to each other? The game was violent and as I have said before a more gritty experience than past games. The opening scene you see a fellow marine getting his throat slashed and a cigar burnt out in his eye. Or how about towards the end of the Russian campaign you see German soldiers who hung themselves. Also you hear the word f*ck more times than I can count. (now I am not saying it’s a good game because they curse) It also had removable limbs you shot someone in the face with a shotgun the only thing left was their legs and a bit of their torso. The game also had both local and online co-op which was the only time I can remember me cracking a smile while playing a COD game. It once again had vehicles and a new mode that COD has never seen before. That new mode was the zombie mode.




Now you can say whatever you want about the zombie mode. Either “It’s stupid” “a left 4 dead knock off” “not fun” etc etc etc. But no matter what you say you have to admit it’s different. Throughout all of COD lifespan it was a serious balls to the wall action shooter. Their idea at humor or fun was adding the Mp 40 into COD MW and giggle like school girls over how “crazy” they were. But here’s this idea where four people can play together online and kill zombies and add fire power, defense and power-ups with each zombie death. It was awarded to players who beat the game. (ahh a incentive to actually beat the single player I see what you did there) But in the words of the late Billy Mays “there’s more!!”(did I really just write that?)




Finally Treyarch actually supports its game it has a total of 3 map packs out each consisting of new multiplayer maps and zombie maps. Now that’s awesome the zombie maps are creative and filled with creepiness. Sure you could argue that they are milking the gamer but I see it more as they want the game to last a bit longer. The last map pack came out in September of this year and I find that pretty cool. They also port their games over to the wii…but who cares it’s the Wii.

Finally what am I saying? What does this massive overly long wall of text mean? What I am trying to say is basically Treyarch is trying to mold the series and make advancements in it. While infinity ward is basically taking all the tweaks that were made and throwing them out the window scoffing at the peasants that are Treyarch employees. “Don’t tell us how to make our series better!!” they bellow “We are happy with the same old same old.” I feel Infinity Ward takes the series a step back (no co-op, vehicles dismemberment, etc etc), while Treyarch is trying to take it forward but missing some key elements. All I can say is I am slowly rooting for the underdog that is Treyarch they are slowly improving their games they went from a 7.9 to a 8.5 in a few year who knows what they can come up with next…thanks for reading now go play MW2 since I know that’s what you are all going to do.