Pete_LeGrant October 14, 2008 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 2 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Ok, so it’s 3:50 in the morning, and I’m getting ready for bed. After teaching tonight, I played some Mercenaries 2: World in Flames with Nick Smith, which is pretty fun. I’ll return to that topic by the end of the week, as we’re just getting the hang of the game. I then snuck in some work on my dissertation–a near miracle.

But I couldn’t wait to babble about what I did next.

I then played the Call of Duty: World at War Beta, and man, I really miss my copy of COD 4. (I’ll get it back someday. That’s all I’ll say for now.) All that means is, COD: WAW is going to be awesome.

I played 3 rounds of team deathmatch. The graphics in this beta are sweet, and the environment is dense with detail. The maps seem big enough and complex enough to challenge your memory of them.

The graphics are super-smooth, just as you’d expect. I love how agile the general COD character is. By contrast, sometimes Master Chief seems like he’s running in molasses. (Note to Bungie: it’s called “sprinting.” Get with it.)

The sound in the background is impressive. Gameplay is punctuated with loud booming explosions, and it adds to the feeling of the chaos of the battlefield. And the barking dogs–that will keep you on edge.

I hated the dogs in COD 4, because I never got the timing right on grabbing the dog’s throat. (Yeah, that’s fairly noobish. Fine.) But once you hear the dogs in COD: WAW, you’ll go nuts trying to figure out where they are. You can shoot the dogs for 3 points, so that’s cool. (Virtual dogs can be shot. Virtual dogs . Unless the real dog is Cujo. Then shoot Cujo. Rabies sucks.)

There will be more to follow on this, especially after Nick and I party up.

My initial verdict: COD 4 fans will love COD:WAW.

Stay tuned for more details on this beta.

-Pete LeGrant