Black Widow
03-13-2008, 04:00 PM
Christian Cage: Peep This
Call of Duty 4 and why Samoa Joe can't beat me at videogames.
By: Christian Cage | none
Mar 12, 2008
Finally, I have enough time to sit down and write this column. To be honest it wasn't exactly easy to find the time to play videogames this past month or so, but I managed to get in a solid two or three hours here and there. It's been crazy. I've traveled from the U.S. to Germany to Canada back to the U.S. to Japan and then back to the U.S. again. I probably should have taken my 360 with me; I'm sure it would have made things easier. But fear not, my friends--some serious gaming took place in between stops.
Before I get to my first review, though, I want to tell everyone a little story about a guy you might have heard of, another wrestler in TNA named Samoa Joe. I was telling him about my little GameTap column, and after shooting the s--- for a couple minutes, it reminded me of a story that I reminded him about. It was when Fight Night: Round 3 had just come out. We were at a show and talking about this game and somehow got into it about who would win if we were to play. Well, a couple nights later I turn on the 360, and whose name pops up on my friends list but good ol' Joe. I sent the invite/challenge, and moments later he accepted and it was on live from Madison Square Garden, Joe as Oscar De La Hoya and myself as Roberto Duran.
After a couple of prefight verbal shots thrown back and forth, the fight was underway and things didn't look so good for yours truly. Duran, who is slow and methodical, couldn't keep up with De La Hoya's hand or foot speed. I was getting peppered at will until around the fourth or fifth round. Duran took a big power shot and went down, and Joe, being the sportsman that he is, started laughing and asking questions like, "I thought you said you've played this before!" or "Did that just happen?"
Well, it kept happening and I couldn't do anything about it. As we were headed into the final round, I had already been down like five times, but because of Duran's great chin he still got up. At this point I was pissed and not saying a word. Joe, on the other hand, was loving it and pouring more salt in my wounds by trash talking. He said, "You know you need a knockout, right?"
Yeah, he said it, and I bet he still regrets it. No sooner did he say those words then I caught him with a perfect power punch out of left field--the one I'd been trying to hit all fight and couldn't. He was dazed and trying to retreat when I cornered him and unloaded. De La Hoya went down for the first time in the fight, and as in any storybook ending, he didn't get up.
As I counted to 10 with the ref, I asked Joe, "Did that just happen?"
Joe was cursing like Jane Fonda on the Today Show. I even told him to hold on while I went and got my wife from the other room so she could interview me like Larry Merchant after a big fight on HBO.
Just like that, silence. Joe, in a display of embarrassment, turned off his console--and if the rumors are true, he cried himself to sleep that night. I was left feeling pretty good about myself, and then it hit me: It's a videogame, and I really didn't win anything.... I'm a complete dork!
Anyway, enough about making Joe cry (I do enough of that on Impact every Thursday). It's time for my first GameTap review. I think I mentioned before that I mostly play sports games, so for my first review I thought I would I play something different. I've heard nothing but good things about Call of Duty 4--friends were telling me "this game is amazing" like every day, so I figured what the hell. I went to the store, picked that bad boy up, brought it home, threw it in the console, and then proceeded to strap on the fatigues and hit the battlefield for some good old fashioned Modern Warfare (that doesn't sound right does it? Oh well, I'm leaving it in).
I don't play first-person shooters all that much, and when you add in the fact that I'm an extremely impatient person, it had me wondering how long it was going to take me to learn the controls. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was, though; at the start of the game you are in a shooting range (which is pretty basic), but you can learn pretty much everything you need to know there. You then move on to a obstacle course to see what skill level you will play at--they tell you the time to beat, and I'm such a tool that I actually spent more than a half hour trying to beat the record. I was getting so frustrated because I couldn't do it, but then I realized that I was never going to finish this game if I didn't actually play it--so I settled on being average and started the game.
I have to say how realistic the game felt from the moment I turned it on. The sounds were great--from bombs going off in the distance to scattered gunfire to enemy voices in another language--all the things you could imagine hearing in a war zone. And after the first mission, I really started getting into the game and found it hard to stop playing. I love how you can't just sit in one place and shoot. You have to move around and make things happen in order to advance. You need to find good places to take cover, but then not hide there too long. If you hide behind a parked car, the enemy might blow up the car and kill you instantly. Another touch I really liked was that you could shoot an enemy and he may not die right away. He could drag himself to cover and maybe pull out an explosive to give one last effort to end you before you realize you need to finish the job. These are just a few things that stood out to me, but there are so many other details about the gameplay that I felt were off the chat (the weapons, storming rundown buildings, finding enemy intel) that I could go on and on and on...and I'd like to but my hand is getting sore from typing.
All of the missions in COD4 were fantastic, but if I had to narrow it down to which I enjoyed most...well it came down to two. First, Death From Above: In this mission you are in an airplane protecting ground troops with an AC 130 gun ship. AWESOME! You get instructions from a commanding officer to blow away the enemy when you get clearance, but the trick is to do it and not strike friendlies who are mixed in on the ground. Kill a friendly and your mission is over. Second, Ghillies in the Mist. Here you make your way through Chernobyl in a ghillie suit, completely in stealth mode, and you have to weave your way through different scenarios undetected in order to find a good spot to snipe the terrorist Zakhaev. All the makings of a good day at the office, right?
In my first column I said I was going to come up with some sort of grading system and throw it in at the end of each review. Well, after coming up with idea after idea and after hours upon hours of deliberation I couldn't come up with anything good, so I'll just go with this: "PEEP IT" or "LEAVE IT." You see, I told you you were going to get some groundbreaking stuff here, didn't I? Cut me some slack--I've been busy! As far as Call Of Duty 4, without question PEEP IT! Trust me you will not be disappointed. This game is so good, it even makes me want to put these sports games down for a bit and try some other first-person shooters--but somehow I'm thinking they won't measure up to COD4.
That's all for this column. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out TNA Impact every Thursday on Spike TV.
And if you want to drop me a line, e-mail me about anything from gaming to wrestling to life on the road, and I'll include a Q&A section in next month's column.
mailto:mail@gametap.com?subject=Email the editors
gametap.com
Call of Duty 4 and why Samoa Joe can't beat me at videogames.
By: Christian Cage | none
Mar 12, 2008
Finally, I have enough time to sit down and write this column. To be honest it wasn't exactly easy to find the time to play videogames this past month or so, but I managed to get in a solid two or three hours here and there. It's been crazy. I've traveled from the U.S. to Germany to Canada back to the U.S. to Japan and then back to the U.S. again. I probably should have taken my 360 with me; I'm sure it would have made things easier. But fear not, my friends--some serious gaming took place in between stops.
Before I get to my first review, though, I want to tell everyone a little story about a guy you might have heard of, another wrestler in TNA named Samoa Joe. I was telling him about my little GameTap column, and after shooting the s--- for a couple minutes, it reminded me of a story that I reminded him about. It was when Fight Night: Round 3 had just come out. We were at a show and talking about this game and somehow got into it about who would win if we were to play. Well, a couple nights later I turn on the 360, and whose name pops up on my friends list but good ol' Joe. I sent the invite/challenge, and moments later he accepted and it was on live from Madison Square Garden, Joe as Oscar De La Hoya and myself as Roberto Duran.
After a couple of prefight verbal shots thrown back and forth, the fight was underway and things didn't look so good for yours truly. Duran, who is slow and methodical, couldn't keep up with De La Hoya's hand or foot speed. I was getting peppered at will until around the fourth or fifth round. Duran took a big power shot and went down, and Joe, being the sportsman that he is, started laughing and asking questions like, "I thought you said you've played this before!" or "Did that just happen?"
Well, it kept happening and I couldn't do anything about it. As we were headed into the final round, I had already been down like five times, but because of Duran's great chin he still got up. At this point I was pissed and not saying a word. Joe, on the other hand, was loving it and pouring more salt in my wounds by trash talking. He said, "You know you need a knockout, right?"
Yeah, he said it, and I bet he still regrets it. No sooner did he say those words then I caught him with a perfect power punch out of left field--the one I'd been trying to hit all fight and couldn't. He was dazed and trying to retreat when I cornered him and unloaded. De La Hoya went down for the first time in the fight, and as in any storybook ending, he didn't get up.
As I counted to 10 with the ref, I asked Joe, "Did that just happen?"
Joe was cursing like Jane Fonda on the Today Show. I even told him to hold on while I went and got my wife from the other room so she could interview me like Larry Merchant after a big fight on HBO.
Just like that, silence. Joe, in a display of embarrassment, turned off his console--and if the rumors are true, he cried himself to sleep that night. I was left feeling pretty good about myself, and then it hit me: It's a videogame, and I really didn't win anything.... I'm a complete dork!
Anyway, enough about making Joe cry (I do enough of that on Impact every Thursday). It's time for my first GameTap review. I think I mentioned before that I mostly play sports games, so for my first review I thought I would I play something different. I've heard nothing but good things about Call of Duty 4--friends were telling me "this game is amazing" like every day, so I figured what the hell. I went to the store, picked that bad boy up, brought it home, threw it in the console, and then proceeded to strap on the fatigues and hit the battlefield for some good old fashioned Modern Warfare (that doesn't sound right does it? Oh well, I'm leaving it in).
I don't play first-person shooters all that much, and when you add in the fact that I'm an extremely impatient person, it had me wondering how long it was going to take me to learn the controls. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was, though; at the start of the game you are in a shooting range (which is pretty basic), but you can learn pretty much everything you need to know there. You then move on to a obstacle course to see what skill level you will play at--they tell you the time to beat, and I'm such a tool that I actually spent more than a half hour trying to beat the record. I was getting so frustrated because I couldn't do it, but then I realized that I was never going to finish this game if I didn't actually play it--so I settled on being average and started the game.
I have to say how realistic the game felt from the moment I turned it on. The sounds were great--from bombs going off in the distance to scattered gunfire to enemy voices in another language--all the things you could imagine hearing in a war zone. And after the first mission, I really started getting into the game and found it hard to stop playing. I love how you can't just sit in one place and shoot. You have to move around and make things happen in order to advance. You need to find good places to take cover, but then not hide there too long. If you hide behind a parked car, the enemy might blow up the car and kill you instantly. Another touch I really liked was that you could shoot an enemy and he may not die right away. He could drag himself to cover and maybe pull out an explosive to give one last effort to end you before you realize you need to finish the job. These are just a few things that stood out to me, but there are so many other details about the gameplay that I felt were off the chat (the weapons, storming rundown buildings, finding enemy intel) that I could go on and on and on...and I'd like to but my hand is getting sore from typing.
All of the missions in COD4 were fantastic, but if I had to narrow it down to which I enjoyed most...well it came down to two. First, Death From Above: In this mission you are in an airplane protecting ground troops with an AC 130 gun ship. AWESOME! You get instructions from a commanding officer to blow away the enemy when you get clearance, but the trick is to do it and not strike friendlies who are mixed in on the ground. Kill a friendly and your mission is over. Second, Ghillies in the Mist. Here you make your way through Chernobyl in a ghillie suit, completely in stealth mode, and you have to weave your way through different scenarios undetected in order to find a good spot to snipe the terrorist Zakhaev. All the makings of a good day at the office, right?
In my first column I said I was going to come up with some sort of grading system and throw it in at the end of each review. Well, after coming up with idea after idea and after hours upon hours of deliberation I couldn't come up with anything good, so I'll just go with this: "PEEP IT" or "LEAVE IT." You see, I told you you were going to get some groundbreaking stuff here, didn't I? Cut me some slack--I've been busy! As far as Call Of Duty 4, without question PEEP IT! Trust me you will not be disappointed. This game is so good, it even makes me want to put these sports games down for a bit and try some other first-person shooters--but somehow I'm thinking they won't measure up to COD4.
That's all for this column. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out TNA Impact every Thursday on Spike TV.
And if you want to drop me a line, e-mail me about anything from gaming to wrestling to life on the road, and I'll include a Q&A section in next month's column.
mailto:mail@gametap.com?subject=Email the editors
gametap.com