So, a new Call of Duty game got announced. Yay. I can barely contain my excitement. I gave the trailer a watch the other day and actually appreciated the change in setting, but I just know within the first week we will have Beavis and Butthead executing Kim Jong Un or something.
What’s worse is that thanks to Activision’s ingenious naming scheme, we now have COD 4: Modern Warfare, COD: Modern Warfare and COD: Modern Warfare 4, and somehow, they are three different games (and even that is debatable). So, who’s gonna review this year’s one? Nikkidi aan! I vote Arielle.
For now, we are just gonna forget everything and go back to November 2007. Infinity Ward was finally taking the series out of World War II and into a modern setting. Things would never be the same after that, for better or worse.
Halo Halo Haaaalo
No, I’m not singing Beyoncé’s hit song, but rather reminiscing about the third Halo game. It was taking the world by storm here, having grossed $170 million on the first day of sales in the United States. Suffice to say, we were all ready to get back in our Warthogs and run someone over. Halo 3 was my introduction to the series, too. Very fond memories with my cousin having energy sword battles.
This was also the time when Bungie went independent of Microsoft, and rumours began to circulate about what they would do next.
Thinking back, did you ever expect them to become boys in blue nearly twenty years on?
Grand’Oh Auto
Back when the Simpsons were still making games and the show had already long jumped the shark, it seemed they had Rockstar in quite a tizzy at the Leipzig Games Convention. Sporting some funny GTA spoof posters to promote their upcoming The Simpsons Game, they were apparently asked by a lawyer or employee who they were spoofing to remove them.
Why some advertisement campaigns that merely poked fun at their game would bother them and not Simpsons: Hit & Run, a literal GTA clone years prior, wouldn’t be beyond me. But I guess that’s why Rockstar has a union now.
In The Streets There Is Violence
Given the BBFC’s (the classification board of Britain) response to Manhunt and its content, I am guessing none of them grew up on Electric Avenue.
Rockstar were trying to calm things down by cutting some of the more brutal bits of their game to appease the snobs, but to no avail. I don’t think making the people in the game bleed glitter and painting Carcer City pink would have even worked.
Clive Barker was feeling the same scorn when his game Jericho was refused a rating by the German ESRB equivalent. I wonder if the horror legend will bribe them with tjop and dop to get his upcoming Terrifier game to Die Deutsch.
Half Life 2 Episode 3 Leak!!!!
Sorry, just needed a headline to grab your attention. It would have definitely worked in this period, when the second game was still relatively new.
Gabe Newell had done an interview with CNN and CVG, stating that after the release of the third episode, there would be engagement with the fans whether episodic content was the way to go, or to pursue larger projects.
Maybe Gabe is still patiently waiting for us on Skype to call him back and tell him what we think? Maybe he even has a cake for us?
Oh COOD 4, Where Art Thou?
And here we arrive at a pinnacle moment of a franchise. One that had already taken the war shooter genre by storm since its arrival, so much so that people in pop culture still think you cannot snipe in Carentan.
After the third game, it was time to shake things up, though. Gone were the theatres of war in Europe, and onto the Middle East and modern warfare (heh) we were thrust, with a Captain Price and wet-behind-the-ears Soap McTavish.
The campaign was the stuff of dreams. The graphics were eye-popping. The multiplayer was revolutionary with Create-a-class, killstreaks, the Prestige system and the greatest map of all time, Shipment.
Twenty years on, and you can hardly believe the state we are in now. Will COD 4 Modern 4 Warfour rise to the occasion? Are we getting Black Ops 8 in 2027? Can someone please put this franchise out of its misery and tell Bobby Kotick to shut his mouth?
Bonus: Warcraft
There are two bonus Warcraft stories here for you this month, and I feel like our resident orc LordRaz0r somehow had something to do with them both. Back in 2007, selling a WoW account or character was a novel thing (nowadays, you just pay the guy on Fiver to do the dungeons for you). A night elf named Zeuzo fetched a price of near 7000 euros. In 2007. Right before the recession. I bet it was real fun to go on dungeon raids while starving IRL.
There was also the banning of a kinky guild called Abhorrent Taboo for a whole manner of things that users complained about. If only they knew that in 2026 you could get away with that kind of thing on Twitter or Twitch…
