Zach Rogers 0:00
It's that time gamer nation, grab your drinks, get some snacks and plug in your headphones cuz you are now connected to Next On The Sticks.
Welcome gamers of all ages. I'm your host, Zach Rogers, along with my co host, Morgan Pangle. How is it going Morgan?
Morgan Pangle 0:26
I'm doing good. I'm glad to be here.
Zach Rogers 0:29
That's good to hear. Always good to hear from you, man. And now, Call of Duty. You know, it's a franchise most likely, you most likely know and maybe love you maybe not, you know, maybe. But for two decades, it's been a juggernaut for the first person shooter genre, otherwise known as FPS, as the newest Call of Duty, Black Ops Cold War. That's a mouthful, prepares to come out and continue the franchise, we're gonna take a look at the roots of Call of Duty, and how it's changed over the years. Now they're looking at this list. Morgan, there's a lot of games here. I'm telling you.
Morgan Pangle 1:07
Yeah, exactly, there's at least four in there.
Zach Rogers 1:09
At least four as a little more than four. Now we're gonna dive deep into some Call of Duty games right now. And starting off 2003 Call of Duty. Infinity Ward came out this title. And they went on to make Call of Duty 2. And then Treyarch in 2006, took the hold ad and made Call of Duty 3. And Infinity Ward took back development of the franchise of the series. And started started it with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007. And that is what I want to talk about right now because this game was instrumental in building Call of Duty's reputation, because previously with Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2 Call of Duty 3, there were all World War II games. And by the third one, people were getting tired. They were getting tired of playing the same game over and over again, not having a coherent story, pretty much just being not organic, and just be being very bland and not having a lot of innovation in the campaign and also in the multiplayer. And that is where Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare comes in. With a brand new story, a brand new era, putting it in. I believe it's 2011 is when this is set, but modern times we have modern combat. And this game launched storytelling in the first person shooter genre to a whole new level. Because you you got these characters that come in with deep backstories that we don't even know at the start, but you can tell while playing the game that these characters have intricate backstories. And they all met mix well together and they are very coherent. And I had so much fun playing this game. I remember. I remember back when it came out. My my dad had an Xbox 360. And he played this game all the time. And I was like "dad, let me play" and he was like "okay, I'll let you play", and I took over, I took over playing the campaign paying playing the multiplayer. And speaking of multiplayer, that was a game changer. That was definitely a game changer for this game. And for for this franchise and for the series. Because for the first time, you have customization of your classes, you have customization, your primary, your secondary, and you're so many options, like with attachments, and with your score streaks. And there's so many different ways to play to play each time you get in there. And especially with the progression system, the progression system allows you to play over and over and over again and feel like you're actually making a dent in the game and gives you this sense of achievement when playing the game. Now Morgan, did you ever play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at all?
Morgan Pangle 4:16
You know, no, I didn't because I really didn't get into the call to do franchise until the Black Ops 2 came out. Well, I was around for Black Ops 1 a little bit but really I didn't get to play a lot of Call of Duty until Black Ops 2. So Modern Warfare was Call of Duty 4 not one I really played. Never been a big Modern Warfare guy. But obviously it's got that incredible namesake and it's been still around for reasons so Call of Duty 4 kick that whole shebang off.
Zach Rogers 4:46
Mm hmm. And definitely did in 2008. The franchise would go back to its world war two roots with Call of Duty World at War, which was made by Treyarch and then would go back to to the modern to the Modern Warfare franchise, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. Again by Infinity Award. And as I said about modern warfare, amazing game, even better Modern Warfare two is even better than modern warfare. It takes everything that worked well with the first game, and kicks into high gear with the second game. I mean, the campaign is just as action packed just as cohesive, just as exciting to play. And it adds this element of starting World War III in the campaign, and you get this interesting Red Dawn, sort of, sort of cinematic and game gameplay action going on, which is kind of a stark contrast from Modern Warfare because Modern Warfare it feels like you're in the present, it feels like oh, you prevented nukes going off, but like it didn't really impact or affect anything. It's just all in the background, then Modern Warfare 2, you actually have Russian soldiers coming into America and you're like, oh, wow, this could actually maybe happen in the future. And that's what made Modern Warfare 2's campaigns so good. But it's not just the campaign that was good. If it was just the campaign that was good. I don't even think we'd be talking about Modern Warfare 2 is the multiplayer is just like the campaign just as good as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but Modern Warfare 2, even today is talked about as the best multiplayer and Call of Duty franchise. Because because it took what worked for Modern Warfare, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, took what worked and expanded upon it with more perks, better progression system, more guns, and more ways to customize the way you want to play. And along with that, the gameplay in the multiplayer made it fast paced, but also you had to play in a way we had to be strategic, where you placed yourself and whether to shoot or not and where to go. And this is where Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, multiplayer is where I was most when I played mostly throughout its lifespan, and I put in so many hours. I may be a little biased because I played this so much, but I mean, I love the multiplayer, and the multiplayer has impacted my my perceptions on future Call of Duty games. And, and you know, it makes me a little biased. It makes me a little nostalgic, sometimes and a little critical on new games, but I still love this game.
Morgan Pangle 8:00
Yeah, Modern Warfare 2. I have a funny story about the game I traded a friend a copy of my Mafia 2 game for his Modern Warfare 2, because I had played off the Mafia 2 and enjoyed the game. And after about after a couple days, my friend came to me and said, Look, Mafia 2 is fun. But I want Modern Warfare 2 back man, I miss it. And I was like, You miss it and he was like, I miss it. I was like, Man, that's my game now homie. And he said, No, you better bring mo. So I brought him Modern Warfare 2 back. And to this day, he still gets on and plays every now and then Modern Warfare 2, not a game I played a ton of because I had to return the game. But just like Zach was saying, I mean, there's a bias towards it. But it's a it's an exceptional campaign and multiplayer experience that Infinity Ward was able to put together in 2009.
Zach Rogers 8:49
And yeah, when we we get back to Treyarch with Call of Duty Black Ops, the first Black Ops in 2010. Now this, this honestly has to be my favorite campaign of any Call of Duty ever. I mean, the twists and turns with you being like in the Cold War, and playing these events, like as you know them, but also being a little different, and kind of messing with your mind, especially with the brainwashing of David Mason spoiler. Sorry about that, if any of y'all haven't played the game, but spoiler David Mason is brainwashed. And but you you go through the game as David Mason not knowing what's going on, and pretty much going through his shoes and just being just as confused as he is with all these flashbacks coming in. You're like, oh, what's going on and then you see at the end, as a huge twist of he's been brainwashed the entire time. And he's still being brainwashed, even when he's trying to prevent even when he's tried to fight alongside with Americans, and, and this just this story is amazing, incredible. I've played it that not thousands. But I play that dozens and dozens of times because because of the twist, but the gameplay, and just everything about it. I honestly didn't play the multiplayer until a couple years ago because I was just like, all the campaign's so good. But getting back playing the multiplayer, I see the good things about it. Well, it came out with this new system where you can have like six attachments, or like, maybe not six, but like three or four attachments on one gun. And you can have two primaries, you can have a primary, or instead of like your pistol or shotgun or rocket launcher, and the customization, like tripled from auto for three, or the customization tripled from Modern Warfare 2, and pretty much gave players more more to play with and more options, especially the progression system and the the prestige went from only having like 30 a couple procedures to having tons and tons more. But the big, but the big thing about Call of Duty Black Ops is the zombies. So I never played zombies. I don't like zombies at all. I mean, I've never played it in my well maybe not in my life, but I don't go back to it. I never play I don't play them in the new Black Ops games. But Morgan, I know you love zombies. And I know you can talk about it for forever.
Morgan Pangle 11:55
Yeah, I do love zombies. And Black Ops 1 zombies actually wasn't in the first zombies I experienced with the Black Ops 2 zombies. I went back after I was a big fan of zombies to go and play the Black Ops 1 zombies and even the World at War zombies, which we which we didn't mention a little earlier but World at War was really the start of zombies with you finishing the campaign and being launched into Nacht der Untoten the first zombies map. And from there zombies only only went only got more complex and only improved and World at War adding maps such as Shi no Numa. Under Reese and then getting to Black Ops where you started in the theater of the dead that's the first map you spawning Kino der Toten in Black Ops 1 and then great maps would follow that such as Moon 5, which was an exclusive that came with the gameas its first kind of DLC map such as Shangri La, which this day is one of the most difficult maps in zombies. The Black Ops one brought a lot of cool zombies experiences that people really didn't have with the kind of bare bones zombies experienced or World at War. Black Ops I was always really able to improve on that. So yeah, Black Ops 1 had some innovations in multiplayer like Zach was saying and an incredible campaign but also was really able to improve upon zombies experience.
Zach Rogers 13:16
And yeah, Call of Duty Black Ops is an amazing game and the next game to come after this from Infinity Ward was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 that came out in 2011. And this is pretty much a book end of the two games before Modern Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2. This pretty much ties all of it together. Campaign wise ties all of it together with you pretty much ending World War III and continuing fighting this unknown villain Makarov that you kind of knew in Modern Warfare 2 if you played if you play the entire campaign, including the very controversial airport airport mission which sees you which sees you killing civilians. But in Modern Warfare 3 Makarov is the main villain he has twisted both sides and ally into United States and Russia into fighting into World War III and you see it three, four years later. Russia is trying to pull out and Makarov was like nope. And you got to try and fight that and then that it's not Modern Warfare 3 isn't my favorite campaign of the Modern Warfare series, but it's still good. It's still shows Modern Warfare, that the series as a whole can work cohesively and that is tells a cohesive story and coherent story that you will still love. Even if it's not Modern Warfare 3, the campaign isn't the best is definitely a still up there and still regarded as a top 10 Call of Duty Call of Duty campaign and again it's it's never just the campaign for these games never just a campaign it there's always a campaign in a multiplayer and except for Black Ops 4 but I mean we will get there but it's always except for that it's always been a campaign and multiplayer and so modern warfare three it's multiplayer I mean it really didn't change much from Modern Warfare 2 I mean the the style is the same the attachments are the same, the customization is the same, which still makes it a good multiplayer. It's still just it's it's still like Modern Warfare 2, but just different maps. And and yeah, I mean I played this a lot. I still prefer Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer but it's still got a lot of merit to it.
Morgan Pangle 15:58
Yeah, definitely. But listen, listen, listen, we've talked a lot about Modern Warfare, we get it okay. Warfare, it's modern. It's a good concept. But I'm about to take you guys into 2012. Now picture this your in middle school, maybe your early High School, maybe you're in elementary school, hey, we welcome gamers of all ages. But you're sitting there in the Black Ops 2 announcement comes out, what do you do? You got to know what you're doing at that moment. That is one of those moments in life human, I remember what I was doing.
Zach Rogers 16:27
I was taking a nap.
Morgan Pangle 16:27
You were taking man you were sleeping on Black Ops two, that's what you were doing. But 2012 Black Ops 2, one of the most revolutionary games in college history, created a multiplayer experience that felt like a boots on the ground experience but also provided technological advances. The campaign of Black Ops 2 wasn't exactly the level of Black Ops 1 but still provided a lot of different choices and a lot of different weapons was great. And let me tell you about the zombies of Black Ops 2 some fans of zombies say Black Ops 2 as the peak with Treyarch zombies with maps such as Mob of the Dead that takes place on Alcatraz or origins that takes place the middle of trenches during World War I filled with robots and elemental staffs. Black Ops 2 was the combination of Black Ops 1 and Modern Warfare put together into this game that absolutely created, in my opinion, the Call of Duty culture we know today. And while that may be a negative to a lot of people, I think Black Ops 2 is one of those games that absolutely took off for a good reason. Well put the other game, great team behind it. And it was awesome. The game to follow Black Ops 2 wasn't quite great, but I'll let Zach handle that one.
Zach Rogers 17:38
Yeah, and yeah, as you said, it's not that great. And I would tend to agree with you Call of Duty Call of Duty Ghosts. And released in 2013 by Infinity Ward it was it was interesting. The campaign, it started out so well, you know, started out so well. And then and then you're like, Oh, it's ended and then the villain comes back in and pretty much captures you and you're like, what, what just happened
Morgan Pangle 18:09
Spoiler alert.
Zach Rogers 18:10
Oh pft. I this these this game has been out for seven years. I feel like people should know already what has happened. But I'm not gonna spend too much time on it.
Morgan Pangle 18:23
No one ever did anyway.
Zach Rogers 18:25
You're right. You're right.
Morgan Pangle 18:28
Aliens mode real quick. That would play zombies. Just a bad idea. Okay, go ahead, Zack. You're just one.
Zach Rogers 18:33
Yeah, you know what? See, I actually played that a lot. The aliens. Like the
Morgan Pangle 18:38
How do you like aliens but not zombies. Let me ask you that. They got elemental staffs and zombies. You wanna know what they have in aliens? Boring old guns.
Zach Rogers 18:47
I don't know. I just it. It's just a stigma of aliens between zombies and me. That's that's just me. I don't know. At that dead. We're spending too much time on this.
Morgan Pangle 18:59
We're spending more time then anyone actually played Ghosts
Zach Rogers 19:05
All right. Okay. Okay, well, moving on. The next game, which I mean, it's not the best game, but it had a lot of changes and a lot of advancements pun intended. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare 2014 by Sledgehammer Games, which is to note, this is their first game that they produced by themselves. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, they co produced it with Infinity Ward. But, oh, Advanced Warfare. I mean, had so many changes. Starting with the exoskeleton and the advanced movements. I mean, that was a selling point of the game. And I mean, it was a commercial success at first but then as stuff came out as like DLCs and months went on, it just kind of dropped off the map, and especially for me it dropped off the map and just just didn't didn't end well started at that the very top and then just plummeted.
Morgan Pangle 20:09
Yeah, you know, Advanced Warfare. It was alright. Um, want some advancements again, sledgehammers
Zach Rogers 20:19
It's not bad
Morgan Pangle 20:20
Sledgehammer after but Modern Warfare 3. When they didn't work with Infinity War, a lot of their products were little subpar and we'll talk about their next their next installment a little later but Advanced Warfare was okay, the zombies was very lackluster in a lot of ways. But it was for its time it was an improvement on Ghosts to be honest. So we would get that we were getting better. It was a better game than Ghosts, you know? I mean, that's hard to do. But hey, it was something. But listen, after this, we're going to get into one of the best games in Call of Duty history. You know, one of my favorites. Like I would say Black Ops 2 is my favorite but we're gonna give the Black Ops 3. Now listen, Black Ops 3, 2015 crazy thing came out that long ago. But Black Ops 3 is a revolutionary game. I'll tell you why this story. Okay. is great. Excellent campaign. The multiplayer is solid a lot of great maps a lot of cool guns to use. I mean, you got the Drake on the sniper that semi auto but then you got you got weapons like the KN 44 you know, it's an assault rifle. Mind you have an AK 47 but it's got its own unique tendencies. Um, you've got the the HBK which is so you know, you got so many cool guns and then he got the zombies.
Zach Rogers 21:31
But hold up. Pause pause. Pause you said the campaign is good?
Morgan Pangle 21:35
Yeah.
Zach Rogers 21:37
I think a lot of fans would disagree on that one
Morgan Pangle 21:40
Well, what see you're being too blinded by the garbage Ghosts campaign. To see how great the Black Ops 3 campaign is super underrated in my opinion. I think campaigns other than Black Ops 4 is pretty good. And that's because Blck Ops 4 didn't have a campaign.
Zach Rogers 21:56
Your right.
Morgan Pangle 21:58
Campaigns fantastic. And if you compare the three campaign to the one campaign, obviously, one is going to be superior in every way. But I do think 3 doesn't get enough credit. And that's because 3 was really launched with the multiplayer premise. People really wanted to play it for that. And zombies. Zombies. I mean, they released with this map Shadows of Evil, which was an incredible map took place in morgue city, which was a prohibition era type of Chicago type of city with a lot of cool music and jazz influence and a lot of old school weapons. And then they just kept adding to the story of zombies that has slowly built up ever since World at War and it added the most innovation zombies and seen it added the slide that people love today you know no more dolphin diving now you slide to get around places. Added some new perks widows wine, and brought all the about brought back to classic person zombies. It was just an overall very clean experience. So Black Ops 3 in my opinion is one of the cleanest cleanest Call of Duty games felt like it was well put together. Great job by Treyarch on this one. And again, listen, campaign. Not as bad as you might think I'd rather play it than Ghosts. any mode in Ghosts, so but.
Zach Rogers 23:08
I disagree on that. But we're not gonna I'm not gonna get too hung up on that. And next is a game that I think we can both agree Morgan that was just didn't need to be made. Was was not wasn't good. wasn't good at all. I mean, this is pretty much where advanced movement died. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, released in 2016 by Infinity Ward. I mean, I don't even know what they were doing. I mean, I know the campaign was not bad. I mean, it was cinematic it was it was it was decent. But the multiplayer. I mean, it wasn't good. Well, it wasn't good at all. I mean, as I said before, I mean, this is pretty much where advanced movement died. I know the next game. Morgan. I know this is your cup of tea.
Morgan Pangle 23:58
Oh, hold on. Wait a minute. Hold on. We didn't even talk about the zombies from Infinite Warfare.
Zach Rogers 24:04
Zombies? You know I don't like zombies.
Morgan Pangle 24:06
Well, you know, I love zombies and the Infinite Warfare zombies super underrated in my opinion. This is the one redeeming quality for me for Infinite Warfare. Why their first zombies map zombies in Spaceland. I mean, you're taking directions from David Hasselhoff. That's incredible. I mean, it's, it's the whole concept of Infinite Warfare zombies being based, as you being sucked into a cinema and being placed in movies of each generation, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s, even. The 90s and your characters portraying that, super underrated my opinion because it wasn't a Treyarch title. Obviously the zombies didn't get a great rap and the maps as they came out, obviously, they went downhill in quality but the first map that came out so I was basically in the launch map for Infinite Warfare is one of the better zombies maps in the zombies community. It's well agreed upon that this map is pretty good alien bossfight I mean, David Hasselhoff's in it and there's always a guest character in each map, which is cool you had you had Kevin Smith. In the second map Raven the Redwoods and as the maps went on, went on, there were cool new characters that you got to meet that were real life people. And I think that's something that the zombies didn't feel didn't feel like traditional zombies, but it was something that was well received by the community. So listen, when I think of Infinite Warfare, I don't think of a great game. But I do think of a game that's got a better zombies experience than both Advanced Warfare, Ghosts, and Black Ops 4. But speaking- Oh, sorry, we're not gonna have Black Ops 4 yet. We still got to get to a neck our next sledgehammer game, which is a good title.
We're talking about World War II kind of a reimagining of Call of Duty World at War. Let me tell you about World War II. The campaign it's all right. You know, people had their ups that people had their opinions on a lot of the presence of minorities in the campaign, and that caused a bit of spark in the community. But in terms of multiplayer, world, WWII felt like a back to basics boots on the ground multiplayer, no advanced movement, no exosuits. Man, look, you get a rep. You get a submachine gun with 20 rounds in the clip. All right, you get a grenade, and maybe a pistol. And that's it. But you actually have to use tactics and know where your opponents are going to be. You know, you can't just throw a hatchet across the map and hit somebody and then 360 snipers go. No, no, no, no, no, no. WWII, you had to work together with your team. And when they came out with Prop Hunt, later, with their DLC. Oh, man, that really changed if I could become a tree. Oh, man, that was great. I enjoyed that so much. And WWII zombies. That was that was the experience. It was okay. Um, you know, it's widely considered to be a very average zombies experience. It was a little on the darker side. And the story didn't make a whole lot of sense if you didn't really read a lot about it, but it was an OK experience. Again, the launch map was pretty great. But other than that, it the zombies fairing was too great, but this was a game that I play pretty strictly for the multiplayer. Because of that back to basics feeling. You know, you get a submachine gun a pistol grenade that's I get to go and a lot of the different game modes that WWII came with.
Zach Rogers 27:13
And yeah, now I I honestly didn't play WWII and it came out and but I have played a little bit of it and you write the camp- or not the campaign. You're right. The multiplayer is very basic, very basic boots on the ground going back to to their roots, but it works. And you know, it worked at the time and it still works now even when you go back and try to play it. But next is a game it we said before you know the Call of Duty you know it you'll love it. Campaign, multiplayer go to Black Ops 4 camp- No, no campaign. That Nope. No camp- just just multiplayer and zombies.
Morgan Pangle 27:56
No campaign.
Zach Rogers 27:56
No multiplayer zombies and Oh, is this a battle royale? Okay. Well, I mean, they tried something new. And you tried something new not having a campaign but having a a was it Blackout?
Morgan Pangle 28:10
Yeah, Blackout battle royale.
Zach Rogers 28:13
The Battle Royale. They stay tried that. And it didn't necessarily fail. But I it kind of failed. But
Morgan Pangle 28:24
but it didn't fail.
Zach Rogers 28:25
Yeah.
Morgan Pangle 28:26
It never overcame Fortnite.
Zach Rogers 28:28
It's just I don't well, Fortnite is kind of dying. But like,
Morgan Pangle 28:32
Well, yes, but bla- at it's time. We know the Blackout was designed to be the FPS version of Fortnite and it just never really took off as it could have.
Zach Rogers 28:40
It's true. I will say though the Black ops 4 multiplayer was pretty good. I mean, it stripped away the Black Ops 3 like advanced movements, but it still was the fast paced, slower time to kill kind of multiplayer. You're used to with black ops. But I mean, you can't talk about Black Ops with without talking about zombies
Morgan Pangle 29:06
Without talking about zombies. That's my cue right there. Listen, Black Ops 4 zombies was garbage. Okay, I'm not gonna say that. Black Ops 4 zombies was a step back for Treyarch. Now listen, it wasn't bad. And a lot of people in the zombies community will tell you Black Ops 4 their least favorite zombies experience. I'm not going to tell you that, but I am going to tell you that I didn't have as much fun playing Black Ops 4 than I did Black Ops 3 and even Infinite Warfare zombies. But the thing with black ops for zombies, here's what they did, man, they just they improved on things that didn't need to be improved on. Got rid of some of the newer got rid of the old school perks to add some new perks that didn't make sense. Didn't make a whole lot of sense. Gave you a loadout system that was confusing to new players. It gave you weapons that turned into absolute poopoo like 20 rounds into the game. I mean, you could have this thing pack a punched 12 times that's another problem. But it still wouldn't be very good. And they remove a lot of cool systems and a lot every single map that existed within the Aether store Aether storyline, and that, of course, is the storyline for Black Ops 2, Black Ops 3 in the earlier games, was a remake of all the other games that were just remade and put in the Black Ops 4 engine. Zombies fans know that the Black Ops 4 zombies budget was cut severely, due to the due to Blackout not making nearly as much money as but as Treyarch had assumed it would so the budget for Black Ops 4 got cut pretty severely in zombies. And Black Ops 4 zombies in general was just a mess. You went from cool cutscenes to drawn cutscenes that will look more like PowerPoints, maps that just felt slapped together with elements of Blackout and new advancements and DLCs that had you had to pay for that didn't feel like you should have had to pay for. So Black Ops 4 is definitely a step back in terms of zombies, I agree was that the multiplayer was solid, nothing to write home about but it was still pretty good. And the campaign was killer because it didn't exist. So obviously I don't have any negative things to say about that. But Zach you wanna talk about, your a big Modern Warfare guy tell us about this new Modern Warfare that just came out.
Zach Rogers 31:04
Yeah, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, like just Modern Warfare, not Call of Duty four Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 or 3. Nope, just Call of Duty Modern Warfare came out in 2019. Again, by Infinity Ward. And I don't know, it's it's been such a controversial game in the community. Basically, because of the multiplayer, because they tried to make it too realistic. And that just strips away so much fun from the game. And if you want that, you might as well play. You might as well play Battlefield because Battlefield is the very realistic, war game. But Call of Duty even though it's real, it's claimed to be realistic. It still has the the fun, fun, sliding movements, fun attachments, and perks and skins, and the customization. And when you strip it away like you did in Modern Warfare, or just even make it bland, the community's going to come out and with and just it's gonna have so much backlash. And that's what Modern Warfare, Call of Duty Modern Warfare it's multiplayer was. But the campaign, I never played it, but I saw it and it's pretty solid. I mean, it's not great. It's probably not one of the best campaigns but it's still there and it still works.
Morgan Pangle 32:31
Yeah, Modern Warfare introduced War Zone. And this is actually where I thought Modern Warfare kind of struggled because I was confused. I was like, which game is Modern Warfare? Which one is War Zone? What's the difference? Which one is free? I was a little confused about all that, because you can get the Modern Warfare experience in War Zone. But I digress. But War Zone is a new type of Battle Royale type of game that kind of improved upon Blackout and is still popular and still includes content to this day and will be included in the next game with pre order bonuses. And that next game Zach is Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War set to release in exactly eight days as we're recording this on November 5. Zach, tell me man, what are your expectations for this game?
Zach Rogers 33:16
Expectations? I mean, you know me, Morgan, I know I've talked a lot about me, I'm a campaign buff. When it comes to Call of Duty. I love the campaign. Once I get a Call of Duty game, I'm on immediately playing the campaign and just immersing myself into the story no matter how good or how bad it might be. I'm still gonna play it till the end. And I'm expecting this campaign to be really good. Because it's set between Call of Duty Black Ops and Black Ops 2 it's set between that Cold War area. Area? In that cloak Cold War era. And you still have Woods you still have Mason you still have you still have loving you still have beloved characters like Woods like David Mason, and, and I'm just excited for this campaign. I mean, I feel like anything that's cinematic anything that improves upon or has these characters is going to be good no matter what I could be proven wrong, but that's what I'm expecting. I'm expecting it to be good. I'm expecting it to be maybe not just as good but on par with the stories of Call of Duty Black Ops and Black Ops 2 and not Black Ops 3, but um, see. And now for my expectations on the multiplayer. It's interesting because the multiplayer, looking on the outside looks really good. It looks like Modern Warfare, but a little more simplistic, a lot less campy. You know, a lot less camping. A lot more fast paced, paced game and slower time to kill. So that that will make it easier to move around the map. But, um, there's just been a lot of backlash after the Alpha and the Beta came out a couple weeks ago, like a month ago, a couple weeks ago. And I don't know, I want to be excited about the multiplayer, but there's just some stuff that they've been changing. And, like with the progression system, they might not have the prestige system, which is, honestly, I don't think they should get rid of that. Because that, that allows you to level up all the way and then go back down level up all the way and it's just been in the call of duty, that's just something called duty. Or Activision has done right in their Call of Duty games for years now and then taking that out would not, I don't think would help anything I think it would be would hurt it more than anything. I mean, multiplayer is a complicated thing. Because after even after it comes out, Activision and Treyarch can change core mechanics, they can change most small things about it and make it better. So I mean, I'm expecting it to be pretty decent, pretty good. But we'll have to see when it releases.
Morgan Pangle 36:15
Yeah, and Zach you and I got early access to the beta multiplayer experience and we both played a little bit played together a little bit actually. So we've got a little insider knowledge on what that what that experience looks like. And you know, all the people wondering, you know, if that haven't had the opportunity to play it you know, it's it's different. It's definitely It feels like called it feels like a Black Ops game had a baby with a Modern Warfare game and here we are. But Zach and I both enjoyed the beta and like Zach said they have the opportunity to change a lot of things that people are that are they had backlash about. And they had a lot of time to change some things that Black Ops 4 fans had backlash about that zombies. Let me tell you this ColdWwar zombies looking at the trailer looking at some of the kind of early screenshots. It looks like it could definitely improve on black I mean, it needs to improve on Black Ops 4 for it for the zombies aspect to stay alive. I mean, this is something that Treyarch has pushed hard ever since their budget got cut in Black Ops 4 for zombies, and the Black Ops 4 zombies was an absolute mess. They're going back to the basics, it looks like, old school perks kind of old school feel of fighting zombies, but they're adding so many new types of mechanics such as an escape chopper that you can use if you can survive a really difficult round to earn some rewards if you don't think you're going to make it a whole lot longer. Ways to keep your progression systems across all consoles PS4, PS5, Xbox One Series X, Xbox One, Xbox One Series S, PC, Nintendo DS, your microwave, you know, you're able to keep your progression across everything you play it on. You know zombies and that works for multiplayer as well and campaign but I think the zombies experience what am i expecting for it? I'm expecting some back to the basic zombies but with some much needed changes that the community has been asking for. I think they they learned from Black Ops 4 that the community's advice works a lot better than them just leaning on their own knowledge. But, Zach, how can this game learn from its poor predecessor in Black Ops 4. Obviously Black Ops 4 is known as a subpar game at best with most multiplayer really being its best mode. How can Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War? How can black how can cold war not repeat the same mistakes that its predecessor did?
Zach Rogers 38:39
Well, I mean, it's already started out well with adding a campaign. I mean, that's what was missing from Black Ops 4. So already adding a campaign makes it leagues better in my opinion, I feel like to a lot of Call of Duty fans. But I feel like not having Blackout like having not having a Battle Royale mode that is linked to the game helps, helps is going to help a succeed. Because yes, it still has Warzone. But Warzone itself it's its own Battle Royale game just added into the game as sort of an add on for free. So I think it's already learning by adding campaign by adding a campaign by adding as Sorry, I would say by not adding its own Battle Royale mode. Feel one thing that Treyarch can learn from Black Ops 4 is just, I would say keep stay keep the core of multiplayer from Black Ops 4 I mean, they've already done that by doing using the core mechanics of Black Ops 4 and kind of melding that with Modern Warfare. But keep the core mechanics and listen to your fans. That is the biggest thing your fans are going to, they're going to buy the game like called it. I mean, there's always going to be the new players, but the longtime fans are gonna buy the game and they're gonna determine your sales. So if you want it to be a successful game, listen to your fans when they don't think something is right. You don't necessarily have to change it, but be like, Hey, we're listening to this, we might change this, that that's going to be the biggest thing for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War to be a success.
Morgan Pangle 40:34
Hmm, yeah. I agree with that. 100%. I think that as long as they make a zombies mode that is an absolutely confusing and weird that this game is gonna be an improvement. I think this is a game. Treyarch's got to hit one. I mean, after what was a disappointing Black Ops 4. It's not a far cry to say that Treyarch last good game was five years ago. And when you're competing in the bl-, the Call of Duty franchise tried to come out with a game every year. Treyarch maybe skip next time around. It's called if it's Cold War isn't a success. But we'll see what that looks like then. But for now all we can wait until November 13 to go ahead and crack open Black Ops Cold War and explore the struggle between America and the USSR through the eyes of our new characters.
Zach Rogers 41:25
Yeah, definitely. And I can't wait I don't both excited. And we're going to start start playing as soon as it comes out. But I think that is it for today's episode. Thank you guys for tuning in this week. Um that is all we have for you guys. I hope you guys are just as excited as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as we are. This has been Zach Rogers and Morgan Pangle on Next On The Sticks.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai