Activision has started “Double XP” Week for Call of Duty: World At War for those Xbox 360 and PC users who have the Limited Collector’s Edition.
Those who qualify will have the opportunity to earn double the experience points with access to the “Double XP Officer’s Club” playlists. It will end at 11:59AM Pacific Standard Time in the U.S. on Friday, December 12th. So you have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to rack up those points!
Call of Duty: World At War is the latest game in the first-person war series and the 5th game in the franchise. For this title the setting was brought back to World War II after the huge success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare which was set in modern times. The game recieved great reviews across the board.
It is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC at a price point of $60, on the Wii for $50, the PS2 for $40 and the DS for $30. It’s rated M for Mature (Intense Violence, Strong Language, Blood and Gore).
Call of Duty 5 (a.k.a. Call of Duty: World at War) has several things that Call of Duty 4 did not. Like Capture the Flag and War. And an online four player co-op campaign. Oh, and a local splitscreen co-op campaign! Nice! I’ve long been looking forward to playing this, and last night before going to see Quantum of Solace (mini-review: not nearly as good as Casino Royale), Steve and I played us some CoD:WaW splitscreen co-op.
The Good
Its Existence The developers didn’t have to put this into the game, but they did, and I’m grateful. I really enjoy playing splitscreen co-op games with Steve, and I’m glad that this game gave us the opportunity.
It’s Fun The co-op campaign, so far, has been fun to play. I chose the competitive mode, where you compete for points. This is on by default, so I’m maybe I should have said “didn’t un-choose” the mode. But I like racking up the kills and seeing my points total go up as I work through the level. The levels so far have been somewhat interesting, though very scripted (but I didn’t expect otherwise). I ran out of ammo for my machine gun a lot, and had to use a rifle, which I’m not so good with. The flame thrower is fun, but of limited use. And I lost it going to the next mission.
The Bad
Character Differentiation Usually I don’t have any problems trying to determine who to shoot. But in this game I do. I often shoot anyway, and let the score (minus red or plus yellow) tell me if I’m hitting a good guy or bad. That’s ridiculous.
Mission Fail from One Death Playing these games, you typically fail the mission when both you and your partner die. Once, however, I was still alive after Steve died, and we failed. How does that work?
The Ugly
Doesn’t Use Whole Screen Playing splitscreen, the two screen are beside each other. But there is area both above and below each screen that is unused, and it’s quite annoying. Screen real estate is precious - please use it!
No Leveling Up Back when Treyarch first started talking about this game, they gave the impression that you’d be able to level up your character from any of the game’s modes (except maybe competitive splitscreen). I’m here to tell you that this is not the case. You do not get to level up your character playing this game in splitscreen mode, which is quite disappointing.
The Rest
That’s after playing for about an hour. If my opinion changes any after more playtime, I’ll add a follow-up post.
Call of Duty 5: World at War is a great FPS game, but sometimes you just need to goof off with some cheats for all weapons and more fun codes to unlock new modes, maps and such. Below you will find a list of cheat codes for all versions of the game on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (even DS). Plus all death card locations you need to unlock co-op mode effects on video. Huge thanks to cod4ever for sending this in!
PC CODES:
While playing the game on any difficulty level, press the tilde key (which looks like ~ on your keyboard) to display the console window. After you enable the cheat console, type “devmap mak” and then press ENTER. This will enable the cheat mode. After that enter the following codes and hit ENTER to activate or toggle them.
The code is followed by — Its effect on the game.
give all — All weapons
devmap [map name] — Change maps
notarget — Disable AI
god — God mode
mapname — List maps
noclip — No clipping mode
ALL DEATH CARD LOCATIONS:
Collected death cards show their effect in the co-op campaign only, host settings. You can obtain them in any diffulty level. Watch all the locations being found in this video:
PC, XBOX 360 AND PLAYSTATION 3 CHEATS:
To unlock Veteran Mode reach Level 32, which is a Co-op Mode with much tougher enemies.
To unlock Zombie Mode complete the Campaign Mode, which is a four-player Co-op Mode against endless waves of Nazi zombies.
The unlockable weapon or perk is followed by — How to unlock it.
* Special Grenades
Smoke: Reach Level 4.
Tabun Gas: Reach Level 4.
Signal Flare: Reach Level 4.
* Extra custom weapon slots. Reach the indicated Prestige rank to unlock the corresponding extra custom weapon slot.
6: First Prestige
7: Second Prestige
8: Fourth Prestige
9: Seventh Prestige
10: Tenth Prestige
Yesterday after my daily walk I picked up Call of Duty: World at War at the Blockbusters right beside work. (My new place of work is in a handy location!) I popped it in around 8pm last night, and after a software update, I was ready to go! I played for about two hours and got to level 9.
I didn’t try anything except for competitive online multiplayer, and looked around the menus a little to see what else was available. Here are my thoughts:
Pros
Four Player Splitscreen To be honest, I was worried about this one. No released info prior to this game’s release indicated that there would be a four player splitscreen mode, and believe me, I looked! So I’m quite relieved to see that it’s in there. While that’s great, it also hasn’t changed at all from the way Call of Duty 4 did it. It would have been nice to have profile support so that my buddies and I could level up our players.
Nice Level Design I didn’t get to see all the maps, but I was very impressed with the maps that I did see. I spent a lot of time just looking at the level design instead of shooting enemies. It was especially enjoyable to see the Japanese themed levels. I have no idea yet how well the levels are play balanced, because my experience so far is so minimal. But so far so good.
Gore High/Low Setting I forget, actually, what this setting is called, but the game allows you to tune down the gore effects. I haven’t turned on this setting yet, because I want to see how bad it is. But I like knowing that this is here in case I want to use it.
Much Like CoD4 This game plays much like CoD4 did, which is a good thing. The controls are the same, so there’s nothing new to learn. Any CoD4 fan can jump right into this game and feel at home. It’s like a huge expansion pack, which some might quibble with, but I don’t mind. I knew that when I was buying the game.
Lots of Modes You can play the single player campaign. You can play the same campaign co-op splitscreen with a friend. Or you can play it co-op online with up to three friends. Then you can turn on competitive online co-op mode where you compete for points. Or you can play competitive multiplayer online. Or you can play competitive multiplayer splitscreen. Whew! Nice!
Cons
Menus Navigation is Slow The game spends a lot of time loading menus, which is strange. Why can’t it load them in the background? Menus don’t take up that much memory…
Server Disconnect At the end of every game I played last night, I got a warning that the server has disconnected. I seemed to maintain my stats, but this was still a bit worrisome.
Same Maps The matchmaking system kept putting me on the same two or three maps, and I rarely got to see some of the others.
No War in Splitscreen I did check out the splitscreen options, and noticed that the game type War isn’t available in splitscreen! Usually we play DM, TDM, or HQ, because the other game types don’t lend themselves very well to our style of play and the fact that we’re only four players. But I thought that War could have been a good mode for four players. Unhappily, I’ll never find out.
Connection Issues Playing the beta at my friend Todd’s house, he had a lot of connection issues. We assumed it was the internet connection. But I had connection issues twice last night, and usually my internet is rock solid. I don’t know if this is the game or my service provider or my home network, but it was annoying and I thought I’d mention it.
Zombie Mode? Now I haven’t experience this first hand because I haven’t completed the game yet. But seriously. Zombie mode? Is this a FPS horror game or a FPS war game? I think that the developers could have spent their time on better things than this. I’m not into horror, but if I was, I’d should buy a horror game, not a Call of Duty game.
Final Thoughts
I like this game a lot, just as I liked Call of Duty 4 a lot. It brings up good memories of playing Call of Duty 2, but it has all the cool stuff from Call of Duty 4. Best of both worlds. Now I can’t wait to get to level 14 so that I can play Headquarters and War online!
I do wonder one thing though, and I hope someone out there can answer this. Playing splitscreen co-op, does player two get to level up and progress? Is this information saved?
Call of Duty: World At War releases to stores tomorrow (November 11th, 2008) and is the fifth game in the franchise and the follow-up to Infinity Ward’s phenomenal Call of Duty 4. It will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, PS2 and DS.
World at War returns the franchise to the World War II theater (the Pacific Theater specifically) and is developed by Treyarch, who take the reigns from the previous developer, Infinity Ward. But as you can see in this awesome new trailer, the game has lost none of the luster that put Call of Duty 4 over the top.
Here is the laundry list of features in Call of Duty 5: World At War:
* Call of Duty 4 Technology – Built using the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine, Call of Duty: World at War utilizes a bedrock of technology that delivers jaw-dropping visuals, while empowering players to employ elements like fire to affect the dynamics of the battlefield. Players that attempt to harness the power of new weapons, like the flamethrower, will find themselves capable of burning away environmental elements that give cover to a camouflaged enemy, leaving a charred battlefield – and their foes – in their wake
* Coordinated Assault and Support – For the first time in the franchise, Call of Duty: World at War introduces co-op, bringing fresh meaning to the No One Fights Alone mantra. Call of Duty: World at War co-op features up to four-players online, or two-player local split-screen, allowing gamers to experience harrowing single-player missions together for greater camaraderie and tactical execution. The title also incorporates traditional multiplayer components such as challenges, rankings and online stats into the co-op campaign for deeper re-playability and advanced gameplay
* New Theaters of Operation – Players fight as U.S. Marines and Russian soldiers facing enemies – some new to the Call of Duty franchise – that employ lethal new tactics and know no fear, no mercy, nor the rules of war. Epic conflicts are fought on multiple fronts, playing through the climactic battles of WWII in the grittiest, most chaotic and cinematically intense experience to date
* Innovative Multiplayer – Multiplayer builds from the success of Call of Duty delivering a persistent online experience for more squad based interaction. New development with party systems allows an intimacy with squad based combat never before seen in Call of Duty. Combined infantry and vehicle missions add a new dimension to the online warfare and offers more PERK abilities
* Cinematic Quality Graphics and Sound – Treyarch’s award-winning sound department returns with effects that add to the already immersive cinematic intensity of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game engine
Call of Duty: World At War will release in Australia on November 12th, 2008 and in Europe on November 14th, 2008.
CoD: World at War Secret Mode - It’s called Nazi Zombie survival mode. You unlock it after you complete the single player game. It’s a 4 player co-op battle for your life. Check out the footage here.
War and Capture the Flag are back in Call of Duty 5. I just hope that no previous modes fell by the wayside as a result, especially Headquarters!
You all know Capture the Flag, so I thought I’d take a moment to describe War. If you have Call of Duty 3, you already have War. Go play, you’ll see.
If not, here’s the skinny.
There are five flags, or positions, and they don’t move. (If it’s like CoD3, you’ll be able to change that number in the match’s settings.) Your team starts off owning two of them, and the opposing team owns two of them. The last middle flag is owned by nobody. It’s the one under contention. Your job is to go to the flag and raise your banner by standing near the flag for a set amount of time. Once you’ve captured that flag, the next flag in line (one of the enemy’s flags) becomes neutral and you have to go race to it and capture it. Once that one is captured, you have to capture the last flag and once that is done, you win!
Of course, the problem is that the enemy is doing the same thing, but in reverse.
This game is a little more tactical than other game modes and a valid strategy is to wait at the next, uncontested, flag, hoping that your team will soon capture the previous flag. Or if your team is hard pressed you can wait at your own flag that will be made neutral if the next flag is taken away, so that you can take it quickly and send the battle back to the previous flag.
All in all it’s an enjoyable game mode, and I’m glad that they brought it back for CoD5.
Now, can anyone confirm if Headquarters is in CoD5? Four player splitscreen? Anyone? Anyone?
Activision has started “Double XP” Week for Call of Duty: World At War for those Xbox 360 and PC users who have the Limited Collector’s Edition.
But I like racking up the kills and seeing my points total go up as I work through the level. The levels so far have been somewhat interesting, though very scripted (but I didn’t expect otherwise). I ran out of ammo for my machine gun a lot, and had to use a rifle, which I’m not so good with. The flame thrower is fun, but of limited use. And I lost it going to the next mission.
