H3 vs COD4
As a healthy american male, I love video games. Some of you might say (especially the women), Cam, you're gonna be 25, time to grow up and stop playing games. Well, the average game player age in America is 33 and its not just men who play video games either. Thirty-eight percent of game players are women and women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%). No I'm not making any of this up either. Here's my source, the Entertainment Software Association.
Technical mumbo-jumbo and statistics aside, lets get to the heart of the matter. Generally speaking, video games can be broken down into 3 main categories. Role playing games (RPG's), sports games and Shooters, either first (FPS)or third (TPS) person. Its hard to compare games in different genres, just like its hard to compare music and movies of different genres. For this article, we're going to talk about two FPS's:
Halo 3 Call of Duty 4 
Both of these are available for the Xbox 360 and I have played them both. While this is the first Call of Duty game I have played, I have played both Halo 1 and Halo 2 and have long been a fan so as much as I'd like to remain impartial, I will have some built in, unavoidable bias.
Halo has long been one of if not the premier shooter of this or any generation. Its kind of the gold standard title that all subsequent games are compared to. Every so often another game will come out thats gets touted as a "halo killer." Most often these games end up being awful and a waste of time and money. For several weeks I had been hearing how awesome Call of Duty 4 was, how much better than Halo it was and how I needed to play it. It looked good based on the TV commercials I had saw so I borrowed the game from Tos.
Even 2 games of the exact same type, in this case FPS's, can be totally different. The halo series are of the futuristic sci-fi nature and the Call of Duty series tend to be more realistic and based in the past or present. That said they both operate under the same premise when you boil them down to their cores; you control a character and your objective is to shoot, hit, stab or explode the enemy. In Halo, the enemies are aliens. In Call of Duty its other humans. The qualities of the game we as players look for remain the same though:
- We want a good combat engine
- Pretty graphics
- Intelligent AI
- A satisfying single player storyline
- Excellent multiplayer
Have to give the edge to Halo here. Both games allow you to alter your thumbstick layout in identical manners but halo allows for much more button customization. The fact that the controller bumps reload/switch grenade types in Halo is such a better system than COD's x-button reload system. Yes I know the first 2 Halo's used that system but that was on a different platform whose controllers had no shoulder bumps. Halo's system is so simple and easy to pick up and it feels totally natural. Call of Duty felt bulky and awkward.
Graphics
Both games have stunning graphics. The Ghili flashback level in Call of Duty really stood out to me and overall the game looks good and plays pretty smooth. Halo has such attention to detail
but suffers from a slower frame rate and the draw distance is kinda crappy. Plus the resolution loss in split screen mode is a huge drawback. The lighting in halo is rather impressive though as is your interaction with the environment. Final verdit is a tie. Both games do different things well to and other things not as well while looking and playing good.
AI
Hands down Halo wins this category. Not only is the enemy AI very smart, creative and unpredictable, but your allies are just as cunning. In COD, your allies never really help you out that much and the enemies only seem to focus on you, which can make for some pretty ball busting moments.
Single Player
I thouroughly enjoyed COD's campaign. It had some innovative features and moments like when you're in the AC-130 gunship using the thermal cameras to protect your allied squad, another mission where you provide support from a chopper and the aforementioned ghili suit level. My only complaints were that it was kinda too short, and I didn't like having to play as 2 characters only to have one of them die. Halo's campaign was a bit longer than COD and at least made up for the short comings of halo 2. Since it was the final installment of a trilogy it was sort of predictable. Guess I'd give the slight edge to COD just on the basis that it was new, even though I like Halo's story line much more.
Multiplayer
This one again halo wins hands down. They have perfected the art of online multiplayer. Not only that but Halo allowed for co-op, in system link, split screen and online, up to 4 players. Their level design is supurb, weapon balance excellent and matchup/ranking system near flawless. Plus it just plays better. No special bonuses to a player based on how much they've played the game. It truly tests your skill alone.Conclusion
COD is a good gamebut it's no Halo. In fact I have yet to see a game that is as complete and sound as Halo. And since this post has taken me the better part of a week to write and I'm sick of it that's it, I'm done.
