At Tied the Leader, we see the Gunslingers as a microcosm of the Xbox Live community. Our members are a smaller sampling of the all-encompassing nation that plays Halo 3 via Xbox Live – a gaming body with its own ebb and flow. At times, our online population is booming. On rarer occasions, one’s Friends List can look like a ghost town that was decimated by the closure of a steel mill.

There are many factors that can sideline an army in the Battle of the Halo Nation. Resumption of curriculum at institutions of higher learning… Season premieres of beloved television serials… Most recently, there was the scourge of the holiday season; in which gamers were separated from their boxes against their will so that they could swill eggnog with Aunt Sally and collect yet another sweater that will forever suffer the darkness of the dresser drawer.

Currently, the most profound threat to Tied the Leader’s Official Halo Clan comes from the reinstatement of the wartime draft. We are not talking about Operation Enduring Freedom. The combat readiness of the TTL Gunslingers in Halo 3 is being challenged by a game called “Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare”.

No doubt, you have seen it occupying constituents on your Friends Lists. Perhaps you have even played it yourself.

The response at TTL to this game has been so positive, the migration of Gunslingers from combat evolved to modern warfare has created a backlash. In the Midworld Forum, we even had to quell a movement to refer to COD4 as “Fish” in popular vernacular.

Get it? Cod = Fish? “Don’t eat the fish” they would say. “The fish is bad!” It was funny, but feelings started to get hurt. Gamers are a passionate bunch!

What follows is not to be an argument of “My Favorite Video Game Can Beat Up Your Favorite Video Game”. Some rabid fanboys feel the need to stake out their corner as being the very best corner. We will abstain from the debate.

From the perspective of a gamer who is leading a team community with hopes of outliving the Halo Franchise [perish the thought], there is a lot to love about Call of Duty 4. If nothing else, the inclusion of fish in our diet proves that a “Halo Clan” can adapt to another game without losing their sense of identity or teamwork.

The similarities between the two games are striking. Both Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 are, at first glance, shooters. Both games enable a team to enter a game as a team. The Party Lobby system for Call of Duty 4 is almost as good as what we had when we played Halo 2 – meaning that it comes closer than any other non-Bungie game to competing with the Halo Experience on Xbox Live.

Yeah, sure… Gears of War had a multiplayer application that was real swell, if you didn’t mind the complete and total absence of matchmaking dynamics that enabled people to choose their teammates in ranked games. Among the Gunslingers, that is sort of important, seeing as though it is the cornerstone of our offering.

In Call of Duty 4, you can form up in a party, and allow the mechanics of the game to assemble an opposing squad – so long as you are patient with members of your squad being arbitrarily and unceremoniously dropped from the guest list. Your friend who loves COD will tell you that a “magical patch” is on the way; one that will solve all of their problems. This proclamation has the same ring to it as “Bungie is putting the pistol back into Halo!”

For as many similarities that are strikingly obvious, there are clever differences about Call of Duty 4 that may lure Halo Loyalists away from the front lines of Halo 3 matchmaking forever.

The Class System in Call of Duty has to be the single most addictive component of the multiplayer aspect of the game. In creating a class, a gamer has a chance to express themselves. A sense of individuality emerges from the gameplay.

It can be said that Halo affords a player a sense of inviduality, with the chance to trick out their armor with trophies unlocked through the acquisition of achievements. Yet, those cosmetic alterations have no impact on the game – other than making you a target for other players that resent you for finishing the campaign on Legendary.

Call of Duty requires that a gamer embrace and practice a combat specialty. Well, it’s not exactly “required”, but it is a damn good suggestion that one does so. Otherwise, you are just running around with a stock M16, with nothing on your person to give you a leg up. In Halo, combat specialties are less an option. This gamerblogger has enough Wheelman medals to lay claim to the Warthog, but only if I can get to it before the other team does.

In Call of Duty, a gamer steps onto the battlefield with everything they need to play their role. “Ghost-Class” snipers blend into the bush in ghillie suits, wielding a silenced rifle. Their physical avatars are tricked out with handpicked “perks” that make their footfalls silent as that of a Ninja. Their uniform hides away gadgets that make them invisible to radar. On the same team as the Sniper may be a juggernaut Heavy Gunner that is perked with the strength to take a few more bullets before they fall. The hands that wield the “SAW” machine gun can be trained to reload a belt-fed weapon with the speed of a magician.

The convention of these fighting classes is far more than a novelty. They have a profound impact on the gameplay. What is the first thing that crosses your mind at the outset of a match of Halo 3? “Who is going to get the [insert power weapon here]?” In a multiplayer game of Halo, weapon control equals map control. Thus, the beginning of each match starts out like the lightning-round shopping sprees that you see on game shows. Get the sniper rifle! Get the Sp’Laser! Get the Banshee! Get the year-supply of golf balls!

In Call of Duty 4, strategy equals map control. No one shops for power weapons. At the words “Let’s do this!”, they fan out to lock down the strategic choke-points on the map. Gone are the post-game arguments about “hoarding the weapons”. If you played well enough to unlock that G36 Assault Rifle, it is yours to shoot, Mister! The more you play the game, the more toys and perks you have at your disposal. The combinations are endless.

This gameplay scenario is not without its flaws, it must be said. Some of the perks in COD are so ludicrous, they draw universal moans from the players that encounter their use. You cannot play a game without hearing someone scream “Fucking MARTYRDOM!” in a moment of frustration.

When a gamer selects the “Martyrdom” perk, they automatically drop a grenade onto the battlefield whenever they are taken down by an opponent. It does not matter if they had it on their person, or not. It does not matter if they have their brain smeared across a wall like oatmeal by the slug from a Barrett .50 Sniper Rifle. It does not matter if they catch a Rocket Propelled Grenade in the chest like an NFL running back. If you are rolling with Martyrdom, you shit a magical grenade when you die. It’s annoying. Similarly, if one selects “Last Stand” as a perk, their avatar can draw a sidearm and pop of a few parting shots from their final resting place on the ground.

Call of Duty is still a good game. It cannot be denied. The question becomes “How replayable will it be?” You do reach a point at which you are shooting the same four or five guns over and over and over. They are all tricked out with your favorite sites, your preferred grips, and colorful camouflage patterns that earn bragging rights for those who unlock them. They are, however, the same four or five weapons. If you care for a prestige icon next to your name, you could always shrug your rank and start all over, with the same four or five weapons.

The real question is that of community. If the phenomenon of the Halo Nation is evidence of anything, it is the strength of a fanbase in prolonging interest in a game. What were most of us playing when Halo 3 came out? Halo 2. Why? It probably has something to do with the fact that – even though we say the very worst things to each other in a post-game lobby – we have grown accustomed to shooting at one another. The daring could even say that, deep in a secret chamber of our hearts, we like each other. We really like each other.

To date, we have seen no evidence of a social movement in the cannon of Call of Duty that resembles the Halo Nation.

Time will tell.

Posted by XerxdeeJ