New Hotness

Let’s be honest: Call of Duty has had it’s ups and downs, it’s hits and misses, it’s peaks and valleys. With the absolutely fantastic Modern Warfare that hit not too long ago, I was hesitant when I first heard about Cold War. Long story short, after spending some quality time with the Open Beta on PC, I can say even though it’s familiar, it’s one of the smoothest, polished, and just “right” feeling CODs in a quite a while. This is coming from someone who, in general, was growing a bit tired of the COD formula. Color me impressed.

Instead of writing a novel, here’s a summarized list of the improvements and strong points of Cold War so far:

• Absolutely fantastic maps. They are larger, more open and create the perfect balance of close quarters mayhem yet enough distance to create some killer sniper ops. WAY better maps than Modern Warfare so far. Satellite is already a classic IMHO.

• Killstreaks are no longer counted in quantity but by score and that carries over after death. YES. Thank you!

• Every graphical option possible on PC version and even FOV settings for consoles. Consider me surprised.

• Gunplay and movement overall is the perfect mix of Modern Warfare and just an overall smoother system and feeling.

• Gorgeous graphics, sound and strong music presence makes for a killer audio visual experience. Can’t wait for the campaign to really knock our socks off.

For the first time in quite a while, I am stoked for the next Call of Duty. If Activision can pull it off come launch in November, that’s 2/2 and that in itself is quite an accomplishment. You can preorder Cold War now to get into the beta early. Otherwise, you have to wait until October 17th for the full open beta.