Panel Discussion

Judging by what you've seen so far with the beta, what are your initial feelings about CoD5?

Mark "wombat" Larsen - With the exception of the lousy sound code (which I hear is fine in the retail version) and the occasional blue-screen error, I actually like it a lot. One big change that I've noticed so far is that the grenades don't seem to be nearly as powerful as they were in CoD4 – which is a great thing. Also with the addition of bolts back into the game, it'll require people to aim once again instead of the mindless spraying that took place in CoD4. Granted it is just a beta, to me the game plays and feels very much like CoD4 and could be successful with a solid competitive mod.

Taylor "tAYLORRRRR" Sheridan - Just like every game I've ever played competitively, this one will also need fixes. It's obvious perks and such will be taken out. The Bolts will need to be fixed so they actually kill things. I think that should be number 1 priority, and I don't think it will be difficult. I think the game will be great if people want it to be great. People think the game should come out and be made just the way THEY want it. Nope, not going to happen. So I hope everyone gets over there feelings about tanks and flamethrowers, because they wont be in competition.

Robert "griM_" Koster - My first thoughts are that the game could have a lot of potential but then again it barely gives us anything to base our opinions on. Limiting our guns, showing only 3 maps and of course limiting the sound makes it hard to tell whether it'll be good for competition. But if I had to guess, I would say with the right modding (Steve "Mav" Groat) we could have a good game for a year or 2.

Jesse "Nrv" Daly - Honestly, so far CoD5 looks really good to me. My team and I got a chance to take a look at the game back in August at NVISION and we were able to check out all of the maps and features the game had to offer. There are going to be a ton of worthless maps in the retail version since there's about 8 that are created for vehicle warfare. I am very confident that we will have enough maps in this game for it to be competition friendly after taking a look at them all. I'm a little unsure exactly how the game will play if the guns used by each side will be nation-based and how the game is affected by whatever competitive mods are introduced.

Joe "Nabore" Amorosa - I think the beta has a lot of potential to be a good title. There were things that I saw that I liked and others that I disliked, but overall I think we should remain positive and wait until the game actually comes out to see if the restrictions that were in the demo still exist in the full game.


Do you think CoD5 will be usable in its current form for competition, or do you think a promod is needed to balance things out?

Mark "wombat" Larsen - Of course we're going to need some sort of mod to make the game playable for competition. Lots of people are already complaining about the bolts not killing in one hit, gas/flares being comparable to CoD4's stun grenades, and of course most perks need to be restricted. I do hope that a promod similar to CoD4's comes out somewhat soon after the game's release, if only to set some standardized rules and to give the game a more polished feel.

Taylor "tAYLORRRRR" Sheridan - Personally, I really liked promod. I don't think promod is necessary though. Sadly I believe people will just move over to the euro standard, but I don't mind that at all. Balance shouldn't be a problem, I don't think we need the euros to figure out balance of weapons. Things will need to be changed for competitive play. Obviously the poison gas will be taken out just like the stun grenade in Call of Duty 4.

Robert "griM_" Koster - We all know that it will need a promod for various reasons. Every game made needs to be modded some way. We as pro gamers like to think they make the games for us but in reality it's for those who enjoy single player and enjoy all the perks/effects the game has to offer.

Jesse "Nrv" Daly - A promod will 100% be needed for this game in order to make it ready for competition. Thank god the snipers actually hit in this game in the retail version off the start and there is no gun sway that needs to be taken out. A lot of things need to be taken care of though to make the game ready. Obviously perks will need to be limited to pretty much what there were limited to in CoD4. Some guns will need to have changes made to them. And I wouldn't mind seeing the Awp fix implemented into CoD5 as well. Taking the promod from CoD4 as a model and trying to move it over to CoD5 is something I would fully support. I know a lot of people didn't like this promod but I have always enjoyed it and the changes it brought to the game. One thing that should NOT be touched is the regen system. I only say that because I already know some people are trying to mess with the way regen works in CoD5.

Joe "Nabore" Amorosa - I think we definitely need a competition mod to find the best formula for our game. We understand that out of the box, these games are not made for us and we need to change them accordingly. In terms of balance, we can’t know for sure how things like guns and regeneration need to be tweaked because we have yet to see all the guns in action. Things like maps are probably the most important though, in regards to a professional mod of any sort, because the maps dictate our game type.