Something Fishy

Last weekend I went to a LAN - whilst I was there, I was able to play, for the very first time, Call of Duty no.4.
I personally have no love for these modern shooters. Most of them due to the following reasons:
1) They all the seem the same. There are so many of them available and so many of them have similar sounding names and it's no increasingly difficult to tell them apart.
2) Pretensions of realism. So many games claim how they are well-researched and so forth that it's something that, for me, is somewhat tiresome. Personally if I were to do a realistic-shooter, I would incorporate elements like soldiers being panicked and frightened under fire and the cost of lives that goes into fighting a war (can you say Cannon Fodder?). Or better still, ditch the realism and concentrate on the bizarre and unreal and see how many LAN-tales it inspires. But I digress...
3) The people who play these games. I've never been a big fan of these types of shooters and have been especially reluctant to play them with anyone else. Reason being, more often than not, you find yourself playing against someone who KNOWS what they're doing. As such, you get shot down repeatedly by someone who relishes in shooting the unfamiliar simply because it's the only way the ace player can get it up. And they take it so seriously too! Therefore, as a golden rule, if a computer/video game stops being fun then then would be a good time to quit.

Grumbling aside, it did take a lot of coaxing for the other LAN participants to get me to try CoD4. And after the initial awkwardness and stupid learning curve (ie kill them before they kill you!) I did find some enjoyment out of CoD4. Sure it was stupid that I got killed so easily but I played it enough times (and shoot so many dudes) to make to the rank of Lance Corporal no.1.
Indeed, once I unlocked the class of Sniper I really went to town through being able to claim a high possie and take out anyone in sight. And it was that point that I went from 'hopeless' to being 'a pain in the arse'. A true advancement and it's funny how a game becomes more enjoyable once you make some degree of headway in it.

So yeah, after some skepticism, I tried CoD4 and found it quite enjoyable. It hasn't changed my distaste for the modern shooter but hey, I can certainly the appeal of that this game has had over many a LAN.