As a long time cod4 player on the PC, I thought I'd share my opinions on the xbox side of things. I'll try to update it a few times as I continue to play.

First impressions: Earlier this morning, I picked up a copy of xbox cod4 and a HDMI cable, so once I got my xbox hooked up to my 24" monitor, I started up cod4 and joined a game of TDM. I was greeted by someone spamming text binds about some kind of 'infection', and people flying around with infinite ammo grenade launchers. That was a lot of fun, but I thought I'd probably be better off playing some search and destroy. So I joined a game of that, and after waiting for 2 minutes to finally get put in a game, I was in with some American kid that wouldn't shut up and I had 'yellow bar' connection. I managed to win a few games before I got bored, so then I checked CG if there were any pugs running; luckily for me, there were. I joined that, and a few minutes later we were set to go.

This is where my criticism / console-comparison begins.

So basically, for pugs on PC, 10 people join, we get given a server, we get the 'connect' command for that server, boot up the game, and we're in. On this, I had to find out who was hosting, add them, and then join them. Not a big deal, but my monitor takes ages to swap modes, so it was a little awkward trying to swap between the PC and xbox.

First off, we played Backlot, with my team starting on attack. By this stage, I was rank 8 or 9, so I was using a class with the M16, AK47, MP5, Skorpion and M40. I decided to try using one of the SMGs for the first few rounds, coz that's usually what I do on PC. Nades kill me often because they are quite different to PC nades; they arrive a lot later and tend to explode in the air because people cook them ever so slightly. Nades were even more ridiculous than I expected, thanks to half health.

When I did get through to A, I would go to top A, and spend most of my time glaring at the monitor trying to see people through all the blur, shine, glow and floating rubbish. When I did see someone, I would aim and start turning to look at them, by which time they'd already ran away (I was using sensitivity 2 coz I'm a low sens gamer and on PC I use 0.3 sens w/ 1800dpi (have to have the mouse 50cm to do a 360), I don't like high sensitivities, they are disgusting and look horrible). It seemed like it was a lot harder to hear people, even with everything on full volume, and as such, people were making noises - like weapon changing / picking up - in clutch situations and getting away with it, whereas on PC that same noise would have been a crucial giveaway.

Basically, everything seemed a lot slower, and heavily tipped in the favour of being reactive rather than proactive, as opposed to PC cod4, which is reasonably balanced in both aspects.

First edit:
I am still pretty new to the cod controls on xbox, so I make mistakes often - the main mistake I make is probably throwing a smoke when I intended to jump (thank you Halo bumper-jumper) - so obviously I can't focus 100% on the game. This will hopefully change as I get a little more experienced. As for the controls themselves, I have to say I'm disappointed with the stock layouts they give you. Coming from PC, where you can literally make the controls whatever you want, to xbox, where I have to choose one of four layouts, I was unimpressed. I planned on making my weapon change button left bumper, so that I could double swap more easily (it's a PC thing). It's not a big deal, but again, it's just one of the things that seemed to be limiting for no reason; I don't see why they couldn't allow people to map their own controls.


Graphics-wise, I expected a little more. I'm using 1920x1080 and it still seems very compressed and pixelated. To me, it seems as though they have tried to make it all pretty, but failed. Of course, I've played Crysis 2 on hardcore settings, so now seeing a 2007 xbox game, my opinion isn't exactly fair ;P Nonetheless, I found it very hard to see people. I took a screenshot (I'll put up a very short video too) of what promod would look like (for most people) below:


You'll see it looks a lot more like an old game like Quake or Counterstrike 1.6. Things like decals and lighting effects have been removed, to give players more FPS (frames per second). FPS in promod is capped at 250, because if you get 333 fps or over 500, then you can sprint silently and all sorts of strange things (it's because of some kind of interaction with the game engine). On xbox, framerate is capped at 60 or 80 or something, this is basically because of two things:
1. The hardware limitations of the console
2. TVs generally have a 60 Hz refresh rate
Not only do the 'bad graphics' increase FPS, they reduce the clutter around the map and make things easier to see.

Visual aspects that promod / pc commands can change:
- Field of view has been increased (i.e. the angle which you can see has been increased from 65 degrees to 90)
- Decals have been removed (things like posters on walls)
- 'Glow' has been removed (basically, when you are inside a building looking outside everything appears very bright when glow is on)
- Depth of field has been turned off (your gun doesn't go blurry when you aim down sights)
- Floating pieces of trash are removed
- Things like milk bottoms and bricks don't go flying when you shoot them
- Textures can be turned right down to make grass a lot chunkier and easier to see through. Also makes maps load extremely fast.
- and others that I can't remember off the top of my head

I'll add some more to this in a week or so when I've played it a little more. So far, I've done my first impressions, next I'll review the gameplay.

Edited 5 times, last edited 7/6/11 - 12:03pm.

I've always had the view since the begining that xbox players always lean towards playing it slow and its been getting worse and worse as new CoD's come out. With the limited private match customization its just not possible to change how people play, as frustrating as it is.

ul get used to the sound trust me. Dont see the downside of people havin quick reactions u can easily counter it with quick reactions urself. Who exactly were u up against in the pugs? By the sounds of it ur going to have ur work cut out for u until u get used to how the mechanics work on xbox

Remember, you'll get dragged back a bit due to 100+ ping


It would be in most PUGs and every match, unfortunately unless you have the right crowd, PUGs will be pretty damn casual.

Have fun getting used to it though, just don't be too quick to judge

I was in this pug and backlot was the only map taken seriously (incase you thought everyone snipes on overgrown ). It was much more fast paced than usual man im not gonna lie, if you came into a match against a team like tp3 you'd find yourself ripping your hair out with boredom haha.

P.s. owned i 20 bombed defence against you

All i can say is stick with it for a bit and give it a chance. I used to play CS a lot on PC and made the switch a few years ago.

You mention slow play, i completely agree, watching COD4 Xbox Gameplay then looking at PC its like wow! you can see a massive change, when i played a few scrims on COD4 i always caught people off guard because i play so aggressive and transitioned the PC style of play onto the Xbox.
I seem to learn and play a lot more like a PC player but on xbox, which is what i think my playstyle is completely different, i understand that people on PC are like Always contesting yet on xbox everyone says not too, yet im that 1/10 guys that will jump out and go for the out shoot.
I Guess what im trying to say is the PC style does work on xbox, its just those certain situations were you need to change it up quite a bit and learning the playstyle and adjusting to it.

a little bit of sound on xbox is a dead give away..

Ya seriously, its so easy to hear people on COD4.

I think what his trying to get across is its not as loud as it is on PC, i played on my cousins PC and could hear so much more on it.

Sound should be the same for both when stock really. Only perks/modding **** with it. Depends on your equipment a tiny bit.

Yay for every COD4 game having a modder in it. Especially on S&D where they spawn and fall from the sky to stand behind your team and kill you.

Edited twice, last edited 6/6/11 - 1:59pm.

If thats the case i'd be able to hear people from the opposite spawn on PC.

Sound-wise, think he just meant other people weren't hearing the reloads etc and getting ****ed by it, which they normally would on PC. Probs a case of someone listening to music whilst relaxing in a PUG tbh.

Some of the comparisons you are making are really just because of how chilled xbox PUGS are. But yes, gameplay will be slower, remember we lack the ability to adjust pretty much any aspect of the game mechanics. Hope you stick around and have a crack at our p2p.

in regards to sound, I find it alot more directional on PC.

when theres a smoke going of, and im facing it side on, there will be almost no sound coming out from my opposite ear cup, and the ear cup facing the smoke will be overpowered by the sound of the smoke.

hope you do stick around, interesting having PC players play xbox