Friday, April 04, 2008

Game Review ( Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack - 360 )

Released today is the much anticipated Variety Map Pack (VMP) the first, and possibly, the last map pack for the game. It features the maps Creek, China Town, Killhouse, and Broadcast. ( Killhouse can only be played in Free-for-All and Team Tactical, sadly. )

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Creek: 4.5/5 I really wanted to play this map, and it doesn't disappoint. While there are a lot of frustrating snipers, the map is well covered in weeds and trees to make it somewhat difficult to snipe. There is a hill, a broken down barn house, and a cool little cave you can walk into. Creek isn't the best map in the pack, but it is a lot of fun.

China Town: 4.75/5 "Most of the Call of Duty 4 maps are built from the ground up" - this isn't one of them. You'll notice right away, if you played Call of Duty 2, this looks just like Carentan, France from Call of Duty 2. Not a bad thing - it was one of the best maps - but it is VERY similar. The only difference is that it looks a lot prettier and, well, it's in China apparently. One of, if not the best, map of the four. Great for all modes of play.

Broadcast: 5/5 My favorite map of the four, definitely. Broadcast is quite similar to the "Charlie Don't Surf" mission of single player, and it's amazing to play online. It's inside the TV station, as well as outside. It doesn't look completely like the single player version, but different enough to see the difference. Everything about this map is great with a few problems - airstrikes and helicopters are only really about 20% effective, since about 80% of the map is indoors.

Killhouse: 4/5 I finally played Killhouse. I played it in a 2-on-3 private match, and I must say, it's really not that bad. It's a small map with an almost entirely open roof for good use of airstrikes and helicopters. It's definitely not as good as the others, but it is pretty fun.

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The VMP just comes down to this: $12.50 for one NEW map. Why do I saw this? It costs $12.50 for 1000 Microsoft Points through Xbox LIVE, Broadcast is essentially a map from single player with some subtle differences and new rooms, China Town is Carentan France from Call of Duty 2 with a new slap of skin on it, and Killhouse will probably get played by quite a few in actual game modes. Still, this is one of the best ways someone can spend ten bucks. You get three great maps that are probably better than any of the ones included in the game. ( Hah. Probably only saying that because I've played the on-disc maps so many times. ) Still, VMP adds a quartet of tasty maps that will only add to Call of Duty 4's seemingly endless online playability.

4.75/5

[5 for value. I make no sense.]

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