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OPINION: Call of Duty Ghosts vs. Battlefield 4

So I’ve spent some time playing the latest Call of Duty and Battlefield games, finishing both single-player campaigns and duking it out with my fellow gamers online for a fair few hours in each, and I’ve come away impressed with both titles.

So which one is “better”, overall? That’s actually kind of hard to answer, because COD and BF, though similar at their roots, are quite different in what they offer but I will give it a go. Personally, while I do enjoy multiplayer battles I am more of a single-player gamer, but even I can appreciate that Battlefield has huge multiplayer maps, tons of armoured vehicles and caters more to people who love strategic, team-based tactical play while Call of Duty’s multiplayer has traditionally been more of an action-focused run-and-gun affair.

For me, which one is better this year comes down to the overall experience on offer, taking into account not just the gameplay but the underlying technology as well. Both games delivered more of the same of what their respective fan bases expected, with tweaks and enhancements to each game’s formula that kept things from feeling stale (Extinction and Squad modes for COD, “Levolution” level destruction in BF4) , but to my mind Battlefield’s amazing destruction was just that much more impressive, and helped BF4 to serve up a genuinely thrilling multiplayer experience that I’d never had before.

By comparison, Ghosts’ multiplayer left me feeling like I’d done this all before, despite the new modes and deeper soldier customisation options. Even Extinction, while novel and a welcome replacement of the Zombies mode from the previous few COD games, had a Left for Dead flavour to it that had me losing interest after a while.

The sound design of both games is largely the same as it was in previous incarnations, which of course means Battlefield’s audio sounded a lot beefier, with gunfire in particularly doing a better job of rattling my eardrums than COD’s did.

On the single-player side, I really didn’t enjoy Battlefield’s characters or its cheesy storyline, although overall it was an improvement over BF3 thanks to some amazing set-pieces, like the fight on the aircraft carrier that happened as it was breaking apart.

What really annoyed me was BF4’s characters, particularly Irish – it really seemed like the writers didn’t know how to have him handle the unfolding situation, causing him to come across as a fickle, testosterone-fuelled idiot with absolutely no ability to relate to anyone else. This was particularly evident in his conversations with Hannah, the mysterious Chinese American soldier who stuck with us for most of the game. At least, that was my opinion of the guy once the credits rolled.

Things I did like included the scoring system DICE introduced to the single-player campaign and Frostbite 3’s gorgeous eye candy. DICE has done an amazing job of keeping Battlefield’s engine on the cutting edge, and it really shows in the quality of the visuals.

Ghosts, on the other hand, delivered a stunning single-player experience despite its engine suffering a bit in the visual quality department. It was so good, in fact, that I am actually keen to go back and re-play if I ever get the time. Playing as a Ghost took me through one incredible scenario after the other, punctuated by brief scenes in space and a final level and twist at the end that blew me away. Seriously, my jaw is still on the floor it was that good, and totally unexpected of a COD game.

In the end, though, with Battlefield 4’s superior eye candy, phenomenal multiplayer and beefier sound, not even its mediocre single-player campaign can stop it from being the better game overall. Ghosts is absolutely still worth a look, and a damn fine game in its own right, it’s just not going to beat Battlefield 4 this year in a head-to-head contest. At least not for this gamer, and definitely not while it’s still running on an inferior engine.

COD: Ghosts

Single Player: Winner
Multiplayer: Loser
Technology: Loser

Battlefield 4

Single Player: Loser
Multiplayer: Winner
Technology: Winner

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