9. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Multiplayer Perks
By now we're all getting a little tired of Call Of Duty, aren't we? Ok, not all of us, but there have been some serious allegations of stagnation within the franchise over recent years - it could be said that the game most guilty of copying Call Of Duty is Call Of Duty. Even with the multi-developer rotation system that Activision has in place for the franchise, they are struggling to expand on the core ideas which made this series as hugely popular as it is. The reason they are finding it hard to improve year after year? Because the original recipe of Modern Warfare-era COD is frighteningly close to twitchy PFS perfection. The original Modern Warfare kickstarted our love for a present day setting over the WW2 standards we were used to. It was loaded with FPS cliches, some which have become tightly associated with the franchise - the now-standard two-trigger aim & fire mechanic, for example. But it brought innovations too, one of which has gone on to become a multiplayer shooter staple - the ingenious perks system. These unlockable boosters could shift the tide of an online battle, or put the leading team in an even more dominant position, through a well balanced mix of power-ups. Not everyone loved the Perks idea at first, but today we rarely see a competitive online action game that doesn't have its own version of the concept. From Halo 4 and Crysis 3 to Assassin's Creed, developers have caught onto this smart game modifier which made COD: Modern Warfare stand out from the crowd.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
