I recently (finally) got an HDTV and I've been trying to find some fun games to play. I downloaded the CoD World at War demo and I was struck immediately by how awful it was. I'm wondering if it's just me... do I just totally suck or what?

When I finally got to start playing, I was walking in a river in a jungle. I can't go out of the river because the trees/plants are apparently made of concrete (or so it seemed at the time). So my gut instinct is to get out of the center of the river so I am not in the open but the game won't let me.

I follow my moron squad and we come across a crashed airplane. It's not interesting to me so I keep walking, ignoring their conversation because they are boring. I hear an explosion so I turn around to look at it, and then I'm dead. I was nowhere near the explosion and I have no idea what killed me.

So I start over, wondering if this is a glitch or what. This time I stay closer to my squad because they apparently didn't perish in the explosion so I think I will be safe. This time, I listen to their stupid conversation about how the plane is still hot, then it explodes and they tell me it's because it was booby trapped. Then I'm dead again.

W T F

3rd time through, I stay WAY back so I can hopefully figure out W T F is killing me instantly. It turns out there are bad guys in the concrete bushes (they can walk in them but I can't). They sneak out right behind you when you're not looking at them and they stab you dead in one blow. As long as I stay far back from my squad I can see them coming and kill them (apparently it's safest in the center of the river, not behind cover or anything logical like that). I get past this point thinking to myself that probably the rest of the game isn't this lame.

I come across a small village and I hide behind a concrete block to see what's going on. Nothing, people are just walking around doing nothing. So I step out and then I'm dead again. The screen tells me I should have been watching out for grenades... Uh ok there was no shooting, no enemies to be found, my entire squad was just standing around doing nothing and a grenade that appeared from nowhere killed me instantly.

Deleted. What a waste of time.

So are there any totally awesome games for XBOX 360 I should play? I generally like shooters/action games because I don't have time for RPGs anymore. So far I have played the following:

Gears of War 1 & 2 (loved them)
Halo 1, 2 (not so much)
Halo 3 (liked it, the better graphics and non-cut-and-pasted level design helps)
Assassin's Creed (liked it for the first couple of hours then got bored)
Forza 2 (didn't like it)
PGR4 (kept my interest for a couple of hours)
Marvel Ultimate alliance (totally lame)

Yup its not you, the game likes to be overly unfair.

The grenades are far worse, because after a while you get used to them popping up from bushes and hiding in trees.

I hear Prince of Persia is a lot of fun if you want to sit back, and enjoy acrobatic puzzles.

(oh, by the way, thank goodness for demos - but I can't find one for call of duty 4, which I'm only really interested in for the single player, not the MP because I don't really play mp)

Call of Duty 4 Single Player is really short. I don't think its worth the full price if its only for the solo campaign. It IS really fun though, with lots of action. Just too short for my tastes.

Yeah, if you're not going to play it online (even though you should), CoD4 is only worth a rental.

For an awesome single player game with great graphics, you should check out Dead Space.

Yeah, COD5 is ***.

COD4 is amazing--Jep has a point about the campaign being short, but it's still amazing and the multiplayer is equally so

*shrug* I thought World at War was awesome. And I suck at FPS's on console and I still didn't have that much trouble with it.

(fyi, if a grenade is thrown at you, it warns you, and you have time to either grab it and throw it back or run like hell)

The game play is the same as in World at War, so you are still going to suck.

I liked the latest cod installments, I mean, I read your post, and that sounds like exactly what should have happened. You stand in the middle of the creek not paying attention, dead. You get stabbed in the back, dead.. try turning around and firing your weapon

I hear left for dead is pretty good, I enjoyed the demo.

You hope. It is not rare that a nade hits the ground right as it explodes, as its timer already expired.

Sounds like you might like Far Cry 2. This game really emphasis on sneaking in the bushes and trees and taking cover. In fact, its the only way you can beat the game on "infamous" difficulty.

I'll second Dead Space. You might also like Mass Effect, although that might be a bit longer than you're looking for (it's a third-person shooter/rpg thing).

codwaw sucked super ***. It was a real disappointment after CoD4. It's all thanks to Treyarch. They fail at making good games.

Playing World at War, knowing it was Treyarch that made it, and then complaining about how bad it was is like sticking you hand in a fire then *****ing about getting burned.

I only played for about 5 minutes, so that's sort of the equivalent of brushing the fire with your fingertips before realizing it's hot, and recoiling with horror, disgust, and anger.

I suggest not trying Far Cry 2 to cancel out Silent_killa's post.

Awful, awful game.

No mention of GTA4?

Well, on the other hand, believing a game is terrible just because a certain team is behind it but having not played it is bad as well. Of course, there are a lot of exceptions to this idea (i.e. Sonic team).

Someone needs to give me a convincing argument for me to try this game (CoD:WaW). I'm done with WW2 shooters, and from what I've heard it just repeats all the gameplay issues that the CoD games are known for (i.e. respawning waves of enemies.)

I thought World at War was good; it was just not as good as Modern Warefare. Though if you don't like the previous Call of Duty games, you won't like it either. I do agree with you how annoying grenades can be in World at War. Not sure if it's because of the higher difficulty or not, but everywhere I step there was a grenade. Thankfully, Killzone 2 wasn't like this when I played through the single player campaign.

Not when the team has a track record of making crappy CoD games.

Its one of those games that you either love it or hate it. For me, I don't like it.

I didn't hate it, but I found it boring.
And strange that they tried so hard for realism, but screwed it up with the maps and glowing briefcases

Far Cry 2 was the most unrealistic game I have ever played

Never played mario? >_>

Even mario is more realistic than far cry 2

I'd highly recommend Call of Duty 4. I never play multiplayer in most FPSs.....ever. Call of Duty 4 is the one game that has broken that. The multiplayer is so god damn good, so well done, and it's worth the price alone. The single-player campaign is good, albeit short like what people said above.

Call of Duty 5 is an interesting beast. I love Zombie mode, and it's a thrilling campaign, but there are certain parts that are so god damn frustrating throughout the single player campaign (storming that ****ing japanese castle in the last Japanese campaign level anyone?). I usually don't complain too much about spawning enemies, cuz I know FPS have a habit of doing it, but in COD5 it just got downright annoying to the point I want to burn the disc.

Anyways, games I'd recommend:

Orange Box
Mass Effect
Lost Planet
Dead Space for an awesome SP experience


The first three are incredibly cheap, but will give you many many hours of enjoyable gaming.

I LOVED the SP part of CoD4. Loved it. Yes, it was over too soon, but I still loved it.

Love the Half-Life series too.

i played CoDWaW today with a couple buddies, taking turns in FFA matches.

i admit, that although i died a lot, it was still pretty fun.

I think you're missing the point. My first instinct was to not even be in the river, but the game won't let me walk OUT of the river onto the banks into the cover of the trees. However, the computer-controlled bad guys are perfectly capable of walking around in said trees away from said river, so why can't I? It's an artificial limitation because their level design skills suck ***. I was standing in the middle of the river because I'm not able to go anywhere else. Which is moronic.

Anyway, I bought this game called Frontlines: Fuel of War used at software etc. and its single player is ultra fun so far. They still have enemy spawns but they have so far never been in a place that doesn't make sense or where I can't go (and once you go there or capture the closest base/flag/flare thingy, they stop spawning from there). I remember playing the demo back when I first got my xbox and I thought it was pretty fun back then, but not worth 60 bucks. So at 17.99 I can stomach it (although I found out a day later they sell it new at best buy for 19.99 so I feel sort of taken).

Call of Duty 4 has much more fair level design, as it's designed by Infinity Ward instead. At least try it, you might like it better.