Rudy, we're like the same age! :ninja:
I think the CoD series still breaks sales records each time it comes out... It just people aren't as vocally passionate or inspired by them anymore.
The old CoDs were about trying to feel like part of an army, part of something historic. Big battles for both sides, and (eventually) battles that mattered (historically).
Of course, Battlefield games outdid CoD on the whole "big army and lots of people fighting alongside you" bit, so CoD games started telling more "personal" stories about finding glory and playing a pivotal role. Single player was still the main draw.
Halo 2. Halo 2. Changed console multiplayer forever. CoD caught up with (basically) CoD4, which had a GREAT multiplayer and a fresh campaign which was more shadow ops... Still seemed like you were doing something quasi-historic and important because of the contemporary setting in the Middle East and the shock of the (spoilers?) nuclear bomb. Single player and MP were equally cool, and there was a LOT of life/meat/content in the multiplayer. MW2 was arguably still contemporary with the terrorist attacks but honestly was just a continuation of CoD4 and the plot wasn't memorable other than "Oooh they had to offer a censored option on one of the levels," that was the first title mostly about multiplayer. BO campaign harkened back to taking part in pivotal points of history, and had a really cool plot even though it was still "shadow ops" (black ops, duh). Oh, and good multiplayer.
Everything after that has just been fantasy, and I do like Fantasy but nothing that happens seems to matter or have stakes I care about. BO3 campaign has been such a grind, I got it just about when it came out and I still can only play a level here and there before boredom, haven't beaten it yet. I'm on a level where I just found out the spec ops team that trained me has gone rogue, and... there's a conspiracy about putting people's consciousnesses into robots? Or people are using augmented reality to hack into our perception of real reality? I don't give a poop! Multiplayer is boring; I only enjoy the 3-shot burst AR and the first pistol, maybe the Dingo if I was ranked up enough to put it in a loadout (but I would move slow as molasses), the gametypes are stale and not helped by the boring meat-grinder-in-the-center maps, and the slightly-more-powerful supers and wall-running don't change the pace of the game. Zombies mode has some clever encounters and probably is the best part of the current game, but I don't feel too enthusiastic about digging in and doing research outside gameplay to learn the best strategies and what I need to do... I'm trying to have fun, not get homework that pays you back in an interesting exam. I could learn in-game from matchmade teammates, but if someone has a mic they're in party chat and won't help you anyway.
CoD4 was great, replaying it probably would bring back the old addictions, but they could make a cool NEW CoD too if they made the campaign have some grounding in reality and/or at least make it significant to where to feel proud to have beaten it, and at least have some multiplayer maps where the battle lines seem to shift like some of the best CoD4 and even Ghosts maps. You guys may disagree with me here, but no meat-grinder maps like Nuketown for over 6 total players, or from BO3 you have Combine, Aquarium, and Metro, but all of these play TDM like the center is a king of the hill spot but there is no "hill," just a no man's land where almost everyone gets funneled into and dies. Maybe I'm weird, but knowing where to find the enemy isn't enough fun for me, that's just trench warfare in disguise. Trench warfare was WWI, how did we end up making games like that? I like the sense of progression, being able to push the enemy back around the map or sneak up from behind. We don't need nukes, we don't need 20 different killstreaks where you can't get half of them without care package luck or camping like a ****** ******. We don't need the DLC guns that actually feel unique locked behind micro transactions... You know that they won't give them to you despite spending $100 on game and season pass, but people actually spent a lot of money experimenting with the micro transactions and found out that odds are you probably won't get a DLC gun till you spend on average $81? On top of the game and season pass?
What is this?
/end rant.
So, compare the price difference of the G5 vs E5 (about $50) and the cost of the blue snowball, and consider if maybe some of the E5's other features could come in handy some day (Bluetooth, battery).
