Call of Duty: World at War

As of November 11, 2008, the new installment of Call of Duty: World at War, was released for console and desktop gaming. I had the opportunity to install the PC Beta Version and play the online multiplayer for two weeks. If you are familiar with the layout of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, then you will have no problem easing into Call of Duty: World at War. The Call of Duty: World at War has a back drop set in the days of World War II. As shown on www.callofduty/CoDWW, this new release is Powered by Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare technology, Call of Duty: World at War brings an uncensored edge to combat, as soldiers face the most harrowing and climatic European and Pacific battles in which an enemy, who knows no surrender and no retreat, will fight to the last breath, unleashing an arsenal of lethal surprising tactics. Peril and danger lurk throughout the battlefield as players combat the unknown risk of the new chaos of battle.

NEW ADDITIONS:

A function that was not included in any of the other Call of Duty releases is the addition of the Ultrastats. Ultrastats is basically a tool used to collect stats on kills, deaths, kill to death ratio, top players, weapon stats, damage type stats, and server stats. A preview of how Ultrastats function can be found at http://codwwdemo.ultrastats.org/index.php? In all honesty, it is about time that Activision and Treyarch have finally got their act together. This is not a new concept because FPS games such as Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142, have been using this concept for a few years now. Another new addition to this new release is the amount of detail given to the blood and gore that goes along with being in a war. When an enemy is killed using grenades for example, you will see their limbs fly off of their body now, whereas before they would just fall to the ground in an unrealistic fashion.

NEW AND OLD MULTI-PLAYER FEATURES:

You have a lot of the same functions with Call of Duty: World at War that you have with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. One of the new features in Multiplayer Mode is thatvehicles have been added to the multiplayer experience to enhance the online gaming experience. The old features included in the new Call of Duty: World at War release, that were also in the Call of Duty 4 package are player rankings, upgradeable weapons, squad-based game play, map scripting, and customizable classes and perks. http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Games/Pages/codworldatwar.aspx.

ONLINE MULTI-PLAYER MAPS:

The Call of Duty: World at War release has all new maps. These new map environments will vary anywhere from taking place in a jungle, to an old train yard, as well as taking place in an ancient Japanese temple. Most of these maps are not very big, which in turn will provide for a breeding ground of action. These maps are tight and closed quarter's and are extremely conducive for achieving a high score which will lead to promotions, new upgradeable weapons and perks.

NEW WEAPONS AND PERKS:

This is a Full list of Weapons and Perks for Call of Duty: World at War taken from http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=14035

U.S. Weapons: * Thompson M1A1, * M1A1 Carbine, * M1 Garand, * Trench Shotgun, * Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R), * Springfield M1903, * Springfield M1903: Scoped, * M2 flamethrower, * M1911 (aka Colt 45), * Bayonet, * M9 Bazooka, * M1919A6 Browning, * M2 machinegun

U.S. Explosives: * MK2 Frag Grenade, * Smoke Grenade, * Satchel Charges, * Mines

Russian Weapons: * TT-33, * Mosin Nagant, * Mosin Nagant Scoped, * PPSH (71 round Drum Magazine), * PPSH (31 round Banana Magazine), * Bayonet

Russian Explosives: * RGD-33

German Weapons: * P08 Luger, * Kar98, * Kar98 scoped, * MP44, * MP40, * MG42, * MG34, * Messer

German Explosives: * handle-grenade (aka potato masher)

Japanese Weapons: * Nambu 14, * Arisaka Typ 99, * Typ 100 Submachine gun, * Bajonet, * Katana

Japanese Explosives: * Kiska grenade

British Weapons: * Sten

Un-lockable Perks: * Juggernaut (more health), * Sleight of Hand (faster reload), * Extreme Conditioning (longer sprint distance), * Martyrdom (drop live grenade when you die), * Steady Aim, * Bandolier (larger magazine pack), * Iron Lungs, * Stopping Power, * Deep Impact, * Sonic Boom, * Last Stand, * Monkey (better at climbing trees) * Frogman (faster swim speed), * Play Dead, * Crouch Sprinter, * Banzai

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

I am running on a Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-M55SLI-S4 Main Board, with a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS Graphics Card with SLI Technology, a 2.30 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor, and 1.0 gig of memory. I have absolutely no problems running Call of Duty: World at War with this setup. Anything of this equality or better will be fine for this game. If you are not sure you can use the Belarc Advisor to determine what you are running. This free program can be found at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

OVERALL RATING:

I am extremely impressed with this new release of Call of Duty. The user-interface is simple and easy to understand and does not take a great deal of time to learn. The graphics are excellent and definitely deserve some attention from gamers all around the world. I give this new release a rating of 9 out of 10, with 10 being the best. It is everything that I expected it to be and then some. If you like FPS games, then this is a game that is definitely worth the $49.99 that it will cost you.