Call Of Duty 4 Beta - Played!

Have had a bit of a blast on the CoD4 beta, and just wanted to detail a few of the features

Got my key quite late in the day, so only have the rest of this week to have a run through the beta... thank goodness there aren't any other games coming out to spoil my fun... oh... wait!

The beta basically allows you to play Team Deathmatch, Free-for-all and a couple of other modes I haven't played. Free-for-all does what it says on the tin, and Team Deathmatch can be arranged either by choosing teams or letting the server random you up with other players.

The playstyle is mostly quick run-and-gun, with satisfying weapons, minimal grenade supplies in either frag or flashbang flavours. Soldier classes affect which two weapons you start with, though weapons from downed enemies can be collected.

The real joy is the Experience points system, which allows you to 'level up' your soldier - in the beta this can take you from the starting rank 1 to a maximum rank 16. Levels allow you to do all sorts of stuff, like upgrade the weapons available to you and to access additional soldier classes. The more people you kill and matches you win, the more Exp you earn. Your basic soldier class is pretty much 'Assault' - this sees you starting with a burst-fire-only M16 and a pistol, but as you earn Exp, you can unlock weapons like the AK47 fully automatic, as well as seemingly loads of other sub- and heavy- machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns and so on. With these weapons, you can also unlock add-ons like underslung grenade launchers, red dot laser sights and other hardware.

The Exp system also allows you to earn 'perks' in various categories, such as making your soldier take more bullets before he dies, faster reloading or invisibility to enemy radar. Or special weapons like a 2-shot RPG, C4 charges or extra grenades. Or improvements like allowing you to shoot through walls, sprint faster, fire pistol after having been killed for cheeky revenge antics and so on.

Whilst these improvements seemingly make the battlefield a bit uneven to a level 1 beta-startup Grunt, none of them really stop you from getting on and shooting people and earning some for yourself. There is an in-depth create-a-class system for customizing your spawn trooper - this becomes available when you reach Level 4.

In-game kill streaks - murder without being murdered, award in-game advantages. 3 kills allows you to trigger a radar sweep to reveal enemy positions, 5 kills awards you an airstrike, triggered and targeted in a mini-map, and 7 kills allows you to call in a Helicopter Gunship, which hunts down and shoots at any enemies out in the open. More than that I didn't find out, but it is a slick and easy to use feature, and you are credited with kills made by the airstrikes or helo gunners.

Technical stuff aside, it is just fun. In only my third game I found myself in possession of a sniper rifle that a victim had just dropped - I squinted down the scope at the back of my next prospective victim's head, only to realise that the area effect of an airstrike was bursting just feet from me - the screen was rocking, smoke was billowing in, and it was impossible to steady the aim, so I squeezed the trigger and was pleased to see the bullet strike home in the ass of my target. Pure joyous fluke.

Oh... and the killcam! For a few seconds between respawn, you get to see from your killers-eye view to see exactly how you were nailed - which helps to dispel the idea that you were killed and it wasn't fair, although the very rare cases of lag I experienced occasionally showed me as not having fired a shot, whereas on my screen I had put 30 rounds into their face.

Games were quick and easy to find in the lobby, and I really feel that Halolll has a decent plate to step up to now. Looking forward to getting some H3 games with you lot on Fiday. Remote for me.