But thanks to the brilliant modding talents of Coleman, Fuel and crazyankles we now have one in Call of Duty 4 as well: CoD4 Modern Paintball.
In Modern Paintball, there is no blood and no animated death scenes. It's just tag, splat and spawn.
Modern Paintball emulates the real world FPS game played with CO2-cartridged guns that fire paint balls - not bullets. Ironically, a sport that tries to capture the magic of video games is now turned into...a video game!
Sounds intriguing, but as an FPS, is it a "Mona Lisa" or simply a paint-by-numbers "Dog's Playing Poker"?
Well, Signore Da Vinci...it's a masterpiece.
I have quickly become addicted to it. The action is fast and furious and the levels are over in a blink of an eye, keeping anyone with a short attention span happy. The guns are tricky to shoot and the CoD4 choppers and the fighter-bombers are left parked in their hangars. The mod comes with its own unique paintball-friendly maps and Modern Paintpall's modders introduce us to some really interesting new gametypes.
If you would like to read more...let me paint you a more vivid picture:
Any review of a community mod leads you inevitably to a comparison with the stock game. Being compared to one of the greatest FPS's in our generation can be difficult and unsurprisingly, CoD4 mods have failed to measure up to this test and have not really impressed the community at large.
Modern Paintball may be an exception. This game stands on its own two feet and delivers a gameplay that while familiar to CoD4, has its own uniqueness. It is different enough to transcend being a fad and hopefully will last a long time on CoD4 servers.
I came across this mod by accident, but as soon as I played it, I was hooked. I have not felt so pumped about a mod since X4's nuke turned my avatar into ash months ago.
While not exactly a total conversion, this mod comes damn close. The number of modifications that have been made to the game are staggering.
I loved everything about the mod, from the gurgling sound that is used to signal reloading your weapon with paintballs, the multicolored smoke grenades and to the "splatter" on your screen when you get hit. It is a novel interpretation of paintball mods and is quite funny.
As an illustration of some of the changes made in the game, when you are in game you will constantly here the plaintive "I'm out" and "I'm hit" calls from your fellow players - gone are the death groans of CoD4.
The modders even have changed the names of the teams. There are four new teams now: Toxic Fury, ShawkWave, The Hurlin' Hicks and Team Got Balls. Check out the hilarious CTF flags:
Team Got Balls
The Hurlin' Hicks
The mod team has brought us new maps: Speedball, Warehouse, Speedball1 and Pro Speedball as examples.
As well, new gametypes like:
StrongArm
Here you gain points for your team by eliminating players on the opposite team, and lose points if a member of your team is tagged. First teams score that reaches zero loses
TeamSwap
In Team Death Swap, when you are tagged you are swapped to the other team. First team with no players left loses.
Last Team Standing
Your goal is to eliminate all players on the opposing team. When you die you have to wait for the next round. The team with the highest score wins.
While the visuals are great and having color in CoD4 makes a HUGE difference, the big win for me was that aiming the weapons took some getting used to. The physics of the ball's trajectory has been beautifully mimicked graphically - but your aim is still linear in-game. Nevertheless, without the usual iron sight aiming cues it takes a while to get good at getting mid-map tags (yes, tags - not frags).
For those competitive community guys out there...you have to try this game out. I would not be surprised if a CoD4 Paintball tournament comes out soon.
I recently interviewed crazyankles (who used to go by the monniker "sausage links" in CoDUO), a twenty-five year old New York native now living in Arizona, regarding this mod and here is what he had to say:
BS: Crazyankles, could you tell us a little bit about yourself (a gaming bio). Where do you live? How long have you been modding. Why did you decide to mod CoD4?
CA: Well, what can I say. I have always loved video games. I first really took interest into FPS shooters when I played Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 and was hooked. I actually started my modding days on that game as well, enabling single player maps in multiplayer, etc. One day I found the game "Delta Force" for the PC by Novalogic and bought it when it was just released. By far this was my favorite PC game of all time, and I cannot count how many hours I logged on it. I have played many fps shooters over the years. I have mapped and modded in COD:UO, Delta Force: Black Hawk, and of course Call of Duty 4. I decided to mod COD4 because I like to think of interesting things for players and myself to enjoy and for me to mess around with and learn from.
BS: Why paintball? How did you decide that paintball would be a good mod for CoD4? Where did you get the idea for the game? How long has the game been out?
CA: I actually was messing with the idea of adding a paintball mode to my COD4 weapons mod and started making some effects during that for the paintball marks, etc. One day I saw a forum post from Coleman of the popular B50 paintball mod for Call of Duty, that he had in interest in making a COD4 paintball mod. We joined up and starting working on the mod from then on. The game has been out a few days but the official version with all maps, etc. is still on hold until the bugs are weeded out.
BS: Did you model the gameplay on any other FPS that you have seen? The reason I ask is that the gameplay is quick - perfect for online play i may add. From a timescale point of view it feels like CS. CoD games seem to drag on and on...
CA: I would have to say the mod is a combination of things, from a gameplay perspective. We could not add every thing we wanted to do; but still did get alot accomplished. If I only speak for myself, I would say the ball drop was one of the main features I wanted to include. Again relating to Delta Force, I have always loved in that game, the bullets had realistic time and drop effects which seemed ahead of its time.
BS: Tell us a little bit about the game. What is it all about. How does it compare to stock CoD4.
CA: The mod compares to regular Call of Duty 4 somewhat similarly; with unlocks and achievments, except you upgrade your gun instead of choosing just one attachment at a time.
BS: Where can we find it to download?
CA: You can find the official servers up for play on the main page
http://www.crazyankles.com
of my website. The full download will be available soon with everything included.
BS: This is very nearly a complete conversion mod. How long did it take you to script? Did anyone else help you with this endeavour?
CA: The mod took about 4 months give or take and lots of dedication. There were many ups and downs along the way, but when you see people enjoying what youv'e created it makes it all worth it. Besides myself, Coleman and Fuel were the main mod creators. We had help from from many people along the way, present and past, and definately are thankful and will be sure to note those people in the final.
BS: Where can I find a list of all the names of your new guns, team names...etc. (they're hysterical - awesomely done).
CA: We will include a list of guns available in the final release. I actually came across that team name I believe your referring to (Team Got Balls) searching for real teams on the internet and thought it was hysterical as well. Every mod needs a bit of humor now and then. So from all of us of the Modern Paintball mod take care and enjoy!
As I have said, the guns in the game are tricky to fire and the size of them reduce your field of vision substantially, resulting in many blind-side attacks. Interestingly, the modders modeled most of the guns in real paintball (with a few notable exceptions, like the shotty). Here is the list of weapons:
ASSAULT
Angel A-4
Kingman Spyder Xtra
Angel 1455
JT Tac-5
Tippmann A-5 (AK47)
Tippmann X7 (G36)
Tippmann 98 Custom (M4)
SPEC OPS
Tippmann 98 Custom
Kingman Spyder MR2
Tippmann A-5
Kingman Spyder MR3
Tippmann X7 (MP5)
DEMOLITIONS
Shotgun - Benelli
HEAVYGUNNER
Mil-Sim Grenade Launcher
SNIPER
Tippmann A-5
PISTOL
Ariakon ACP
OTHER
Alias MKX Scenario Rocket Launcher
Tippmann Squadbuster Paint Grenade
The mod is currently at version 1.1 BETA and some of the guns listed above have not been fully implemented, but Crazyankles informs us that the released version of Modern Paintball will be out in the next few days and everything will be available then. Keep your eyes peeled for it by going to his site:
http://crazyankles.informe.com
Here is a list of what is either currently in the Beta release or will be available in the full released version.
30+ Attachment unlocks
3 Smoke grenade colors
3 New gametypes; Strong Arm, Team Deathswap, and Last Team Standing
Upgrade your guns level to create the ultimate paintball gun
Some of the attachments include; barrels, qloader, aimpoint sights, camo etc.
Custom maps bunkerhill, warehouse, speedball, forest, and prospeedball
Customized sounds, images, and effects
Various options including turning on/off paintball Minigun turrets
Where can you play it?
Game-monitor lists all current Modern Paintball servers .
With its "M" rating, CoD4 should only be played by mature players seventeen and over. In fact, some groups like NIMF (The National Institute on Media and the Family) think that Call of Duty 4 is so violent that they labeled it as the "second worst" game to buy in 2007. So, for those of you out there under 17 (or 16 in some countries) who cannot wait to play CoD4 in its stock form, there is another option for you: Modern Paintball! |
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