"It's hedgerows."

Last weekend we had a LAN party at Colin's place. It's been almost one and a half years since the last gathering I organized and participated in, which is a strong indicator of the time people have on the weekends to dedicate entirely to gaming. Of course there's the whole "make time for your hobby" defense, but tell that to someone who's married and juggling families and/or care of their kids. It's not easy. It's no wonder MMORPGs and other online-only games are so popular - you can play with others at your leisure, and not have to worry about the hassle of moving your computer (only to find out it won't boot).

The original plan was to play Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2, with SWAT 4 available to those who were interested in experiencing the slow, methodical action within. There was an open challenge in Dawn of War to anyone who dared to confront my deadly Eldar strategy, but that never happened. After about two hours of technical problems - including the wholesale replacement of Tony's computer - we were absorbed by the fast and furious action of Unreal Tournament 2004. That only lasted a couple of hours, though. After everyone had installed Call of Duty 2, it became the one game we would play for the rest of the night.

As I noted in my review, I was disappointed at the lack of any real improvements over its predecessor aside from technical ones. Nevertheless, the one thing I hated most about the single-player experience made multiplayer a much more satisfying experience.

The ability to regenerate health by taking cover seemed like such a mistake in a World War II shooter, and cheapened the whole experience for me. However in multiplayer, the lack of a health bar makes you think differently about how you approach the action. You're no longer fighting against script-controlled bots, you're fighting against humans who can follow you into that hiding space and finish the job. Running headlong into a firefight will always result in death. In fact, I don't remember a single time where I was able to regenerate my health due to the constant barrage of gunfire from all directions (and campers on their comfortable perches). The firefights were often chaotic and only separated by the time it took for people to find you. Call of Duty 2 made me dread being the one holding the enemy flag.

Where UT2004 relied on reflexes, often resulting in a frustrating number of deaths for the inexperienced, Call of Duty 2 was a little more flexible in the way it relies just as much on positioning. The weapons in UT2004 are deadly accurate, and a straight line of sight between you and your opponent was usually enough to score a kill with the right weapon. Call of Duty 2, on the other hand, adopts a more "realistic" approach to gunplay, and there is a noticable drop in accuracy in many of the weapons the farther away you got. This meant that spraying down an area with your Thompson or MP40 might only wound your opponent, whereas the slow-loading rifles would guarantee a shot - if you could set it up properly. Running and shooting a rifle rarely worked. I wouldn't call this implementation of WW2 combat as genuine as Day of Defeat's, but it was pretty close. Kneeling would provide more accuracy, as would using the ironsights instead of the aiming reticle. I learned to loathe the trench-clearing gun, essentially a shotgun to be used by the unskilled.

All of these elements combined made the victories in Call of Duty 2 a lot more gratifying; the matches weren't the tornadoes of rockets and translocators of UT2004. But it wasn't a "thinking" FPS experience, either, because the strategies were still mostly about running and shooting. Perhaps it was not knowing when you'd be dealt the killing shot, by sniper or by sidearm in your quest to retrieve the flag. Coupled with the time delay for respawns, it made player deaths actually mean something in a team-based encounter, knowing that you'd be unavailable for precious seconds instead of immediately dropping back into the arena. The gameplay was tense, riveting and prone to inducing bouts of foul language. It was fucking fun.