Call of Duty 4 Introduction

The Game

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is both a single player and multi player game. This guide will focus primarily on the multiplayer aspect however much of this guide will also apply to the single player game.

Infinity Ward has been working on Call of Duty 4 since the release of Call of Duty 2 back in October of 2005. Their goal was to finally take the Call of Duty series to the next level and give everyone an experience they would not soon forget.

Wondering if CoD4 will make your computer burst into flames? Here are Infinity Ward’s recommended specs:

Minimum Specs:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista)
Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
Video card (generic): NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600 or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R) 9800Pro or better

Recommended Specs:
CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better is recommended
RAM: 1GB for XP; 2GB for Vista is recommended
Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better

The Basics

Number of player supported online:
PC – 32+ players
Xbox 360/PS3 – 16 players

Anti-cheat support:
Punkbuster anti-cheat software.

Number of multi player weapons:
40 weapons available counting grenades, turrets and airstrikes.

Number of game types:
7 different game types available

Number of maps:
16 maps available

Download Content:
Infinity Ward has hinted at the possibility, but has not confirmed anything yet.

Mod Tools:
Not included in the box. Infinity Ward has plans to release the tools shortly after launch.

The Barracks


The barracks will quickly become your home away from home. This is the info center for everything specific to your CoD4 career. The barracks tracks your current rank, current and remaining XP to next level, your in-game stats and your time played. On top of tracking all of those stats the barracks gives you access to the online leaderboards.



The leaderboards show you where you stand against the other hundreds of thousands playing CoD4. It provides you with more in-depth stats that the barracks doesn’t, like your kills to death ratio and accuracy percentage. You are also able to filter the leaderboards so you will only see players who are on your friends list making it easy to see who among you has bragging rights.

The barracks gives you access to check on your progress with any challenges you may currently be working on. You can read more about challenges further on down this guide.

Another option within the barracks is the clan tag option which will be available to players when they reach rank 12. This option allows for players to easily add clan tags to their name. Your tag can only consist of four characters and once you have entered and saved it the tag will display in front of your name surrounded by brackets. This option is mainly for console users who can not change their name. It looks something like this:

Before clan tag – Ph0bia

After clan tag – [CBW]Ph0bia

Lastly the barracks offers up Prestige mode. It will take some time before you unlock this mode as you must reach the max rank before it becomes available. To find out more about Prestige mode you can read further on down this section of the guide.

Ranking System

There have been some major changes to the multiplayer structure of the Call of Duty franchise. One of these changes is the new ranking system. Infinity Ward has added a ranking system to the game to reward players for their time spent fragging. The ranking system closely follows actual Marine ranks however there are more ranks in the game than in real life, so some ranks have multiple levels.

To rank up you have to earn experience points (XP). The more XP you earn the higher your rank will be. This is a scaling system however. As you climb in rank you will be required to earn more XP to achieve the next rank. Each kill, flag capture, round win, and bomb plant, etc. will earn you XP. Some will earn you more than others and depending on the game type you are playing the XP is adjusted for each. For example killing an opponent while playing Domination game type may only reward you with 5 XP while killing an opponent in Search & Destroy will earn you 50 XP since there are no respawns until round end. The ranking system consists of 65 ranks.

Challenges


While completing objectives in game or gunning down players on he opposing side may earn you XP there are also challenges. Challenges are various tasks that can be complete while playing. These tasks range from getting 25 kills with a specific weapon to doing a 30ft free fall. Upon completion of a challenge you will be notified by large bold text on screen and the sound of a rock guitar. The text will let you know exactly which challenge you have just finished. As an added bonus, completing challenges will also unlock weapon skins or weapons attachments.

There are several challenges that have phases. After you have completed phase 1 of a specific challenge than phase 2 will open up for you and offer up a new item to unlock and an increase in XP compared to the previous rank. An example of this would be:

Phase 1 – 25 Kills with the M4 – Worth 250XP – Unlocks Digital Camouflage
Phase 2 - 75 Kills with the M4 – Worth 500 XP – Unlocks Silencer
Phase 3 – 150 Kills with the M4 – Worth 1000 XP – Unlocks Red Tiger Camouflage

As you rank up new challenges will open up to you to help keep you earning XP and unlocking new items.

Kill Streaks

You may be wondering why kill streak has its own special section in this guide as a kill streak is well.....a kill streak. That was true until Infinity Ward decided to stir things up and reward players for their in-game ownage. Now whenever you get three kills, five kills, or seven kills in a row without dying you are rewarded with a few different military gems so to speak.

Three kills in a row = Team wide radar. You and your team can see the enemy even when they are not shooting at anyone.

Five kills in a row = What's that rumbling noise that seems to be approaching fast? Oh its fighter jets coming to drop some bombs on a target location of your choice.

Seven kills in a row = Your very own pet attack helicopter equipped with rockets and heavy front mounted machine gun.

Tips:
1.) All kill streak rewards have to be activated manually. This means you do not have to use them right away. You may find it better to hold onto radar for the next round or wait for the enemy to be clumped up in one area before calling in an air-strike. You are in control of the action.

2.) The attack helicopter is a very nice reward as it takes down enemies out in the open extremely fast. Combine the radar reward with an attack helicopter and it will begin to actively seek out the enemies appearing on the radar. How do you active both at the same time? Thats what friends are for. Radar is easy to get, so communicate with your team and this combo is easy to achieve.

Hardcore Mode

We’ve all said it at some point while gaming. Those two words that no one, but you actually believe unless you can somehow backup the statement. I’M HARDCORE!!! Usually the reaction you get from such a statement is laughter as most everyone knows you will be the first person to get killed. Well now you can thank Infinity Ward for giving you the opportunity to prove just how hardcore you really are. Hardcore mode is a realism mod built right into CoD4. As soon as it’s turned on your heads up display (HUD) vanishes and damage from weapons is increased to simulate a far more realistic feel. Servers can be setup to run hardcore mode if the server admins feel inclinded.

Prestige Mode

So you’ve managed to reach level 65, unlocked everything you could possibly unlock and finished all the achievements. You might be thinking its time to throw in the towel and move on to the next game as there is nothing left to do. You couldn’t be more wrong. Enter Prestige mode. What is Prestige mode you ask…..well it’s pretty basic really. By starting prestige mode you completely reset all your stats. Yes you read that right. You reset the game. All that time spent trying to unlock and complete everything and you wipe it all away with the click of a button. However you aren’t elite until you’ve complete prestige mode and everyone will know it. Prestige mode gives its players a nice medal next to their name to show exactly how uber they really are. There’s nothing like going into a game ready to frag and having the cold realization sweep over you that you will most likely be getting owned because a player on the opposing side happens to have the prestige mode medal next to their name.

So what happens once you’ve completed the game in Prestige mode? Well than you wipe your stats and complete it yet again. Each time you complete Prestige mode you earn a new and more elite medal next to your name. You can complete this mode up to 10 times. If you actually manage to do so than the medal next to your name will show that you are a CoD4 god not to be messed with.

Oldschool

So far Infinity Ward has been tight lipped about this game type. I will update this section shortly after the games release.

Special thanks to Connors at CBW Gaming for creating this guide