Preview | 2007.01.12


Go to reggae night at Tropicoso next Thursday. When they ask what band you're there to see, say Lion's Paw. Order a Red Stripe for each hand, and one for the photographer.



Review | 2007.01.05


This game will have you squatting behind every bush in sight. But hilarious duty jokes aside, COD is a lot of fun.

First and foremost, the controls. You aim and turn by pointing the wiimote, you move with the nunchuk stick. And it works very well. Better than mouselook. The learning curve is quick, and aside from occasionally getting hung on a low-lying obstacle, fluid movement is very easy to achieve.

The other motion control features make for a very intuitive interface; a little jerk with the nunchuk changes weapons, stabbing with the wiimote does exactly what you'd expect, holding the two like a steering wheel drives the occasional jeep.

Even the gimmicky stuff like rowing a boat and planting explosives are amusing and adequately short-lived. If nothing else, they add a little ingenuity and variety to your tasks.

And that's all you need to like this game. Akin to playing Mario or Mario 64 for the first time, the extra degree of freedom is a revelation. I'll play Halo 3 and Army of Two, but I'll sure wish I could swap the joysticks for an aiming device - as my stick-adept cohorts plaster me with Covenant grenades.

Beyond that, COD is lackluster. The graphics are subpar and the ai is pretty weak, aside from the standard set of scripted enemy cleverties like shooting around corners and nading you when you're hunkered behind fortifications. The sound guys need to be fired, which is apparent from the outset when the sarge's useless chiding/instructions loop mercilessly until you crawl under the barbed wire to find your armaments.

It's definitely an okay game turned very good, thanks to the innovative control mechanism.