• Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 EDT by
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After getting some hands on time with the Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat online multiplayer beta on the Xbox 360, PSU.com now has some new information to share with you, along with our impressions of the beta, the game's multiplayer, and its online features.

The beta was rather small in size, clocking in at just under 1GB, but packed a lot of features. Four game modes including Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, Team Objective and Team Tactical graced the online beta, the first three of which support up to 12 players online.

Team Deathmatch has a standard score based system with the objective to reach 750 points. 10 points per kill are awarded in this mode, with bonus points available for calling in air strikes or friendly helicopters.

Free For All is also very simple. It's every man for himself as six to twelve players battle it out to get 300 points. In this mode, however, only 5 points are awarded for each kill.

Team Tactical is a mixture of Team Deathmatch and Team Objective, but for fewer players. The only online mode to not entertain twelve, Team Tactical puts players in a 2v2 or 3v3 conflict to reach 500 points.

Team Objective is for up to twelve players, and is focused on teamwork to capture flags in Domination, or destroy and defend certain key items in Search and Destroy. Domination will allow respawns, whereas Search and Destroy grants each player only one life per round.

During our trip to L.A. a week or two back, PSU had the unique opportunity to speak with developers who have been working on COD4 for nearly two years. When we asked them about game modes, they assured us that there will be more than those on the beta, and we even overheard talk of a game mode called Sabotage.

Apart from online game modes, there was also a full leaderboard setup and in working order. No word yet as to whether the PlayStation Network's leaderboards will be identical, but what we saw was a nicely put together system with lots of cool tracking options. The leaderboards are broken into four categories: Score, Wins, Kills, and Accuracy.

SCORE

The Score leaderboard keeps track of and compares your "score" to other players. Basically, throughout the online campaign, players score points by completing objectives, getting kills, calling in air strikes, etc. This board will take that score and rank you compared to everyone else.

WINS

This leaderboard keeps track of your wins and losses. This will tell you how many games you have won or lost, and give you a ratio.

KILLS

This is the board that everyone is going to look at. This tracks how many kills and deaths you've had, and also gives you a ratio. Another nice feature here is the streak record. Got an amazing kill streak? Your highest one will be here for everyone to see.

ACCURACY

Each bullet is tracked and recorded for accuracy information. This page will tell you how many hits and misses you have fired, as well as a percentage that gives you your accuracy rating.

Now, to get all these stats, you've got to get some guns. This is where Call of Duty 4 borrows from other great games, and improves on them. There are 5 different categories of Primary Weapons, four Side Arms, and three different types of grenades in the game.

Many of you have played Rainbow Six: Vegas by now and have seen how the FPS and RPG genres have met in the middle to provide the rank system. Call of Duty has added this feature and it really works out well. There are currently 11 available ranks in the beta, with more to be unlocked as the game's release nears. During our stay in L.A., there were 20 ranks unlocked. The developers stated that there were going to be well over twenty. However, looking at the beta, the highest weapons shown unlock in the mid twenties. We will have to find out on that one for later.

Each time you "level" ... (continued on next page)