GotG Round 3: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare vs. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I prefer Skyrim, but you're right. MW is a more important game. Arguably the most important game of the generation.

People let the CoD madness make them not vote for CoD4, but Modern Warfare was not only revolutionary in terms of online multiplayer, but the storyline and huge crazy event-based storyline was powerful and new. It's too bad people can't see through the blind CoD hate that later games engendered.

If I go by what I'd consider the most influential Game of the Generation, it'd be Call of Duty 4. If I go by my favorite Game of the Generation, it'd be Call of Duty 4.

Whatever to vote for?

It's less hate I can't see through than apathy. Terrible, soul-consuming apathy. For the genre in general, and for the modern offshoot in particular.

If the devs are open to mods like Bethesta, I don't see why mods shouldn't count. It's part of the game. Anyways, I'd vote for the vanilla version of Skyrim too.

I did not like Skyrim at all. I dare say it is literally, literally, the worst gamethat I personally played this generation. A fucking turd (put it on the back of the box!).

I even liked Skyrim, but lol at Skyrim beating CoD4.

I would like to vote Modern Warfare because of it's explosion of popularity and relevance to the generation, but it did perpetuate an entire era of dogshit (yes I am admittedly salty) FPS games. Oh and my other point is: Skyrim.

Skyrim is close, oh so close to being my perfect game. It has the foundations, the basics, it just needs that bit more and it would be there.

MY PERFECT VIDEO GAME

Fallout 3 is beating Mario Galaxy. Of course Skyrim is going to win this.

No big surprise that Fallout 3 is beating Galaxy though since Galaxy is a platform exclusive. I'm guessing a lot more people have played Fallout 3 than Galaxy. Exclusives almost always get fucked in polls like this for that exact reason.

Also, I'm happy with Skyrim beating CoD4.

Cod 4 pretty much defined this generation for me.

But that sounds like revisionist history based on what followed Modern Warfare, which is exactly what the @the_vein is commenting on. I'm not fond of where a lot of AAA game design has now headed, but you can't deny the amazing things CoD4 did.

Modern Warfare was the first game of the generation that made my jaw literally drop. Moments like the first person execution, nuclear detonation, AC-130 sequence and Pripyat were just astounding at the time, and still hold up. The game has such a cohesive tone that no other 'modern blockbuster' has come close to matching since, even as tech and production values have scaled up.

I say this as someone who has poured ~150 hours into Skyrim and was enraptured by it, but Modern Warfare just holds a special place in my heart that will be difficult to forget. And that's not even taking into the consideration the titanic impact it had on the generation at large, both in narrative and multiplayer structure.

Lol, these results.

Skyrim was a less vaired Oblivion which was a less varied Morrowind. COD4 was a completely new experience in the FPS format. The every game is WW2 was past its prime and this was a shock of modern exactly when it was needed. And with that brought the best fps combat ever. Gripping story (with a fuckin NUKE) and touching first person scenes, which nothing has come close to reimagining. Games kill you every other level now days, but back then, that helicopter scene, man.

And I haven't been as attached to multiplayer since Quake. In fact, it was as good as pre-quakeworld Quake. And no consequent release comes close in that regard. It's easily my GOTG, but its also Number 2 of all time. I actually ponied up for live because of it. Went through a couple of xboxes because of it. All totally worth it.

Look, Skyrim is a great game but COD 4 is the defining game of this generation.

I chose Call of Duty 4, which I initially didn't think much of, though over time liked it more. I still like MW2 the most though and is what made me look back of the first and replay it, liking it a bit more. Skyrim, I honestly got bored with it every time I played it. My brother loved it though, and that's cool.

this is an incredibly hard one. the first modern warfare is on the greatest first person shooters of all time, and still totally holds up in spite of everything that's happened to the series since. skyrim though is the best execution to date of the open world 3d rpg concept.

idunno, they're both about equal for me, tbh, so this is a tossup. i'll pick skyrim, though, i guess.

Call of Duty 4 has to get my vote here, from the now famous nuke to the multiplayer that has become the industry standard for the last half a decade, I think it's just an awesome package. Skyrim's a fantastic world that I sunk over a hundred hours in to with ease though and I begrudge no-one voting for it.

Skyrim, it's going to be tough for any game this generation to topple this one for me at this point unless it gets matched with Mass Effect 2.

Go Skyrim go, let's please get "generic FPS shooter" off the GOTG list.

As much as I hate the later games that CoD 4 spawned, CoD 4 redefined the FPS genre. Skyrim was great, but it was a continuation of an already well established genre. CoD 4 will be always remembered for changing the way we play games. There is no way of denying that. Perk systems, fast-paced loose shooting mechanics, 60 frames-per-second standard on consoles, kill-streaks, modern shooter setting, gun customization, and Search and Destroy were perfected by CoD 4 and set the standard for the generation. CoD 4 should probably win for sheer impact on the industry. But hey, Skyrim is preeeettty good.

Again, this is the mindset that stems from fatigue over what has happened to the genre since Modern Warfare. No one is disagreeing with that - but that is not a judgement of this game. In fact, all it does is highlight how goddamn influential CoD4 was.

I agree with most of that, but Search and Destroy (while being my favorite game mode in COD4) was pretty much just a copy of Counterstrike.

@gutterkisser: Nah, I wasn't being revisionist- I've just always been apathetic to the whole genre of FPS's, is all I was saying, and while that continued in this generation, I found the "Modern" setting kind of distasteful on top of that. It's not like I grew that apathy over the course of the generation, as more games continued to come out and follow the leader, as you seem to be assuming.

I didn't think I would be voting for a CoD game this late in the game but I liked CoD 4 more than Skyrim.

Fair enough, and apologies for misinterpreting your view. I'm only on the defensive because I can't help feeling the current state of the franchise is tainting some views - it is a somewhat populist view to shit on Call of Duty and its community these days. Not entirely undeserved, I just hope folks can separate past and present.

This contest means nothing now that the actual game that defined this generation is being beaten by Skyrim.

Don't really care about which defined the generation, I just know I had way more fun playing Skyrim.

This has brought me so much unironic joy, I can't not vote for Skyrim.

Pretty much this. Skyrim was a great iteration of a formula. CoD4 redefined video games in ways you probably don't even notice, like how every single game nowadays has RPG leveling elements, thanks to this game.

Not really man. I stopped caring very very fast. I was tired of that game before the sequel had even been announced, much less released.

I find it funny how most of these threads seem to be filled with the vocal minority. The SMG/FO3 thread is full of people claiming SMG is one of the best games of all time, and here people are saying CoD 'defined a generation'. Yet they are both obvious under dogs in the polls. It is almost as if the better games don't really need to be defended...

@drxlecter: If by "better game" you mean "the one that is winning", then yeah, people aren't going to defend or make arguments for the game that's winning because they can just smile and know that they have the right opinion.

I enjoyed Skyrim much more than CoD4, but if we're talking about the game of a generation then I cannot see any logical argument for Skyrim being more important or better than CoD4. Like I said earlier, people are letting the cool "generic fps Cawwadooty babies" shit cloud their judgment and memory of what was an incredible and very good game and one that made such an impact on the industry that we are still feeling it's effects now almost seven years later.

well, there's some question as to whether this poll is about the most influential game of the generation or the better game. I find Skyrim far more entertaining than CoD4, but I think CoD4 is much more influential. I thought the poll was about which game was better, however, so I voted for Skyrim.

This one was hard. COD4 was a great and very important game, but I think I had more fun with Skyrim.

Exactly, I realize CoD4 has had a massive affect on the industry, but why would I ever vote for it over a game I absolutely adore? I played CoD4 and according to my achievements I even finished it, but it was not memorable in the slightest and obviously did not have an impact on me personally.

The original MW is and awesome game and I still think I had the best time playing that game than any game any game after it. Skyrim hit every nail on the head for what I want from a game, except maybe gameplay. Skyrim it is.

Quotidian hatred for the direction Call of Duty took after 4 might be clouding the judgment of people on this one. I dislike the frustratingly saturated annual event the series has become, but Modern Warfare was a great fucking game (which was the first and last Call of Duty game I owned and played).

a really long post approaches!

In the GotG OP it clearly states that game of the generation can mean either most important/influential, or your favourite, it's up to the voter to the decide.

I loved the original MW but it doesn't hold a candle to Skyrim for me, so though MW is more influential (though note Skyrim's influence on W3 and DA3, etc) I pick Skyrim.

And frankly... about CoD's influence... well... it can go fuck itself.

It was an influence of shit - of modern military shooters, of the bombastic over the content, an influence of trite story twists and racist depictions. CoD: MW was great, but both CoD's sequels and all its imitators missed the boat over and over again, constantly failing to be anything but plain and simple.

Was it the most influential game? Maybe. I guess it depends how you look at WoW/Wii/MineCraft. But to me - it's mostly a negative influence. We didn't need 5 years of generic military shooters. If someone can point to 3 amazing games heavily inspired by CoD: MW I will happily eat crow, but I don't think they exist.

The tangential influence of having FPS' become genre numero uno did mean that there were just more FPS and some of those were interesting, but that's not the same as CoD's mechanical, tonal, thematic and structural influences.

Modern Warfare and it's first sequel are two of my favourite games of the generation. I personally prefer 2 over the first but I love how super precise the 2 games felt. I don't think many other shooters feel as good to play as these 2 do. I liked Skyrim but I have put 10 days into the first Modern Warfare and 20 days into the second one. I don't want to play any more Skyrim after putting about 140 hours in and I can still go back for more Modern Warfare 2. I know one is a multiplayer game but you get the idea.

Skyrim was the game everyone was talking about for a month or so. It won critical acclaim, was broken on the PS3, and was awarded with GOTY from plenty of places.

COD4 won critical acclaim and greatly influenced online gaming.

Skyrims campaign is a wide-spanning adventure that will take you to locales across Skyrim and eventually back to those locales over and over again. The game has plenty of quests, none of which stack up to the Dark Brotherhood from Oblivion, the combat is sluggish but has its moments, and the world is very drab and washed out.

COD4's campaign is a globe-trotting adventure from the perspective of mutliple characters. The storyline is full of exciting setpieces complemented by exciting, fast-paced gameplay. It also has a multiplayer mode that's apparently pretty good.

On story and gameplay alone, COD4 takes it.

Even though I enjoyed Skyrim immensely, in terms of Game of the Generation arguments I have to give it to Call of Duty 4. That game was groundbreaking and though it eventually led to it becoming an annualized franchise, it pretty much changed the landscape of how a FPS is done in this generation of consoles similar to what Halo did in the previous generation.

I played 4 hours of CoD: MW. That's how long it took me to beat the campaign. I tooled around in the Multiplayer, but it was no Battlefield, so I dropped it. The mainstream can do what it wants; Call of Duty hasn't influenced me since #2.

"Generic FPS shooter"? Really? The game that changed MP forever and publishers' expectations for games sales? Just because games after that were stale doesn't make MW generic.

On a side note, I don't think I can keep on voting on this after if these results continue lol

COD4 is one of the best single player campaigns I've ever played. I vote for that!

It was painful having to choose, but I chose CoD4. Skyrim is so intensely fantastic in some ways, mostly because of the very convincing, gigantic, atmospheric world, but %-wise, more of the game is a drag to play than CoD4. I still maybe personally prefer Skyrim, but CoD4 changed so much it deserves the win, somehow.

Not too fond of either game, personally, but I'm not gonna deny just how important CoD4 is.

CoD4 is the right choice, despite Skyrim being my favorite of the two.