The Perks system in Call of Duty 4 seemed like a cross between a cheap arcade powerup ripoff and a cheap Battlefield 2 ripoff rolled into one giant cheesy ripoff. I wasn’t impressed when Infinity Ward first started gushing about it. Their initial videos and explanations didn’t help my outlook.

But now they either got the hint, or further refined the system, because it actually looks cool. The perks don’t look useless, nor do they seem necessary to succeed. They just add a little color, and specialize your character a bit. They should have waited until it worked like this before talking about it:

Oh, and the pseudo-public beta is supposed to be released today. If you are interested and still haven’t signed up, try the publicity site for COD4 at CharlieOscarDelta.

This game is looking better and better. Between this and Team Fortress 2, I think my FPS needs will be covered for awhile.

The video has a bunch of gameplay as well as a developer talking about all the new character building and “perks” entered into this new version of the classic game. If you didn’t see the previous videos, COD4 is no longer centered around WW2, but around modern and even futuristic combat.

Notice how he says “For all those playing Call of Duty 2 online…” ? Yeah, because they were idiots for not including Call of Duty 3 on the PC.

No longer WWII centered, and as the subtitle says, it is now focused on modern combat. The gameplay shown in this new trailer seems to be all close-quarters urban combat. Looks like a winner, and this time the game will not be console-only, which was the big disappointment with Call of Duty 3.