Call of Duty 4 MP Beta Impressions

I finally got my first crack at this game yesterday.  It is very Halo-esque in every respect.  The lobby and matchmaking are nearly identical to the Halo 3 beta's.  The gameplay is similar in that it is very fast moving (solid framerate) and knowledge of the maps appears to be vital.  Since I am getting a late start on the beta, it was a bit disheartening to get into my first match and to see 11 level 11 players (the current level cap) and me.  After a couple of games to get the basics down, I started leveling up quickly.  Still, I was playing so badly (at least relatively) I almost quit.  Later in the evening, I tried again and found some clanmates and got a couple of games in with them.  At this point (once removed from the Timmies talking into my ear), I started having a ton of fun and am now sitting at work looking forward to getting home to get some more games in. 

I was a little disappointed by the graphics, but it is a beta.  I am not saying that the graphics are bad, but, after seeing the in-game demos at E3, I thought that they would be a little better than they are riht now.  Showing a brief replay of your death is nice and should help newbs like me get better.  As for the bells and whistles, in all candor, I am a little overwhelmed by all of the layers involved in the game.  I am still trying to figure out how to employ some of the perks (for example, I equiped my assault rifle with a grenade launcher, but then couldn't figure out how to use it until about 3 matches in).  The airstrikes and other rewards for streaks are a nice touch, but they are tremendously annoying when you are just trying to learn the game (of course, I am sure that my opinion of this will change if I am ever able to call out an airstrike of my own  LOL).  As a Gears fan, I like the challenges.  I haven't completed any of them yet since I was trying to test out all the weapons and find what I was most comfortable with, but I like getting rewarded for success using particular weapons. 

While I can't envision COD4 MP overtaking Gears as my favorite online game, it is a lot of fun.  I look forward to seeing how the clan feature works (it is currently disabled).  I was pretty sure that I was going to buy this game, but I will now go ahead and drop a reservation on it when I go to pick up Halo 3.