The Call of Duty series is made up of largely excellent games. I want to make that clear before I dive headfirst into ripping them to pieces. I’ve played a decent amount of them and enjoyed my time, treating them like a dumb 80s action flick, with less Schwarzenegger and more, well, me. That is, however, what they are. They’re action movies in video game form, and when they attempt to take on more serious topics, well...that’s where the problems start. Like said movies, they don’t handle sensitive subjects, or scenes which require a delicate balancing act particularly well. Occasionally it pulls it off, like how the ending scene of Terminator 2 can bring a tear to even the most hardened cyborg killer. Mostly, however, they mess up, and, when you’re dealing with topics like terrorism, civilian death, drone strikes, etc., you can’t really afford to mess up that many times. Other times, the faults are just with the game itself: whether it’s a lackluster story mode, bad mechanics, or terrible perks, even the best FPSs have their weaker moments. If we’re gonna stretch this analogy even further, these moments are like Twins: a weak point in its career. I’d take a Twins FPS though, I reckon Danny DeVito can hold his own.

In this list, I’ve compiled a range of the most boneheaded mistakes that the series has ever made. From attempting to map grief to a button, to probably the most misjudged story moment in history, there’s some stuff on here which you’ll probably remember with a slight sigh and some stuff you might have missed.

15 The "Fight Against Grenade Spam" Debacle

[Via CallofDutyFanClub/Youtube.com]

To promote Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a video starring Cole Hamels was released criticizing players who threw grenades around like confetti. While this is exceptionally annoying, the ad contained the unjustified and plain weird slogan of “fight against grenade spam.” The abbreviation for the slogan served as a red rag to a bull for the games’ critics, who said it highlighted the seedy and prejudicial underbelly of online gaming, as well as those who criticized the use of the slur in any context. Call of Duty’s community has been stereotyped, and not super unfairly, as a place which isn’t welcoming to those who don’t fit the usual gamer demographic. Infinity Ward pulled the ad shortly after it went up, with the company’s developer manager saying that “the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke.”

14 When It Depicted A Terrorist Attack On London

Prepare for some unearned and gratuitous violence! [Via El Devi/Youtube.com]

In the realm of videogame stories, Call of Duty has never been thought of as the most mature. They’re essentially interactive action movies, mixing high-octane gun battles with a meld of western enemies du jour. However, Modern Warfare 3’s depictions of attacks in the British capital, complete with a section in the London Underground, stirred unpleasant memories of the 7/7 attacks for many. The gratuitous ending of the mission, depicting a family holiday gone wrong, complete with a child’s death, seems like a misstep for a series rooted in, essentially, the fantastical. While the atom bomb attack in Modern Warfare 4 worked, it worked because it revealed the player’s essential mortality, in comparison to the godlike power they’d wielded before, shooting 5.56 NATO like Zeus’ proverbial thunderbolts. The civilians who are depicted as being killed never had any power, making it a trite depiction which serves only to move the story along.

13 Call Of Duty: Ghosts' Story Mode

Good dog, bad story. [Via callofduty.wikia.com]

Man, Ghosts was a strange game. With a publicity campaign which is remembered for its focus on the games’ four-legged friend, Riley, it’s easy to simply forget it ever happened. We probably shouldn’t though, because there’s a lot that went wrong. Notably, the story was bizarre and borderline xenophobic. Instead of shipping you off to fight the eternal enemies —like a vague terrorist group— the game decided to instead create “The Federation,” a group of South American nations, created so America could actually have a strong enemy to fight rather than rag-tag smaller groups. The conflict’s true reason is left pretty vague, and other than their leader being stridently anti-American, the Federation is essentially a mirror-image of the US. But bad. In the game, you kind of take on the role of the terrorists at one point, destroying a building during a busy holiday because it’s them or us, apparently.

12 How Much In 1961 Dollars?

Yeah, no this all looks very 60s...wait, hang on. [Via hobbyconsolas.com]

Black Ops is actually a pretty great game, bar a few thuddingly dull moments, but it’s on this list a couple times for fair reasons. As part of a marketing deal with Jeep (which also saw the release of a Black Ops edition Wrangler,) a modern Jeep appeared in the middle of the multiplayer map Nuketown. Okay. I know, in a game where JFK blasts Zombies apart with Nixon, the appearance of a Jeep Wrangler shouldn’t be a big deal. Thing is, Black Ops thrives on a sense of place, with personalities of the time, retro weaponry, and conspiracy nonsense to ground it firmly in the 60s. The trailer had Gimme Shelter playing over it, for God’s sake. Then you play a MP game in Nuketown and you’re suddenly brought back to Earth with a commercialized smack. You’re not in a Cold War fantasy anymore, you’re back among the mundane.

11 Creating A Fake Terror Twitterstorm

This. This was REAL stupid. [ Via straitstimes.com]

In yet another misguided moment in advertising, in the run up to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3’s release, the official Call of Duty Twitter account made a dumbfounding mistake. Instead of tweeting typical PR fare, the account started tweeting breaking news accounts of a terrorist attack in Singapore. The tweets brought news which ranged from “unconfirmed reports” of an explosion in the nation, followed by the announcement the city-state had created a “quarantine zone.” The final tweet in the series finally revealed the truth saying “this was a glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3.” Reactions were furious, with many criticizing the creation of a fake terror attack during a period of high global tension, but some celebrated the tweets likening them to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast.

10 Bay Of Pigs And Castro’s(?) Assassination

Hey guys, it's political statement time, HOORAH! [Via Yithian Master/Youtube.com]

Black Ops’ fictionalized account of the Bay of Pigs invasion came under fire in Cuba for several reasons, with one being the objective to assassinate Fidel Castro (or, as it turns out, his double). Regardless of your political views, it’s easy to see that this was going to cause controversy, with Cuban news site Cubadebate calling the game “perverse,” and also making the laughable claim that it would turn American adolescents into sociopaths. It’s also notable that, while the rest of the game tends to give you some fractures within the enemy’s facade, the Cubans are left as a bland and single-minded enemy to be defeated at all costs. While the game isn’t going to change anyone’s politics or make someone sociopathic, it’s a jarring moment in a game which aims for the fantastic.

9 The Surreal Ending Of Black Ops 2 With Avenged Sevenfold

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! [Via Coub.com]

If this moment didn’t want to make you cry with laughter (or second-hand embarrassment), I honestly think you’re more machine than human. The performance of Carry On to screaming crowds in the epilogue of Black Ops 2 was exceptionally weird, even by Black Ops’ standards. Frank Woods and Raul Menendez try their best to rock out while attempting to avoid the “desperate dad trying to look cool” aesthetic. This is intercut with in-game scenes and scenes of the apparently metal head POTUS head banging like she’s trying to get James Hetfield as her next VP candidate. I almost had second thoughts about putting it on this list, because it is so genuinely hilarious. However, it’s hilarious because it’s so God damn awful, so I think it fits on here just fine. I wonder how much Avenged Sevenfold got for this?

8 Taking The Series Into Space

Houston, we have similar gameplay. [MrEdxwx/Youtube.com]

I don’t think it’s exactly a controversial opinion to say that Call of Duty innovating its formula would be a great move. However, I’m not sure that's something that the developers exactly grasp. When the series made its first tentative, zero-g steps outside of Earth in Infinite Warfare, nothing felt that new. Despite making parts of the combat floatier than Master Chief’s jumps, the series retained the same formula as ever. Despite taking us away from a world where drone strikes cast an uncomfortable shade across the game, the same old modes return. You still fight zombies. The game’s few new systems which serve as something of a cool drop of water in a rapidly boiling pan of fatigue. It’s too little, and despite the fun it can provide, it doesn’t live up to the potential it had.

7 These Stupid AF Perks

It's all going smoothly, then suddenly, you kill the wrong guy... [Via callofduty.wikia.com]

The multiplayer aspect of Call of Duty is aspired to by countless other games. It's a peak which few can reach. It’s balanced, addictive, challenging, and fun. The problems which do exist in it? Well, they often come from certain perks. Take Martyrdom, for example, which grants anyone who equips it a license to free kills for...just dying. Another deeply questionable perk can be found in Eavesdrop. Appearing in Modern Warfare, this perk gave players the ability to listen in on their opponents’ voice chat. Seems interesting right, but think a bit more. Have you played Call Of Duty with voice chat? You’re far more likely to hear trash-talking than genuinely useful information, unless you’re playing in a tournament. It’s a shame that such an interesting idea went to waste, when that creativity could have been easily applied to a perk which would give a genuine advantage.

6 The Return Of The Dive

Pictured shortly before imminent death. [Via callofduty.wikia.com]

Dolphin diving is as old as the hills and this clichéd comparison: jump in the air and go prone, giving your opponent either flashbacks to their whale watching tour gone wrong or a hoped-for tactical disadvantage. It attracted a huge amount of ire in Battlefield 2, and in Black Ops and its sequel, but for different reasons. Many see it as a pointless move, rendering you vulnerable to attack and increased fall-damage, with limited actual use for mobility purposes. When compared to the slide first seen in Ghosts, which could actually be used for both tactical and speed purposes, it seems pretty useless, and guess what — it’s coming back in Call of Duty: WW2! All I want to do is slide in an enemy's general direction and riddle them with bullets, is that too much to ask?

5 The Extremely Unsatisfying Wii Port Of Modern Warfare 3

Look at it! [Via DigdugDak908/Youtube.com]

Remember when people were trying to make shooters work on the Wii? There were some decent entries on the system, like The Conduit and, actually, the original Modern Warfare, but MW3 was not one of them. Sure, it packed the same campaign and content as its more powerful cousins, but disappointing limitations were everywhere. From multiplayer matches being only 5v5 to an appalling framerate, bad texture pop-in and a low resolution which hampered your performance. The net code was also pretty shaky at launch, with lag being extremely commonplace. It’s a shame, as MW3 could have made a pretty decent transition to the Wii like its older brother, but sadly, it just didn’t turn out that way. Instead, Wii players got to experience yet another deeply subpar shooter.

4 Guest Starring Manuel Noriega

Wait, hang on. [Via Nypost.com]

Following on from Castro’s appearance in Black Ops, another South American dictator made an eyebrow-raising appearance in the sequel. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Manuel Noriega, erstwhile leader of Panama! Noriega is largely seen as something of an opportunist in the story of the Cold War, and, while, like Castro’s, his appearance is somewhat understandable given the games’ historical setting, the inclusion of yet another politically-charged mission leads to somewhat uncomfortable questions. There’s no room for political nuance in these games, with the crimes of the US-backed Operation Condor simply removed. Instead, we get to chase down enemies of the state and kilCommieses with nothing more than a hoo-rah acceptance of our role. On the plus side, Noriega’s appearance did lead to the entertaining scenario of a former Central American dictator attempting to sue a game developer for damages. Isn’t the 21st Century interesting?

3 Nauseating Advertising

Call of Duty’s advertising is worth looking at from an analytical point. Two specific campaigns are particularly problematic, as noted by Kill Screen. One is the subway poster for Black Ops 3 which bore the slogan “send a drone to do your dirty work.” I’ve talked previously about drone warfare’s effects on operators, but it’s also worth noting the civilian casualties which have been inflicted by mistaken targets or collateral damage: around 474, according to Foreign Policy magazine. Making a jokey slogan out of such a hot-button issue smacks of desperate edginess. So too does the “There’s A Soldier In All Of Us" ad, showing office workers gallivanting around a Middle-Eastern warzone. War, even when realistically depicted, is just a game, a joky little punchline. The message? It doesn’t matter to us.

2 Mapping Grief To A Button

"YOU WILL FEEL EMOTION, HUMAN UNIT 8192U2!" [Via imgur.com]

Whoever thought it’d be a grand idea to have feelings mapped to a button press in Advanced Warfare really goofed. The “press F to pay respects” scene has gone on to find internet fame as a meme, and with good reason. The death of the protagonist’s best friend and brother-in-arms (or should that be arm?), whose relationship had been built up over all of one mission, was a fabulous misstep. Rather than attempt to build a meaningful connection between the characters, instead, we get one rushed mission which ends with self-sacrifice so that the player can live on. Of course, they can! They’re central to the plot! Then, we go to their funeral and lay our hand on his coffin with the tap of the button to express the respect and love he gained over about half an hour of our time. It’s meaningless, tacky and just plain bad.

1 No Russian

"No Russian." "No point either, tovarisch." [Via waypoint.vice.com]

From one meaningless, tacky and pointless moment to another. The “No Russian” mission has gone down in video game history as probably the most gratuitously pointless depiction of violence in gaming’s history. The mission exists to illustrate one point: that our antagonist is indeed bad. To make this clear to us, our CIA agent plant assists (or stands idly by, you can indeed refuse to) in the gunning down of countless civilians in a Moscow airport. It’s a fly in the ointment of a truly great game, which makes it all the more frustrating. There are countless ways the big bad can be shown to be the enemy worth taking down, but massacring a bunch of civilians shortly after the horrific Mumbai terrorist attacks are not the most subtle or tactful way to do it, and should have been shot down at the planning stage.