The sound the M1 Garand rifles make when it reloads is iconic, commonly associated with the Second World War and used prominently in Call of Duty: WWII and in tons of WWII films. The sharp ping noise is the sound of the cartridge being ejected, and as you'll see and hear in the video above, its use and sound in the PS4, Xbox One, and PC game is routed in real life history.
The sound has also been a defining feature in WWII video games. The first game to feature the M1 Garand prominently was Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, a 1998 RTS game by Pyro Studios. The first time most shooter fans would get to use the weapon, however, would be in 1999, in DreamWorks Interactive's Medal of Honor. For those of you who never played the first Medal of Honor on the original PlayStation, you took the role of fictional Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson, who through the game would be recruited into the OSS as he completed objectives and destroyed enemy positions.
Since Medal of Honor, the weapon has remained a mainstay in World War II FPS games. By the time Call of Duty 3 released in 2006, it had been featured in 25 games, alongside dozens of movies and TV shows.
In GameSpot's Call of Duty: WWII review, the game received a 9/10, saying it takes that game back to the series' roots while delivering a thoroughly new experience. For more on Call of Duty: WWII, head over to GameSpot's full coverage, and for a different take, watch this week's episode of Reboot, exploring the campaign and the ways its return to a WWII setting could have been done better.
