My Review on: Modern Warfare 2.

[DarkBlade325]

Got good ol' MW2 uhh about 3-4 days ago for the PC (remember that throughout the time of reading this, or some of my thoughts may not make sense to you. Remember, I got it for the PC!). Ive beaten through campaign, almost done with Special Ops, and Ive play a little bit of multiplayer. I am still new to the game- at the time of posting this I'm only about rank 16. So yeah, extremely new. So think of this as first impressions. I'm going to start with the bread & butter of MW2, it's multiplayer. Keep in mind I never actually played a CoD game before besides CoD:4's single player.

I'm not going to lie. When I first went into multiplayer games, I got my ass handed to. My ass was burnt to a crisp then kicked to Mars and back. This is partially because I was trying to play a knifer at such an early time. I just didn't have time to get a feel of the game yet and I just instantly picked the Recon class. Needless to say, I got butt!@#$ed. Let me tell you- if you're going to rank up in this game, you're either going to play as an assault class, or a sniper. Now, I'm still going to try to be a knifer when my rank goes up, but for now I feel forced to play an assault class. You know, SCAR & Machine Pistol combo. This has worked out for me so far Ive been getting kill streaks left and right. But it does suck how I have to play a build I'm least interested in in order to rank up. But that's not the game's fault that's just me not having any experience in any of the CoD games.

It just may be me imagining things, but these players I meet online are smarter than most pubs I see on other FPSs take for example Team Fortress 2. I have had 2 or even 3 years of experience on TF2, but even so there are times where I'll try to kill someone, and they'll just ignore my damage. In MW2, it may just be my bad luck, Ive seen people pull some very annoying tricks. All I can say is, don't underestimate the pubs if you're new to the game.

But when it comes to such a huge game like this, there's obviously going to be douchebags on the game. The people who constantly shout "HACKER" or "LOL PWNED", you know the drill. What strikes me as odd is that you really only ever hear this on Free 2 Play games, like Combat Arms. There's obviously going to be alot of 10 year olds running around swearing over the internet every 5 seconds because they never had to get their parents to pay for the game. But I was surprised how so many people brought MW2 for 60$ and they're acting the same way here. What the Hell? Actually I think I might have an explanation. Somehow Infinity Ward's crappy IWnet thing was made so pirated copy owners of the game could play with legitimate players. Yeah, I'm dead serious. Luckily, they have issued a fix to the game so that this can no longer happen. This may also cut down some of the hackers who got pirated versions and just hacked with no care if they got banned or not. And trust me, they wouldn't. Anyways, onto the single player.

Most people I know labeled Single Player in CoD:4, a 'practice' mode. The real shining side of CoD:4 was its multiplayer. No one can argue with that. So Single Player was just to get you used to the controls and to let you kill some AI before joining the online squad. This hasn't changed for MW2. Alot of people have been saying the MW2 campaign is shorter than before, but honestly I can't see the difference. CoD:4 and MW2 campaigns feel about the same length to me. And even if it isn't, who cares? You have Spec Ops as well to go through, get all 69 stars (har de har har Infinity Ward I see what you did there with the star count) and shit. Combine that with the campaign and the fact you can play Spec Ops with a friend and you get an even longer play time than CoD:4's campaign. And as said before, Single Player is pretty much practice for online sessions, so don't make such a big deal out of it. Alright now that I got that out of my system, on to which console you should play it on, and my final verdict.

Actually, no. I'm not going to list what console to play it on. I'll let this video speak for me. Ignoring the annoying computer generated voices, the points the video makes do hold water. The PC version did get screwed a bit. Dedicated servers are missing, there's no vote to kick players which means more hackers, and no mod support. The video may have a 3 star rating for one of the two reasons. 1. All the people who watch Machinima are console players and don't give a shit about the PC version (this is probably the reason. Half of the videos on Machinima are Halo 3 videos. This video was on youtube before it went up to Machinima, and it scored a 5 star rating.) Or 2. the computer voices are annoying. But I doubt that.

But besides all the bad things said about the PC versions, I got it anyways. Don't get me wrong, no mod support does suck, but I can live with it. I personally have had fun. You can still play with friends, and while there are hackers, the new fix made it so pirates can't play with legit players. This will no doubt reduce the number of hackers.

Overall, if you're a PC gamer, I wouldn't totally rule the game out. If you have a console, then chances are you already have it and I shouldn't have to explain why to get it. If you have both a console and a gaming PC, it's up to you. If you feel you play better with the PC when it comes to FPS games, get it for the PC. If not, get it for a console.

I don't even need to give MW2 a rating. It's a solid FPS game. Get it, now. It could be better on the PC, but Infinity Ward kinda !@#$ed up there.

[Jake]

Not a bad review. I wouldn't necessarily blame Infinity Ward for the PC port.

[Lucifer]

Personally, I never used mods in Cod 4, and I'm freakin glad MW2 has a 18 player cap. I only ever played in servers below 20, as anything past that would result in epic amounts of spawn killing. Also half the servers were just people hosting 24/7 shipment maps, where you go to farm points and level up to 50 faster than you can say !@#$ this shit, I consider this Infinity Ward learning from their mistakes. The dedicated servers thing, *shrug*, I don't know much about them, and I never noticed whether or not I was even in them, so whatever. If I had a computer, I'd buy it, as Cod4 was one of the best FPS's I've ever played, up there with Battlefield 2 and Medal of Honor Allied Assault.

One thing, what's a "knifer"? In Cod4 knives were only there so you could jizz your pants and feel special, do they serve more of a purpose now or something?

[DarkBlade325]

Not a bad review. I wouldn't necessarily blame Infinity Ward for the PC port.

Nah it was totally IW's decision to take out dedicated servers. There was a interview with the CEO of IW I kinda forget his name, and when he was asked about the removement of dedicated servers n' such, he just didn't comment.

There's alot of rage over at the Infinity Ward forums on the PC section as well. Trust me, IW had all the power when it came to making this game.

Personally, I never used mods in Cod 4, and I'm freakin glad MW2 has a 18 player cap. I only ever played in servers below 20, as anything past that would result in epic amounts of spawn killing. Also half the servers were just people hosting 24/7 shipment maps, where you go to farm points and level up to 50 faster than you can say !@#$ this shit, I consider this Infinity Ward learning from their mistakes. The dedicated servers thing, *shrug*, I don't know much about them, and I never noticed whether or not I was even in them, so whatever. If I had a computer, I'd buy it, as Cod4 was one of the best FPS's I've ever played, up there with Battlefield 2 and Medal of Honor Allied Assault.

One thing, what's a "knifer"? In Cod4 knives were only there so you could jizz your pants and feel special, do they serve more of a purpose now or something?

That's what I call classes that specify on knives. There's a pistol attachment called the Tactical Knife which in someways allows you to use both a knife and a pistol at the same time, and you can knife people alot faster (here's a video of someone doing a knife only game in Free-4-All.) The default Recon class comes with a 44. Revolver, and a Tactical Knife. Now I main Spy in TF2, and if you let me hold both of those weapons at once, I jizz in my pants over that. But due to my stupidity I chose it as SOON as I got the game, and proceeded to get butt !@#$ed because I kept trying to rush into people head on. No doubt after I get some experience with the game I'll get better, but for now I gotta rank up.

Also if I'm not mistaken, people are mad about Dedicated Servers because, well, have you played a game that gives you a list of servers to choose from? Team Fortress 2, for example? I think CoD:4 also had this on the PC version. Well now, you don't get those. Instead, you pick your game-type from a list, then it randomly throws you into a server with a random map choice. Players have no freedom, and it destroyed clan making and home servers to play on with friends. Combine that and without the option to kick players, you get hackers everywhere. It was a seriously bad move on Infinity Ward's part. And even though the fans are demanding Dedicated Server support, Infinity Ward has yet to give comment.

[Lucifer]

Oooohh, wow that IS a dick move. Clans were a huuugee part of Cod4...

*edit*
Holy shit, watched that knife vid, can you seriously run forever..?

[DarkBlade325]

Oooohh, wow that IS a dick move. Clans were a huuugee part of Cod4...

Edited my last post with a video of the Tactical Knife just in case you wanted to see it.

[ARTgames]

*edit*
Holy shit, watched that knife vid, can you seriously run forever..?

Yeah you can. You can run the whole game. Running classes are not really harder then any class its just that in there nature lag plase a part in them.  They have little to no range but deadly up close. Most people who use them dont get good k/d ratio thoe. Fun class for a while.

Dedicated servers are missing, there's no vote to kick players which means more hackers, and no mod support.

No lobby text chat. The mute does not mute people text. Menus feel like for the controller.

Not a bad review. I wouldn't necessarily blame Infinity Ward for the PC port.

There the one's who made the PC port. Yeah there the the one to blame. And they are the ones in control of there budget also. I mean really how hard was it to add a chat room to the games lobby? I bet you could do it by yourself.

[DarkBlade325]

Yeah you can run forever, but it requires the Marathon perk. You can actually run alot faster. For whatever reason, if you get a kill-streak of 3, you can call in a care package. To do that, you're given something similar to a grenade called a Marker. When you throw it, a friendly air unit will come in and drop a care package with a random kill-streak reward or ammo inside it. But, if you don't throw the care package marker, you can run insanely fast with it. Combined with Marathon and Lightweight perks, you're insanely fast. Heard that a patch will be coming soon though to fix it.

[Lingus]

I think the point Jake was trying to make is that they probably did what they did to make the PC version equivilant to the console versions. And I believe they probably make more money on the console versions. Something along those lines.

I mean, isn't what they did making the PC version the same as the console version? Or can you use dedicated servers on the console? If my assumption is correct, there's nothing to complain about...

[ARTgames]

They make the game for the xbox and spend as little money as possible to port it to ps3 and xbox because they dont feel as if they will make as much money. Thats ware the conservancy comes in.

I think the point Jake was trying to make is that they probably did what they did to make the PC version equivilant to the console versions. And I believe they probably make more money on the console versions. Something along those lines.

Im not sure what conclusion your drawling there. Are you saying they made it like the console versions to make more money? And if you cant tell the pc people dont what the console version. Thats why some pc people are complaining. Like me. i mean really how hard was it to add a way to find out your ping. Those green bars for connection mean almost nothing. complain complain complain...... :P Its still a fun game. but it just could be a lot better if they just spent a bit more time. But this is starting to get into another zone.  

I mean, isn't what they did making the PC version the same as the console version?

Yeah. If you make the game for the console and port it over to the pc your getting the console game just running on something different. Im guessing if they had inf resources they would spend a lot more time on pc. Now they did try to spin off matching as a feature other than a downfall. which is funny because no one was asking for it and they made us pay $10 more for it the we normaly do.(but that 10$ is also piracy tax) And its most likely because it makes them more money and keeps the from doing work. But that will get you into another subject.


The point is all past call of duty's for pc had this set of features that most people liked. And in this one they took them away and made you pay more for the game. You can see how that makes people unhappy. Still a fun game and you should buy it. I just wish they did better.

And if your on pc please, please buy it so they know they can make money here.

[Jake]

When I stated that I wouldn't necessarily blame IW for the port, I meant that Activision (the publisher) probably had the final word when it came to how they should make the PC port, and it's possible that IW just went along for the ride. IW is pretty much required to publicly agree with any decisions Activision makes, which means they could internally hate the fact that the PC port got the console treatment.

Anyway, I am unsurprised at the whole situation. Look at it in terms of business. By making the PC version exactly the same as it's console counterparts, it gives less of an incentive to pirate the game, and more of an incentive to actually buy it. If they let people host private servers, people who pirate the game can play the game online with no exceptions.

Imagine for one second that they made the PC version better than on consoles and added the ability for making private servers. That's marketing suicide for a game as big as MW2. Their main income is the 360 and PS3, and the PC is a little bonus. If the PC version was better and allowed piraters to pretty much get the same content as a person who bought the game, tons of people are gonna say "screw the 360 and ps3, lets get it for free on PC. We can still play online on private servers". Why on earth would you make the PC version the best, when 90% of PC games are pirated, and then give almost full benefits to the pirater. Say goodbye to a HUGE chunk of your PS3 and 360 profit if you do that.

[ARTgames]

Imagine for one second that they made the PC version better than on consoles and added the ability for making private servers.

That did happen and the game was called call of duty 4.(im sure you heard of it) And they still should a crap load to ps3 and xbox360. Not every one pirates games and not every one is a pc gamer it turned out.They made so much money they made this game and is still planing more.

Your assuming Activision part and so am i. I dont know what word they had with it. But i see and yeah that could be true. I did forget about Activision.

COD MW2 is the most pirated game still. So there attempted to stop it fail. You can play online even with the pirated version. And that's no secret. I would link you to it but that's kind of illegal.  ;) google could help you see thoe. So in summery the people who payed get less and the people who pirated don't care.

Anyway, I am unsurprised at the whole situation. Look at it in terms of business. By making the PC version exactly the same as it's console counterparts, it gives less of an incentive to pirate the game

I will say it gives people the incentive not to even buy the game on pc game. PC games and console games have always had there perks to make them awesome. And if you take away most of the pc perks it makes you not want to buy it. You still get keyboard and mouse and better graphics but for some people that not enough. And if you think im making that up ill link you to cod mw2 forums topics. But It is enough for me. Thats why i bought pc vs.

So in short I think the next pc games of cod will be like this or just stop all together. And if your on a xbox or ps3 you'll get the game. And i don't mind because pc gaming it a little to expensive for me anyways. Unless they find a way to combat piracy or they start caring about pc more. (and im sure those last 2 things will no happen.)

[DarkBlade325]

When I stated that I wouldn't necessarily blame IW for the port, I meant that Activision (the publisher) probably had the final word when it came to how they should make the PC port, and it's possible that IW just went along for the ride. IW is pretty much required to publicly agree with any decisions Activision makes, which means they could internally hate the fact that the PC port got the console treatment.

The thing is, Activision had no word in how the multiplayer was going to work. The fact that Infinity Ward calls their current matchmaking system "IWnet", is proof enough. Not only that, but the other CoD games had dedicated servers on the PC as well. There's a reason no one is blaming Activision for this. And that's because they had no word in the matter.

Anyway, I am unsurprised at the whole situation. Look at it in terms of business. By making the PC version exactly the same as it's console counterparts, it gives less of an incentive to pirate the game, and more of an incentive to actually buy it. If they let people host private servers, people who pirate the game can play the game online with no exceptions.

Ironically, the system made pirating EASIER. If anyone isn't aware of what he's talking about, if you pirate a game, most of the time you're not linked with legit players to play online with. You have to use Hamachi to make fake lan rooms in most cases. But when they made IWnet on the PC, pirate players could play with legit players with no trouble. This made hacker counts sky rocket, and it didn't make pirates think twice about downloading it. They have issued a fix for this as I said before, but you can bet your ass the pirates will find a way to go online.

Imagine for one second that they made the PC version better than on consoles and added the ability for making private servers. That's marketing suicide for a game as big as MW2. Their main income is the 360 and PS3, and the PC is a little bonus. If the PC version was better and allowed piraters to pretty much get the same content as a person who bought the game, tons of people are gonna say "screw the 360 and ps3, lets get it for free on PC. We can still play online on private servers". Why on earth would you make the PC version the best, when 90% of PC games are pirated, and then give almost full benefits to the pirater. Say goodbye to a HUGE chunk of your PS3 and 360 profit if you do that.

Hell I personally don't see why there are consoles to begin with. It is a tad more expensive to make a gaming PC, but the pay off is so much more enjoyable. I'll admit some games like fighters and such don't belong on the PC, but then you just buy a controller. The only thing I see holding back the PC from being the best in gaming are the developers themselves, who are scared to go to the PC because of piraters. But maybe that's because there's not enough attention going for the PC. If more developers actually took a look at the PC, they would be able to find a way to shut pirates out of online play...Actually, they already have! Okay sure pirates can download the game for free and go lan, but is that REALLY hurting developer profit? MW2 has scored more money than any other form of entertainment. Pirated versions don't have shit on the outcome. Not to mention the IWnet system made it so pirates had even MORE of a reason to download it, and IW are still swimming in money. And when it comes to FPS, PC versions usually are better. What with dedicated servers and such. Yeah pirates could Hamachi, but they don't get to have as big as a community as legit players. So in short, I see no reason why Dedicated Servers or mod support should be missing. Though your point does hold water, Jake- if there was only a PC version of the game, IW would probably go broke because of all the pirates. But as long as there are consoles racking up the big bucks, they'll be making more money than pirates are downloading, so I see no reason why Dedicated Servers should be missing.

[Jake]

So in summery the people who payed get less and the people who pirated don't care.

I would agree with this in most situations, but not this one. If you pirate it and want to play online, you're gonna have to jump through hoops. If you're at all serious about it's multiplayer, you'll buy the game, and that's what IW was counting on. In this case, the people who payed don't get less, they get the same as everyone else. Everyone knew the PC port would be similar to consoles before they bought it, so there's no room for complaining.

I will say it gives people the incentive not to even buy the game on pc game. PC games and console games have always had there perks to make them awesome. And if you take away most of the pc perks it makes you not want to buy it. You still get keyboard and mouse and better graphics but for some people that not enough. And if you think im making that up ill link you to cod mw2 forums topics. But It is enough for me. Thats why i bought pc vs.

Here's the thing, it may lower the amount of PC sales, but it will increase the amount of console sales even more. It's a tradeoff the IW/Activision had to make, and they went with the one that will get them more money. I'll bet you anything that the game would have been pirated way more if it had been designed the way PC gamers wanted it, and a large chunk of those pirated copies would be from people who were going to purchase it on console and realized the pirated PC version still had all the benefits as the payed-for version. Instead of creating a gold mine for piraters, IW gave 'em a treasure chest with a lock on it, and the simple downgrade will now result in much more sales largely in part based on the popularity of their multiplayer.

[Jake]

@Darkblade Dedicated servers make the PC version better. PC better = more piracy, slightly better PC sales, and much less console sales. that's the way I see it. I'll get to the rest of your post in a little bit.

Anyway, I assumed IW was smart enough to take advantage of IWnet and at least make it a bitch to pirate and play multiplayer (which they should have the capability of doing). There's no excuse on that one.