Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

[Amadi Akintunde]

Likely leaked gameplay footage. Airport terrorism.

Leaked gameplay from a likely beta tester.

Despite visibly being an undercover CIA agent in this mission, I wonder how much hate mail Infinity Ward's going to get after this picks up attention from FOX News. Not to mention super patriots

But my opinion? It only makes this game more worth the wait since IW's taking such a big chance like this. Then again, I suppose it'd be no different from Grand Theft Auto, to be honest.

Then there's the fact that this was hinted in the first Modern Warfare 2 Trailer.

Side Translation: This game is gonna be a thrill. IW seems to be pushing some boundaries.
---------------------------------
In other news, who else is gonna get this? Any thoughts?

[quasadra]

i am gonna get it ASAP. but i try not to read anything about the story. i dont want to know until i play it myself.

[Zeonic Glory]

Well, we're 9 days away from release. It seems Fye has decided to do the same deal that they did back when CoD4 came out, buy CoD:MW2, get a free copy of Black Hawk Down.

Edit: Whoops, mixed up my dates.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Well, we're 9 days away from release. It seems Fye has decided to do the same deal that they did back when CoD4 came out, buy CoD:MW2, get a free copy of Black Hawk Down.

Edit: Whoops, mixed up my dates.

Heh. Best movie portraying a modern war. I'm watching it right now.

[mcred23]

Well, I preordered mine at a GameStop that is doing a midnight launch, and I'll be their to get it (And hopefully on my 360 enjoying it by 12:30 ).

Of course, there are a few places around the country already selling the game. I've seen a number of people on Live already playing the game. God help them if they get the same punishment that hit the people who were playing W@W early.

I've seen the assorted TV ads for it, and a few of the trailers on Live, plus read the OXM bits from their last two issues, but I haven't checked out any of the gameplay footage, or asked my friends who have it what the deal is. A rare case where I am saving everything for when I actually play it (Although, if the previous CoD games are any indication, I'll probably have the thing beat by noon ).

[Strike_Rouge_Mk2]

Oooh, its coming out tonight >:D I can't wait to get it tomorrow.. Then I'll spend my day off from school playing it :P Is there anyone else going to the midnight release? I'm too lazy to go, plus I have school.

[Blue 55]

I'll be hitting up the midnight release tonight so I will report back on what went down in detail soon.

[Zeonic Glory]

I'm waiting to pick it up on Black Friday, myself. My local Target had Modern Warfare for $48 on Black Friday two years ago and World at War for $48 on Black Friday last year. I'd say the chances of it being on sale at that price this Black Friday are pretty good.

[J-Lead]

Spoiler

Airport mission. I've never been so disturbed at what I was doing in-game during any game in my entire life than I was whilst I unloaded drum mag after drum mag into helpless crowds of screaming innocent people. Infinity Ward certainly knows how to remind you that crap like this is totally possible and indeed does happen, and what better way to do it other than to put you in the shoes of one of the shooters involved?

If anything, I don't think this is de-sensitizing to gun-violence, but in fact RE-sensitizing (if that's even a word,) because it's easy to imagine yourself being one of the helpless people you mercilessly gun down in that mission than a random enemy NPC that shoots back...

EDIT:

Spoiler

PRICE IS ALIVE AND HE'S A BLOODY GENIUS!!! A DELIGHTFULLY MAD, CRAZY GENIUS!!!!

[mcred23]

Well, I got it at midnight, and am utterly at a loss for positive words. I'll offer some commentary, but I'm putting in spoiler tags cause I have no idea what you people want/don't want to know at this point.

Spoiler

Oh. My. Gawd!

This thing is freakin' amazing in basically every way. Graphics are great, although the blood splatter on the screen is odd (I've heard it called Kool-Aid quite a bit). The game plays largely the same as CoD4, with the usual bits of "stealh or kill" as well as straight up charging and killing that everyone is used to. There is also, as J-Lead mentioned, the airport mission (Called "No Russian") which also caused me to go "Ho-ly crap" and feel disturbed to some extent.

Story-wise, the game is interesting, but not quite great. The first few missions set up "No Russian", which occurs in the middle of Act I, and set up the rest of the game. Without giving too much away of what all that means, it's interesting, but eventually ends up in a couple of ideas that have long since been done (Although they are done well, the ideas aren't new).

The ending...

I CAN'T PUT IN EXTRA TAGS SO READ THE NEXT BIT AT YOUR OWN RISK

...is very similar to CoD4 in how it pans out for the player. It also seems to make another sequel seem certain (Who isn't expecting Modern Warfare 3 already? ), but it's just a bit too obvious, IMO...


so I'm kinda meh about all that.

As for multiplayer: It's amazing. I haven't tried the Special Ops thing yet, but I've done a ton of the normal stuff. They've changed a number of the perks and things from the previous two games, although elements of them remain. For example, Juggernaught is gone, but they do have the similar Painkiller perk, which occurs if you die three times in a row. It gives you a 10 second period of increased health (Heavily increased) after you spawn. The perks are all pretty good (At least, the ones I've tried) and the killstreak options are interesting and cause some serious thinking. They also made it so that killstreak bonuses stack up as you get them (Meaning, you get to call in everything you get for a kill streak, even if you unlock the next item, you call them in reverse order) and things like helicopters stack up (No more waiting for the previous' players heli to go away and the rest of the team all spamming their buttons trying to get their own in ).

Wow... this was longer than I expected...

EDIT: On a totally random note, I loved some of the subtle references to things like Red Dawn and Tom Clancy (Although pairing Chicago and Dallas was pretty obvious )

So yeah, if you haven't got it/planned to get it, do so. And if you don't plan on getting it, you're weird.


EDIT: Added one other comment.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Just won the Hardened Edition in a contest, and will be getting it in the mail within a few days.

Just waiting for another contest or two to end to see if I've won a Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition 360, two controllers, another copy of the game and a headset.

[Shinji103]

Well, I played the game for myself the other day. A nice game on single-player.

But does anybody else think they left the ending open on purpose (Makarov is still around, and it's not like Sheppard's doings were made public, so they'll still be at war even after his death), to open the door for MW3?

[mcred23]

But does anybody else think they left the ending open on purpose (Makarov is still around, and it's not like Sheppard's doings were made public, so they'll still be at war even after his death), to open the door for MW3?

Yes. I replayed the single player this week, but my feeling from the first time I played it still remains, that they'll have another sequel. Whether or not they'll still be at war is up for debate. CoD4 ended with Russia still in the middle of a civil war (Which we now know ended, and who won). MW2 ends with the current war seemingly far from over (The major battle looks over, or at least at a turning point). It's a bit more obvious than the previous game, but a sequel seems required to provide more of an ending for the various characters...

[blind_dead_mcjones]

just played and finished it earlier tonight, and overall i thought it was a bit meh

sure the combat was more intense than the previous game (especially the truly disturbing airport level), but aside from that it felt like it was just more of the same, plus, my main criticism, it was too bloody short (6 hours long, give or take a couple due to difficulty settings/individual hamhandedness) felt more like an expansion pack than a full length game.

[Shinji103]

sure the combat was more intense than the previous game (especially the truly disturbing airport level), but aside from that it felt like it was just more of the same, plus, my main criticism, it was too bloody short (6 hours long, give or take a couple due to difficulty settings/individual hamhandedness) felt more like an expansion pack than a full length game.

Well it's hard for a lot of first-person shooters to not feel like other games. They're not like RPGs where the developers can find new battle systems and level up systems.

As for the length, well, every action game is about that long these days because they go for big, wide environments, environmental interactibility, graphics, and the multiplayer too. I honestly can't remember an action game aside from 007 Goldeneye on the old N64 and MGS on the original Playstation that I haven't beaten in one night, especially on the New Gen systems. Resistance 1 and 2, Resistance: Retribution on PSP, Uncharted 1 and 2, MGS4, CoD MW1, CoD World at War, Medal of Honor Airborne, even Black on the PS2; I beat every single one of those games in one night, ~6 hours.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Only thing "short" about the campaign was the mission lengths. They were somewhat shorter than CoD 4, but a lot more intense.

Takedown pissed me off, though. Favela may be my best multiplayer map, but damn.

But yeah. it obviously did end for a sequel. The ending more or less gave you that impression. My question though is, what of the West Coast of the US? Did all Russian forces converge on DC or is the West Coast being invaded as well? I'd like to fight in Los Angeles. Probably a city chase scene, too. Among many other things I'd like to see in the sequel. Such as soldier customization. Appearance and whatnot without deviating too much from being unrecognizable on the battlefield.

Overall, this game indeed does earn the attention it gets. Despite the little change from the original game regarding functions and controls, I've not much to complain about.

Infinity Ward's also talking about making a Spinoff game for Ghost.

[mcred23]

As for the length, well, every action game is about that long these days because they go for big, wide environments, environmental interactibility, graphics, and the multiplayer too. I honestly can't remember an action game aside from 007 Goldeneye on the old N64 and MGS on the original Playstation that I haven't beaten in one night, especially on the New Gen systems. Resistance 1 and 2, Resistance: Retribution on PSP, Uncharted 1 and 2, MGS4, CoD MW1, CoD World at War, Medal of Honor Airborne, even Black on the PS2; I beat every single one of those games in one night, ~6 hours.

Pretty much the same thing here. I can't think of an action game, particularly a shooter (First or third person), that has taken me more than six to eight hours to beat. Besides, with a game like Modern Warfare 2, they know a major number of people are buying the game more for the multiplayer than the single player mode, so they make that shorter (But still exciting, and telling a pretty interesting story to boot) so they can focus on the other side (And doing so very well).

Although, on a semi-random spin off comment, they seemed to have totally fudged up the lobby/party system on the 360. The ability to join other players parties in games, leave a lobby as a party and things like that, features that were in WaW are gone. This isn't too bad, but it's certainly a minor frustation. The lobby system, however, seems totally screwy. Whenever I played with a group of people, we'll go into a lobby and sit there for 20 minutes with nothing happening, before it'll merge us with another lobby and kick two or three of our group. All of that is pretty annoying, and I wonder why they changed any of that from the system used in WaW...

Takedown pissed me off, though. Favela may be my best multiplayer map, but damn.

Yeah, Takedown was a pain for me too. Took me a bit to figure out where I was going/needed to go. On multiplayer, I'm not crazy for the map, just because it's one of those levels where you get lots of people who camp from the second the game starts, which is annoying as hell on Hardcore modes and Headquarters (Although, in that mode, it comes back to bite them when they lose ).

But yeah. it obviously did end for a sequel. The ending more or less gave you that impression. My question though is, what of the West Coast of the US? Did all Russian forces converge on DC or is the West Coast being invaded as well? I'd like to fight in Los Angeles. Probably a city chase scene, too.

Few spoilers in there, but what the hell, the game's been out for a while and pretty much everyone has it.

Anyway, going by the loading screen stuff, they Russians didn't seem to do anything on the West Coast. They used that ACR (Or whatever that computer thingy was called) to screw with sensors, faking attacks on assorted bases on the Western side of America (Alaska and some where else), while commiting the main (And only) attack on the D.C. area. Still, as I alluded to before, the battle seemed to be going the Americans way, so I wonder how all of that would end...

Among many other things I'd like to see in the sequel. Such as soldier customization. Appearance and whatnot without deviating too much from being unrecognizable on the battlefield.

That wouldn't really work with the current system (Where you are randomly assigned to a faction in multiplayer), or rather, any more than it already does. It'd be weird if you pick something like a helmet or uniform and then are assigned to a Militia faction. They already have it customizable enough by having your character wear/carry the various items/perks you select, which, IMO is all it really needs.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Pretty much the same thing here. I can't think of an action game, particularly a shooter (First or third person), that has taken me more than six to eight hours to beat.

I present to the table killzone 2, took me 2 weeks to finish (playing in 2 hour blocks at a time, which is roughly about 36 hours all up, i think...)

Besides, with a game like Modern Warfare 2, they know a major number of people are buying the game more for the multiplayer than the single player mode, so they make that shorter (But still exciting, and telling a pretty interesting story to boot) so they can focus on the other side (And doing so very well).

i suspected as much, even so i wish they would concede that there are those who don't give a rat's arse about multiplayer and especially don't like it when the single player aspect is compromised for the sake of multiplayer

even though it's pretty old, unreal was a truly massive FPS shooter that took upwards of a month of two to finish and was engaging enough to keep you interested throughout the entire thing, so there's really no excuse for making FPSes short enough to play through in an afternoon

somewhat off topic i do have a minor gripe when it comes FPSes set in the present day. why is it that you're always playing as the american (or occasionally british) armed forces? there are other armed forces out there, why not say the dutch? or the foreign legion, or the australian army/SAS? i get sick of the stereotyped US marine/ranger/navy SEAL/delta force/etc. grizzled sassy cowboy meathead you so often have to take control of

[quasadra]

they are such game. just dont get as much hype as this tough.

[mcred23]

i suspected as much, even so i wish they would concede that there are those who don't give a rat's arse about multiplayer and especially don't like it when the single player aspect is compromised for the sake of multiplayer

I get what your saying, as for a long time I had a 360 but didn't have Xbox Live. The thing is, the people who don't care about multiplayer on the current generation of consoles, what with Xbox Live and the Playstation Network (Nevermind the good ol' PC and internet), are probably vastly outnumbered by the people who are. Because of that, they tailor the game more towards that. I'm sure there are probably shooting/action games that have more of a focus on the single player than on multiplayer, but you hardly hear about them because, quite simply, multiplayer is more fun! Has been since GoldenEye 007 on the N64!

somewhat off topic i do have a minor gripe when it comes FPSes set in the present day. why is it that you're always playing as the american (or occasionally british) armed forces? there are other armed forces out there, why not say the dutch? or the foreign legion, or the australian army/SAS? i get sick of the stereotyped US marine/ranger/navy SEAL/delta force/etc. grizzled sassy cowboy meathead you so often have to take control of

Because these games are usually developed by Americans, or American companies, and intended for the American market. Groups like the Rangers, Marines, SEALS, Delta Force, as well as the British SAS, and Russian Spetsnaz, among the others from those countires, are fairly well known and recognizable. There are countless shows on the History and Military and Discovery channels about these groups, nevermind movies featuring them in some form. I doubt many people know the name of the comparable groups for the Dutch or Australian militaries, or other elite groups in other nations. It's simple name recognition. Combine those elements together, and that's why you typically find yourself playing as a member of one of those units...