[Official] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

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Grand Master

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So very initial impressions, but split up about 4 hours today between a bit of SP and a bit of MP.

SP is intense. No other way to put it. Over the top action at it's finest. Story is a moot point in all regards, which honestly makes that whole airport sequence that much more in bad taste. No need for it. To over the top in my opinion, and I am all for 110% in support of free speech, etc. Just really not needed considering the story consists of no more than a mission briefing about what is about to be the most unrealistic action you can possibly experience. Meaning it is completely non-existent.

MP is intense. No other way to put it. Somehow they have made one of the more fast paced frenetic MP experiences that much more crazy. Lots of text flying around, icons flying around, names flying around. Just always something going on visually on top of the action. Very much a visceral experience. Despite how much more chaotic it is, it all somehow works. Probably because it really is just the same MP game we are know and love with the original Modern Warfare MP on steroids.

So it is more or less exactly what I expected it to be. A really great, fun video game experience, extremely solid and polished, with a story that is weak at best, but that fact is irrelevant as it does not need to be good since everything else is.

Still need to check out Spec Ops mode however unless something is tragically wrong with it I already know I am going to enjoy it a whole lot.

I'm all for great multiplayer games getting good scores, but it's funny watching how reviewers will absolutely gush over a game and say things like "ohhh but story doesn't matter in this case", then next review around absolutely destroy a game with a far better story than MW2 by holding it up to standards against the best movies around or something, just because it has a few flaws.

Massively hyped titles always seem to get free passes in the review world when it comes to certain things, scores don't need to be 6/7 out of 10, the game obviously excels at MP and deserves a good score, but reviewers passing over story like it flat out doesn't matter just because it's MW2 is annoying.

I'd rather they point out things how they are and give it a 9, instead of say "story is weak but who cares?". Also things like poor sound, again, not something to just jump over, even if you think it's worth 9 for MP alone.

So I do think it's quite strange you of all people think it's irrelevant that the story is weak Larry :p Especially after coming off of UC2. This game has different priorities, but if anyone should be able to also pack in an awesome SP campaign to an awesome MP component it should be someone like IW.

Grand Master

Spookie

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Massively hyped titles always seem to get free passes in the review world when it comes to certain things, scores don't need to be 6/7 out of 10, the game obviously excels at MP and deserves a good score, but reviewers passing over story like it flat out doesn't matter just because it's MW2 is annoying.

Poor story? What about the 5 hour long ****ing game? I use to think 10 hours was short!

That's the problems with reviews these days. They are a verbal blow job rather than a critical view of the game. I haven't even mentioned the amount of reviews that can be 'bought' by publishers via 'gifts' (hi Halo 3). It's no wonder the rest of the media don't take gaming seriously.

Grand Master

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Poor story? What about the 5 hour long ****ing game? I use to think 10 hours was short!

That's the problems with reviews these days. They are a verbal ******* rather than a critical view of the game. I haven't even mentioned the amount of reviews that can be 'bought' by publishers via 'gifts' (hi Halo 3). It's no wonder the rest of the media don't take gaming seriously.

Well it definitely is a little short, FPS games historically are never the story KINGS of the gaming world, people adhere to that and therefore don't want a dragged out game. Aside from your Half Life/System Shock/Deus Ex and some other classics of course.

But when you get a short story AND a weak story... :/

However as I pointed out, IW have the financial backing, and their development team is obviously insanely skilled, if they have ******** writers, look for better ones or give the script to a 3rd party.

Of course when you sell 6 million copies day 1, it doesn't really seem to matter, hence reviewers also saying it doesn't matter, people are going to go bananas anyway. But I don't think that's the attitude to take, IW are in such a good position to create something worth absolutely blowing your balls off with a shotgun over all round.

I'm just fed up with crappy stories in FPS games. You end up having to wait for something like Bioshock 1/2 to get a decent story, but it obviously lacked MP in 1, in 2 it probably won't be of the calibre of something like MW.

I've even heard people saying MW2 campaign is slightly below MW1, and considering they had the MP backbone in place, but just polished it to hell and back and added lots of new goodies, that's a bit disappointing in 2 years.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited as a kid like Christmas to get my copy tomorrow, but it annoys me reviewers can't write an objective 9/10 review, but have to just go gung-ho pretending like it's not worth mentioning the downsides, even if the upsides outweigh them. All that does is send a message to the developers not to really challenge themselves with SP... ever.

Oh and challenging yourself with SP doesn't mean adding that stupid terrorist level that totally seems to be done for the hell of it now with peoples opinions on the story as a whole.

Edited by Audioboxer
Grand Master

Chasethebase Veteran

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Wow camping is VERY prevelant in this game. I'm noticing it more than any other MP game I've played before. Usually I don't notice/care, but the camping in this is kind of irritating.

Not having played it yet, but poking around corners with a Semtex should do the trick ;)

Grand Master

Spookie

Posted
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Not having played it yet, but poking around corners with a Semtex should do the trick ;)

Followed by 6 stun grenades and auto shotty fire after that. Talking of the auto shotty I've noticed, in MP anyway, there is a range at about 50 yards where even if you're dead centre on your target you'll do 0 damage- lol wut?

Veteran

Frylock86

Posted
Posted (edited)
Are you any good at MP on xbox Larry? Cause I am just knowing I am going to be HORRIBLE going from a mouse+keyboard to a controller

I am too. That's why I don't own a 360.

So has anyone beat the single player campaign yet?

Edited by Frylock86
Veteran

AaronMT

Posted
Posted

Holy cow do I ever have buyers remorse after buying this title.

You can obviously tell Activison and Infinity Ward paid for the reviews there getting. This is no where near a solid game as they all claim. Campain is a meger 3hrs and is completely ridiculous, linear, and you have no options to do anything but what they tell you. Graphics are sub par. Multiplayer is unbalanced, small, and a lack of total players allowed when other games are at least at 32 players, if not more. Total disappointment.

Grand Master

Chasethebase Veteran

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Holy cow do I ever have buyers remorse after buying this title.

You can obviously tell Activison and Infinity Ward paid for the reviews there getting. This is no where near a solid game as they all claim. Campain is a meger 3hrs and is completely ridiculous, linear, and you have no options to do anything but what they tell you. Graphics are sub par. Multiplayer is unbalanced, small, and a lack of total players allowed when other games are at least at 32 players, if not more. Total disappointment.

Wow. To complete Campaign in 3hrs you either a) Completed it on Easy or b) Ignored most enemies and rushed through levels.

Videos of Multiplayer that I've seen (I can't really judge myself) seem to show a fairly balanced game. Also with the 32 players bit I presume you're talking PC version here? Remember that it has higher requirements than the first, so it may set itself at a lower setting to give similar peformance.

Personally I don't mind that it's limited to 18 players because then it doesn't turn into a 50 player mashup of spawnkilling/camping.

Community Regular

Nick Brunt

Posted
Posted
Holy cow do I ever have buyers remorse after buying this title.

You can obviously tell Activison and Infinity Ward paid for the reviews there getting. This is no where near a solid game as they all claim. Campain is a meger 3hrs and is completely ridiculous, linear, and you have no options to do anything but what they tell you. Graphics are sub par. Multiplayer is unbalanced, small, and a lack of total players allowed when other games are at least at 32 players, if not more. Total disappointment.

If you want a non-linear game get an RPG, not an FPS. The graphics are amazing but I will agree that they have mucked up the multiplayer with the low player limit.

Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Are you any good at MP on xbox Larry? Cause I am just knowing I am going to be HORRIBLE going from a mouse+keyboard to a controller

So I do think it's quite strange you of all people think it's irrelevant that the story is weak Larry :p Especially after coming off of UC2. This game has different priorities, but if anyone should be able to also pack in an awesome SP campaign to an awesome MP component it should be someone like IW.

But that's kinda my whole point though, a game like this does not even need a good story. It is a popcorn action game. The big summertime movie Blockbuster of video games. Just as most action adventure movies these days have **** poor stories, this game is no different. But it is okay because the over-the-top action is over-the-top enough to make it enjoyable.

And actually I have said a lot in my years here as a member with all of my little mini reviews and opinions I post on games, but I pretty much never cared about stories in games, as quite frankly I think they are all usually god awful and or I just do not care for the subject matter itself. I was born with Asteroids and Pitfall. What I mean by that is I could just be told you are an Italian Plumber looking for a princess is some crazy fantasy world with walking mushrooms and that is all the story I personally need. I like playing games for the act of playing games. In their evolution they have become a medium that also has the capability to entertain me with a story as well, so that to me is an added bonus, one however which I do not necessarily look forward to and / or need. And when I do look forward to a solid story more often than not I am disappointed. In fact the only FPS series I actually like the story line is Half Life. I dig the whole concept and execution. Sure, Bioshock had a decent story, and so did a few others (I especially loved the earlier COD's and Medal Of Honors because of their historical accuracy) but way more often then not I just enjoy shooting stuff in a new way more than I follow the story. Just how I approach games overall.

So Uncharted 2 was a rarity, it had a decent enough story for sure, but even with my little review on here I said how I thought the end of it was cheesy and stupid. So not really sure why you would be surprised by me saying the story being weak does not really have a factor on things, as I never really cared for stories all that much.

EDIT - But FTR, do I believe they should not get a pass from reviewers for having no story? Not at all, it should be pointed out, but like I said I think the reason it is not pointed out is because it is just damn fun to play.

Edited by DirtyLarry
Grand Master

Spookie

Posted
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YEAH! Finally out of stripes on MP and in to bars, rank 34! \o/

I've came to the conclusion that sniper rifles aren't for me, tempted to level the FAL to get a thermal scope on it though as I know that extends the zoom to ludicrous ranges.

Grand Master

dead.cell

Posted
Posted
Holy cow do I ever have buyers remorse after buying this title.

You can obviously tell Activison and Infinity Ward paid for the reviews there getting. This is no where near a solid game as they all claim. Campain is a meger 3hrs and is completely ridiculous, linear, and you have no options to do anything but what they tell you. Graphics are sub par. Multiplayer is unbalanced, small, and a lack of total players allowed when other games are at least at 32 players, if not more. Total disappointment.

Just curious... did you play Modern Warfare 1 or World at War? And if so, what did you think of them?

Grand Master

Konstanov

Posted
Posted
Holy cow do I ever have buyers remorse after buying this title.

You can obviously tell Activison and Infinity Ward paid for the reviews there getting. This is no where near a solid game as they all claim. Campain is a meger 3hrs and is completely ridiculous, linear, and you have no options to do anything but what they tell you. Graphics are sub par. Multiplayer is unbalanced, small, and a lack of total players allowed when other games are at least at 32 players, if not more. Total disappointment.

Because judging the length of the campaign based on the easiest difficulty is also the right benchmark for par. I'd like to see you beat the campaign on veteran in three hours.

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