Written by ibleedv20
omnilinkit.com


MW2 63 hours and a wake up

From the moment I bought the PC version MW2 I pledged not to judge this games MP gameplay until I had played it enough to give it a fair chance.A fair chance for it to reveal all the majesty that IW had promised they were going to deliver.I am 63 hours in and I am ready to wake up and put this game into some perspective.

I will tell you up front that my skills as a player in most FPS games always and I mean virtually always fall into a 50/50 K to D ratio.Thats just where I am as a player and with MW2 it isn't any different.Like any other game in the series I occasionally have a great game.A great game for me is say 36 and 10.I have come to accept this despite the fact that I try to be a better player.But in my mind I think this gives me somewhat of an every player perspective and I like having that rationale to soothe my bruised competitive ego.Hey we can't all be elite players.someones got to die.

So what does MW2 bring to the table? What is the Good the bad and the ugly in this game?

The good.I almost don't know where to start because there is almost nothing new and innovative in this game.You could say that Host Migration is new and innovative. Yet for PC HM is only a band-aid required after the elimination of dedicated servers.While it is a handy console tool,it only serves as a distraction for players committed to dedicated servers.Technically it seems to work and always completes to finish the game.Yet there is a strange anomaly that occurs where your playing perspective is not always in sync with the other players perspective. Occasionaly I come out of my HM and players are suddenly in my FOV which results in an unfair advantage for me or them.Hmm not a good thing.

I guess you might argue that the new maps are good.Some like Favela use terrain elevation in a complex way that creates quite a challenge.Another,Wasteland is a direct copy of a map from COD2 Brecourt.While I imagine this is an addition to please the sniping crowd what I am confused about is the fact that had IW listened to snipers in the PC community this map would not have been chosen.It is a one-dimensional poorly designed map very often voted down in COD2.I would have been more impressed had they ripped off a community designed sniper map.Speaking of ripped off there is considerable visual evidence that IW used custom map content from the community in other maps but that has been shown and stands on it's own merits.If you are interested just google around and make up your own mind.Zeroy is a well known mapper in the community.One thing to note about all the maps is the strategic placement of openings in windows that place everyone in the line of fire.You could debate the purpose of this.One might say it allows defense of a position in a complicated way but I feel this is the skill levelling that IW promised from the beginning.

And speaking of skill leveling Robert Bowling made it clear early on that MW2 would accommodate the average to low skilled player by giving them ways to get easy kills.The predator missile for example is not hard to get.Most players can get a 5 kill streak and with the Hardline Pro as perk #2 you can drop that to 4. Well as promised IW delivered on skill leveling in many ways in this games.In addition UAVs and all Air strikes from above last entirely too long and can consume much of the gameplay causing massive camping as players run for cver and take to buildings and caves.Like COD4 before it MW2 continues the death from the sky spamfest.Yet interestingly enough IW was able to reduce much of the grenade spam by limiting your nade or semtex to 1.Yeah IW you are on a roll.

If you like Bling this game will give you more than enough of the big points,bells ,whistles and Christmas tree ornaments around your name to make any young boy feel special.I am old enough to have played a lot of pinball in the arcades as a young man and IW uses the Pinball Machine psychology here.Millions of points that mean absolutely nothing in the bigger picture but soothe the ego and give the illusion of something massive taking place.Hey if you like that sort of thing then more power too ya.It's a trend that can't be stopped and if information overdrive and icons all over the screen make you happy then you will love this game.

The ugliest part of this game is the absolutely poor performance of the atrocious lagging listen server peer to peer matchmaking can't connect to IWnet experience that has been designed here.In comparison Treyarch's Nazi Zombies COOP once in game makes this dog expose all it's fleas and really dissappoints on a functional level. How any of this could ever be fixed is clearly impossible.The entire theory and nature of this system is flawed and ultimately can only appeal to non-discriminating players who don't care or are new to PC gaming and don't have the recollection of how well the dedicated server experience really works.But then again maybe new players without any recollection is the market IW is trying to build here.

Once game sales reach a certain downside level who knows maybe IW will release a dedicated server patch with Map and Mod tools.There is some talk that IW may have that on their white board as we speak.Without dedicated servers in the mix this game will be living on DLC releases and after the first year should see greatly diminishing returns without the free advertising that dedicated servers and custom content provide.

And now the Ugliest of the ugliest part of this whole equation.When not in a private game the cheaters are rampant.I don't mean the glitchers which by the way can be quite amusing at times and when in the right mood actually create a kind of exploratory experience.No I am talking about the rampant aimbotting,wallhacking weasels that this game has attracted.It was inevitable with all the hype that the hackers would be Johnny on the spot with their wares here.But what I find interesting is how after the first VAC bans 2500 to 3000,there seem to be even more trolling around .As I observe and talk to individuals about it between rounds I get the impression that people will be willing to accept it because they know that without dedicated servers they have no control anyway.Andisn't this what people do.When there is no control and in place you have a faceless IWnet interface and a automaton anticheat system like VAC what else can you do but relinquish control.And this is the true dumbing down of the entire experience.The machine has taken over and if you want to play you must lower your expectations .

So all in all this game breaks no new ground and is a backsliding disappointment in quality gameplay for the descriminating PC gamer.Of course if you are looking for an arcade experience with lots of ornaments to keep you distracted and need an ego boost when you can't get more than a 50/50 kill to death ratio then this game just might be for you.Personally I would rather be a 50/50 player on a quality dedicated server with an admin and a custom server setup.One managed by discriminating and dedicated PC gamers who give time and money to create the best player experience because they have clans and communities that grow from the reputation of the server they run.

The quicker this game fades into the background and or includes dedicated servers the better the experience will be for me.All in all I give this game a 5 out of 10 in quality and gameplay and a 10 out of 10 for sucessful blockbuster hype.Just like crap movies that make millions and millions of dollars these days with trash content and poor direction MW2 is all eye candy and ego pumping bling.