The State of Gaming - Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2
I did something very stupid about two weeks ago - I fell for the hype, became a sheeple, and bought a copy of Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2, made by Infinity Ward, and distributed by Activision.
I should have tweaked to the issues in the weeks leading up to the release, because Activision started pulling all the YouTube vids of the game, citing supposed “DMCA” concerns. Why would they do that?
So, I buy the game, settle in for a night of gaming, and finish the single-player campaign in about 4 hours! The content was gripping, but the ending was a bit, well, abrupt. It certainly clears the way for Modern Warfare 3, or DLC content, given that Gaz and Soap are now international fugitives.
The strength of Call of Duty:World at War was the Zombies mode - you run around inside buildings, and repel hordes of zombies. MW2 has taken a different tack, and introduced Spec-Ops mode - you complete set missions from scenes out of the single player campaign. Same maps, same stories, rehashed in an interesting way.
But it’s the multiplayer aspects which has me in fits at the moment. The maps are brilliant, and much larger than the CoD4 maps, have some amazing environmental effects (snow, blizzards, sandstorms, etc). Infinity Ward also added a lot of new weapons, new skills to master, new challenges, and both kill and death streaks.
In recognition of the fact that gamers are producing some ridiculous kill streaks (racking up the kills without dying), they added about 15 different streak rewards, from care packages (which drop random kill streaks), to UAV jammers, Predator missiles (which you can steer towards your target), various helicopters (one of which you can sit in the gunners seat), the AC130 (which is controllable), and even a tactical Nuke (which obliterates everyone on the map, and then ends the game in the Nuker’s favour).
There are also a bunch of new perks, including “pro” versions of the perks.
The number of ranks has increased to 70, and there’s still the ability to prestige too.
All up, sounds like a lot of fun, eh!?
So, why am I stupid for buying this?
Because I thought that Infinity Ward cared enough to listen to the gaming community, and fix some of the major bugs and flaws seen in CoD4:MW, and ended up in Modern Warfare 2. However, they didn’t, and now I understand why.
I read an article in the newspaper the other day that Activision raked in $580M of our money in the first week alone! So, it’s not about entertaining the community, and being sensible enough to do something about the bugs and flaws, it’s all about making money, lots and lots of money. Update: As at 30 November, it’s now being reported that Activision raked in $3B - that’s $3 Billion dollars!
Who cares about us gamers, right?
All I can say about that is, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you!”.
They didn’t bother to fix the matchmaking - it prefers to select US-based gamers as hosts, rather than the one most suited to the majority of gamers in a lobby. Thus, we could have 12 aussies in a lobby, all with green pings, but if one leaves, and an US gamer joins, it automatically moves the server to them, and thus us Aussies get screwed over, and end up with yellow or red pings.
The gaming community asked for the ability to restrict searches for games to local games. Treyarch responded, and wrote a facility to do local game searches into CoD:WaW, but IW didn’t. They said they’d improved the matchmaking, and thus don’t need to provide a local search facility. See the above for the resulting matchmaking problems.
They didn’t bother to fix the spawn system. MW2 often spawns you in front of an enemy, or spawns you under an airstrike, or spawns you in full view of a chopper, so you end up immediately dying again. Surely the game should know where the airstrike will strike, right? Surely the game should be coded so that you don’t respawn within (say) 20m of an enemy. Alternatively, why not give us 5 seconds of invincibility, so we can get away to safety (or turn around and gun down the guy spawncamping)?
I also suspect that they haven’t fixed the ranking up bug either. Why do I say this? Because I have lost rank, perks, points etc on occasion when the game occasionally locks up when in the lobby.
I am also experiencing issues where a “lost connection to host” immediately bombs me not just out of the game, but completely out of Xbox Live! Why? Cod4 did this too! It’s not my internet connection, or network, or Xbox, because I can play Rainbow 6:Vegas 2 all night without a single dropout. So, I can only conclude that IW doesn’t know how to write clean, efficient, and resilient netcode.
They’ve added a bunch of weapons, including a few more shotguns. However, the shotties are over-powered, and you can dual-wield these now too (called “akimbo” in the game). You can infinitely run around without degradation, dual-wield shotties, and snipe with them across the map. A shottie should be ineffective past about 15m, and dual-wielding them should make them wildly inaccurate.
One perk I’m now using all the time is “Cold-blooded”. This perk hides you from UAV’s, and removes the red boxes around you when someone is controlling the various kill streaks. Ok, that’s fine. So, why then can I stand under an enemy chopper, and blaze away, and not have it shoot back at me? Granted, I like this (I considered the choppers in CoD4 way too overpowered - they snipe me through closed windows on occasion), but it’s a bit ridiculous at the same time. I’ve been in numerous games where a helo or harrier jet arrives, hovers over the map for 30 seconds or so, and leaves, without firing a single shot. What’s the use of that?
Some equipment attachments are weird - why a “heartbeat sensor”? Is it to stop people camping, because they can be detected by the heartbeat sensor?
My biggest gripe though, is with the Riot Shield. Apparently, it’s impervious to all bullets in the game - you can’t shoot through it, so how are you supposed to stop the advances? Some people say it’s easy, but I find them impossible! This game is Modern Warfare, not Modern SWAT Police, so the concept of a Riot Shield is completely lost on me!
There are some things which I think are great touches. I can now shoot down UAV’s, and all the other flying “vehicles”. They add to my pointscore (but not the lobby/team points) too!
There’s a new sniper rifle - the Cheytac Intervention .408, which is the only bolt gun in the game! I initially thought that this rifle was utter crap! But, after getting used to it, I’ve found it to be a beast of a gun in the game - it’s accurate, and makes the coolest “silent” sounds. Yes! I can now equip my sniper with a silencer!
So, my sniper class is now the following:
Primary: Cheytac Intervention .408 w/ silencer + hearbeat sensor
Secondary: PP2000 automatic handgun w/ FMJ and holographic sight
Claymore and Smoke
Perk 1: Bling Pro (allows me to dual equip both primary and secondary guns)
Perk 2: Cold-Blooded (working towards Cold-Blooded Pro)
Perk 3: Ninja
I’m pretty invisible now, apart from being detectable through a thermal scope, which Cold-Blooded Pro will fix, and just love to sit back and snipe people running around the map.
Alas, the problems I see with this game, and the bewildering array of weapons, perks, and options, makes this game rather frustrating to play. Unlike CoD4, I don’t think this game has the stayability as CoD4 had. I certainly don’t think Infinity Ward are going to do much with it, bar release a map pack, and a couple of limp-wristed patches.
A lot of people are saying that this game is awesome, and is game of the century et al, but I think they’re all blinded by the rather slick promotions, the supposed controversy, and that we’re all sheeple in the end.
If you don’t have it, go and hire it. Don’t buy it.
Why bother giving them any more money?
November 30th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Update: I’ve been finding this game rather frustrating of late - I’ve had so many dropouts “lost connection to host” etc, it’s not funny anymore, especially when I’m racking up a good score…
The lag issues aside, I’ve found that lag works both ways - I played one game last night with yellow bars, and ended up 13-0, and top of the team. I ran out of ammo, picked up a gun off the ground, ran out of ammo again, and swapped to yet another gun. Now those games I love playing, not because I’m racking up the points and kills, but because things seem to be going my way for once.
I’d've been thoroughly pissed off if I was disconnected during that game last night!
Oh, and after unlocking the WA2000 the other day, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, rather than the Intervention. Certainly a different sniper rifle, but I’m not fond of the smilie on the inside cover of the scope cover…
November 30th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Oh, one more thing - I think Ninja is seriously broken. It’s a perk to stop from being detected on heartbeat sensors, but a bug causes this perk to be useless. I’m slowly working towards Ninja Pro, which I’ve heard isn’t buggy.
December 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I’ve now worked up to Level 65 or so in the multiplayer, and at this rank, the game is still rather frustrating, and definitely not fun, though I do find small nuggets of “fun” occasionally (read on for a story).
I dunno why I still play this game. I don’t think I’ll prestige, because it’s taken about 3 1/2 days of gaming to get to 65.
There are so many frustrating aspects to multiplayer gameplay in MW2. Here are a few examples.
1) MW2 caters to casual gamers, thus the multitude of killstreak rewards, and the overbalancing of the weapons. Infinity Ward would like casual gamers to get some kills (5:15), and not be completely outgunned (0:20). However, this discrimination has a nasty side-effect. When someone kills you in the game, you often spawn near them, so it’s easier for you to get a “revenge” kill, or to get a kill at all. What actually happens though, is that you spawn near them, they’ve changed position, and kill you again, and again, and again, which leads to a rather frustrating experience.
2) No Local Search - Before the game was released, Robert Bowling (the Infinity Ward Community Relations Manager) stated on record that the matchmaking in MW2 is superior to that in WaW and CoD4, and thus there’s no need for a Local Search option. We’ve all found out that those words were hollow. The game states that there are often >20 good games, and then connect me to the first game, with a red or yellow ping, irrespective of whether there’s a game available which would give me max green pings.
There is a petition on the Infinity Ward website with some 240 pages of comments and support from the community for local search to be included in the game, yet not one comment from Infinity Ward whether they’re going to include it or not.
It’s interesting to note that CoD:WaW (by Treyarch) had a Local Search option, and that game was built on the CoD4 codebase. So, along comes MW2, built on the same engine, and no Local Search.
3) Because this game is designed for casual gamers, the decision was made to overbalance the automatic rifles (AR’s) compared to the other weapons available. This means that an opponent with a 3-shot burst M16 can outgun (and outsnipe) a sniper from across the map. I can bearly see this dude through my scope, yet he can point and shoot me faster… go figure that one out!
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Anyway, I’ve had some fun on occasion, one fairly recently, where I decided to change up my strategy, just for shits-n-giggles. I changed one of my classes to include an AR (either the SCAR, or the ACR) w/ holographic sight, the Thumper for grenade launcher goodness, claymore mine, flash grenades, Scavenger, cold-blooded, and ninja. This effectively gives me an unlimited amount of noobtubes and claymore mines.
So, one game I played, on Skidrow, I went something like 13:2, and the majority of the kills were claymore kills. At the end of the game, the guys on the other team were all up-in-arms about the claymore spamming! Awesome fun!