Earlier in the week, Kieron Gillen posted an excellent dissection of the Most Terrible And Morally Vile Thing To Ever Happen In Entertainment. He makes some very important points. So instead of slobbing around full of gravy and sponge pudding this Sunday, get yourself over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun to read his thoughts.

Obviously, comrade in words Gilbo has already slung his thoughts about MW2 onto the intertubes (just down there, you see) and summed up the game rather pithily. Over the next few days I’ll be mucking in myself and having a look at the game to end all games. Very exciting. Check back in over the coming week for my throbbingly overwritten opinions.

There was another map. I didn’t save the screen shot of it >_>

So, the long awaited much boycotted and trivialised Modern Warfare 2 is out; and I have myself a copy for PC.

So where the hell do I start?

Gameplay: 7/10

Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It’s the same look and feel of CoD4 and I’m not at all surprised by this. Whether this is a good thing or not is different.
The game plays out nicely and the controls are exactly the same as CoD4 so there’s no real learning curve. The gameplay itself though is a lot more fast-paced with seemingly a lot more hostiles taking shots at you from a  lot more angles – rooftops, windows, walls – pretty much from anywhere you can think of; and places you don’t think of either.
So, the difference between CoD6 and CoD4 is basically a faster game in terms of gameplay. Seems like there’s more guns too but it doesn’t honestly make a lot of difference.

A few things are missing too like the ability to lean left and right to check corners but thats no skin off my back as my play style is similar to John Rambo’s (whether it works for me is a different story).

Story 8/10

Just like Modern Warfare the story line of Modern Warfare 2 is amazing. It’s written by the writer of NCIS for those of you who are interested. Anyway, it’s great, I love it! It’s compelling as all hell and the setting is prime for a story of betrayal espionage and all out warfare. Which brings me to my first gripe. WTF?! I feel slightly robbed here because the story is rather short. By rather I mean really short, about as long as Mirror’s Edge was and you can knock that game over pretty darn quick. Still, the story that it does give you despite all the loose ends (i.e. WTF is happening with the US and the Marines there?) is still good. I enjoyed it, but it left me wanting more, hinting at a trilogy – like every other goddamn game out there. Why can’t developers just make a feature game that’s just amazing once and keep a golden title that they should never spoil with sequels? BECAUSE THEY ARE MONEY HUNGRY IS WHY! Christ; it’s not that hard to establish some morals while coding.

Visuals 7/10

Haha, I like this. There is relatively no difference to CoD4 except for higher resolution textures and a little more depth on character models. Other than that, it looks and feels a lot like CoD4 which is rather disappointing.

So yes, it does look a lot prettier and singleplayer level design is fantastic. The aesthetic of the US after the Russian invasion is great; in fact it’s my favourite thing of this game. Though sometimes its a little difficult to spot an enemy in some levels like the ones in Brazil or whever it is, but it’s rarely an issue as the game uses tracer bullets for effect.

Multiplayer 5/10

Ahh. Here we go.

Here’s the whole problem with this otherwise fantastic looking (albeit CoD4 just prettier) game. It sucks. Plainly and simply it just sucks arse. The decent part is I guess the semi CO-OP mode where you complete a bunch of timed missions of varying difficulty with a partner. It’s fun, but also relies on one of you having a decent upload speed. Ick. IWNet isn’t region specific so it’ll look for the best pings but when it can’t find good ones it goes the ’something is better than nothing’ approach. This can end up with you playing a game being hosted in the US which seems to happen to me more often than not. IWNet is a sad excuse for the lack of dedicated servers to fuel the monetisation of the Call of Duty franchise and frankly as a PC gamer this leaves me really pissed off. The poor pings mean you can’t hit a damn thing as everyone else is running around you and you’re in a lapsed time warp where you can’t work out what hell is going on BECAUSE YOU’RE DEAD! The poor pings even for others not only results in you not being able to score a kill on them because they jump lag all over the place and its like trying to play Duck Hunt on steroids. Also, total player size is down. FAR down. Sigh, Infinity Ward really dropped the ball on this one. I expected more and was saddened by this game.

Final Words

Okay, my final say is this:
Very pretty game, gameplay is the same as CoD4 and story is just as compelling, save it being short.

Here’s what I think:
This game disgusts me. Everyone who bought it should go get a refund because this is just absolutely pathetic. Activistion and Infinity Ward have tried to milk this cashcow TOO HARD. The PC version is just a port from the console version which points at the fact they can’t be arsed wasting time on the dedicated PC gamer who plays games on PC because they want the greater experience. IWNet is the shortcut for them so they don’t have to make utilities for Dedicated servers or Mods. It’s the small things you notice, like the fact it looks almost identical and plays identically to CoD4 that irks me and points me that they took some serious shortcuts. They’ve gone for as much money with as little effort as possible. It shouldn’t be about making games for money, it should be about making games for people, to bring joy and entertainment and an immersive experience to all those who dare try it. As an aspiring developer this makes me sad that it’s no longer for the love of the industry or love of the work, it’s about the love of the money.

This is my 2 cents and personally, I think these 2 cents are wasted along with the $100 I paid for it. Shame on you guys.

7+8+7+5/4=

6.75/10

One thing I don’t have a lot of these days is time to spare.

With a large family and various complex and interweaving responsibilities, time is a total luxury, which makes playing long games a tough challenge. Last year I had the priviledge of judging for the game BAFTAs which meant I HAD to use some of my precious time to be fair to all the entrants. But in normal daily life, without the pressure of letting down a late-blooming winner or needing to test a game before mastering it, playing for longer than an hour in one sitting can be a near impossibility.

But sometimes, just occasionally, there are titles that draw you into their lairs, strap you down in a big silver chair and aim an extremely hot laser at you. Some games just want you to play them as much as possible. Many have come and gone in this category of “stay up till 4 in the morning.” Classics like Halo, COD4 and Katamari Damaci have stolen whole sleep patterns from my wiry body. But, just recently, after moving my entire game collection from one flat packed cupboard to another, I came across an unfinished obsession. Crackdown.

Let’s just say that I am now near the end, way too many hours into it than I should have used in my day night.

“Just one more boss before bed,” I mutter to myself.

“Incoming intel… After the demise of this boss you really need to go to bed,” I think I hear the game say.

Some things just need to be finished. Nearly there. I will keep you posted.

Old Games: Should Downloadable Content Be Free?

by dkpatriarch

© 2009 David Hilton

I would love to see sales figures for downloadable content for games that were released 1-3 years ago.  Some of this content hasn’t ever changed in price and competes with new release games’ downloadable maps and features.

Old Game Content Should Be Free

In a world where everything, including the retail games themselves, depreciates does this make any sense?

No it doesn’t.

But of course those in charge are certainly not obligated to lower prices or, even better, make the added content for older games free.  But it would be both logical and, well, nice.

This is the point raised recently on the Xbox.com.au forums by user mchiefvs360. The comment was:

It’d be nice if older games like GRAW1, COD2 or PGR3 made their content free as I don’t know many people who would want to pay full original price for maps for a game that is five years old, Perfect Dark Zero did it right.

And he (or she) has a good point.

Games like Gears of War, The Outfit, Lost Planet, Perfect Dark Zero, Fable 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and GRAW 2 have some or all of their content free and are praised for it.

Of course the latest trend has been to re-release the bundled retail game and downloadable content some time later as a “Game Of The Year” edition at full or near full retail prices, as with Lost Planet, Oblivion, and Fable 2.

Should Oblivion content be free now?

I’m not sure of the sales figures for those editions either, but I believe it would be good PR and even prolong the use of many of these old games if all the content was made free after a certain length of time instead (which Lost Planet has since done).

Let’s face it: these days gamers move on pretty quickly.  If your game isn’t Halo 3 or COD:4, and fewer people are playing your game online (or offline in the case of added missions, cars and tracks) what is the purpose of keeping a high price on it?

If a gamer has a lot of downloaded content on their HDD that they got for free for your game, they may just keep it instead of throwing it away for a few bucks trade-in at EB Games.

When the game’s content is announced as being free it may very well revive interest in the game and propel a few sales (used or new).  Yes the game-maker makes nothing off a used copy sold, but any creator wants their creation used as long as possible, and this may keep up interest for an upcoming sequel.  It’s not as if they are making anything if nobody is paying to download the content anyway.

So what would be the drawbacks?

Well not everybody goes on N4G, Gamegrep, or the forums to find out about new initiatives like a game’s content being made free, so how would the good publicity reach the public at no cost?  Sure, the Microsoft (or Sony) Dashboard could advertise it, but otherwise word of mouth will be the only way people would even see the goodwill gesture and take advantage of it.

Then there is the worry that some gamers would just wait for the content to become free and therefore it would cost in download sales, though I doubt most gamers who really want the content would wait that long.

Still, these concerns aside, it certainly could be something besides the “deal of the week” idea to give added value to being part of the online service.  Some gamers still aren’t online with their consoles because they don’t play online games, but if they could get free content for their retail game they may connect more readily for the added missions or race tracks and be tempted to try online gaming.

The future of gaming.

Then there are the implications for the future of console gaming.

If future consoles, as is sometimes surmised, focus on digital distribution, as with the PSP GO!, then you may have a situation where prices do not reduce very far as there is no competition between retailers.

PSP GO: expensive digital distribution the future?

With the PSP GO! we have the situation where the retail versions of PSP games with full packaging and discs are more often actually cheaper than the downloadable version.  Digital distribution with consoles remains very fixed in pricing with only the “deal of the week” lowering the price of only a few items.  Will this trend continue in future consoles?

Yet the PC crowd can revel in digital distribution thanks to Steam, where prices drop often on a large variety of games.  This model is in stark contrast to the one with the PSP GO!.

If Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and all the game-makers start winning the gamers over to digital content by adopting the ‘depreciation’ model and by giving all older content for free, they will be a lot more successful in winning converts (especially skeptics like me) to the concept of digital distribution-only consoles in the future.

They really should start by giving older content away now.

So what games offer “some” free content on Xbox Live Marketplace?

Well here they are:

• GRAW 2
• FORZA 3
• Gears of War
  
• Call Of Duty: World At War
• Halo 3
• Fable 2
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty 2
• Call of Duty 3
• Left4Dead
• Midnight Club: LA
• FEAR 2
• Project Gotham Racing 4
• The Last Remnant
• Rainbow 6: Vegas
• Rainbow 6: Vegas 2
• Endwar
• Infinite Undiscovery
• LOTR: Conquest
• Timeshift
• Frontlines: Fuel At War
• Kameo
• Crackdown
• Civilization: Revolution
• The Darkness
• The Outfit
• Lost Planet

© 2009 David Hilton

So erster Eintrag und dann gleich ein leidiges Thema: InfinityWards Kassenknüller “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2″.

Prolog

Vor 6 Tage war der Release des vielleicht meisterwarteten Spieles der Shooter-Szene. Die Trailer und das gesamte Pre-Release Footage versprachen ein wahnsinns Spiel. Sicherheitsvorkehrungen seitens des Publishers “Activision” sollten einen frühzeitigen “Leak” ins Netz verhindern (was für die XBOX360 Version nicht zutraf).

Aller Erwartungzum Trotz ist es mittlerweile wohl eines der am meisten Diskutierten Spiele dieses Jahres. Obnun auf grund der fehlenden “dedicated Server” (später mehr) oder wegen der Single-Player Mission “no russian” , in der man in der Uncut-Version (ungeschnitten,englisch und russisch) als Terrorist zivile Passagiere und Wartende eines Flughafens töten kann/muss/soll.

Szenetechnisches

Schon am 10.11.2009, also am Erscheinungstag, wurde eine Raubkopie der PC Version von Razor1911, einer Crack- und Release Gruppe  (speziell auf PC Spiele ausgerichtet), veröffentlicht. Diese gecrackte Version erlaubte dem, nennen wir ihn “Konsumenten” die Kampagne des Spieles und die Einzelspieler-Spezialmissionen zu spielen.

Da das Spiel von Haus aus mit “Steam” geschütz ist und zum installieren eine valide Seriennummer benötigt, wurden Routinen umgangen um das Spiel trotz fehlender Seriennummer (Key) spieltauglich zu machen.Ein Steam account war jedoc trotzdem von Nöten.

Nur wenige Stunden später trat “Skidrow” (ebenfalls eine Szene-Crew) mit einer “Non-Steam”-Version der Englischen Uncut Fassung eine Welle der Begeisterung los. Ein Account bei Steam war unnötig und dem Spielvergnügen knauseriger Spieler stand nichts mehr im Weg. Außerdem veröffentlichte “POSTMORTEM” eine Non-Steam der deutschen Fassung (Flughafen mission verändert).

Schockierend ist allerding auch der Leak der XBOX360 Version. Schon am 2.11.2009 gelang es der Gruppe RroD eine lauffähige Kopie (Spielbar auf geflashten oder gemoddeten XBOX360-Geräten) um Netz zu verteilen.

Entwicklung nach ca. 1 Woche

Als interessierte in der Warez-Szene war ich äußerst erstaunt was ich gestern lesen durfte.

“Call.of.Duty.Modern.Warfare.2.MULTiPLAYER.Crack.zens0red”

“Multiplayer Loader TeknoMW2 1.0″

Was bedeuteted das?

Fangen wir an mit den TeknoGods. Die Leute hinter diesem Projekt entwickelten eine geänderte Multiplayer-Exe (mit dazugehöriger .dll) um über LAN (wahlweise Hamachi oÄ) den Coop-Modus zu ermöglichen. Schon eine starke Leistung will ich meinen.

zens0red geht noch einen Schritt weiter und ermöglich mit ihrem Crack sogar das Spielen über das IWNet auf normalen Hosts. Sieht also so aus als wären “Cracked Server” hier kein Thema oder schlichtweg überflüssig. Zum Leitwesen ehrlicher (wobei mittlerweile eher passt: dummer) Käufer. Sie Teilen sich das IWNet nun mit Leuten , die keinen Cent für das Spiel bezahlt hab. Alles was wohl nötig ist , sind eine Internetverbindung, und einen Steamccount Namen mit einem Lehrzeichen (WTF?!).

Mein Fazit zum Spiel

Story ist gellungen aber wie im Vörgänger kurz. Actionlastige Mission gepaart mit den Strealth-Sniper-Missionen machen das Spiel sehr unterhaltsam.Für die Kampagne benötigte ich ca. 5 Stunden Spielzeit auf Söldner.

Der MultiplayerModus ist ganz in Ordnung würde ich sagen. Für Leute die gerne unkompliziert Spieln. man kuckt was man spielen will und fertig. Keine weiteren Fragen. Der Angeklagt ist damit aber noch lange nicht entlastet.

Contras

Ich fange gleich mit Kontras an um mit den wenigen Pros abschließen zu können:

• keine “dedicated Server” (Server die auf einem Rootserver oder einer virtuellen Maschine laufen und nur Hosten, selbst aber nicht mitspielen; eben so wie es in Call of Duty immer war) -> erste Entwicklungen sind allerdings bereits im Gange. TeknoGods kündigen schon fleißig in ihrem Bolg an mit “our own steam free version comes when it’s done”
• keine Console (verändern der Config, map-rotation als Host, anderen Einstellung nicht möglich) -> auch hier gibt es seit gestern Abhilfe. Stichwort “Console Unlocker”
• keine zur Seite lehnen
• kein LAN Modus
• Steampflicht
• mittlerweile wohl mehr “pirates” auf den Servern als normale Spieler

Pros

• gute Story
• aufgemöbelte Grafik mit schönen Effekten und Texturverbesserungen (Infos von fourzerotwo )

Fazit

Man kann als Besitzer einer illegalen Version des Spiels mit Leuten , die Kohle dafür gezahlt habn (wie ich :\ ) auf den selben Servern spielen. Das regt mich auf. Andererseits ist es ein sehr großer Denkzettel für IW.  Es wird interessant die nächsten Tage zu beobachten wie IW auf die Entwicklungen von zens0red und TeknoGods reagieren wird.

Erstaunlich ist zusehen wie man als Entwickler und Publisher so ins Klo fassen kann und damit eine Modder-,Cracker- und Gamer-Szene derartig mobilisert, dass diese Szene ihre eigenen Wege geht um sich das Spiel hinzubiegen wie man es braucht.

Das wars von mir. Vielleicht liest das ja mal wer wenn nicht auch nicht so schlimm. Ich bleib am Thema dran.

THX fly out to  Razor1911, SKiDROW,POSTMORTEM,TeknoGods,zens0red for making the Scene as a non-scener enjoyable.

The year’s most anticipated game has finally reached store shelves. Needless to say, the public welcomed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with open arms. First day sales are estimated at 4.7 million copies with a cash value upwards of $310 million. Do you have your copy yet? No? Then allow me to break the game down for you.

Story 7/10

Taking place five years after the events of the first game, Modern Warfare 2 is staged all over the globe. The campaign itself is fairly short, and takes between five to six hours to complete depending on the difficulty level. It plays like a great action film. Most missions are very intense. From stealth missions, to snowmobile chases, to all out war on an airplane junkyard, this game has it all. Intense missions are separated at intervals with slower missions to allow for a smoother play through. Difficulty does not progressively increase in MW2 like most games. Obviously they do not thrust you into the action without the obligatory tutorial, but some early missions are harder than some later missions. The difficulty is fairly cohesive which allows for fairly non frustrating game play. **Please note that I intentionally left out any information regarding the story. I feel that because it is so short, if I were to give any information, there would surely be spoilers.**

Sound 8/10

The sound is done well. Dramatic pieces are placed strategically and allow the gamer to be immersed in each scenario. Successfully done, but not over the top.

Graphics 9/10

The graphics in MW2 are superb. I have yet to see a texture that does not immediately load. The cinematics of the campaign are simply amazing. Dramatic music only adds to the graphics. Simply WIN. The graphics of multiplayer are the same as campaign play; featuring richly detailed levels with a high level of interactivity. The backdrops of many campaign levels are quite intricate and give the feeling of being on the field of battle. The character models are what keep me from scoring graphics any higher. Facial features are quite possibly the hardest part to get right on character models. MW2 gets close; however I feel that they appear to be a bit on the goofy side. This argument, while true, may be nitpicking on my part.

Game play 10/10

Game play must be broken into its respective components for this game because the different modes do not play the same. As such, multiplayer will be addressed in its own section. Spec. Ops. (a series of challenges you can play alone or with a friend) and campaign play the same way. Auto aim is traded in for quick scoping. If you center your gun near an enemy then look down your sights, the gun will automatically move to where it is centered on that enemy. This allows for quick target acquisition and dispersion of multiple targets fairly quickly. A diverse array of weapons may be found, many of which are used by military forces across the globe today. Campaign features frequent checkpoints that keep you from pulling your hair out on higher difficulties. Using the surroundings to your advantage will make the campaign much easier. It is also wise to stay in formation with your squad as they will draw fire and provide support. Spec. Ops. Features many missions similar to those faced in campaign. These missions however, do not have checkpoints. They are also tweaked to provide a more challenging, but shorter, version. Two missions require a partner, however I advise grabbing a buddy when you tackle these because they get progressively harder the farther you get. By the time you reach the last set of missions, they are pretty tough.

Multiplayer 9/10

If you enjoyed previous COD multiplayer, you will love MW2. Game types include: Team Deathmatch, FFA, Capture the flag, Demolition (bomb arming and defense), 3^rd person game types, as well as several others.  There are challenges like the previous Call of Duty games that you can complete to earn experience. Experience counts towards levels. Levels in turn unlock guns, perks (used to enhance a certain aspect of game play I.E. extra bullet damage), and explosives. Modern Warfare 2 offers an unseen level of customization. Titles and Emblems are unlockables that allow players to showcase their greatest gaming achievements. Furthermore, you may now choose between a wide list of killstreak rewards ranging from sentry guns to a nuke. There is a slight level of auto aim that was unseen in previous games. I believe that this was done to simplify game play for newer players. The auto aim is not as drastic as campaign, and does not water down play very much. Multiplayer maps are well built. Each map features strategic choke points, as well as an environment that is highly interactive. Cars or drums may be shot (which in turn explode) to kill nearby enemies. While multiplayer is extremely fun, there are a few reasons why it cannot currently score a 10. Firstly, party chat is not allowed in some playlists. This was done by Infinity Ward in an attempt to encourage team play. However good the intention, this is a mistake. Younger players (and some older) often fill game chat with annoying banter that forces me to mute everyone except the people I already know. Lastly, the matchmaking system is anything but graceful. When teaming up with multiple friends, players are frequently dropped. This forces everyone to leave the pre-game lobby to recover the lost teammate. Leaving pre-game lobbies even become an issue because the option to bring the whole party is not available.

Overall 9.3/10

CoD:MW2 is a game of monumental proportions. Combining awesome game play with graphics and sounds, this game offers the complete FPS package. Hopefully Infinity Ward will resolve the current issues with multiplayer, and make this a flawless game.

He talks about Camping in Mw2

Its been 3 days since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched, and im glad to say I’ve survived. In real life that is, not on the game. Of course 15 minutes into multiplayer I was sniped 4 or 5 times, and blown up several. But even though I’ve only played for a combined total of 2hrs and 12 minutes, Ive managed to rank up to sergeant which im pretty pleased about. Just before the game launched though, my Xbox 360 decided to flip me one and red ringed on me. But my trusty PS3 was there on hand to take on the Call of Duty. Only downside is, I do have a 360 copy of the game too, which means when the machine gets back and I switch over to Xbox LIVE for a game, all my stats will still be on PSN!! So I’ll have to rank up all over again.

The single player game itself, even though I havent scratched the surface of yet, is stunning and already has me hooked. The story links back to Call of Duty 4, and has some nice twists and turns, and some characters you will remember if you played COD 4.

If you havent picked up this game yet, and your into gaming and shooters, I highly recommend it, You’ll have such a blast.

Feel fee to add me for a game of it, on either Xbox 360 or PS3.

Xbox LIVE: pixelmash

PSN: pixelmash

Might be sniping ya!

I am a FPS gamer and I like very high motion in a game. In COD4, even though it is an FPS, there are many ways you can play the game. One of which is as a sniper. Yes, I know – being a sniper completely defies my reasoning to love FPS….there isn’t much action. You need patience; you have to stay still hidden behind something; you need to blend in with the background and surroundings; you need others to make the mistake; you need others to come through the area where you are aiming at – basically you need patience. Not just that, you need a good eye because other side also have snipers and you have to see them before they see you. Or and…a good mouse and a mouse pad would help as well XD

Suresh has been playing as a sniper for some time and was getting good K:D ratios…some are very good. You can’t really get that kinda K:D’s if you are running around the map or unless you are using an aimbot.

He asked me to come and play as a sniper alongside him. See, it’s kinda hard to snipe few targets in a quick succession because when you fire a bullet, it gets all messy and takes a couple of seconds to shoot another target. So having two or three snipers looking at the same area helps.

The day before yesterday, that is on Wednesday, we plays in the same server and in few Suresh scored more and in others I did better. But when Suresh does well, he does REALLY well…over 30 kills most of the times. I only did over 30 once or twice.

Yesterday I play alone and I took screenshots of some of the results and also captured a video. Check them out. (oh and this is my biggest youtube upload as well XD)

P.S.
I uploaded the video, but youtube rejected it saying it was too long. DuH! 10 minute ceiling. I’ll have to edit the video and upload it again. >_>

I am a PC gamer. I am a huge fan of COD4, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I think it’s the best FPS PC game ever released and its sales figures back up that claim. As with all games of this genre, while the single player experience is fun, the multiplayer mode is why you buy the game and what gives the game its replay value. In this regard, COD4 is awesome, absolutely without peer, IMO.

So, as you might imagine, ever since they announced a release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I have been waiting in eager anticipation. Now, imagine my surprise when it turns out that Activision/Infinity Ward, in MW2, has stripped out all the multiplayer features that made COD4 such a success. Not only is this a major multiplayer experience downgrade (which they’re charging $10 more for), but it seems that this was done deliberately, as a slap in the face to the PC gaming community!

Modern Warfare 2: The Battleground for PC Gaming?

Every once in a while (every 10 minutes or so), the death knell of PC gaming is cried out by someone or other. And once in a while, it seems like they might be right. PC gaming is not, however, going anywhere. With such an open platform that allows anyone to get in without buying a dev kit, there will always be something to play. Nonetheless, the release of Modern Warfare 2, to me, signals one of the loudest shots fired from the bow of a major publisher against PC gaming.

Freelancer Mitch Dyer commented on his twitter feed earlier today that he was ranked one million something in Modern Warfare, meaning that in just 12 hours, the game has sold over a million copies on one platform. Any doubt that this game would be huge should be a distant memory by now.

The two console versions are pretty much feature-identical, as far as I know. It comes down to preferences for controllers and online service. Beside that, they’re the same game.

But then there’s the PC version.

The thing about PC gamers is, they expect certain things out of their games, things that have always been there as far back as Quake. First and foremost is the exclusion of support for dedicated servers. Back in the Quake II days, I remember logging into the same server (Nostromo) every night over the summer to play deathmatch over dial-up. On the 360 and PS3, matchmaking is an accepted part of the platform.

To not have that, as little an inconvenience as it may be in reality, seems like a major affront to PC gamers. Having the option to get familiar with a server and the group that shows up there has always been one of the benefits of the game, along with having the option to vote users off the server if they’re being disruptive without having to wait for an admin to get to it. Also, when the game isn’t hosted by a player, no one gets the home field advantage and no one affects the game when they pull the plug mid-match.

Of course on the publisher side, you get problems like servers with weird settings that encourage cheating and most importantly, servers that don’t verify that your copy of the game is legal. That’s the big thing. By having the entire online game run through a service, you force all your users to verify their copies of the game if they want to play online. Even if it means no clan home servers and worse, no local play.

Another missing aspect is the lack of console access. The best way to describe a PC gamer, to me, is to compare them to those car nuts that build hot rods from scratch. PC gamers build their systems, know the specs of every part in their computer, and have everything set-up just the way they like. Check out their World of Warcraft interfaces when they get to higher levels, and you’ll see something that barely looks like the same game. Similarly, some gamers like to have their shooters set-up just-so. Tweaking the field of view settings and sensitivity of the controls are things gamers expect to have the option to do as necessary. Instead, Infinity Ward has told gamers that they’d like them to play the game as they designed it, regardless of any user preferences that may not conform to what the publisher thinks is important.

Other limitations include restricting the maps to 9v9 (when the first Modern Warfare allowed games with 16v16) and the exclusion of the lean move, in the name of not having to recalibrate the maps. That lower team limit is a major thing for all the clans that formed on Modern Warfare servers trying to make the jump to the sequel. Split the team up? Have Alpha and Bravo teams? Not play the new one?

I won’t even mention that the PC version of the game is selling for the same price—$59.99—as the console equivalents. Oops, I just mentioned it.

All this together makes me think Infinity Ward/Activision is excluding expected features in hopes of discouraging PC users. Maybe not discouraging them, but taking away many of the advantages that have drawn PC users in the past while doing as much as possible to combat piracy. Of course, where there’s a will there’s a way, and there’s always a will in PC gaming, and I won’t be surprised if we see dedicated servers with 16v16 games within a few months.

Whether the mad geniuses of the mod world come up with a solution, Activision’s decision strikes me as a very clear message that PC games—or at least hardcore PC gamers—do not play a large role in their equation. While indie gaming and MMORPGs thrive, I have a feeling that some of the bigger publishers are going to give the PC less and less attention when they have a much more reliable option available.

See also:
Modern Warfare PC compared to Modern Warfare 2 PC
Modern Warfare 2 PC User reviews low…
PC Gamers Fear Modern Warfare 2 Is A Console Port [Video]
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 PC Multiplayer Capped at 18 players
Modern Warfare 2 (PC) Capped at 9v9
PC Players Revolting Against Modern Warfare 2
PC Modern Warfare 2: it’s much worse than you thought
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC Review
Activision Not Concerned With Modern Warfare 2 PC Negativity
Modern Warfare 2 Hacks Already Available on PC

Needless to say, I’m extremely dissapointed and conflicted by this fiasco. I was really looking forward to playing this game but, on the other hand, on principle, I don’t want to financially reward Activision/Infinity Ward for their blatantly arrogant and hostile treatment of loyal PC gamers. They expect us to pay more for an inferior product after we’ve already seen that they’re capable of putting out an excellent multiplayer game like COD4. It sucks.

/for now, I guess I’m going to sit back, think about it some more, and wait and see how this controversy plays itself out