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Now Playing: THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE (MW2)

So like everyone else on the planet with a 360, a PS3 or a reasonable PC, I’ve been playing Modern Warfare 2 on 360. It’s definitely a game where you could tell there was a legacy to live up to and even surpass. And that IW are using their immense power and goodwill to force some unpopular features on PC users.

I reckon I’m about 2/3 of the way through the single player and like MW2 it’s split between an SAS group and standard US army troops. Whereas CoD4: MW was in a more believable milieu that built to a climax that wasn’t totally far fetched, the sequel just goes nuts straight off the bat. Though the story is just an excuse to hang the set pieces on (as always) but instead of those real time cutscenes you would often get at the start and end of the level, we have the briefing screens where the story unfolds as a narration over computer screens. Unlike World at War, which used a similar device to explain the jumps in its barely there story, MW2 puts it all in these scenes and nine times out of ten, I’m just skipping these to get to the action. Note to IW: I WANT TO SHOOT THINGS. CUT THE BULLSHIT AND LET ME, LIKE, SHOOT STUFF DOOD!

SPOILER WARNING, SPOILER WARNING, SPOILER WARNING…

There is a level fairly on, called No Russian. This is the controversial level you may have heard of. It is so controversial that IW give you the option of skipping it altogether. If you don’t want the game spoiler, skip to the next paragraph. You are an undercover US soldier trying to get to the game’s antagonist by infiltrating his group of terrorists. It’s all there to make a story point, but it is one of the most powerful gaming sequences you will ever experience as you are part of a massacre. Now there are two parts and you can choose not to shoot the civilians, but once your group is attacked by the SWAT teams, you have no choice but to shoot them if you want the game to continue. Of course, how many people will also just shoot the civvies in the first half of the level also makes an interesting moral dilemma but I think many of the people who play this might not get the subtlety.

END SPOILERS

The multiplayer is also great and once I started that, I had a hard time going back to the campaign but I wound up alternating between the two. It’s fun but i can’t help thinking they’ve turned this game even more into WoW with the infinite variations and complexity the game now requires in order to do well in an online match. The jump in and play ethos Activision and IW use to justify their decisions on the PC version don’t really gel with the game which really appeals to hardcore users. If I hadn’t played CoF4 for two years, I would find the options bewildering instead I merely see them as overkill since most people will work out what the best combos are, and what the most hated ones will be and stick to those.

Haven’t tried Spec Ops but that doesn’t sound all that appealing to me. Maybe when I have friends over. I also have the PC version on it’s way so I should be able to see if it’s at all redeemable.