Modern Warfare 2: The Initial Verdict

So, yeah. I gave in to all temptations this morning and purchased Modern Warfare 2 for the PC this morning. Yes I'm angry about the dedicated servers, yes I'm angry about no leaning available, but damn, I was looking forward to this game so much that I couldnt walk away from it.

I ran the game on two different specced machines:
PC 1: Q6600 @ 3ghz, 8gb DDR2 RAM, GTX260, Windows 7 64bit Ultimate, 1680x1050 res.
PC 2: Pentium D 2.8ghz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, HD3650, Windows XP 32bit Pro, 1280x800 res.

Install was fine, smooth, no problems. What struck me straight away is that theres no flashy install interface which struck me already as 'its just a console port, they made no effort whatsoever with a flashy autorun file'. Launched into the single player campaign. Wasnt able to change the graphical settings at all until the first level (training) loaded. Ran flawlessly on PC 1 on max settings, and flawlessly on PC 2 on medium settings with no AA. Damn well impressive I must say, Call of Duty 4 struggled on those settings on PC 2 I might add.

Single player is rather short. I had it completed in 4 hours. But there is more of a replay factor than Call of Duty 4, I definately WILL be playing it again. The field of view was a bit of a hinderance, especially with PC 1. It was ok though, not a huge deal. While the single player was short, I must say it was rather good, and again, the end took me slighty by surprise.

Now, onto the multiplayer. I was dreading it to be honest. Such negativity to come from an element of a game undeniably had me thinking such negative thoughts on the game. Decided to start doing a ground war, which is the largest player vs player size you can use. On IW.net now, hit 'find game', and within 5 seconds the map was ready to launch. Impressive, but how will the gameplay stack up? The game loaded and I was right into the thick of it. Domination on a map called Invasion (Theres a voting procedure before the map launches what mode and map to play, I didnt pay attention to it at the time). I am impressed. Level design is great, whilst not huge, it was enough not to end up having a campabout with such little players in the server (9v9). Grenade spam wasnt an issue (YET!) and that was reassuring (FOR NOW!). Knifing is now E and flashing is now Q, while UAV/AS etc is 4. Took a while to get used to, but all was good.

The latency. I genuinely did not know who was hosting the server at all. Most people had 3 bars out of 4 on their ping, including myself (on a 1mb connection by the way, its the most I can get out here). I had no lag issues at all, and the eventual topper in domination had 3 bars of ping. There were a number of players with 2 bars, and that didnt cause any problems either. Very impressed.

Joined another match. Payed more attention to the matchmaking this time. Looking closely on the top right, IW.net pings your system and throws you into a match with people with matching latency, rather than random throwabouts. Theres an option to mute everyone in multiplayer before you join, so that was great. Both PC 1 and PC 2 ran multiplayer in full swing without a hitch, nor did I notice any lag spikes.

Now, the negatives. Single player was short. Inability to open console is annoying, but bearable. FOV takes some getting used to. I still want Dedicated Servers as an option running alongside IW.net. Recoil on the weapons I used was huge. Turret guns are blatently unfair, albeit weak and easy to destroy.

All in all, I was expecting disappointment, but ended up pleasantly surprised with the game. While for now the game is definately not aimed towards competitive Call of Duty, it does bring back the element of fun to the game.

Me thinks I'll stick to COD4 for competitiveness, but Modern Warfare 2 reigns supreme for enjoyment and no doubt will I play this game, ALONGSIDE COD4.