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Gaming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 11 Nov 2009.

  1. WildThing

    WildThing Minimodder

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    +1 Great review Joe and Harry, thanks! It was a tough job but you two did a great job I feel. You must have known your review/score would come under scrutiny, given the circumstances, but you have given your honest opinions regardless, so I (and I think many others here) appreciate it.

    I may pick this up for the SP at some point, though I'll probably wait for it to drop in price, Weekend Deals Cheesecake!!!

    QFT +rep, agree completely. :rock:
     
  2. Sifter3000

    Sifter3000 I used to be somebody

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    It's really interesting reading the reactions from here - Joe, Harry, Tim and I were talking a lot about it as we watched all the comments come in this afternoon, and I think the feedback raises a lot of interesting points.

    One that might be worth touching on here is I get how frustrating it is if you're a clan player, or a someone who really wants dedicated servers, and it's not in MW2, and you want some way to register your unhappiness - and of course, the bind we're all in as PC gamers is that if you don't buy the game, then it's likely Activision will simply say 'see, look how few copies we sold on the PC, consoles Cheesecake' - and so there's perhaps an expectation on the readers' part that the bit-tech review is going to stick it to Infinity Ward on behalf of those in the PC gaming community who think that some of the design decisions sucks.

    Problem is, you can't go around scoring games based on theory, or on morals - you review them and score them based on what you found when you played it. When Harry and Joe played the game (and I know this as I sit opposite them, walk past them when they're gaming), both had mile-wide grins on their faces. That line "you'd need a belt sander to remove the grin from our faces" is not an exaggeration. So scoring MW2 as less than a 9 wouldn't be true to our experiences. You can argue with the concept, the theory, the morality of those design decisions, but right now, on the evidence of what we've seen, MW2 is amazingly good fun.
     
  3. OnyxLilninja

    OnyxLilninja What's a Dremel?

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    As far as I can see it goes like this... the majority of players won't know or care about the lack of dedicated servers and think it's a great game. It is the core players who demand more from the game (clan players, gaming veterans etc) who are the ones who are finding the lack of dedicated server game breaking and who are being so vocal on forums etc.

    To see bit-tech rate the game so highly and not find these PC problems game-breaking confirms to me that the reviewers are firmly in the casual majority of players. I'm disappointed because I visit this site as to me it is meant to represent the core PC enthusiast.

    It's only a 9/10 to the average joe in the street.

    (I still <3 bit-tech despite this though, its great to see the amount of interaction here in the comments)
     
    Last edited: 11 Nov 2009
  4. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    pc platform is superior now for certain game types

    fps stratagy mmos simulation been the 4 id name. The rest your better of on a console and thats just the sad fact. Of those 3 only 1 really makes money, And of that 1 is just 1 game doing well.

    Fps scene relys on COD and to alot of extents half life to carry it on pc. ( name another truly great fps game in the last year, As i cant)
    MMO scene is dominated by world of warcraft ( love or hate it )

    Racing games ( grid ? cant name another game )
    rpg ( no pc only rpg that i can think off , Torchlight perhaps i enjoy that alot at the min)
    arcade ( not really what a pc is for)
    simulation ( football manager 2010 sim city sims 4 )( quiet a big market )

    If your an elite gamer you either play warcraft 3 ( still) or Cs Source nothing else is payed out money for on pc platform anymore ( not large sums anyway. Last cs source main tornament was still close to 200 thousand dollars.( to the victor team).

    We live in a world of consoles.

    Crysis only game in the last 2 - 3 years to push pc hardware ( and the game itself sucks )

    piracy is rampant. Gz all you who pirate in here you just make the situation worse. Ive read at least 5 comments. ( rent it ? like £3 or sumit at blockbuster on ps3 or xbox 360 which 99% have) ( you have no real excuse)

    theres no reason for infinity to contiue to want to support pc games like they did with MW. This is a start of a long dangerous road that i see, Is pc gaming dieing nope it isnt. Is it been challanged most definitly. Is piracy part of the problem, Id say yes others would disagree.

    never seen any lag yet and im on iwnet steam copy of mw2. Seems lag free ( get a better connection if your lagging) The game hosts off the best connection from what i can gather.

    Best game so far for me this year probably not. Uncharted 2 is better by some distance but thats just an opinion. Great review as always. 50% of the moaners just moan cause they can, Probably children behind a screen. The rest have some valid reasons.
     
  5. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    OH SHI--

    When Harry hears you called him a casual gamer there's going to be a turd-storm. Me? I don't care. I'm only alt-tabbing out in order to doublecheck the strength requirement for wielding Casomyr in Baldur's Gate 2 anyway. +5 Holy Avenger here I come!
     
  6. OnyxLilninja

    OnyxLilninja What's a Dremel?

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    :lol: thought that one might sting a bit :blush: I'm just channeling my nerd-rage at inifinity ward into clackety clack sentences here. I blame all the fps gaming, it's obviously turned me overly aggressive.
     
    Last edited: 11 Nov 2009
  7. chocolateraisins

    chocolateraisins :D

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    Their are games that push the PC games boundary, but as technology grows, companies take time to adapt..

    Remember, by the time a PC game is released, nVidia have gone and made a brand new spanking graphics card that makes the old graphics obsolete.

    Anyway, I think the reviewers did what they did. Review it. They are here to give un-biased views, and to approach a game without any pre-exisiting quabbles with it. Thats what makes a good reviewer. They go into it saying 'Right, I've never heard anything about this game, or know anything about it. Lets see what it tells me'

    Also, 2010 has a array of games coming out for the pc to push its boundaries, such as:

    Brink
    Half Life 2: Episode 3 - Might not seem it, but each episode, valve have adjusted the engine to make use of new tech
    Rage

    Just be paitent, good games take time to make, such examples are TF2.
     
  8. knuck

    knuck Hate your face

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    the only thing I don't like about the score you guys gave is the fact that it praises a game that I consider kind of a "traitor" (or the studio that made it anyway). It's just annoying for us who signed the petition to be mad at something and not be important or public enough for anyone to care what we think.

    We truly believe we are right when we say this game is crap and doesn't deserve to be popular and earn activision the crapload of money the will get but we represent what... 10% of the players ? The other 90% will read this review,be appealed by the game, buy it and enjoy it because they couldn't care less that it's been consolified.

    This is what is frustrating. The big majority of buyers and critics will say it is fine, which means "it is a good game" according to the general opinion. This will also be how the game is remembered ...

    I really hope this game will crash and burn. The last time I hoped that was when ut3 came out and I got my wish granted... but then again I wish both games would just be how I would like them to be


    oh well, back to RL
     
  9. skybarge

    skybarge just chilling at work

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    casual gamer, says the man with a 4770!!!


    haha just kidding
     
  10. knuck

    knuck Hate your face

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    it's quite a cheap card ya know. It could very well be used to play HD content :)
     
  11. Haramzadeh

    Haramzadeh Son of Sin

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    Looks amazing!! :jawdrop:
     
  12. Grimloon

    Grimloon What's a Dremel?

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    Kudos to you for giving a fair review based on how you found the game rather than biasing it with installation and activation woes or the lack of certain basic functions that many of us have come to expect from multiplayer PC games.

    However, I can't help but feel that some of this may come from the "shiny" factor of a new game. Given the woefully short duration of the single player campaign (a friend of mine finished it yesterday - 5 and a half hours on veteran, start to finish, including checkpoint reloads according to him) does it really have any lasting appeal? Yes, the Spec Ops mode sounds fun but will it really keep you coming back or is it just a gimmick?

    I'm currently well and truly sat on the fence here. I love my single player games (misanthropic git that I am) so I appear to be well and truly out of luck. 10 hours of pure awesomeness is acceptable but, no matter how well done or pretty it looks, 5 hours just doesn't cut the mustard. It therefore has to rely on longterm appeal, i.e. multiplayer. This appears to have been somewhat reduced on the PC front. Would you be prepared to revisit in a few weeks time regarding this to comment about the potential longer term interest? The P2P business really concerns me as I'm stuck in the arse end of nowhere with an erratic connection!

    @CardJoe: You, sir, are a swine! You've just reminded me that I have BG2 and expansions sat on the shelf. I'm going to have to reinstall them and play again! Oh well, who needs sleep anyway?
     
  13. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    :)

    If you're looking for a lengthy singleplayer experience then MW2 arguably isn't the game for you, as this is very much a MP-focused title. I'd recommend Dragon Age instead if you're a BG fan, or Torchlight. We've reviewed both recently.
     
  14. quake1-rules

    quake1-rules What's a Dremel?

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    "it undoubtedly offers one of the most addictive multiplayer experiences we’ve seen this year, as well as the most exciting singleplayer and most polished co-op."

    The reviewer is more angry over no text chat in lobby than the tiny maps, 9v9, no servers, no modding, no choice. WTF is wrong with the review community with this game? IW payed out big bucks, apparently.

    No, these aren't features we 'take for granted 'as you say, but they are vital for an MP FPS game. 'Taking for granted' is a derogatory statement. That means if these features are gone, the multiplayer game is basically ruined unless you are a very casual gamer. We play MP FPS on PC because we don't want casual games. That's what consoles are for. We want choice. We know how to operate a server browser. We aren't that stupid. Offering a server browser and dedicated servers is NOT mutually exclusive to offering a matchmaking system. Quake Live does it. Battlefield 2 offers a 'Play Now' button.

    IW's reasons for removing these features are outright strawman arguments. They are lying. Unless everyone has 100mb connections, p2p multiplayer just can't even come close to what dedicated servers offer. You, card joe, seem to have no idea as to all the advantages dedicated servers offer. It's not just about modding, or anti cheat, or having admins. It's also about reliable gameplay and steady pings. It's about a consistent experience. IW can't, repeat can't, offer that with p2p gameplay. There's no way.

    p2p is unpredictable over home-hosted games. The host's brother suddenly downloads a 2GB file, guess what? The game will be lagged. Cable companies offer vague guarantees about service availability. They don't, and can't, deliver consistent bandwidth. This and many other reasons are why dedicated servers are an absolute must for quality MP gameplay. There's no way around it. You can't argue out of it. The cold hard fact is that p2p gameplay for a twitch FPS is an outright assault on our gameplay experience.

    And to top it all off, IW lies about the reasons. And add to that, review sites like BitTech buy into their lies, instead complaining that they can't text chat in lobbies. Really, that's the biggest joke of all.
     
  15. Grimloon

    Grimloon What's a Dremel?

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    I'm currently playing Dragon Age (I promised myself that I wouldn't get it straight away but I'm such a BioWare whore that resistance is futile!), Torchlight is there as soon as the bank balance allows but I'm missing the "multiplayer FPS" part of my gaming diet.

    Unfortunately, this appears not to be part of the overall plan. I'm really trying hard not to knock it before I've played it but you're definitely making it difficult! I like being able to pick a server based on how little my connection is going to suck (only allegedly 2MB and very rural) but it sounds like I'm going to have to make the most of a bad situation. Peer to peer just always hurts for me as I'm always the poor sap with a ping of over 500 :sigh:
     
  16. Hovis

    Hovis What's a Dremel?

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    In my experience as a reviewer and a gamer there's a problem that comes up with games like MW2 which is that how do you pan something that provides excellence the entire time you are reviewing it, based only on the potential lack of interest you'll have in it when you're done? Is a review recommendation based purely on the first playthrough quality, or is it more like a hardware review where practicality and longevity are factors?

    One problem is without a long time with a game you cannot legitimately review longevity. Unless the reviewer can literally state he is bored to death with a game when he's done with reviewing it (which is separate from never wanting to touch it again because it might be crap) then what can he really say on the subject? Not a whole lot.

    This year has seen several really good games, all in some respects deserving the excellent scores they got, for example Arkham Asylum, Brutal Legend, Dawn of War 2, but all three of them could be played and discarded within the space of a weekend*. Meanwhile games like Dragon Age and Empire Total War, which are not going to yield up all they have to offer in anything like a reasonable review time-frame, inevitably suffer. It's not anybody's fault really, it's just inevitable that a game that delivers a short, sharp blast of greatness is invariably going to have more appeal in the short time a reviewer has to play with it than a slow burner.

    I suppose you have to look at reviews and bear in mind that they are a guide to the quality of the game, not to its lasting appeal or value for money. My measure for game value has always been if it costs about the same as a good night out and lasts about the same amount of time, then it's a valid purchase and anything more than that is a bonus. But then I try to measure everything by its equivalent value in booze. Makes life easier.

    *In its defence Dawn of War 2 has improved since patching and has been fleshed out with enough extra content to make it worth a re-install for those who might have otherwise done with it.
     
  17. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    Ignoring the multiplayer entirely for a moment, you described the singleplayer as cinematic, yet you didn't care to mention the truly dire script and complete lack of a cohesive storyline. They don't even attempt to explain some of the major plot twists, to the point where I had to spend a good few minutes afterwards trying to digest what had just happened, and unsurprisingly I didn't get very far. I can both understand and accept the use of mission-briefing scenes as a plot development tool in most games, and even to an extent in this one, but when a game sets out with such clearly defined cinematic pretensions, they desperately need a beefier storytelling medium.

    Anyway, I'll probably pick this up when it's less than £20 - at that price it could be justified for the singleplayer and spec ops modes alone.
     
  18. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    I don't think the number of players or the size of maps are at all vital to a multiplayer FPS game. I'll admit that I'm all for a 64 player BF2 game but then the game has been designed for it. Just look how well Left 4 Dead plays with just 4 or 8 players in VS mode. I was speaking to Harry and Joe this morning about this and they assure me that the game has clearly been designed with the number of players in mind, hence the smaller maps and other features. While it's a change, the game is still fun and this is all we can hope for with any title.
     
  19. mrbens

    mrbens What's a Dremel?

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    I'm looking forward to playing this game.

    BTW there's 1 too many 'is' on the main description of this review:
     
  20. Zurechial

    Zurechial Elitist

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    Frickin' casuals.
    You shouldn't need to check. Next you'll be telling me you can't remember what gems you need to get Cespenar to upgrade the bracers.

    Hand the dice over, pal.


    Pfft, gamers these days..
     
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