Gaming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC Review

Now you see, this is my big beef with people's opinions on this game.

It's gotta unanimously great reviews on XB360 - yet people slam it on PC. It's the same game, but with mouse and keyboard support and some graphics options. A great game, even if it's a console port (as long as it's ported well), is still a great game, but a lot of people, and fairly so, seem unable to look beyond what the game lacks rather than what the game actually has.

I had an argument with a friend this morning who was dead set on only buying it for XB360, as the PC version "was rubbish and lacked dedicated server support and mods." - WTF! They're the same game, but the PC version is arguably better as it uses mouse and keyboard.

Also - 180!

 

Everyone knew that would happen and I can see it happening to myself. With the game costing £20 in some places, it's well worth picking up just for the single player experience. I can definately see it being thrown into many shopping baskets.

Doesn't change the fact that the MP feature set is still not up to standard. Just shows that most people who join a boycott want to be part of the action but aren't actually willing to make a personal sacrifice. Something we see all to often in this day and age.

 

Don't you think this could be because they've released a console product on the PC?

My expectations of a console game are pretty much in line with what MW2 is.

My expectations for a PC game are much higher than that of a console game.

Yes, I know they're the same thing, but if I buy a console game, I expect P2P hosting and no mods, if I buy a PC game, I want dedicated servers and mods.

I'm not saying it's logical, or disagreeing with you, just trying to explain how I feel.

 

I just canceled my order for MW2 and I have no problem with the review as long as it is not sponsored by Activision.

Look around. The game averages a user score of under 50% on all gaming community websites (not the review score - which tends to be around 85-95%)

If the reviewers at BT like the game. Sure. No problem. It doesn't have to be the representative sample. If all reviewers give it a close 100%... something is wrong. I mean: players say: Abyssymal, reviewers say: great! (aren't those two supposed to be correlated?). The lowest score from a review I found is 85%.

Regards,


My reason for turning back on MW2: no dedicated servers, no lean, 9v9 maximum. Did they even publish it for PC? Who cares about 4 hour SP?

 

Reviewers = players. We just have to put our opinions across in an unbiased and balanced way where we're held accountable for our words by not only our employers, but the people whose products we review. We're not affraid to tell it like it is (our GTA4 and STALER: Clear Sky reviews were both hugely controversial because we were negative when everyone expected us to be positive)

User reviews though, can be as biased, vitriolic, angry and unfair as they like - there's no accountability, only anonymity - I'm sure lots of so called "reviewers" haven't even played the game - that's especially the case with Amazon review bombing and the like. Angry gamers venting their frustration because their version isn't best.

The professional reviewers though actually play the game, see how it plays and come at it from an unbiased and subjective view point, assessing the game on it's actual qualities rather than a feeling of betrayal felt from the dropping of dedicated servers. hence the disparity between user and professional reviews.

 

But surely a game is a game - why are your expectations so different for the different platforms? We've already discussed that the PC version is for by far the smallest audience (12%), yet we've come to expect that as PC gamers we got more, and we get it for free, and we get it now.

Don't get me wrong, we all want more for less, but thinking we're somehow "due" more just because we play on PC is a tad elitist. Sure our hardware costs more, but it also does a hell of a lot more too, not to mention being upgradable and generally more badass in everyway.

I blame Valve for spoiling us rotten

 

You do realise that 90% of those people haven't even played the game?

 

i have played it. Its a console game..its OK and thats it. There is nothing special about it. I wont buy it or play it on steam....

It looks and feels just like the first version. Its probably great on xbox cuz its an xbox game! the graphics, the gameplay, its the same as MW1...i really dont see a difference...not sure what you are all so gaga about in this game.

I cant even see why people like it so much. MP is so arcade-ish.

 

i am moving on .... this is old news now.

 

As professionals Joe and Harry can't be expected to approach the game from the point of view of a tiny fraction of its possible buyers and then tell everyone it's a crap game and they shouldn't buy it because it doesn't have a couple of features they wanted it to. You wouldn't score an AMD chipset 3/10 just because it doesn't have integrated graphics even though it was otherwise excellent.

As 1.23 million UK sales proves, most consumers couldn't care less about the complaints these so-called "gamers" have. Taking that 12% PC figure suggests that roughly 147,000 PC gamers in the UK alone are happy to play the PC version, however crippled it supposedly is. I bet if Valve, Microsoft and Sony ran a survey on their respective online networks asking owners of MW2 to rate the game out of 100% the result would be between 90% and 95%.

It's very easy to go onto an Internet forum and rant about how you, as a PC gamer, feel the developers of this game aren't catering to your needs and write scathing a bitter reviews on Amazon, Metacritic and the like. But it's ridiculously arrogant to think that Infinity Ward owes anything to a small minority of a fraction of their install base.

Just take a look at what should be a representative sample of people with predetermined negative opinions of MW2, namely the boycott group on Steam. Now let's just say for a moment that these folks are the same "gamers" as have been going on for weeks about how Infinity Ward and Activision have ruined the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. You could also safely assume, therefore, that they would be voting with their wallets and taking the actions the group they've joined recommends: boycotting the game. But no, actually what's happened is that after weeks of spewing bile and vitriol against MW2 a large number have still gone out and purchased the game. Either they changed their minds, realised they were wrong or for perhaps were gifted a copy of the game and forgot to unsubscribe from that group, or they were making hollow threats enjoying the anonymity of the 'net to state radical points of view they never actually held and had no intention of following through at all.

And now I've just wasted 5 minutes writing this... IT'S JUST A GAME, LIGHTEN UP.

 

Hugo:

 

I agree Baz, to a point. For example, BT reviewed Torchlight recently and gave it a 9. I really enjoy this game because its good value for money although it doesn't have a MP at all and one can play SP for weeks.

However, what you are suggesting is that I have to buy the game before I can say it s#%ks. This is wrong, I say it s#%ks becouse it didn't meet my basic excpectations about MP. Just like I can say Dragon Age Origins s#$ks because they were to cheap to buy the license from Wizzards from the Coast and invented their own generic fantasy universe...

This is why reviewers are here to tell us: listen, the game is fine in Singleplayer, but they did something terrible to MP and the PC community or the game is great, but it is nowhere close to Baldur's gate universe.

Regards for Baz,

 

Yeah,
It it just a game and I voted no

Have a nice evening.

Regards.

 

Wow, I never knew the desire for dedicated servers in games were considered 'radical' views. In fact, I would suggest the opposite was more radical

Out of context quotes Cheesecake

 

But we *are* elitist... nothing wrong with that.

Why should everything boiled down to the lowest common denominator? Just because console players are used to settling for less, why should PC players?

Consoles have improved over the years but when they first came out, they weren't a patch on gaming PCs. At that point, did the publishers decide to dumb PC games down to match the rudimentary console offerings? Of course not - I would have been suicide!

So what has changed? Consoles are still lagging behind PCs in capability and they always will do, but the gap is less pronounced. Analogy - If I'm 5yrs younger than Fred, he won't want to know me when he's 15 and I am only 10; but the same five year gap will be less significant when he's 30.

The fact is that PCs are the elite part of the market and always have been. Now there is a case to say that elite products should come at an elite price. I'd certainly be happier to pay a £5 'PC tax' to compensate for the extra work involved in producing a PC-quality game - that would still leave your typical PC game £5 cheaper than the console equivalent - but what we can't abide is compromising on quality.

Back in the late 70s we had the earliest 'consoles'... then came the PC and we never looked back. All that power and freedom. Now we are regressing, because publishers find it easier to milk the modern console cash-cow. It's a desperate shame.

 

game over man, game over

let's all sell our PC's and buy 360's

yayy

 

I was talking more "omg, infinity ward and activision sux my peen for no dedi servers i will never buy an activision or infinity ward game again" type comments.

Declaring an intention to boycott a game because you think it won't be good and hope your decision will encourage the developers to reconsider is one thing, claiming that you know it will be terrible based on no evidence while also suggesting that those who made that decision are idiots is another.

EDIT: Bindi you are correct.

 

The previous iteration of the series contained the features that were removed in MW2. Said features are what made the core game play great. These features are something I would expect from a game 10 years ago.

 

We have an upcoming podcast that is pretty much exclusively dedicated to the issue of MW2 and IWNet.

 

What is popular is rarely what is right. I applaud Bit-tech for considering a re-review of MW2, but I suggest that it is done in 6 months, when IW has removed 50% of the servers and the game effectively has no multiplay, at all.

As far as being an Elitist, guilty as charged, always have been, always will be. I do, and should, expect more from PC games than console games. PCs cost 2 to 3 thousand dollars/euros for gamer rigs that are top end. A monitor for the PC costs more than an Xbox!
Software developers have a sky is the limit opportunity on the PC, when they deliver something that is clucking in the mud rather than soaring in the sky, they should be taken to task for it, sadly reviewers and the audience in general are giving them a pass.
Some people say "Buht duhde, you didnt plahy the gahme, so shaddup", I read reviews so that I know what a game is like, the irony here is that I read THIS review and halfway through the single player portion I was turned off, not to mention the game has no independent multiplayer. Excuse me if I do not trust IW to be running servers for this game in 2-3 years like people still do for the earlier games of this series, the thought is ludicrous. Instead they will release another pile of garbage, spam commercials to make you think it is "The Next big Thing" and basically force you to buy the next iteration by killing off this one. I am stunned that so few people see this.

Enjoy your "Game",
Star¤Dagger