And it makes it easier to play all of the modes. I don't think I'd be able to clock in serious hours in this game without playing everything. I rarely play Squad Rush, but that's it.

I like it, but unfortunately you can rape the opposing team pretty easily if you have like, one organized squad and they don't. As with several of the other conquest maps, the linearity presents itself as a bit of a problem. The weird thing though, is that White Pass is easily my favorite conquest map to pub, and it's strictly linear. I do think it's a decent map, especially since it's infi only. I've been waiting for infi only conquest.. and even if this is all we get, it's fun!

I still haven't seen the new rush map in rotation, but I've mostly been playing squad deathmatch and conquest over the last few days. I spent most of today playing engineer finally, and holy shit is it fun! Yes, the Gustav may seem a little over the top, but I honestly think that people are exaggerating how bad it is. The main problem with stuff like the CG and the M-60 is that they're popular. If you didn't encounter them every other second, it wouldn't seem so bad. Once they nerf the M-60, people are just going to find something else to bitch about. I hope DICE does not hurry these tweaks. Do it right. They should have learned this from BF2: scrubs will always find something to cry about.

Granted, I do wish that we could set modified rules. All these perks really muck up the works when it comes to competition, and while I think the game is fairly balanced (outside of the obvious abusive shit!), it would be nice if leagues could tweak their own rule sets. The game begs for some kind of competition mode where teams have to ready up before the beginning of a round at least. Clans want to play this game, but DICE hasn't made it easy on us.

So.. anyway.. after putting off recon and engi since this game came out, I'm glad I bothered to unlock my gear this week. It showed me that I can have a lot of fun with the red dot on the M-95, and that playing engineer is stupid fun. So far I've only been using the AK-74, but I love it. Coupled with the RPG or CG, it's simply a fantastic kit.

Those are honestly the worst kinds of people to encounter in video games. Not the sniper, but the griefers. That shit aint really funny. Well, it is, but only in a horrible sorta way.

Engineer is great. People need to cry less when they get killed by rockets though. Get used to it. The SMG has horrible range, so it's not like engineers are given a lot of options when they move out of medium range. Then again, I do get some sick satisfaction out of killing someone with the gustav who is no more than five feet away from me too. It's just sort of hilarious. I use magnum ammo most of the time because I get frustrated with the increased explosive damage. It doesn't seem to do enough to make the rockets all that much more effective anyway, and when I'm not running with magnum bullets I feel weaker with my gun equipped :)

I'm not sure what the best gun is yet, but I've mostly been using the AK-74. So far I'm not that impressed with the selection, but the XM8 Compact is pretty nifty too. Oh, and I really don't care for the AT-4. The Gustav is better against infantry and I find the guidance system less fulfilling than I expected. If it were as snappy and responsive as the fly by wire SRAW in BF2, things might be different, but it's not. I'd rather use the RPG or the Gustav. I also think that people overstate how much better the Carl Gustav is over the RPG in terms of killing infantry. The RPG packs more of a punch against tanks and kills infi just fine. I still still run with the CG most of the time anyway.

Plus, the repair tool is the real tank killer!

Yeah, I just feel like I get a lot of hit-markers with the CG at long range too, and since most of my rocket kills seem to be a direct hit (or a wall hit), it sort of marginalizes the goodness compared to the RPG. Plus, the RPG does more damage to vehicles, which is always handy. I still opt to carry magnum ammo over improved explosive damage though, which could skew my results. Let me know if you settle into a gun other than the XM8 Compact. I'd love some additional opinions on Engi weapons. So far I'm pretty stuck on the AK-74.

I know some people who hate on the AN-94 and M-16, but I think they're both great. I assume those people just need their automatics, which is fine, but since you have to tap out shots anyway it seems sorta moot to me. The AN-94 is still the only assault rifle I have a platinum star with. After that it's: M-60, Saiga, C4, M1911, and the combat knife. I think that's about it.

I want an AK-47 for assault.

MW2 movement is awesome, and honestly, so is the twitchy awesomeness of the gun play, but I appreciate DICE's more "sim" approach. You have to consider things like movement, stance (unfortunately, only with LMG's in this game!), rate of fire, etc. In Call of Duty you're basically firing laser beams with minimal recoil (or in the case of the M16/M4, basically none). But don't blame Infinity Ward for the unlocks, DICE actually started this goofy trend on their own five years ago with Battlefield 2. The only difference is that there weren't any perks/specializations, only guns. It was still lame.

It doesn't take long to unlock some good stuff. I finished my unlocks at around 80 hours of gameplay but I took my time. I didn't wind up playing Engineer or Recon until last week :P For example: Assault's first unlock is the XM8 prototype, which is a great gun.