Had some horrible lag and connection issues today. We kept losing people randomly. Too many people. For $50 a year they should be able to add some new servers when the most anticipated game of all time releases.

Well I've soaked in about 22 hours of playing time in the last 2 days...
Damn this game is addicting, damn this game is fun...

Only gripe i'm having are the constant killstreak helo's and planes... It's fucking annoying after a while...

You are playing MW2 on the 360?

This game is utterly fucking awesome. I had issues with COD4, issues I voiced in a high pitched, womanly fashion so people would take them seriously, and I never believed they'd go in and address my gripes like they did here.

Now, I should stress - if it's not abundantly clear at this point - that I'm not talking about the multiplayer since I rarely engage in mp in any game. I'm sure that has gotten its fair share of updates aswell, but I'm speaking soley in regards to the single player experience.

The way this game fixes what I found almost dealbreakingly annoying about the first is such a relief, and so much more than I expected, but it's so methodically fixed that they really have to have gone into this with those things firmly in mind.

Like, one thing that I found insanely awkward in the first was its tendency to very forcefully herd you around, move forward with awkward intensity in some places without your participation and grind to a complete halt in others. One obvious such area were the breaching situations where you could tell the game wanted you to stand in ONE PLACE and wait for animations to play out, or you'd be shoved around like a pinball. I could never seem to stand where the game wanted me to, so I was always shoved around and felt like I was trapped on a conveyer belt in a menacing factory. Here they circumvent that by letting you breach, and it's AWESOME. You get to be in on the action, and it's slow mo god damn sex.

Also, animations where the "supporting characters" do awesome things don't play out in as close proximity anymore, meaning they don't break the illusion and immersion by having characters just run into you and again, shove you around. When crazy stuff happens, they cleverly happen in your peripheral vision, or in your direct line of sight, and they feel dynamic and AWESOME.

Another more practical thing was how I was sometimes confused as to where the other dudes headed, because they would just take the fuck off sometimes and I'd have to kinda rub my face against the invisible walls until I found the way. As I kinda stumbled and spun my way around to the right place, they would've cleared everyone out and waited for me like wind up toys. Here, you always have a clear indicator as to where your "teammate" is, and while they still technically stop and wait in sections, they have more "steps" on the way where they hold up, and the game disguises this with far greater success to the point where that too feels entirely natural and dynamic.

Just in general the levels are more cleverly built to give you a false - but believable - sense of openness and coherence. They no longer have infinitely spawning enemies from retarded places, no longer jarringly make distinctions between "here you must kill everyone to proceed" and suddenly going "here you can keep killing dudes until your beard turns gray because for some reason now you need to keep moving to trigger the next bits". The age old problem of stupid invisible walls is played down by actually being open when it needs to, and having a masterful sense of an "obvious" route that you are propelled down by the game's excellent pacing and sense of urgency. It's just superbly crafted.

There is much more to it, and to why I'm so taken with this game, but that you really should find out for yourself. It's shocking and gripping and thrilling and awesome. It improves on its predecessor in ways most sequels don't even try, and every single obstacle in the way of COD4 being a cinematic fucking masterpiece are removed here.

I'm stunned, to be honest. Simply wow.

You should join us online at some point :D

Today's xfire top five thus far. I imagine tomorrow when the game actually launches on steam we'll see it top COD4.

I'll be watching for its longevity, which I suspect will decline much more rapidly... but that's good for business!

That's minutes played by xfire users. There's still 100k individual xfire users playing COD4 daily.

See, long live CoD4 MW1 :D

And yet, that doesn't make the slightest difference.. in ya know.. anything.

The whole, "but, you still have MW1!" rationalization is still a little insulting.. but hey.. it's not half as insulting as making a fuss over this garbage, and then buying the game anyway, which is exactly what thousands of PC gamers have done. Way to go, guys! It's really no wonder publishers walk all over gamers, when we eat shit with a grin.. and then leave a healthy tip.

All indications are that the PC version is doing fantastically well, which is hardly surprising, since as others have pointed out, the hardcore audience is a niche anyway. It's nice to see PC games performing well, but it's not like this game would not have sold fantastically if it still had its "legacy" features. Now that the Steam version is unlocking, I suspect it will dominate Steam and xfire stats for some amount of time.

They don't really have much competition on the PC. Call of Duty 2 through 6's combined numbers really decimate every other FPS on the platform.. and maybe even every other game period.

Available MP tweaks:



:/

HD Hacks video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rBqmtpD98U&feature...

Except it is a big deal, and people don't actually vote with their wallets. Even in recession, people have more money than sense. It's the same complacent attitude that makes political activism a total wash, and the kind of hype that makes trashy films and music popular. This is frat boy entertainment.

And for whatever it is actually worth, if it weren't a big deal, MW2 would have already captured more of the COD4 audience than it already has. I'm sure MW2 will stomp COD4 on Xbox Live in its first week.