Modern Warfare 2

[Edward Yee]

Did they change the thing where some sniper rifles are actually less de facto accurate when using the ACOG? And I don't mean the usual zoom-for-peripheral vision trade off.

They should be less accurate then conventional scopes, if any level of reality was present in the game at all. ACOG is about being able to take quicker shots, not accuracy. This I see no problem with.

I assume you mean compared to rifle scopes? For some reason I got the sense that mounting an ACOG made the MW2 rifles itself less accurate, as opposed to simply changing the results of aiming down the sight...

[Darth Wong]

It's the late kill streaks like AC-130 and Stealth Bomber that are supposed to let you do things like turn losing maps around.

It's been my experience that the teams where guys are able to amass those kinds of streaks tend to be winning anyhow. It's hard to NOT be winning if you have multiple team members pulling off 10+ streaks.

Stuff like this should have been obvious in playtesting. IMHO air support totally ruins the game for me as it is never as effective when I use it when compared to others. MW2 has driven me back to SOCOM.

Yeah, the air support isn't really a bad thing in principle but giving it away as a bonus for really long killstreaks strikes me as a terrible idea. It would be better if they only showed up as a random bonus in a care package, with varying likelihoods for different types.

[Laird]

DOUCHE MODE: Riot Shield, Dual 1887s w/bling and FMJ, lightweight and ninja, blast shield and flashbangs.

Aka:Tool class, defeating the purpose of the patch that fixed the lameass 1887s.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Honestly both Akimbo and the Model 1887 were both horrible additions as far as weapons go for the game. The reasoning for Akimbo has been mentioned, it's retarded and no one would actually do it outside of Hollywood. The 1887 makes no sense since it was discontinued in the 1920s, so you have to wonder how these militant groups got hold of a working model of weapon that's been discontinued for at least eighty years with no replacement parts available.

[CaptHawkeye]

That's actually not too hard to believe. They're still finding Lee Enfield No. 4s and Mosin Nagants in Iraq and other hot spots around the world. Some of these weapons are literally relics, with parts manufactured before the 20th century.

Luckily the developers made sure to depict every guy and his dog in the favela running around with a fucking TAR-21 or UMP. Now those are some guns that definitely DO need real parts and maintenance assistance. I was thinking before how games like this lack any real "variety" in the guns they offer.

Of course the 1887 in paticular doesn't make sense, because America wasn't big on weapon exports when that gun was around. And Akimbo is just all sorts of stupid, but we've accepted that already. Welcome to Hollywood's Armory.

[Sea Skimmer]

MP44s have turned up in Iraq too, which acutally makes some sense as most MP44s were sold to East African countries after WW2. But yeah, guns last just about forever, I wouldn’t call age the big problem. If they wanted a super shotgun they should have put something like the SPAS-15 firing a slug that’s a one hit kill but not all that accurate.

[aieeegrunt]

Yeah, the air support isn't really a bad thing in principle but giving it away as a bonus for really long killstreaks strikes me as a terrible idea. It would be better if they only showed up as a random bonus in a care package, with varying likelihoods for different types.

So the team that's already winning is given another advantage. Seriously, how and why do people think this is a good idea? This would make more sense to show up for the team that is losing by a big margin. Otherwise it's just piling on. What kind of pathetic loser would actually enjoy that?

Speaking of stupid, dual wielding shotguns? Not even Halo was that fracking stupid.

[Minischoles]

Dual 1887s is freaking retarded, its literally a one shot unless you're under painkiller. Run round a corner into a guy carrying those, and you stand no chance. Catch them first and you've got some chance since the reload time is fairly long even with Sleight of Hand Pro, so you're just kinda hoping the guy carrying them sucks, especially since the range on them is like COD2 shotgun range.

[Uraniun235]

So the team that's already winning is given another advantage. Seriously, how and why do people think this is a good idea? This would make more sense to show up for the team that is losing by a big margin. Otherwise it's just piling on. What kind of pathetic loser would actually enjoy that?

I think the idea is that in the ideal circumstance - where both teams are relatively equal - you can have things swing more wildly in either direction. For some reason this seems like an attractive idea to developers, I remember when the Red Alert 2 devs were going on about how the game was "overbalanced" in order to encourage wild shifts in the balance of power, as well as shorter matches.

How well this actually functions is another matter; I don't play MW2 online so I can't say how severe a problem it is.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Okay, so I decided to go back and play COD4 after I'd gotten used to MW2. Something I noticed was the disparity in scores. In MW2 it's common for me to go an entire match without a single killstreak reward (I'd get more if I lowered my three from 7 Harrier/11 Chopper Gunner/25 Nuke) and I'll normally get 20 or so kills for 10 lives in Groundwar Domination. In contrast, on CoD4 I can expect to get at least one chopper and it's not uncommon on a number of maps for me to get three or more, meaning my kills typically go to 30-40 for ~7 on average.

I've also noticed that at least for out of nine people get a 0-1X K-D spread on CoD4. I've seen people get 0-18 K-D ratio in MW2, but not half the team. I'm starting to think the combos like Commando Pro/Lightfoot and Akimbo Model 1887 is unbalancing the game in favor of people who like to use the 'broken' class setups. Anyone have the same experience?

[weemadando]

The death streaks are a nice touch, but the sheer domination that occurs when a team gets airsupport chaining in is absurd. Once there's a chopper gunner up, in certain maps it's pretty much game over as there just aren't enough places to hide long enough to get a shot away.

And retard team mates who are high enough level have access to perks like cold blooded (no giant red KILL ME box around them) and stingers which could let the END IT ALL FUCKING NOW just keep running around with fucking akimbo guns and do nothing but try and rack up their own streaks. And thus, you get spawn killed by a chopper gunner eight times in a fucking row.

[Edward Yee]

The game mechanics aside, retard teammates out for themselves will almost always fuck you over anyway. (Redundancy is redundant, perhaps.)

I don't even plan to prestige, and the only reason to clear challenges for me is for the gear unlocks.

[aieeegrunt]

Let's see here

Pants on Head retarded single player storyline. Check

Unbalanced, broken multiplayer. Check

Multiplayer has streaky scoring by design. Check.

Pointless akimbo weapons for coolness that further breaks multiplayer. Check

Game has sequel coattail momentum + lowest common denominator pandering + massive marketing making it hugely popular. Check.

So basically, it's Halo 2.

[Minischoles]

The death streaks are a nice touch, but the sheer domination that occurs when a team gets airsupport chaining in is absurd. Once there's a chopper gunner up, in certain maps it's pretty much game over as there just aren't enough places to hide long enough to get a shot away.

And retard team mates who are high enough level have access to perks like cold blooded (no giant red KILL ME box around them) and stingers which could let the END IT ALL FUCKING NOW just keep running around with fucking akimbo guns and do nothing but try and rack up their own streaks. And thus, you get spawn killed by a chopper gunner eight times in a fucking row.

It's pretty much impossible to stop as well. Most people i've seen run around with: Predator Missile, Harrier Strike, Chopper Gunner. They feed into each other. Get the predator? you're essentially guaranteed a Harrier unless you suck. Get the Harrier? before it gets shot down, odds are it'll farm your next killstreak for you. So you're just in a position where, getting 5 kills for a predator missile, essentially wins the game.

[Ritterin Sophia]

And retard team mates who are high enough level have access to perks like cold blooded (no giant red KILL ME box around them) and stingers which could let the END IT ALL FUCKING NOW just keep running around with fucking akimbo guns and do nothing but try and rack up their own streaks. And thus, you get spawn killed by a chopper gunner eight times in a fucking row.

I have to echo this complaint, it seems when I play I'm pretty much guaranteed to be the only person with some type of SAM.

[adam_grif]

Let's see here

Pants on Head retarded single player storyline. Check

Unbalanced, broken multiplayer. Check

Multiplayer has streaky scoring by design. Check.

Pointless akimbo weapons for coolness that further breaks multiplayer. Check

Game has sequel coattail momentum + lowest common denominator pandering + massive marketing making it hugely popular. Check.

So basically, it's Halo 2.

Also just like Halo 2, many people are considering it GOTY.

[Vanas]

I have to echo this complaint, it seems when I play I'm pretty much guaranteed to be the only person with some type of SAM.

Seriously? Most of the times I've played, there's usually at least 2-3 guys with Stingers or Javelins on a team. (I typically leave it until air support starts getting spammed to switch to a Stinger class myself).

Then again, I spend most of my time on HC now, where most people have Cold-Blooded and air support serves as flying XP boosts.

[Ritterin Sophia]

[quote="VanasThen again, I spend most of my time on HC now, where most people have Cold-Blooded and air support serves as flying XP boosts.[/quote]
Really, they actually carry them in HC? I kind of wish there were an HC Groundwar mode.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Then again, I spend most of my time on HC now, where most people have Cold-Blooded and air support serves as flying XP boosts.

Really, they actually carry them in HC? I kind of wish there were an HC Groundwar mode.[/quote]

[Vanas]

Seconded for the HC Groundwar.

But yeah, half the HC matches I've played in, Harriers arrive, hover aimlessly or spawn-camp the one guy without cold blooded and are shot out of the sky. I've got a friend with it on PC who says it's a little different over there, but there's still a few missile-guys around.

[chitoryu12]

The javelin confuses the hell out of me. Sometimes, when fired at a harrier/helo, it will not illicit flares from it and take it down the first shot. Other times, it will cause flares to pop and completely miss. It does shoot down AC-130s though.

I know that the air support craft all have a set amount of flares (I think it's one for helis and Harriers, three for AC-130), and after that the next shot will hit.

[weemadando]

The javelin confuses the hell out of me. Sometimes, when fired at a harrier/helo, it will not illicit flares from it and take it down the first shot. Other times, it will cause flares to pop and completely miss. It does shoot down AC-130s though.

I know that the air support craft all have a set amount of flares (I think it's one for helis and Harriers, three for AC-130), and after that the next shot will hit.

Which really just a way of saying: "congratulations sole guy who elected to take an AA weapon, you now have to die X amount of times before you can actually stop that thing. And by dying X amount of times, you've just earned your opponent another fucking kill streak."

[Edward Yee]

This makes ArmA 2 sound so, SO much better all of a sudden...

*Remembers that he passed up the 50% off sale on that because of the alleged bugs* Fuck!

[RogueIce]

Ok, so I got an Xbox and this game (but no wireless adapter and thus no multiplayer, which may be for the best as I'd just get pwned every 30 seconds...) and played through the campaign. I'm curious about something:

All the Special Ops missions are, loosely, based on a real mission from the game. Except for Suspension, and whatever the other one is on that bridge. So did they just add this one in there, or did I miss something?

[defanatic]

So the team that's already winning is given another advantage. Seriously, how and why do people think this is a good idea? This would make more sense to show up for the team that is losing by a big margin. Otherwise it's just piling on. What kind of pathetic loser would actually enjoy that?

I think the idea is that in the ideal circumstance - where both teams are relatively equal - you can have things swing more wildly in either direction.

This is "positive feedback". Generally you want enough positive feedback so that two relatively equal parties feels like it was close, but not so much that the first one that gets a lucky break wins (unless that's the point of the game).