Modern Warfare 2 PC: Multiplayer Quick Look

Blake

There is a lot of buzz behind the Infinity Ward released Modern Warfare 2 and much of that focused on the multiplayer side of things. Here we are going to give a quick breakdown so you can formulate a decision or opinion of your own.

The core principle behind the first Modern Warfare has been kept in tact and in my opinion is what makes the game so popular, that being the ability to rank your character up. As you character gathers rank he unlocks weapons, weapon upgrades and special perks (abilities).

Gameplay is also very similar to the original, allowing veterans of the series to jump right in with little or no delay. The bonus for multiple kills in a row was not left out, allowing your character the chance to call in air strikes, helicopter support and even predator missile control.

Infinity Ward did not skimp on the graphics side of things as you can see via the images provided. Nor did they forget about map diversity, you will find maps with heavy greenery as well as those with vast snow cover.

So gameplay didnâ€™t change, graphics look great and the level system is still in place with even more unlocks the last version. So what is all the fuss about? No dedicated servers, the maximum amount of players per battle has changed and of course Steam.

No Dedicated Servers: What does this mean? Basically you can not log in and find the server of your choice or jump on the favorite you usually use. Match making is just like using the Xbox 360, you sign up and are tossed in the next available match. My experience so far is that while this would not have been a decision I would have made if Infinity Ward had asked me, it has not prevented me from playing. After hours of play I only came across two matches that had lag and I simply jumped out of them.

Battle Size: This has been changed to a maximum of 9 vs 9. I have a feeling it is due to the fact there are no dedicated servers but I didnâ€™t mind this change. The maps are appropriately sized to meet this number of players so you will not have an issue finding someone to shoot.

Steam: Steam is necessary if you wish to play Modern Warfare 2 as it acts much like your Xbox live interface. This does have a nice advantage that you can easily add friends to your group or invite them to your game. The last Modern Warfare did not have this feature and sometimes finding the same server to play on wasâ€¦difficult to say the least.

All in all I do not have a problem with the new Modern Warfare 2 for PC, however keep in mind I play a lot of Xbox 360 so I may be jaded to the matchmaking process. I can see this being a very big problem for larger groups (clans) that wanted to get in on this action, these changes will make life very difficult for them.

shadrach · Rated PG Joined: 20 Apr 2010 Posts: 2

Call of Duty-Modern Warfare 2 is my favourite game from all and I also like the first version of it. When Infinity Ward moved from the classic World War II setting and blazed new ground with Modern Warfare we saw the first obvious split within the world of Call of Duty.

crowTrobot · Rated R Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 57

CoD4 was still pretty good and IMO one of the best, most polished games ever created. MW2 is a little too much like a Michael Bay movie for me. The storyline was a lot less realistic and the gameplay too much console oriented (read: easy)

Treyarch pretty much continued the CoD2 tradition though and make their games along the same vein but I hope the InfinityWard guys continue to make more CoD4 style games (as in storyline wise and gameplay structure) in their newfound home with EA rather than to keep going with Activision's vision of what the Modern Warfare series should be.