Yes, we played it. Here's what you want to know about.
This map is called Favela.Let's get the obvious stuff about Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer out of the way. Yes, it still runs at 60 frames per second. Yes, you rank up from match to match, constantly unlocking new weapons and special abilities as you go. You pull the left trigger to zoom in. Anyone who spent more than a few minutes online with the first Modern Warfare knows exactly how the action will feel in the sequel. On top of that core action, Infinity Ward has been busy layering a dizzying amount of new trinkets, goodies, doodads and whirligigs onto the already elaborate create-a-class framework from before. Actually, there's so many small new additions to the gameplay that I need to itemize them.
Customizable Kill Streaks. Possibly the most anticipated new feature is a pretty darn cool one. You now unlock kill streaks as you rank up, and though you can still only take three into a match with you at one time, you can at least have some control over how many kills you need to rack up to use them. Some of the kill streak rewards require three, four, five, six, seven, nine kills… In addition to old favorites like the UAV, there are things like a care package that's parachuted in and grants you a random upgrade; stationary sentry guns you can put down to beef up defenses, especially in objective-based games; and of course the AC130 gunship, which requires 11 kills to use (and which, consequently, I did not see). Best of all, it seems like kill streaks stack, since I was able to use my five-kill Predator missile, then immediately activate the four-kill care package right afterwards.
Death Streaks. Death streaks? Yes, you will now be rewarded for dying too many times in a row, in an effort to prevent frustration for those just getting into Modern Warfare 2. The only two in the demo I played were Painkiller, which starts you with a triple health boost after you're killed three times without making any kills of your own, and Copycat, which lets you use the loadout and perks of the last guy who killed you for one life.
Secondary Weapons Replace Pistols. No more piddly sidearms. Well, not quite true; pistols are still in there if you want them, but you can pass up the lo' Desert Eagle in favor of tactical shotguns, automatic machine pistols, and other nice gear to augment your primary rifle. All these secondary weapons can take attachments just like the primaries can, so if you want to throw a suppressor or digital camo on your shotgun, more power to ya.
Fancy New Equipment Instead of Grenades. Toss out your frag grenades, if you want, and replace them with some nifty gear that serves a variety of other purposes. Perhaps you would prefer Semtex timed sticky explosives? How about some throwing knives? The most abstract but perhaps coolest piece of equipment I saw was the tactical insertion, which looks like a typical flare when you throw it down. In practice, it acts as a mobile, single-use spawn point, so anytime you're moving into a heated area, throw one down and that's where you'll restart if you die.
This one is Highrise.Experience Boosts Galore. It seems like you get experience point bonuses for doing damn near anything in the new game. I'm not just talking headshots; any stylish or meaningful kill is going to give you some kind of experience boost. Kill a guy just before he's about to get a kill streak? Bonus. Take out the guy who just killed you? Bonus. Get the last kill in a match? Bonus. IW says the leveling (which now caps at level 70) has been tweaked to take the faster accumulation of points into account, and you'll get something gameplay-related for prestiging this time around. They aren't saying what, though.
Callsigns. Infinity Ward has been playing a lot of Street Fighter IV. The title and emblem system from that game is reproduced almost exactly here, with dozens upon dozens of descriptive phrases you can unlock and slap on your profile to give other players a sense of exactly how you've been putting it down online. The titles and emblems you can get will correspond to your behaviors, so if you spend a lot of time camping or you rack up a ton of melee kills, everyone will know it. The titles I saw in this demo version
NO BETA. THERE IS NO OPEN OR PUBLIC BETA PLANNED FOR MODERN WARFARE 2. NEITHER OF US (YOU OR ME) WILL PLAY IT UNTIL IT'S OUT. THAT'S KIND OF A BUMMER. INFINITY WARD PLEASE RECONSIDER.
I think it's safe to say nobody expected a stark reinvention of the wheel with Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, just a long and thoughtful list of subtle improvements, tweaks, and additions to an already winning formula. And that's exactly what this looks like. I overheard a pretty funny, apt comment at this event that the only bad thing about Modern Warfare 2 is, it's not coming out for another two months. Yeah, that guy pretty much had it right.
" Triple health boosts after dieing 3 times, this and juggernaut will ruin the game like COD4 and WAW. "
I'm going to go on a limb and say COD4 sold a trillion copies, and most who purchased it (and pirated it) don't feel juggernaut ruined the game. It's a weird hunch I have judging by the fact COD4 was the #2 most played game on XBL in 2008 (probably 2009 as well, didn't check). I can't speak for the WaW community on how they feel about juggernaut because I've sank a trillion hours into Nazi Zombie mode and all of its DLC (Map Pack 3 releases for PC/Steam free later today if any WaW fans are reading this). COD4 obviously outsold WaW, but Treyarch has made over 30 million dollars just on the Nazi Zombie DLCs alone.
I'm sorry did you say something about COD and ruined?
Deathstreaks seem like they could be used strategically. Get killed 3 times on purpose, get triple health boost, them you go apeshit and get that 11 kill streak and ac130 everyone.
also, looks like they took A LOT of notes after playing Killzone 2! which is a good thing, i love K2's multiplayer!!
im wondering what new game mode changes have been made. i need more news on this. for instance, i'd like to know what they fixed in, what is arguably the best mode in the game, hardcore search and destroy. i want to know if they fixed the exploits, like shooting your grenade launcher straight up in the beginning of a match to score instant kills.
Death Streaks seem dumb, particularly the 3x health boost. If the game works like CoD4 you wouldn't be able to kill someone with 3x health with a full clip from most guns. The 'spawn flare' thing seems annoying as well, could be easily abused. Then there are the sentry guns, that's just down right lame. From reading this article I'm expecting to get frustrated at MW2 more then CoD4. I'll keep my fingers crossed that somehow none of this stuff ends up being as lame/cheap/annoying as I predict...fingers crossed...
" Borderland's underwhelming videos to a barrage of Modern Warfare 2 info. Talk about going from one extreme to another. Okay I'm going to stop taking jabs at Borderlands. Anyway, Modern Warfare 2 looks great. If you're someone who's paid attention to the COD4 forums you've already realized most of these updates were things the community asked for. I think it's awesome how much Infinity Ward listens to their community (other developers take notes?). They reinvented online multiplayer with Modern Warfare, and now they've made it even better. It's hard to even say how they could improve it instead of adding more stuff like they did. If there were anything more I'd want from a IW Call of Duty, I guess I'd like to see IW's take on a robust coop for 4 players. I love Nazi Zombie mode in WaW. That stuff, but with IW's quality and modern weapons. Tell me who wouldn't play that. "
Please make sure you are specific. They re-invented console online multi-player.
This news has actually reignited my interest in the game. As I've said before, I'm not good at these types of games even though I enjoy them. Online multiplayer is an even worse experience for me. But, the new addition of "death perks" makes me want to see how well they can boost my native "suckitude".
Damn, all these new features sound awesome sounds like they have changed it enough to were it's still a fresh a experience and not just a minor improved version of Modern Warfare 1's multiplayer.
If they insist on keeping martyrdom, a perk that REWARDS players for playing badly or dying, then they should remove it from the perks list and add it to the new death streak feature. I would feel less crappy about dying from martyrdom if I knew that the guy that just killed me with it only had it because he had died 3 times in a row.
This game fills a weird niche for me. Love COD4, this game is a no brainer purchase for me, and yet I have zero anticipation for MW2. It almost makes me feel like I have Mindless Sheep Syndrome for the first time in my life.
" This game fills a weird niche for me. Love COD4, this game is a no brainer purchase for me, and yet I have zero anticipation for MW2. It almost makes me feel like I have Mindless Sheep Syndrome for the first time in my life. "
Yeah I can't help but feel the same way. Call of Duty 4 was great because it was something fresh with a lot of cool new ideas, but MW2 seems like just more of the same. I'll still probably buy it but I don't know if I'm willing to shell out $60 for it day one.
Awesome! I was going to wait to get this game but I LOVED COD4 mulitplayer so much (because I was very good at it) that I might ask someone to get this for me for my birthday! :)
Everything sounds great-other than one thing. I don't seem to like the idea of having two weapons not as a perk...I liked the idea of having a pistol as well. Hopefully they will increase the power of the pistol or something so that not everybody has two guns.
Sounds like fun but I won't buy ANY games from actiblizz because of this statement by CEO of Activision, Bob Kotick. Bob recently said during a 45-minute presentation on Monday of this week at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco , "We(Activison) have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." The guy is a facist, and I won't help his wallet get fatter. I don't care if he promises me games where I can experience tantric orgasms for hours on end.
" Triple health boosts after dieing 3 times, this and juggernaut will ruin the game like COD4 and WAW. "
I'm going to go on a limb and say COD4 sold a trillion copies, and most who purchased it (and pirated it) don't feel juggernaut ruined the game. It's a weird hunch I have judging by the fact COD4 was the #2 most played game on XBL in 2008 (probably 2009 as well, didn't check). I can't speak for the WaW community on how they feel about juggernaut because I've sank a trillion hours into Nazi Zombie mode and all of its DLC (Map Pack 3 releases for PC/Steam free later today if any WaW fans are reading this). COD4 obviously outsold WaW, but Treyarch has made over 30 million dollars just on the Nazi Zombie DLCs alone. I'm sorry did you say something about COD and ruined? "
I didn't say it was bad game, I like COD 4 it but I loathe juggernaut and think it's a dirty noob perk and for people who can't play fair and need extra health to beat people, and I think if you ask around a lot of people hate juggernaut, and it being the 2nd most played game on X-Box Live has nothing to do with it.
" Triple health boosts after dieing 3 times, this and juggernaut will ruin the game like COD4 and WAW. "
I'm going to go on a limb and say COD4 sold a trillion copies, and most who purchased it (and pirated it) don't feel juggernaut ruined the game. It's a weird hunch I have judging by the fact COD4 was the #2 most played game on XBL in 2008 (probably 2009 as well, didn't check). I can't speak for the WaW community on how they feel about juggernaut because I've sank a trillion hours into Nazi Zombie mode and all of its DLC (Map Pack 3 releases for PC/Steam free later today if any WaW fans are reading this). COD4 obviously outsold WaW, but Treyarch has made over 30 million dollars just on the Nazi Zombie DLCs alone. I'm sorry did you say something about COD and ruined? "
I didn't say it was bad game, I like COD 4 it but I loathe juggernaut and think it's a dirty noob perkand for people who can't play fair and need extra health to beat people, and I think if you ask around a lot of people hate juggernaut, and it being the 2nd most played game on X-Box Live has nothing to do with it. "
I'm sorry, how is taking Juggernaut unfair? Maybe you should play fair and not use your customisable guns. Maybe you should play fair and not use stopping power. Maybe you should play fair and not use a red dot sight. I fail to see how Juggernaut is any more 'unfair' then anything else. And if it IS so damn overpowered, then you'd be a fool not to use it yourself!
Sweet report Brad. November is going to be a good month for gaming. Thanks to all the games that got pushed into 2010, now I don't have to scramble to buy everyone gfifts and get myself everything thats coming out :) Just me, Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2 sippin on some sizzurp.
@Agent47CSim2: I actually don't care for the default health amount. I remember the good old days in COD2 where one shot from a bolt action meant death. Hardcore is the best answer to that and also makes juggernaut almost worthless. I just hope they expand the hardcore modes like World at War did.
I FUCKING WANT!!!! By the way, kill streaks have always stacked, thats why it was so easy to get the helicopter. You get to 5, use the airstrike to get the rest of the kills and boom you get the helicopter. So pretty much the kill streak choices will boil down to using the ones that help get to the next one easiest. So if they have a first streak thats not as passive as the UAV, then we might have some crazy shit going on in this game.
Sounds great, but stacking kill streak rewards sounds a little OP. Without knowing the specifics, it sounds like you can pop one after the other in succession, possibly creating a new kill streak - making it almost a constant streak. Perhaps there's a cooldown involved or kills from a reward don't count toward a streak. And do kills increase your streak if you spend one and then get a kill, putting you back to 9 for example? What about making a kill streak available for your team, making it easier to grow, but anyone can trigger them?
I like the idea of death streaks, since new players - especially ones coming into the MP a few months after everyone has upgrades - can have a rough time making progress without feeling like a weakling. I just got back into TF2 after a two year hiatus, and it's no fun being a dude with nothing going against guys with all those upgrades, it's like all I'm doing is feeding them XP to make them even more powerful.
No beta is fine, I think they know what they're doing and how the infrastructure needs to be structured. My only fear is on the PS3 side, since there are more consoles out there and PSN is actually decent this time around, so they may not gauge the right amount of backbone to support the amount of new players.
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