I am having such an interesting experience with Modern Warefare 2 lately, I don't fully know how to describe it. I enjoyed the first one a lot and sunk a ton of hours (70+) in the multi-player. I have also enjoyed this new one quite a bit and loved the single player. The multi-player is sort of sitting funny with me though and I am not sure exactly how to describe it.  I certainly have played a lot of the game with several 4+ hour sessions, but I am not sure that I exactly have had fun with the game. It is sort of a weird experience to be honest. I keep going back to it, but I am not sure I am really enjoying my time with  it. Perhaps my RPG crawler is coming out where I feel the need to level up and max out the unlocks and achievements.  
 
I don't know exactly what the cause is either. We all know how the game had its issues at launch and perhaps I was giving it the benefit of the doubt with its troubles, but I almost feel like I have a sensory overload with the game. Everything is in my face all the time. This makes for a fun experience, as such in a blockbuster movie when it comes at you in small chunks, but when the game is throwing it at you in hourly sessions it is like my brain is about to bleed.  Yet again though I keep going back to it day in and day out.  
 
Is it a great game? Sure it is, but perhaps I am experiencing that old saying where too much of a good thing is bad for you. I almost feel sick to to play the game at this point. 

I am having such an interesting experience with Modern Warefare 2 lately, I don't fully know how to describe it. I enjoyed the first one a lot and sunk a ton of hours (70+) in the multi-player. I have also enjoyed this new one quite a bit and loved the single player. The multi-player is sort of sitting funny with me though and I am not sure exactly how to describe it.  I certainly have played a lot of the game with several 4+ hour sessions, but I am not sure that I exactly have had fun with the game. It is sort of a weird experience to be honest. I keep going back to it, but I am not sure I am really enjoying my time with  it. Perhaps my RPG crawler is coming out where I feel the need to level up and max out the unlocks and achievements.  
 
I don't know exactly what the cause is either. We all know how the game had its issues at launch and perhaps I was giving it the benefit of the doubt with its troubles, but I almost feel like I have a sensory overload with the game. Everything is in my face all the time. This makes for a fun experience, as such in a blockbuster movie when it comes at you in small chunks, but when the game is throwing it at you in hourly sessions it is like my brain is about to bleed.  Yet again though I keep going back to it day in and day out.  
 
Is it a great game? Sure it is, but perhaps I am experiencing that old saying where too much of a good thing is bad for you. I almost feel sick to to play the game at this point. 

Yeah, man. The fare on those wares is like I drug!

So true, you can play to the point where you are about to smash a controller, but you still just respawn and run back in, why not shut it off? Who knows.

I'm already sick of it. Which is something that took almost a year to happen with COD4. I like a MP game to be more balanced, where skill and team work*  are the deciding factors on how good a player is. Running around with speed perks and a supply grenade knifing dudes is a sure way to rank up in MW2, but IMO it is not a skilled way to play.  Is it a good game? Yes, it delivers in spec ops very well. Is the MP good? Its good enough, but not balanced enough to keep me coming back for more.
 
* I grew up playing Unreal tournament and Quake 3.

I know exactly how you feel. I played over 200 hours of COD4, and have put in around 60 hours to this point for MW2, and I too find that I'm playing it out of some strange feeling of obligation rather than because I'm having fun. I'm thinking maybe it's because the two games kind of just bled together for me since I was playing COD4 right up to MW2's release, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's the maps? Or the relentless in-your-face-ness that you mentioned? I don't know, but I definitely don't like it as much as I did COD4.
 
I've started to ween myself with the methadone that is Borderlands. It satisfies that shooting urge, but is completely different, obviously.
 
Good luck to you, sir!

" I'm already sick of it. Which is something that took almost a year to happen with COD4. I like a MP game to be more balanced, where skill and team work*  are the deciding factors on how good a player is. Running around with speed perks and a supply grenade knifing dudes is a sure way to rank up in MW2, but IMO it is not a skilled way to play.  Is it a good game? Yes, it delivers in spec ops very well. Is the MP good? Its good enough, but not balanced enough to keep me coming back for more.  * I grew up playing Unreal tournament and Quake 3. "

" I know exactly how you feel. I played over 200 hours of COD4, and have put in around 60 hours to this point for MW2, and I too find that I'm playing it out of some strange feeling of obligation rather than because I'm having fun. I'm thinking maybe it's because the two games kind of just bled together for me since I was playing COD4 right up to MW2's release, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's the maps? Or the relentless in-your-face-ness that you mentioned? I don't know, but I definitely don't like it as much as I did COD4.  I've started to ween myself with the methadone that is Borderlands. It satisfies that shooting urge, but is completely different, obviously.  Good luck to you, sir! "

At times I wonder why I still play the game and usually I end up playing something else when I realize it. Unlike CoD4, MW2 is kinda a joke in the balanced department which is why I don't think it will ever be a real competitive game along the lines of something like CS:S. It's a fun game though even when it does feel like poo with knife runners, glitches etc.

PArt of the problem is that it is definitely one of those games that you need to play often to stay competitive in.  I certainly don't mean to rag on the game as it is great, but man. 

Infinity Ward are like a dev team I want to drop...kick.

Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm level 66 second prestige, spent 260+ hours with the multiplayer only plus the countless hours finishing the campaign in all difficulties along with spec ops. A total of 300+ hours of playtime. After 6 nukes, the last 2 happening just now one after the other, I've simply become bored with this yet I still feel compelled to keep playing it.

Never played COD4 but this one is addictive. I always say just one more match or just until i get termal or whatever.

I found the singleplayer in this game better than the multiplayer to be honest. It was more exciting and the multiplayer is often filled with bullshit. Sometimes when I go stealthy stealthy, I run up behind a dude(Ninja Pro of course) And suddenly he just does a 180 and knifes me, and it turns out he was turned my way all along when on my screen he was turned the other way. Stuff like that just breaks the experience in my opinion. Also the fact that some AR's are basically full-auto snipers(ACR) isn't very fun. 
 
The campaign was like TAKE TESTOSTERONE AND ADRENALINE MIX THE FUCK OUTTA THEM WHADDYA GET

I tried getting on last night and just to show my "addiction" logged off and then back on about six times within two hours. I kept getting so frustrated because I kept running into exploited games but at the same time kept telling myself "Grr, I will will try once more to find a good room". I never did. At this point I am considering the game broken though. 

This game makes me mad stressed out when I play, and It does make me grouchy and needlessly aggressive when I do poorly. But I keep coming back to it, because of that whole RPG progression addiction I have. I do have fun playing it, but I also leave the game shaken and strained out sometimes.

" This game makes me mad stressed out when I play, and It does make me grouchy and needlessly aggressive when I do poorly. But I keep coming back to it, because of that whole RPG progression addiction I have. I do have fun playing it, but I also leave the game shaken and strained out sometimes. "

Okay,  2 weeks and 6 days later third prestige 66, I'm at 20 nukes. I'm still not bored with it. What the fuck. This shit really does have drugs in it.
It's also fucking up my sleep. After I play all day and go to bed, images of headshots and mushroom clouds don't go out of my mind. I'm probably in a worse situation now than the OP.

I feel the same as you man. Whenever i play on-line i just want to get to a higher level, a new title, complete the challenges. 
 
It's addictive. Once i get one kill-streak i just want to improve and get more and more kills and use better kill-streaks. 4 prestiges in and needless to say, I'm addicted. It's the leveling up that really gets me. Thats probably why i was so addicted to Diablo 2... :P

" Okay,  2 weeks and 6 days later third prestige 66, I'm at 20 nukes. I'm still not bored with it. What the fuck. This shit really does have drugs in it. It's also fucking up my sleep. After I play all day and go to bed, images of headshots and mushroom clouds don't go out of my mind. I'm probably in a worse situation now than the OP. "

yes, it is kind of like a drug. sometimes i feel like playing the game. i just think that it is because of the leveling system. 
 
the only thing i would say is to go cold turkey if u want to quit. it is what i had to do when i played wow (world of warcraft). it was a very addictive game. i quit got back then i finally got bored of the game.

I am starting to feel this too. After playing it for almost a month (I didn't realize it's been so long!), I feel the need to play some other games, specifically games of another type. I'm quite sure that I will be going back to play with my friends (a group of us just gave my buddy MW2 and 1 yr of Xbox Live for his bday), but after I prestige I am definitely going to play something else. I think this is because the multiplayer has sorta become repetitive, and when I play it feels like I'm just doing the same thing over and over to level up.
 
It's weird because before I got MW2, I was playing the hell out of Dragon Age. Then at some point I was like "cmon... just let me kill these guys without : pause, select party member, issue command, unpause, pause, click healer, heal tank, etc etc". So MW2 arrived and I loved it. Yesterday I went back to DAO and I'm really loving the story and combat again. Now I wish that I could run Mass Effect smoothly on my PC. Combines shooting and RPGs! I might just pick up the 360 version of ME2 instead, and go with a "new game" (without importing from ME1, as I have it for PC)

I played it for maybe 1 month pretty solid. It's pretty easy to give up considering other games out there.

" I played it for maybe 1 month pretty solid. It's pretty easy to give up considering other games out there. "