One week later...

So here we are, one week into Modern Warfare 2.  As a retailer, it's been an incredibly exciting time.  It may sound like I'm romanticizing the situation, but it's a real neat experience to be participating in one of the largest media launches in history.  As a gamer, the experience has been nothing but rewarding - it's fast paced, fun, great looking, and most important in my opinion, familiar.  MW2 is a true COD experience while being something completely new all at the same time.  I don't mean to say that the controls aren't the same (they are), or the multiplayer is all different (it isn't), but the subtle tweaks to the things gamers "knew" in COD4, add a great deal of depth to a familiar experience.

I think my favorite of these "tweaks" is the killstreak bonuses, specifically in how they are earned.  It never made any sense to me in COD4 that someone who was getting killstreaks (read, "playing well") was rewarded with tools that would continue to allow them to get more kills, which in turn, would continue to unlock bigger and better killstreak bonuses.  MW2 has balanced out the equation a bit by not letting kills earned by bonuses count towards your personal streak.  You may have called in a Pave Low that wiped the other team off the board, or controlled an AC130 and truly demonstrated what 'fire from the sky' means, but those ___ number of kills you earned from those bonuses, although contributing to your overall score, will not help you get to that 25 killstreak tactical nuke.  It's a small change, but an excellent thought one.  It still stays true to the COD4 formula by rewarding the well playing players with more points and kills, but it still makes them work for their bigger bonuses the old fashioned way. (camping!)

I'll refrain from talking about specifics in the campaign here.  Although it's likely that most people have finished it already, I don't really want to risk it.  I do applaud the amazing campaign.  It breaks up it's own monotony by adding in stealth, action missions, and "tragedy moments", when they are needed, creating a nice flow and pacing.  I don't think they made lighting strike twice though with those "tragedy moments".  Remember in COD4, when you were playing as the dying soldier crawling out of a helicopter that was just victim to a nuclear bomb?  That 'tragedy moment' hit me real close to home, and still gives me goosebumps when I think about the first time I played it.  MW2 tried to add a lot more of these types of situations, and as a result, I got used to them very quickly.  They impacted me less due to their frequency.  I think they were well placed to tell their story, and weren't used without good reason, but the power that was in the first game's events was missing. No biggie though, just something I observed.

I look incredibly forward to playing this game to death.  It's a great time to be a gamer, kids.  MW2 is here, L4D2 is there for your coop kicks, and if you're feeling a little anti-social, pick up Assassin's Creed 2.  I would put money on seeing a review from 3N3MY on that one later this year.