Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

Post by Dan @ 12:28pm 12/11/09 | 42 Comments

Perhaps the most anticipated game of 2010, Activision and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now available in stores everywhere for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Following the huge success of its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 has some incredibly lofty expectations to live up to and we think it passes the mark on most aspects. Unfortunately however, the whole deal is let down by the game's new multiplayer networking component - a stark change from the treatment we're used to for PC first person shooters.

Find out all the details in our in-depth review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

modern warfare 2 call of duty review

Latest Comments

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darkjedi
Posted 01:32pm 12/11/09

8.2? Wow.. Activision won't be sending you any goodies for a while I suspect.

Jokes aside, good review Dan & is the first one I've seen that actually touches on the PC multiplayer at all. Every single other review I've seen has either been a lazy copy/paste of the Console version's review with one line added to go "Oh, the PC has higher resolution" and made no mention of the Multiplayer aspect other than "It's fun, heehee".

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Raider
Posted 01:38pm 12/11/09

I still don't get how it can be rated so highly even from you guys. You're talking about a game with a main SP of 4hrs, a challenge mode which does pretty much exactly the same thing as SP. MP which is only decent when you can find a decent game which in turn kills re playability and frustrates players.

Ultimately.. cod has always been focused on MP.. and still is considering the only put 4hrs of game play into SP and linking it to Steam on top of? Dunno man 8.2 sounds might fkn generous.

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paveway
Posted 01:40pm 12/11/09

i don't think i've ever seen a game rated lower than this by ausgamers so it must be s***

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TicMan
Posted 01:43pm 12/11/09

Graphically, it's another step-up from CoD 4. For PC though, perhaps not as big a step as two years of extra R&D time should be, but that's really par for the course in this console-focused world - at least it stops us having to upgrade so frequently.

Hah, I love the undertones in that :)

Secondly, without them those providers can't offer unmetered data to their customers and if you're unwittingly chosen as the host - particularly if your Internet provider also meters upload data, your gaming time is going to be making bigger dents in your monthly download caps.

Does anyone with MW2 feel like running some traffic monitoring when playing in a P2P game and you're the host? I run with iiNet naked which charges me for uploads so it'd be an interesting bit of information to know.

My experience in the last two days (while playing on a gigabit fibre connection I might add) has included

Dan did you find you were being chosen as the host for games that eventually got up and running because you had a phat pipe.

I've missed playing FPS over the past few years so slowly getting back into it with Shattered Horizons I bought this week. I was keen to go for MW2 but without dedicated server support it sounds like a 6hr $90 single player game. So I might just buy CoD4 as it seems to have a bit of support still behind it.

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b j p
Posted 01:51pm 12/11/09

Review sounds like a small child crying that the new game isn't aimed directly for his PC.

I haven't finished yet in single player but have played a few hours of multiplayer and it is flawless on X360.

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paveway
Posted 01:54pm 12/11/09

yeah definitely go cod4, you won't regret it

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ConsoleTroll
Posted 01:55pm 12/11/09

I actually completely forgot that PC lags a whole different way than console.

Seeing the video in the other thread was terrible. On xbox 360 the game is still smooth without any jittering but you shots might just be a bit behind.

Don't understand why they don't have the same system with PC. I am still finding the Single player awesome and it's nice to play on Veteran as it stands as a bit more of a challenge.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 02:03pm 12/11/09

paveway:

review score 6.8

review score 7.5

review score 6.5

review score 6

review score 4.5

review score 6.9

review score 4.5

All AusGamers reviews

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ctd
Posted 02:05pm 12/11/09

you don't notice lag on console cause it takes you 5 seconds to aim at some c*** anyway lulz.
GameArena gave the PC component MP 5/10

last edited by ctd at 14:05:59 12/Nov/09

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paveway
Posted 02:06pm 12/11/09

yeah rightio smartass

i just know i've read plenty of not great reviews then at the end it's a big fat 8.5 and i think wtf, i know i'm not the only one who has noticed this

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boba
Posted 02:06pm 12/11/09

I think you're getting ausgamers and gamearena confused paveway

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trog
Posted 02:21pm 12/11/09

yeah rightio smartass

i just know i've read plenty of not great reviews then at the end it's a big fat 8.5 and i think wtf, i know i'm not the only one who has noticed this

are you sure you actually read them? you can even read this one and read the justification for the relatively high score.

I'll translate this review into a one line summary for those people that don't feel like reading the whole thing:

"The PC gaming side of things sucks compared to what it used to/could be, but it's still playable so there's still some enjoyment there. And the single player game, while sort, utterly kicks ass, so there's a lot of fun to be had in this game."

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tequila
Posted 02:41pm 12/11/09

price tag kills it for me

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HurricaneJim
Posted 02:49pm 12/11/09

yeah rightio smartass

i just know i've read plenty of not great reviews then at the end it's a big fat 8.5 and i think wtf, i know i'm not the only one who has noticed this
are you sure you actually read them? you can even read this one and read the justification for the relatively high score.

I'll translate this review into a one line summary for those people that don't feel like reading the whole thing:

"The PC gaming side of things sucks compared to what it used to/could be, but it's still playable so there's still some enjoyment there. And the single player game, while sort, utterly kicks ass, so there's a lot of fun to be had in this game."

So why pay for it?

Alternatively, I'll answer with;

We're massive fans of Modern Warfare here. Even though purists and elitists may sneer, we had no problem in awarding a 10/10 for Call of Duty 4, because it was such a terrific effort on console AND PC. If you told me three months ago we would be suggesting PC gamers hold off on buying Modern Warfare 2 I would have thought you're crazy. But if you are buying this game mainly for multiplayer - especially if you're contemplating serious competitive play at a high level - that's exactly what we're saying. The single player story is great, and if your idea of multiplayer is a quick zap with mates maybe an hour or two a week then by all means - it's great for your purposes. However if you're a Counterstrike, Battlefield, ETQW or even a COD4 player looking for a serious competitive platform to move to - best wait. Wait and see if Infinity Ward can implement dedicated server support; failing that wait until early next year to see how Battlefield: Bad Company 2 turns out.

I didn't start any sentence with and....

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Dan
Posted 02:53pm 12/11/09

Cheers trog, that's pretty much the gist of it.

On principle, I'm dead against the concept of peer to peer for first person shooters (at least ones with a competitive focus - tbh I think for something like Bordlerlands it would be fine). But it just wouldn't be fair to discount all many other impressive aspects of the game that really are as good or better than anything else out there.

Sure it detracts from the game and it will definitely suffer over the longer term, but it's not unplayable by any stretch.

Perhaps PC diehards should be boycotting on principle alone, but hell, I'd love to see dedicated servers available for console games too. The recently released Section 8 actually did this by the way (you could run PC-based servers for Xbox 360 players of the game), but it's just too low profile a game to make a difference.

There are a whole lot of reasons to adopt a peer to peer model, but when you take a close look at most of them, they seem to all be about more publisher control and hence more opportunity for them to milk more money from the players.

I really hope that at least a few of the better FPS developers hold ground.

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ViscoS
Posted 03:11pm 12/11/09

Cheers Dan, great review, I shan't be buying this game.

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ravn0s
Posted 03:12pm 12/11/09

sounds like this game should have been DLC for MW

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TicMan
Posted 03:12pm 12/11/09

Aww Dan didn't answer my questions :(

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Trauma
Posted 03:15pm 12/11/09

And when the dust settles it's EA who win, ironic.

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ctd
Posted 03:15pm 12/11/09

yeah definitely go cod4, you won't regret it

Will be interesting to see where the PC crowd goes. Ultimately the majority of the pub players follow the leetzors. Remember when CS:Source was release a huge portion of players stayed with the original CS. On top of that CS:Source got its own community from new players and the small amount that made the transfer.

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Dan
Posted 03:17pm 12/11/09

Oh sorry ticcles. As far as I'm aware, there was no easy way to tell how often I was chosen as the host. At a guess I'd say that it's entirely possible that it never picked me because I'm behind the office firewall and wouldn't have the required ports open.

I'd definitely be interested to see what kind of traffic differences it would be too.

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Trauma
Posted 03:23pm 12/11/09

Yea it would I know Optus cable meters all uploads, would it use much? being on a network, when one user uses all the upload the connection suffers and its like being capped for all the other users.

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Chuckeh
Posted 07:37pm 12/11/09

although my optus cable plan does not count uploads, and with 60gb that doesnt worry me anyway, my upload speed is 256 k. That allows me to host one other person a server max. 3 of us would mean lag, while only 4 people would make it crawl. Most aus plans are not much higher than that anyway.

what a joke.

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whoop
Posted 08:24pm 12/11/09

For comparison (because I refuse to buy mw2) here's what cod4 uses:

5KB/s and you get about 16KB/s upload on telstra cable so you'd be able to host a 3 player game, if that for cod4 I guess? I imagine mw2 might be a bit more optimized, I hope.

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ViscoS
Posted 08:27pm 12/11/09

This game will make LAN parties popular again.

Or fail... gonna go with fail.

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Gabby
Posted 10:00pm 12/11/09

Okay i finished the game in less than 6 hours on hardened...
I don't fancy it much, COD5 was MUCH better in my opinion.
The multiplayer is crap... i don't know if its because i'm so used to the MP on COD5, i just prefer COD5.

Still a good game though.

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FraktuRe
Posted 10:01pm 12/11/09

The only thing worse than mw2 was codwaw.

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Gabby
Posted 10:09pm 12/11/09

=\ i like fps

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FraktuRe
Posted 10:11pm 12/11/09

I like GOOD fps.

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ViscoS
Posted 10:12pm 12/11/09

WaW wasn't anything special, but then Treyarch had set the bar fairly low previously, so it was a big step-up for them.

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Gabby
Posted 10:12pm 12/11/09

you have xbox? coughhalonubcough

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FraktuRe
Posted 10:27pm 12/11/09

cod4 was good. tf2 is better.

also, conslols asif.

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Icus
Posted 10:31pm 12/11/09

TicMan
Posted 01:43pm 12/11/09

"...I run with iiNet naked which charges me.."

I lol'd

I would go for a run with you dude, but you would have to promise to put some clothes on first!

Seriously though single player was the value of this game, and it certainly wasnt worth the money I spent. All I ended up getting was 4 hours of gameplay and terrible attempt at multiplayer. Which is pure fail frustration for anyone who isnt a console kid.

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trog
Posted 10:57pm 12/11/09

5KB/s and you get about 16KB/s upload on telstra cable so you'd be able to host a 3 player game, if that for cod4 I guess? I imagine mw2 might be a bit more optimized, I hope.

I'd be surprised - the trend is, the more recent the game, the more bandwidth it uses.

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infi
Posted 12:08am 13/11/09

so how is this bandwidth thing supposed to work then? also is there anyway at all to host clan matches?

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d0mino
Posted 09:21am 13/11/09

you can host a private match and invite who you want. just like on the console!

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MatchFixa
Posted 01:22pm 13/11/09

Hey Gabby Face, sell me your copy of MW2 (if it's an xbox360 game).

Can do cash, pickup, all in 20's.

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FraktuRe
Posted 02:32pm 16/11/09

You'd drive to sydney for a second hand game?

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Pinky
Posted 02:42pm 16/11/09

Review sounds like a small child crying that the new game isn't aimed directly for his PC.

God this makes me want to punch you in the face. You remind me of a kid that used to say, "Gonna cry are you? Gonna cry?" in High School.

The fact remains, PC has barely been considered as a market for this game - when the COD series was originally designed for PC (remember?)

So yeah, PC gamers have a right to be upset. So take your lame-arse, school-kiddie trolling elsewhere!

At the end of the day, consumers vote with their wallet. That's what I'm doing on this one. 8.2 from AGN is not a high enough recommendation for me when there are so many other good games out there (or about to be released). Top review too, Dan!

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Summer
Posted 10:32pm 16/11/09

anyone else angry the leaning fuction was removed?

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MatchFixa
Posted 11:39pm 16/11/09

You'd drive to sydney for a second hand game?

Yeah but i'll be picking up more than just a video game..

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eXemplar
Posted 12:08am 17/11/09

I'm glad I didn't pay the full 100$ for this, however the coop spec-ops missions on veteran is some of the most fun I've had in a video game in ages, spent at least double the time spent playing sp veteran and still haven't finished it yet. Right up there with Borderlands on the damn fun coop with small problems that don't really take that much away from the game itself.

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