Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I really enjoyed the single-player campaign though I don't think the story line was quite as strong as COD4. But the situations are undeniably original and well crafted if a little disjointed. I bought a physical copy for myself and a Steam one for my son so we could go through the co-op missions together (using mumble for comms). This was great fun, except perhaps for trying to tackle the juggernauts with just a knife and explosives! - kinda pointless.

Although there is clearly some axe-grinding going on elsewhere in these reviews from the hardcore PC gaming community (I'm all for anti-piracy measures if they don't get in the way of playing the game) I would definitely echo a lot of the shortcomings highlighted in the multi-player strategy. The system simply is not robust enough. If you spend an hour on-line you can easily find you've spent half that time trying to join or re-join a game. There's a variety of error messages that come out if your game connection fails but there's little you can do about any of them and the net result is the same: you're not having fun.

I can see why they went down the 'player server' route - they supposedly retain control and it's pretty much infinitely scalable. But it's reliability is fundamentally flawed as well as not achieving what must have been a key objective: stopping cheaters.

In spite of all this, if you can get into (and stay in) a game and if there are no cheaters and if you have a reasonable ping and if you are in the zone, on-line is a whole lot of fun.

First of i want to say that i really thought the single player part of the game was very impressive. The story line and gameplay i give it 5 stars gladly. I enjoyed it from start to finish.

However the single player is only a small part of what i wanted as i have been playing online games for years now, Sadly as much i really wanted to like this game the new IWNET system where the game is hosted on players home PC's it a terrible failure. At the moment i have reached level 42 so have have some experience of it.

The problem is lag about 50% of games i played the connection either fails totally or you get host migrated to another players PC,When waiting in the lobby for a game to start it drops the connection when it cannot connect to the host and you start over, Insead of using a server browser and popping onto a dedicated one where all your mates hang out. This lag and constant interuptions has ruined the gameplay for me. I am on an 8 meg line and when i play other games on properly run dedicated server this is not a issue as it happens very rarely.

The final tipping point came today is when the Aimbotters turned up, And with killcam there is no dispute when you see it snap to the players head and delivers a perfect shot every time, And since this is IWNET using valve anti cheat there are no Server admins to kick/ban them.

Why The developers thought IWNET and Valve anti cheat would fair any better than previous games is a mystery, Anybody who has played counter strike that uses VAC will know that Server admins where always kicking ainbotters/speedhackers etc because VAC couldent, So the reason for this i must assume is is cost related but in the history of online gaming there are always 2 constants. The first is that the game will always be pirated and the second is that the hackers will always find a way around the security. And while the game is hosted on your own PC i am concerned that it may allow attemts to get into your PC for malicious reasons.

For the record i was one of the people who voiced concerns regarding dedicated servers but i gave it a try and the gaming community was correct, On paper i am sure IWNET is a great idea but in reality you cant beat a dedicated server where you can make new friends and a decent admin.

Before I start I would like to say that my review is purely of the multiplayer. Although I played single to try it out that is not why I play games.

Firstly I would like to comment on the whole lobby/matchmaking system. This might be a good thing for consoles it is not appropriate for PC games. PC users are used to having dedicated servers to play on where one server can give a different gaming experience to another. This could be down to the type of regular players that congregate there or due to customisation in place on the server. Fixed (read dedicated) servers also provide the game with a "social" aspect. When you play online with the same people you get to know them. I have played online games for some time and have met people after meeting them ingame. All that I have met through the game I am still good friends with today.

Now, I could possible forgive the lobby system (and enjoy the game!!!) if it actually worked as intended. It doesn't. You spend more time in the lobby than you do playing the game. No joke. You start a game and for no reason half you "party" get kicked out. If you have a 6 player party you have no chance of getting a game quickly as it needs to find players for you to play against. Some drop or get kicked out just before the match starts and the timer starts all over again and trys to find more players. There is also no option for having a 7 player party and splitting them over the two teams in public play. The numbers make for a crap private game and to do a public game you have to have some start the game in a party and have the rest click to join via steam (and hope they get in). If you survive the numbers game you still have a 10% chance of being kicked out of the match before it starts for no good reason. The game patches without telling you so at any point you could end up with a version incompatible with your friends. I spent 20 minutes last night checking my computer and internet connections because every time I tried to join a party it just said "could not join party". At no point did it mention that I had a different game version. Eventually I asked them to tell me what version they had as I had run out of other ideas. They then restarted the game and we got a party going. We didn't get a game going though. Apparently the patch has the side effect of crashing the game of the host when the match starts (I suspect that is why the Infinity Ward forums are still down. People are trying to give them an earful. Unfortunately I don't think they read the PC forums any more. Every other thread is a complaint that has fallen on deaf ears.

Next: Game modes and types. The game has the following game types: Team deathmatch, free for all, sabotage, demolition, domination, headquarters, search and destroy, capture the flag. All of these are available in regular (softcore) mode. Only HQ, S&D and TDM are available in hardcore mode (which is the only mode I play - softcore means having to empty an entire magazine into the enemy). There is also no game type that rotates the ones available in hardcore. This means you play the same thing over and over again which is boring. Using dedicated servers in COD4 you could play and map or gametype combination you want and the softcore or hardcore was set separately. Why IW chose to do something different after the success of COD4 was beyond me. I suppose they cared far more about money than actually making a decent game.

Hackers: You meet them every day on the PC. This is another reason to have dedicated servers. Anti cheat programs A) potentially catch hackers and B) allow server admins to take screenshots of possible hackers to see if there is visible evidence. Dedicated servers also means that these hackers actually get banned. Whatever infinity ward say, they are not banning hackers from the game, and it is very depressing.

To sum up: If everything goes right for you then you might have a fun game, otherwise you will spend a lot of time pulling your hair out or banging you head against the desk. I advise against buying this game on the PC.