Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Declared Biggest Launch in Entertainment History

Now lets see how they handle the inevitable dlc decisions. I think the now oft dreaded dlc is the reason why they closed the PC platform with IW.net, it's becoming more overtly apparent to me that more game companies are trying to squeeze as much profit from their products as possible, which is great for their bottom line but I would think bad for the consumers and gamers/gaming in general.

Gaming reaches a new low.

About the airport level (if you don't know about this then it will be a spoiler but I doubt there's anyone left who doesn't know about it by now, unless they've just awoken from a coma).

I'm sorry but the airport level where you are supposed to gun down civilians is crap. Not in principle, but in execution. It's rubbish. It doesn't work. I'm not saying it can't work, just that it's been done really badly here. All you get is a 30-second intro of some guy saying "You don't know what it's taken to get you here, this Makarov is a really bad dude and you'll be helping us a lot by doing this" and then you are expected to waste crowds of civilians. Sure, that's fine if you don't want to try to get into the game in any meaningful way, if you see it as no more emotionally engaging than Tetris, but if you actually get a kick out of playing games because (by their very nature) they give you a chance to enter into the role of the protagonist and experience something of what the protagonist would experience, this is not enough justification for you as a player to start mowing people down. Doing so means you are disengaging from the make-believe world of the game, because you are having to suspend your emotional involvement in the game, having no proper motivation to take part in the massacre. All games which feature simulated humans rather than coloured blocks or dots evoke some kind of emotional engagement, otherwise what would be the point of representing people? So even if they are not role-playing games, whenever I play a game what I am looking for is something which will make me believe I am really in the game, really doing what the game's protagonist is doing. That is what makes it fun - combat is fun in shooting games because it makes me feel like I, personally, am the one kicking ass. Not because I take pride in the fact that my hand-eye co-ordination lets me position a target over a certain coloured pixel and press a button. It's because I feel like a badass, shooting bad guys. The more games let me imagine I am really the one doing the cool stuff, the better I like them, and this applies just as much to shooters as to RPGs. This is why the airport level in MW2 is so badly judged, and so clumsily pulled off. The motivation for me, the player, to want to take part in the massacre has scarcely been presented at all, let alone done convincingly enough to make me even for a second want to pull the trigger. The player knows virtually nothing about the backstory, nothing about why the massacre is taking place, and nothing about how taking part in it is going to help anyone, all you have a vague reassurances from a disembodied voice.

In the film Donnie Brasco you see Johnny Depp going undercover in the mafia, and it's really tense, because he's duping them throughout the whole film and the slightest slip could give the game away, get him killed and blow his investigation. So at the end when he is about to shoot an innocent person, there is actually some debate about whether he should do it or not, it's engrossing, because you emotionally understand what is at stake. In this game, you don't even intellectually understand why you are taking part in the massacre, let alone emotionally understanding it. If you'd spent the whole game infiltrating Makarov's gang it would be different, this would be an interesting twist, because your desire to be successful at infiltrating his gang and succeeding at the game's key objective would introduce some conflict, and would at least give you some inclination to think about how far you were prepared to go to protect your cover. But the game isn't about being an undercover agent at all. It is not enough to say we can fill in our own backstory.

If the game had wanted to do this level properly it should have done everything it could to try to persuade you that there might conceivably be a reason why it was important enough to kill innocent people to get close to Makarov. But it happens right at the beginning of the game, so that is impossible. To take part in the massacre you have to turn off the natural emotional engagement which normally goes along with experiencing any fiction. It takes you out of the game. I mean, yes, what is presented is shocking, and the experience of playing through it certainly would be powerful, if you decide to play through it. But the game doesn't bother giving you any reason whatsoever to want to play through it. It doesn't put you in the position of trying to justify it to yourself, it doesn't raise any moral dilemmas, because it completely fails to sell the idea that anything significant is at stake. It is a gargantuan missed opportunity. Seriously, a loading screen with a bit of dialogue is not going to cut it. It's a complete failure. This is why I didn't take part in the killing of the civilians, I just hung back and shot scenery. It's not that I didn't want to participate in the world of the game, I love the game (despite the obnoxiously gung-ho intro voiceover), and I was prepared to experience what Infinity Ward wanted me to experience without prejudice, but they didn't even try to make me want to kill innocent people. Yes I know the innocent people aren't real, that totally misses the point - the point is that when I play games, I like to pretend as much as I can that they are real. So saying it's not real just ruins the whole point of me playing a game. I love pretending I'm an undercover agent. Let me do that, do it properly. Make me see what is at stake. Present me with a dilemma. Leave the terrorism scene to near the end of the game, and make the whole of the game lead up to it - make everything you have worked for throughout the whole of the game be what is at stake for failing to take part. The level fails even at doing what it is supposedly meant to be doing (showing how serious the whole situation is) because it didn't do enough to make me take the level seriously, meaning as much as possible I avoided looking at what was going on. And anyway, you don't have to see an airport of people being wasted to want to go after a bad guy. As a plot device for instigating the rest of the plot, I suppose what happens in the level works, but to expect someone just to play through it because you want to have a shocking level, is inept. It didn't shock me, because I didn't do the designers the favour of subjecting myself to it. Why would I? They should have made me want to play through it. Yes, I know the level is skippable, but then that just emphasises really how ineffective and unnecessary it is, because nothing is done to persuade you that you want to play it. It shows just how unimportant the story actually is that they don't care that a lot of people might be missing a chunk of it and spending the game being confused and uninvolved. It would have been a lot more powerful if they had made players who found the level uncomfortable want to play through it anyway. As it is it just ends up catering to fans of voyeuristic death, and making the game a bit crap. OK, it's not a big deal that there's a crap level in a game, but considering the phenomenal amount of attention this level is getting, the least they could have done was do it intelligently. Instead the did it completely stupidly. The designers have shown themselves to be hopelessly clueless at doing what TV and films routinely do so well.

On another note, excepting that level, this game is amazing, way better than Modern Warfare, both MP and SP are fantastic.

Depressing.

MW2 single player = Railshooter + with purty graphics. Horrible.

has everyone gotten this out of their system

it happened your pc's still work, there are still games available and incoming that will satisfy your needs, and PC gaming lives on.

twas not the end of the world, your voices were heard, it did nothing but hey at least you guys stood up for yourselves and that has to be worth something

btw, almost every pc gamer i know personally who yelled boycott on this game purchased it, so I know its hard being letdown by a dev and your some members of your community

Man, it just makes me sad how well this game did. I'm interested in seeing how many of those copies were for the PC. It's sad that gaming can't just be about gaming; there are so many politics behind. This release sets an awful precedence for PC gaming in general, and precedence is hugely important. I can only hope that this is an exception to the rule, but I fear that it'll become the rule in no time.

First, they start releasing DLC. Then they start stripping content out of the final product to make the DLC. Then they remove community tools that would otherwise allow for free content. Then they start charging $10 more than they normally would.

And people still buy in.

Did I read that correctly?The free PS3 PSN was overwhelmed? Did I just read 20 million XBOX LIVE connected. Hmmm.
I was on LIVE and not so much as a studder.
Yeah I guess free is better....
Hahahahahaha....um..yeah free.....

Having just played through the single player, I'd say they also take the accolade for most retardedly bad solo campaign of the year, with insultingly poor graphics in parts of it too. When your brand is strong enough you shouldn't let things like quality get in the way of making money, a bit short sighted I tend to think though.

Cheaters and griefers are having a blast right now without admins/mods to police the PC servers.

The MW2 official forums for PC are going crazy right now with issues with lag and cheaters. Glad to know that IWnet fixed all the issues for PC. Glad I didn't buy it either.

LISTEN APOLOGISTS.

Maybe you don't get it cus you think you're just a recipient of any good grace the publishers decide to bestow upon you. That's WRONG. This is clearly a co-op. Players support good titles with demand, and in turn game makers continue to produce, and hopefully challenge the standards and find new ways to thrill.

On the PC, communities live and die around dedicated servers. Natural Selection has been supported by the community in all its 7 years, the making of NS2 is supported by the community. You can't possibly rationalize giving your players LESS and expect higher sales volume. This is a sham.

That's why organization is empowering. If you don't agree with something, get in touch with like-minded people and boycott. Protest. It's preposterous to say that everything is fine, that you are willing to live with something cus you're just one person, that a certain publisher is too big to fight.

The level of emasculated people astounds me.

I remember when gaming required skill. 4 hours after release everyone beat the SP and a couple days later people already have thousands of kills and the game is hacked. It's been nice knowing you gamingl..

Look, I know some of yall are feeling a little emotional and all, but Benzo Dia wouldn't lie to you. This game is fan-mother effing-tasic, and I'm just talking about SP here.

The weapons feel a lot better and are more varied, the visuals are better, on the harder difficulties the level design is punishingly brutal (in a good way), 60 fps, lighting is top notch, animations are crazy on point.

I'll let yall know how multiplayer is in two years when I'm done with it.

LOL ?

http://www.hazology.com/modern-warfare-2-hacks-on-the-way-2009/

Fuck <Developer> all they ever did was remove <function> from <platform> and that makes me <negative emotion> >:(

*hilarious* comments aside, They deserve it after Modern Warfare (1), the single player was amazing, I'm still on the fence about purchasing the latest one, though.

Well for all you guys bitching and whining - The games AMAZING.

One minute your are ripping the industry for making shit games, the next you are bitching about EA and layoffs saying mismanagement and then we a huge worldwide hit comes along you find another bitch to bitch about.

I think the dawn has risen and in the light of the new day you will slowly see that the world has move on and are playing a great game and enjoying every minute of it.

Just stop bitching and give some praise for their success. Success is helpful in our industry at the moment and will encourage new IP to be made, sequals to be done and also people to be kept employed.

I heard PC sales were pathetic though. So far.

Kinda sad but typical, eh?

I wonder if this is going to be the last CoD with a PC version.

God damn, between this and the L4D2 stuff, the comments on this article are making me ashamed to call myself a PC Gamer.

I agree that the PC build of this game is sub-par for some incredibly tenuous reasons. I agree that Kotick doesn't deserve this success. But goddamn, guys, would you at least TRY to not be whiny bitches about this? Don't buy the game, fine. Try to convince others not to buy the game based on your moral objections, fine. But hearing people yell and scream about how this is killing gaming and console kiddies are idiots just makes you sound like a dick.

For every one person that puts forward a good reason to avoid this title, there are 50 others yelling subjective bullshit that's going to make people ignore any good arguments there are to be heard. Either start making rational arguments or Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

I've enjoyed all the previous CoD games and stuff, but I don't really see all the hoopla. It's a good series, but not the best thing ever. Oh well, hype machines know how to work... (like the Halo series for example)

Wow, so many Negative Nancys. Please get over yourselves. It's a game and it's pretty fun. It's not the cure for cancer or the genesis of WWIII.

I'm kind of skeptical - this was bigger than Harry Potter book releases?

I never liked any COD .. wonder what I'm missing

Hey, how's that boycott going?

http://kotaku.com/5403286/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing

Halo rape.

now that they got a ton of money maybe they will fix the pc multiplayer.
battlefield's server model is best. give us a browser and a bunch of filters and let service providers give us dedicated servers

On a lighter note:

http://forums.xbox.com/29600400/ShowPost.aspx#29600400

To people who like this game: You are nerds and are being brainwahed by THE MAN.

To people who don't like this game: You are nerds who hate everything, and sales = quality.

There, I just saved 75% of you the trouble of needing to post.

ahahahahaha....

...AHAHAHAHAHHAHA

http://kotaku.com/5403286/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing

haters gonna hate!

A sad day for gaming.

Everyone who bought it has already mastered the SP and killed thousands in EZ mode MP. I remember when gaming requried skill.. the good 'ol days.

lol at the people on PSN who couldn't play. thats what you get for paying too much for a poo-ray player.

Blaargh.

Good argument for genocide and sterilisation.

Get off it already will you.. God you guys are like a bunch of little kids that didn't get your lollipops..

WAHHHH!!!! I DIDN"T GET MY DEDICATED SERVER!!!!!

It is such a small portion of you that would actually set this crap up. Its not a feature every PC player uses. Enjoy the game for what it is already!

Whomever it was that forecast a $300 million day one was right.

yeah, i couldnt play at all yesterday on PSN.

that was fun.

Also declared the biggest fail on PC in history.