Modern Warfare 2 has been in the hands of the gaming masses for a few days and already gamers are looking to get their next FPS fix. With no dedicated servers on the PC, PS3 servers crashing, and some calling the game a $60 DLC pack, it seems Infinity Ward might have dropped the ball with MW2. Fear not, because for once it looks like EA (yes, that EA) is coming to the rescue with Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
Modern Warfare 2 is Out, Bad Company 2 is In
On November 6, 2007 Infinity Ward launched what is now the most popular first person shooter in the history of this young industry, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The game was released with little fanfare compared to other high profile titles, such as Halo 3 and Gears of War.
With some decent hype coming off a stellar 2007 E3 showing, great review scores and a strong marketing campaign behind it, the word quickly spread that COD4 was the must-buy title for the holiday season. What happened next was nothing short of astonishing. As of May 2009 COD4 has gone on to sell over 13 million copies and has set the bar by which all first person shooters will be measured for years to come.
Since then plenty of high profile, triple-A shooters have hit the scene. Games such as Battlefield: Bad Company, Killzone 2, and even Halo: ODST have come and gone with publishers and gamers hoping that one would take the FPS crown, yet here we are 2 years later and COD 4 is still the benchmark for the FPS genre.
Enter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
This time around things are different. Back on February 11, 2009 it was announced that COD: MW2 would launch on November 10, 2009. In that time the Internet has been abuzz with fans analyzing any sort of data, screenshot, or footage that’s been released.
Pre-order sales topped 3 million units, and every brick and motor store in the country planned to have a midnight launch. With two years worth of production, millions of dollars in the budget, and a community of diehard fans behind them, Infinity Ward poised themselves to defend the FPS crown.
So what the hell happened?
Money and Fame, that’s what happened. The Hollywood effect. Release a great movie that turns into a blockbuster and then add every cliché idea to the next one just to make money. COD: MW2 isn’t a bad game, but it certainly isn’t as good as the first one.
It has a 6 hour (max) campaign mode, a pretty robust online mode, and a tacked-on special-ops mode.
The campaign is a joke. Infinity Ward stated they couldn’t do Co-Op in the campaign mode because it didn’t fit in with the story. What story? That was one of the worst “stories” I have ever sat through. They turned up the WOW factor by burning down Washington, D.C. and making the player take an active role in a terrorist plot at an airport – but the only time I said “wow” was when I finished the campaign and said, “Wow, that sucked!”
The online multiplayer mode, even with its new bells and whistles, is still the same old online multiplayer you’d expect with a few minor changes. There are fewer players per round, bigger maps, and a new coat of paint. They’ve also removed popular gametypes such as Old-School mode and added in a minimally useful third person mode that screams of “me-too”.
Modern Warfare 2 isn’t a complete fail but it pales in comparison to the monumental gaming achievement that was Call of Duty 4. In fact, most gamers are already looking for the next big FPS release to invest their hours of gaming into. My fellow gamers, you can stop looking, that game is…
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
On June 23, 2008 EA DICE released Battlefield: Bad Company, a FPS based on the Frostbite engine. The engine allows for 92% of the environment to be destroyed. For the first time ever players had the ability to not only blow a hole in the side of a building where a camper has setup shop, they could take out the entire building. The game received mostly positive reviews but due to flaws in the new engine, a sometimes awkward control mechanic and the popularity of COD4, Battlefield: Bad Company faded into the record books as yet another average shooter.
Skip ahead almost two years and feast your eyes on Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game is poised to dethrone COD4 and become the new king in town. Running on a revised Frostbite engine, the game not only looks better, supports more players, features more vehicles, more weapons, and more gameplay modes than the first. As the saying goes, “More is better,” and it looks like DICE is throwing giving this one their all.
The fact that EA and DICE are releasing the PS3 beta a week after MW2’s launch really shows that DICE is serious about their FPS and are confident they have what it takes to bring Modern Warfare down.
With the pending release of the game only 4 months away, Infinity Ward should enjoy their victory now because their reign is going to be short lived.
The Call of Duty franchise features many famous military quotes so here is one for Infinity Ward: “History repeats itself.”
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is set to become the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. With a unmatched engine behind it, BF: BC 2 looks to be a unique FPS that will raise the bar for the genre. CoD 4 took the crown from Halo and now BF: BC 2 will take the crown from CoD 4.
http://www.pixelenemy.com/2009/11/modern-warfare-2-is-out-bad-company-2-is-in/
