They changed the dynamics where rather than defending a base that you own, you’re attacking a base you own, in most situations.  You don’t spawn at the defensive point as you do in BFBC2, you spawn at the base next to it while, generally, the opposing side is humping your objectives by the time you get there.  The best one tonight is spawning in Hastings and being killed almost immediately by a helicopter at the spawn base, which again, isn’t the attack point.  So basically you can be base rapped and there isn’t a boundary.

I had grown a bit tired of BFBC2, it’s been nearly a year and I’ve put a lot of time in the game so it’s not a surprise to me and this was suppose to be my deliverance but instead of being my most anticipated game of the year, it’s become the biggest disappointment of the year for me.

If you like Call of Duty/Modern Warfare and the retooled Medal of Honor, you should love it, otherwise don’t waste your money and keep playing BFBC2.

Anyway, I like it quite a bit and it’s kind of like the new spastic game that I’ve been missing since I stopped playing UnrealTournament games.  UT games were always nice to do while playing Battlefield games to break up the slower pace.  MW2 never seemed to quench my thirst for that, it was too small and restricted, which is what seems to be the problem with the hardcore MW2 people, BO is too big. LOL!  Fun stuff….

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beyond that… nothin’ new other than Call of Duty: Black Ops and all the lost hours I have in it the past few weeks!

I don’t mind playing MW2 much like I didn’t mind MW or WaW but for me it doesn’t have the lasting effect that the Battlefield series provides with the map size and a somewhat different experience each round because everyone has different tactics or abilities. MW2 is generally linear in terms of what’s going to happen.

My final note… Anyone not buying this game because they can’t run a free server AND still plays MW2 needs kicked in the groin.

Comparisons:

Global Stats:   BFBC2
Dedicated Servers:  BFBC2
Kicking Hacks:  BFBC2
Map Size:  BFBC2
Vehicles:  BFBC2
Paratroops:  BFBC2
Veteran Privileges for Prior Games in the series:  BFBC2 (when it works)
Individual Stats:  Both
Weapon Unlocks:  Both
Game Modes (Number, not quality): MW2
Unlocks: MW2 (Good and bad, it gets crazy trying to figure out what you want to choose)

What to do? Well I wish that they’d offer ground games without this crap.  Oh wait, you probably could specify this if they had dedicated servers but alas they decided to be cheap assholes and not put any time into the development of the PC version while charging $10 more.  Sorry, I forgot for a second that Activision and Bobby Kotick (who cares nothing about gaming) cared about quality over money.   Bobby Kotick should be the person at the end of single player that gets the knife to the head, hell he probably doesn’t even know that’s how it ends.  I personally would love to see the game move to someone else but unfortunately with the sales of MW2 he’ll remain in control until a fan does toss a fatal knife into his skull.  I look forward to (and God I never thought I’d say this) EA taking back the reins of a game with the Battlefield series.  Unfortunately I’m not sure how BF1943 is going to play out since we’re still 6 months on the PC without it, so I can only hope that Bad Company 2 compares to BF2 or even BF2142.

Edit:  My continued rant on 1/3/2010….

A few more things that pisses me off about the game I love at the moment.

1. The lack of control of hacking and kicking.  WTH were they thinking? People rape people in this game and you can’t kick them. I had a game tonight with a guy who went 85-5 and I left 1/2 through the game.  Sure they did something a while back by kicking 2500 people they said were hacking but we’re at 2 months now and it runs rampant.  Granted some are just campers that rack up scores but not 85 kills to 5 in less than 10 minutes?
2. When you can’t connect there’s no way to exit.  So it attempts to connect and can’t, it sits there forever.
3. It throws you into a map that you can’t change during the load screen, so it forces you to accept the map. Exit after it loads and you lose the match.  A lot could care less but I’m a stats freak which is what does keep me playing, I love the unlocks by WORKING for them.  The Quarry map in particular, who the hell likes that map???
4. I already said this but … People who play Domination like it’s TD. Played a map tonight where the guy just sat around knifing people outside our base.  Didn’t attempt to take the point, just knifed.
5. I already said this too but … Again, air combat in domination from people out for personal score who could care less about points.
6. Inability to play maps you want to play.
7. The party system… It’s a double edged sword.  Unfortunately it stacks players and more than that clans.  Even in most dedicated servers this isn’t a problem or at least you can find another server. Not in glorious MW2.
8. Join delays.  L4D offers that when you’re kicked or exit a map it won’t put you back into that game.  Not in MW2, you pop right back into the server with the assholes hacking or the clan stacked server you just left and get another loss.

Most of these are, gasp, easily avoided in dedicated servers… You kick hacks and you chose the map/server you want to play, admins could turn off air attacks and most of this crap is gone.

Game play is great, the hierarchy, bonuses and unlocks are great but the administration of the game sucks worse than any game I’ve played.  Even BF2 had some restraint by having a single “commander” that did the air support piece. Granted there were hacks in BF2/2142 but they were a lot less frequent, and you could kick people.  I get that things in WaW and MW were out of control in terms of just point hacking but trading that for a gaming experience ISN’T the answer.  It’s backwards thinking…rather than specifying rules like EA did with BF2/2142 “official servers” you just say screw everyone and STILL have no control over hacking.  It reminds me of the RIAA mentality.

Let’s throw in the extremely engaging and riveting but extremely short single player mode (7-8 hours) and the $10 more for a PC game.

As for the dedicated servers on MW2, I’m not noticing much issue so far, although I’m not a daily player or spend all my free time gaming.  The fact that there are people already with prestige makes me wonder, can someone really do that in a few weeks unless they’re playing constantly?  I guess I know some that do it in WoW so anything is possible.  It is nice that people are “supposedly” earning their achievements unlike the debacle that World at War was.  I admit I played on some of the servers that had an ungodly amount of points for a kill, etc. but it grows old but so does having games like MW that casual gamers got the hell beat out of them because they didn’t play daily.  The nice thing with MW2 is they have perks for casual gamers who aren’t great (AKA me! heh).

Anyway, I need to do something with screenshots since I have 100′s that I’ve not uploaded including stuff from these two great games.  I have a crap load on my xFire profile which I’m finding is more and more useful as a gaming social site even though a lot of gamers don’t use it.  It keeps all my shots in their 1920×1200 glory so that’s a bonus and does the uploads in game rather than having to do anything with them here and spending precious space.  Still using FRAPS tho and have that subscription.   If you’re not into xFire, you should at least check it out.  Cheap product for a lot of usefulness… Videos, Frame Rates  & Screenshots.

Check out the xFire Screenshot page.