From the vault: What I Think of Modern Warfare 2

While in the Call of duty swing I thought I'd share with you all my thoughts of Modern Warfare 2. Also it was the first review I ever wrote so it has sentimental value. That and this is the only article left that OzBoxLive has decided to credit me for.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (or just modern warfare 2) was the most hotly anticipated game of 2009. Its creators Infinity Ward and Activision said it was to deliver us the best first-person action game since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. But it wasn’t.

I don’t hate the game, but it could have been better. The story was a disappointment. The plot itself is good but it’s a major anti-climax. Very little actually happened. The story asks tons of questions and answers very little. It’s that I’m annoyed about. I was ticked off when I finished the campaign. Without going into detail, Modern Warfare 2 takes place five years after Call Of Duty 4 and it’s up to Soap and Task force 141 to fight a new bad guy called Makarov. If you can’t remember what happened in Call Of Duty 4 the first cut scene gives you a quick recap.

Game play is awesome! It’s classic Call of Duty 4 game play with a few additions. Modern Warfare 2 has new weapons like the ACR and the AUG HBAR. Attachments make a comeback and show up on all the weapons in a variety of combinations. Some of the new ones include a thermal sight and a heartbeat sensor.

The Vehicles are not just cover in Modern Warfare 2, in some missions you get to drive or be driven about the map. The rest of the missions are fun and are set in locations throughout the world including a shantytown in Brazil, the deserts of Afghanistan and Washington D.C.

The attention to detail in Modern Warfare 2 is insane. Modern Warfare 2 spares nothing, right down to the paintings in the White house. It’s that kind of detail that just makes the game so beautiful to play. The guns look good and the small shockwave that is made after firing a round is a nice touch.

The sound is now more realistic than any game made before it. The AK’s sound like AK’s and the voice acting is fantastic. The Russians sound like Russians and the British are British. Normally in American games the accents let them down because Americans can’t tell them apart but in Modern Warfare 2 they’ve nailed it. The whole game is given a musical score that rivals any Hollywood production. It’s amazing; I wish I could get it on my iPod.

The game is given a longer playtime by adding a total game completion bar. This means to get 100% completion you must finish the game on all difficulties, find all pieces of enemy intelligence that look like laptops, finish the Special ops challenges and achieve the highest rank in multiplayer which is a new feature for Modern Warfare 2.

It should be noted that there is a level where it asks if you want to skip the level due to the “disturbing content.” You are not penalized in achievements or game completion for skipping the mission but you do miss out on a part of the story. What you do in this level is shoot innocent civilians in a Russian airport.

Modern Warfare 2 has fantastic graphics and sound along with the classic Call of Duty game play we all love. It’s the story that lets the whole game down but if you take it with a pinch of salt you’ll have fun. Modern Warfare 2 is a game best played with friends over Xbox Live or in split screen.

6 out of 10

Modern Warfare 3 achievement list revealed.

Modern Warfare 3 is out November 8 and for those of you itching to see what you need to do to get that gamerscore below is the complete list of achievements. Reading through the list there are achievements for both the single player campaign and Spec Ops mode but no multiplayer ones. Maybe Infinity ward are confident that players need no further encouragement to play online and I don't blame them.

*WARNING: SPOILER ALERT* The single player achievements go into quite a bit of detail about the games story line so if you want a spoiler free experience then just skip past the first 20 odd achievements on the list and read the rest.

• Back in the Fight - 5G: Start the Single Player Campaign on any difficulty.
• Too Big to Fail - 10G: Destroy the Jamming Tower. Complete "Black Tuesday" on any difficulty. 
• Wet Work - 10G: Take back New York Harbor. Complete "Hunter Killer" on any difficulty. 
• Carpe Diem- 10G: Escape the mountain safe house. Complete "Persona Non Grata" on any difficulty. 
• Frequent Flyer - 10G: Defend the Russian President. Complete "Turbulence" on any difficulty.
• Up to No Good - 10G: Infiltrate the village. Complete "Back on the Grid" on any difficulty. 
• One Way Ticket - 10G: Make it to Westminster. Complete "Mind the Gap" on any difficulty. 
• Welcome to WW3 - 10G: Save the US Vice President. Complete "Goalpost" on any difficulty. 
• Sandstorm! - 10G: Assault the shipping company. Complete "Return to Sender" on any difficulty. 
• Back Seat Driver - 10G: Track down Volk. Complete "Bag and Drag" on any difficulty. 
• We'll Always Have Paris - 10G: Escape Paris with Volk. Complete "Iron Lady" on any difficulty. 
• Vive la Révolution! - 10G: Reach the church. Complete "Eye of the Storm" on any difficulty. 
• Requiem - 10G: Escape the city. Complete "Blood Brothers" on any difficulty. 
• Storm the Castle - 10G: Discover Makarov's next move. Complete "Stronghold" on any difficulty. 
• Bad First Date - 10G: Find the girl. Complete "Scorched Earth" on any difficulty.
• Diamond in the Rough - 10G: Rescue the Russian President. Complete "Down the Rabbit Hole" on any difficulty.
• The Big Apple - 25G: Complete "Black Tuesday" and "Hunter Killer" on Veteran difficulty. 
• Out of the Frying Pan... - 25G: Complete "Persona Non Grata", "Turbulence", and "Back on the Grid" on Veteran difficulty. 
• Payback - 25G: Complete "Mind the Gap", "Goalpost", and "Return to Sender" on Veteran difficulty. 
• City of Lights - 25G: Complete "Bag and Drag" and "Iron Lady" on Veteran difficulty. 
• The Darkest Hour - 25G: Complete "Eye of the Storm", "Blood Brothers", and "Stronghold" on Veteran difficulty. 
• This is the End - 25G: Complete "Scorched Earth", "Down the Rabbit Hole", and "Dust to Dust" on Veteran difficulty. 
• Who Dares Wins - 40G: Complete the campaign on any difficulty.
• The Best of the Best - 100G: Complete the campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty.
• Strike! - 20G: Kill 5 enemies with a single grenade in Single Player or Special Ops. 
• Jack the Ripper - 20G: Melee 5 enemies in a row in Single Player or Special Ops.
• Informant - 20G: Collect 22 Intel Items. 
• Scout Leader - 35G: Collect 46 Intel Items.
• This Is My Boomstick - 20G: Kill 30 enemies with the XM25 in "Black Tuesday."
• What Goes Up... - 20G: Destroy all the choppers with only the UGV's grenade launcher in "Persona Non Grata."
• For Whom the Shell Tolls - 20G: Destroy all targets during the mortar sequence with only 4 shells in "Back on the Grid."
• Kill Box - 20G: Kill 20 enemies with the Chopper Gunner in a single run in "Return to Sender."
• Danger Close - 20G: Take down a chopper with an AC-130 smoke grenade in "Bag and Drag."
• Ménage à Trois - 20G: Destroy 3 tanks with a single 105mm shot in "Iron Lady.") 
• Nein - 20G: Kill 9 enemies with A-10 strafing runs in "Scorched Earth."
• 50/50 - 20G: Complete a Special Ops Mission Mode game with the same number of kills as your partner. 
• Birdie - 20G: Kill 2 enemy helicopters without getting hit in a Special Ops Survival game.
• Serrated Edge - 15: Finish a Juggernaut with a knife in Special Ops.
• Arms Dealer - 20G: Buy all items from the Survival Weapon Armory. 
• Danger Zone - 20G: Buy all items from the Survival Air Support Armory. 
• Defense Spending - 20G: Buy all items from the Survival Equipment Armory.
• Get Rich or Die Trying - 25G: Have $50,000 current balance in a Special Ops Survival game. 
• I Live - 10G: Survive 1 wave in a Special Ops Survival game.
• Survivor - 20G: Reach Wave 10 in each mission of Special Ops Survival mode.
• Unstoppable - 40G: Reach Wave 15 in each mission of Special Ops Survival mode.
• No Assistance Required - 20G: Complete a Special Ops Mission Mode game on Hardened or Veteran with no player getting downed.
• Brag Rags - 10G: Earn 1 star in Special Ops Mission Mode.
• Tactician - 20G: Earn 1 star in each mission of Special Ops Mission Mode.
• Overachiever - 40G: Earn 48 stars in Special Ops Mission Mode.
• Secret Achievement - 20G: Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

The modern warfare games (as much as I have bitched about them in the past ) I reckon are the best in the Call of Duty series. Then again the Modern Warfare games have had to compete with World at War and Black Ops. Which are good in the same way you praise a toddler for using the potty. So I'm really looking forward to MW3.

CGBC wrap up

After finally recovering from last week I'm now ready to tell you all how awesome last week was.

The Computer Games Boot Camp has finished for another year. It was a week of celebrating gaming culture, playing games, winning consoles and hearing almost 2000 people chant the meme "Dental plan, Lisa needs braces." It has been described as the E3 of the southern hemisphere. It certainly is the biggest gaming event in the southern hemisphere, however we'll have to wait and see if EB expo coming up in October will beat it.

The Australian qualifying leg of the Call of Duty tournament was a long and brutal tournament with the winners being ArchaicMSi who will be flown out to L.A in September to play at the Call of Duty XP million dollar tournament. It was some of the best playing I've ever seen and I'm certain that ArchaicMSi will represent Australia well this September. Come on Aussies put your support behind our team.


Aside from all the modern games like Halo and COD I was really surprised at how popular the retro games were. In particular Power Stone 2 on the Dreamcast and Baku Baku on the Sega Saturn. Although these are really great games that deserve to be ported to more modern consoles especially Power Stone 2. That is one addictive game both to play and watch. It's basically all the fun bits of Super Smash Bro's but without all the complexity. 


CGBC is about more than just tournaments, memes and free stuff (although all that is really cool) people from all across the gaming industry came down and gave presentations on a range of topics. One worth pointing out is Damian Scotts' talk on how to make use of the Unreal engine for machinima and his up coming movie based on the story of Darth Bane from Star wars. Another would be Sony's presentation on the Playstation Vita and what it can do. I tell you what I want one after seeing what it has to offer (plus virtual pool looked really cool). 


I'm really looking forward to next year. If you are interested in attending check out the CGBC website and register for CGBC 2012.


Till next week,


Peace.

CGBC is back

The Computer Games Boot Camp is on again. I'm really looking forward to attending this epic event. Those who don't know about it CGBC is a week long event running July 9-15 for high-school students over 15. It's held at Monash universities Clayton campus in Melbourne. The space is huge and has had to expand every year because of how popular it is. Not quite as big as E3 but almost. Close to 2000 people are booked to be there this year. I personally have attended this event since the first one back in 2009 and it has grown and really become the biggest gaming event in Australia.

The week consists of speeches from some of Australia's big biggest names in gaming, tournaments for a wide variety of games, workshops, competitions and more prizes get given away then there are people to accept them. Thermaltake, IAH Games, Autodesk, Sony and Adobe just to name a few will be there to give talks and give away some prizes.

Exclusive to CGBC will be the Australian leg of the Call of Duty tournament. The winning team will qualify to go on to LA to play in the finals for a chance at one million dollars USD. The tournament is open to any team of four with all its members over the age of 18. Details are still being announced regarding the tournament so stay tuned for more information as it comes to hand.

Registrations are still open so feel free to register your interest now Here but the event starts this Friday so do it fast. Keep up with all of the latest news from the event you can join the conversation on facebook. If you can't attend but you still want to see whats going on Level 3 are doing an all day live stream of the event from start to finish. So you wont miss a thing. Read more about the live stream here.

I hope to see you there and if you see me (which wont be hard my face is the logo for this site) feel free to come up and say hello.

Till next week, peace.

From the vault: Tools of a professional killer

This is an article I wrote for OzBoxLive ages ago but seeing as though they have decided to no longer credit me for the work I'm going to post it here.


If you are finding that no matter what you do you just can’t rack up a decent amount of kills it might be your weapons letting you down. Custom classes allow you to go into a battle with any weapon you want (provided you have unlocked it) and save it for the next battle if you like it. Skill goes along way but if you have a shotgun in a sniper map you are not going to get far. Remember “you don’t bring a pistol to a machine gun fight!”

When creating a custom class ask yourself these questions:

1. Will it be appropriate for the maps I want to play on?
2. Will it be appropriate for the game type I want to play?
3. What attachments have I got and what do I need to unlock to make this loadout better?
4. What perks have I got and will they be appropriate for the weapons I have chosen?

Lets look at each question individually. Question one asks us what maps we want to play on. Think about the maps in MW2, are they all designed for the one type of fighting (sniper fights, CQB etc…) or are they all different? Some maps fall under more than one category. For example Highrise is a good sniper map but with the underground tunnels it is also good if you like to get up close and personal.

Question two ties in well here. If you are playing free for all sniping is no good because with out backup you can’t hunker down anywhere for a decent length of time. So in this instance using a Sub-machine gun would be better because it gives you mobility and a high rate of fire in short to medium range battles which are common for free for all matches. However in Team Deathmatch or domination sniping is a viable method of attack.

In MW2 weapons can be upgraded with attachments. However attachments need to be earned so if you are new to MW2 you will need to play a little more to unlock then but you can do it faster by playing one game type with the same weapon. Free for all is the best for all weapons except the sniper rifle where unless you can quick scope having some backup will be needed. Back to topic, if you’re playing on maps that combine close quarters with more long range fighting then you will want a red dot/holographic sight or if you like the iron sight then perhaps the grenade launcher would be better. Hang on a grenade launcher at close range? Yes, if you shoot the grenade at close range straight into your opponent it will kill then instantly. Think of it as a solid-shot shotgun. Otherwise firing it at a nearby wall will do the job too. For maps that focus on long range but require you to move about (e.g. wasteland on free for all) then the ACOG scope on any assault rifle will do. While increasing the accuracy of the weapon over a distance it will not increase the range of the gun so don’t bother putting it on a MP5 or something like that unless you are trying to unlock a challenge. Also the ACOG makes weapons difficult to fire accurately at close range. If you are trying for stealth the heartbeat sensor is great for seeing through walls and around corners and the silencer means that when you fire your weapon you don’t show up on the radar as a red dot making infiltration easy.

Perks are add-ons to a player’s performance. From running longer to adding more than one attachment to a weapon. Again many of these need to be unlocked but the best for new players are marathon, stopping power and steady aim. Bling allows you to have two attachments on your primary weapon. One attachment is all you need unless you are trying to unlock the bullet penetration challenge where having a heartbeat sensor with FMJ makes finding targets easier. For close quarters commando increases the range at which you can knife people. Good for if you have multiple enemies and little ammo in a small space. For Game types like domination, marathon gives you unlimited sprint so you can defend objectives with ease. For those who like to quick scope then invest your time in unlocking slight of hand pro, This makes aiming down the sight faster.

Finally name your classes appropriately. Don’t leave them custom class one, custom class two etc… It just takes longer to find the loadout you want. I name them the primary and secondary weapon in that slot (e.g. AK-47 / USP-45) or you can name them by game type or by fighting method (e.g. CQB).

And of course practice makes perfect. Find what weapons and attachments suit you and use those. The more comfortable you are with a weapon the better you’ll be. There is no perfect gun in MW2 just the right loadout for the right job.