With the PC receiving a direct port of the console versions, it is a shame to see Infinity Ward forget about who carried them this far from the original days of CoD and CoD2. With the absent of lean, dedicated servers, no console, ability to mod, reduced player numbers, etc. it is easy to see were PC gamers fall into play here. Top it all off, similar (if not nearly identical) gameplay as CoD4, but with a $60 dollars price tag...I'm sorry I even purchased this game. Don't believe the hype and go support Valve with Left for Dead 2 or many other slightly older FPS games that continue to thrive in the PC community.

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I won't repeat all that has been written, but it's all true. I'm a PC only guy when it comes to games and I tend to like the campaign part of a game more than the online play.

The graphics are excellent. Gameplay is good. You don't need a $2000 PC to play the game at reasonable framerates.

But, I did the storyline in 5 hours. Yeah, I'll go back and play with higher difficulty, but $60 for a five hour game is too much for too little. It looks like the online options are close to useless for the PC

I really wanted to like this game.

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for gameplay i give it 5 stars, but because of the fact that it relies on Steam for online gameplay, and uses Steam instead of a stand alone updater, i'd give it a 2.

I'm not a fan of having to download,install,and create an account for a third party program just to play a game that could have, had they put forth the effort, ran as a stand alone platform.

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Lag, LaG, LAG !!!!!

I thought MW2 stood for Modern Warfare 2... but after playing it for many hours, I realize that MW stands for LAG X 2!

I stood before an enemy and unloaded an entire clip from my M4 at a range of ~ 20 feet...and he then shot me dead!

If this had happened only once I would say, OK, I will just re-up and get another game going...But next game I had a sniper walk in front of me and I unloaded my SAW on him... he was not phased in the least but calmly ran up the stairs!!!

After yelling at the game and getting angry I decided that I should at least let some folks out there know:

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!

The lag is beyond any I have ever seen. I am blaming it on STEAM because at least with COD4 MW1 I could find another server...With STEAM... you get steam. And you get lousy servers without recourse. Boy, is my face red!

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Just picked this up from a national chain store and the message I get after I try to install is, 'Modern Warfare 2 cannot be installed yet, because it has not yet been released'.

EPIC FAIL!

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I have been playing the PC version of MW2 since November, 2009 with 400+ hours of gameplay. Obviously it has something to keep me going or I still probably wouldn't be playing.

The single player is nice and short. I finished it in about 6 hours and never touched it again. My main interest is the multiplayer.

PROS:

-amazing graphics

-many challenges and unlocks to keep you interested

-prestige mode increases and extends the life of the game considerably. Getting to level 10 prestige without boosting or hacking takes a very long time.

-gameplay is fun when everyone is playing legitimately.

CONS:

The two biggest problems with MW2 are the cheating/hacking and connectivity issues.

Cheating and hacking is rampant. No it is not every game. Sometimes you will play 4-5 games without any cheaters, but then other times it seems like every game you join has one. If you want to get a clear picture of how prevalent these hacks are check out youtube and google MW2 hacks/cheats. People who deny that cheating is a problem are either not very good players, do not know how to spot them, or are cheating themselves and try to deflect the issue. VAC does get some cheaters but there are ways to disable it and cheaters always seem to get around any VAC bans within days. Dedicated servers would allow cheat free sites which you could rely on. Now instead of the cheaters getting kicked from games the honest players have to leave the game. It is not really fair at all.

Lag/host migration and steam disconnects happen pretty frequently. Compared to other FPS on dedicated server where I can't count the number of times on my hand I have a bad or dropped connection, in MW2 one of these connection issues happens every gaming session and multiple times. On top of that matchmaking is really terrible. I should not have to play against players from Europe if I am in the US. I don't enjoy playing with a 300 ping and I am sure they don't either. With dedicated servers I always ping around 50 or at worst 70-80 (but is by my choice). With Mw2 if I am not hosting I average pings from 100-300. The game put in the 4 bar system to show your connection instead of actual ping numbers to hide how bad the pings actually are in this game with matchmaking. IW net = fail.

Another gripe is that you are often put into a game that has less than 30 seconds left or even a game that is over with no time left. What is a point of that? Often when you join a game in progress your team is getting slaughtered and there is zero chance for you to win. I actually leave the games now because there is little point in joining a game and dying over and over because the other team has constant air support.

Between all these issues I get maybe one good game out of every 3-4. It is truly sad that this could have been the greatest FPS of all time, but it was ruined by some poor decisions.

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For console gamers this game is the big one , if your a PC gamer your going to ask what happened to this great line of Call of Duty games . The game itself is great , good story line sudden unexpected twists and in your face constant action all though some aspects and cut scenes are too much for younger gamers . Game play is smooth with great graphics and lots of stuff to blow up .

Good things ; great graphics , fast and action packed single player mode . Additional Spec Op mode for 1 or 2 players in co-op can be more fun than the single play game .

The dark side ; This game is SHORT if your an experienced player figure 6 hrs or less game play time . The PC online multiplayer aspect on this plain and simple sucks ! Infinity Ward tried something new called MatchMaking to make the game more balanced for all players and failed miserably . There are no dedicated servers for the game which puts you at the mercy of somebody's net connection and their computer size which means constant game interrupts and dropped connections . The supposed foolproof anti-cheat system was hacked within 4 hrs of the game being released to the public so you better have a real thick skin to play online for any length due to the behavior and bad language most of the time .

The real insult here is the price tag , it's $20 more than should be for the content you get and you will feel some what cheated . If you only want the game with no interest in multiplayer this is a very good choice , for the multiplay I'd wait for Battlefield Bad Company 2 after new years .

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I'm going to make it very simple to all the PC gamers. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! IW just forcing you to fork over $60 of your money for a arcade/console XBOX360 game. There are no differences between the XBOX and PC for this game. You can purchase this game when it crops to $40. It's very funny to see Left 4 Dead 2 game dropped its price to $40 and yet MW2 has not. Infinity Ward/Activision got greedy and lazy and just didn't bother giving PC gamers their own game.

There are many cons about this game, but the main complaints that just pisses me off are:

- No dedicated servers. No more games of 20 on 20 like in Call of Duty 4

- Games limit to just 12 players, 18 for the "big" games.

- There is no skill required in playing this game! They made it so simple even an 8 year old kid can dominate. Why? Because there are very few recoils in the weapons and you spend most of your time trying to find the enemy in a large map with only 12 players. yup lots of fun playing 6 on 6 games on the PC. Good job there IW. You really screwed the PC gamers at this game!

I have regrets buying this game. So please PC gamers please continue to boycott this game until the price drops. And to you IW you really blew it on this game. You just sold your soul to the console and forget your roots from the PC. Call of duty series started on the PC for crying out loud! Shame on you! SHAME!

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I eagerly awaited the arrival of Modern Warfare 2 on the PC, I expected and epic campaign, incredible multiplayer and great graphics. I got everything I expected out of the single players, however I hold my grudges against the multiplayer. Even though there are no Dedicated Servers or console commands and many other feature, I still like it. I still keep playing the multiplayer hours and hours, I rarely encounter lag or cheaters. This is the game according to my point of view:

Pros:

-Epic single player campaign

-Great graphics with everything on "extra" settings

-Great story with several plot twists

-Addicting and new multilayer

-Peer to Peer connection is not horrible as most reviewers say, it actually works quite well

-Great controls

-Excellent array of new and balanced weapons

-Perks and kill streaks are fun as always.

-Great cast of characters in single player

-No cheaters yet encountered

Cons:

-$60, what the hell Activison are you just being greedy!!!

-Steam needs to be installed, I am not a fan of Steam because my games are now seperated

-Bug minus: No dedicated servers

-Playing with friends is horribly difficult and almost due to the Peer to Peer type matchmaking

-lots of players with the "70 prestige hack" (losers)

-No Lean (I actually never used that)

-Host migration is a pain

Yes, even with all the flaws I keep playing this game because its fun and addicting. Some reviewers are just exaggerating with the lag and the cheaters, they're just hungry for attention. However I would like Dedicated Servers(I already signed the Petition) back. This is a definite sequel to the highly acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

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I agree with all of the negative reviews, it's just a console port with no PC perks and way overpriced. Steam multi-player is buggy as hell and it seems that it is incredibly easy to hack (1 in every 3 games I get tore up by someone using a wall hack or aimbot).

But despite all of the negatives, it is still pretty damn fun to play with my brother

(We dont use in-game voice chat). My wife would play too if it wasn't another $50.

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There's a lot of negative reviews out there, but I've been playing this for the last two days since it came out and I think it's a gas. No problems installing, no problems in operation (unlike their last effort "World at War"), great graphics, and just a lot of fun to play. Buy it, I believe it's worth the price.

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All in all a good game, but not being able to pick your server,leave you stuck on many laggy servers. Also no admin. what so ever leave to a lot of hacking and abusive language.

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I probably would have bought this for download only, if they had at least discounted the price to make up for the lack of a DVD, very expensive packaging and no printed manual to at least stare at in the box. Why the heck would I pay full price so I can spend several hours downloading, and then burn my own DVD and print my own manual that I will never look at??? On top of that, I read all the horrid reviews about the downgrades from one of my favorite games of all time....I just can't do it at full price.. Good luck.

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First and foremost.. Yes, I've played my share of both multiplayer and singleplayer. I've also been cal and cevo main, I've played games like cs (1.6, css) and cod4 among others semi-professionally. Also my review may contain spoilers. Just keep that in mind - Thanks.

So I'll start with the singleplayer. All I have to say is, wow. It's like a very entertaining and very good interactive movie. The action is very fast, very brutal. I had no problems playing the campaign, except at the end. The game did crash once on the very last level however, but I didn't have any problems afterwards. My first time through playing it, on veteran, I beat it in roughly 6 hours. So it's short but what a ride. Speaking about rides... There's a lot of them! You ride on snowmobiles, helicopters, jeeps, cars, trucks, boats, and even a little underwater transport (Think James Bond in Thunderball).

This game is VERY violent, which should be obvious. But I was actually quite a bit surprised with how dark this is. Several times I came up behind someone (Above and even below sometimes as well!) and had to use my knife in a pre-set action sequence that showed me pulling the guy in and then either holding my hand over his mouth and stabbing him, or pulling him in and slitting his throat. It could definitely be upsetting for some people, keep that in mind. Heck, one mission involves you disguising yourself as a Russian to get close to the enemy where you take park in a absolute massacre at an airport. You, with several other Russians, go into an airport and start shooting innocent civilians. For those who might be offended, bothered or anything else by it you can skip the level but this should give you an idea of how much darker this game is.

That being said, this had some interesting plot twists and drama to it. Fighting in Suburbs in the states against Russians was quite a powerful few missions that left me with chills. There's a lot of death in this game, not just people around you but let's just say you go through quite a few characters and it's sad to see the things that happen to them.

The voice acting is absolutely superb. It's not over the top, or too corny. The military "lingo" if you will is very well done unlike most games that try to play in a military type setting. The music is also great, I didn't find it annoying or too over the top like in some games and it helped create a great atmosphere. My only gripe was some of the sounds with the guns, I love guns personally and most of the guns here didn't really sit well with me. Some of them sounded great but some rifles just made me wanna mute the sound.

This game looks great as well, it's not quite as good as Crysis, but maybe the next call of duty, or the one after that will get there... But it's still a very beautiful game nonetheless. The gameplay is solid, and it's much better this time around opposed to the first modern warfare. You don't have (Or at least, it's not as noticeable) the same "Infinite respawn" problem that the first game had which was such a good thing. The game always tells you where you need to be going and the maps are laid out that way so you're never lost.

All in all, the singleplayer game was a great, if not dark, experience. If you can handle the violence it's definitely worth the play.

Now, onto multiplayer.

So, this is where most of the PC gamers flip out about.

So let me try to explain most of this.

Ok, first of all there is absolutely no dedicated servers. It's all match-making. Which is great for consoles. But not for PC's. For example, I've played several games where the host had problems and either the game would completely drop, or the game would try to find another acceptable host in the game. Causing for what seems like a break in the game that lasts FOREVER. There's no servers you can pick from, so you can't pick to play on a server with the lowest ping, to make sure that you're getting as lag free of a game as possible. You have to rely on whoevers hosting it and MANY times (At least in my experience) the game would get horribly laggy several times per map.

That may not seem like a big deal but believe me, after it happens a few times I can definitely see how it would piss some people off. I'm extremely laid back and it was starting to bug me, so then you know something's wrong.

Also a big thing with PC games is having a server to play. Usually most people who pub will pick a server and if they have friends who play there or just have a nice time there will keep going back to that same server. It's like, why would you pick your favorite starbucks shop over the next one? Maybe it's the people? Or just the little things. You have this sort of community in the server but now you can't have that. So I can understand why people would have a problem with that as well.

There's also no console in the PC version, which is annoying. Because I like to record some demos and maybe make a video (Not of pubs of course), a lot of people make gaming/frag videos, it's just a fun little thing to do and to show off. But you can't do that here. You can't also see your fps, ms, or anything like that.

Speaking about not having console commands or dedicated servers... Scrimming or any sort of league play is going to be quite a challenge. I honestly can't see how it will work, as far as I'm concerned there simply WONT be any competitive play with Modern Warfare 2.

However, the multiplayer is fun. The new perks, weapons, and awards and things you can unlock are great. As you progress through ranks you can unlock emblems and titles that display on your name. It might be a cool or cute little icon or whatever. There's A LOT to unlock. Perks you unlock (Things that give you like faster reloads, more damage, longer running, etc) can also be upgraded.

You can customize your kill/death streaks as well which is really cool. So instead of just having the same 3 that everyone had in the first game, some guy might have his first perk at 10 kills and it might be an attack helicopter, at 25 kills, it'd be a tactical nuke. It's just really fun. You can also play as support from an aircraft overhead and rain down an incredible amount of ordnance on the playing field.

There's no more leaning in this game, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you look at it but I've found myself more often that not at a corner wishing I could just lean a little so I can get a peak and take some shots.

But all that said, this really does feel like a very cheap port. Don't get me wrong, I know they still put some time and effort into this but so much is missing it makes you have to sit back and scratch your head.

On one hand, you have a great, engaging and powerful single player mode but on the other is a fun, yet broken multiplayer that's lacking so much it almost feels like you're being chained down.

It'd be like if you lived in some small town in the middle of nowhere and there's 1 car dealership and you HAVE to get a car. But when you get there, the dealer will only sell you this one car, missing a lot of the basic things that you almost need in a car these days (Can we say, no power steering? LOL) and you just feel like you're just getting screwed and there's nothing you can do about it.

Ok maybe that was a bad example but you get the idea I hope. I'm not pissed off like most people, but I am a little sad.

EDIT: I also forgot to note that the matchmaking itself, is pretty awful. I don't know what it's doing but it never picks a good server, and depending on the time of day you're playing you can easily not find a single game to join. So you have to go through the menus to pick which game type you want to play (I also forgot to mention that) and then wait for the game to pick a server for you once again. Which can seriously take forever, sometimes I never even found a game but if I could see servers, I could just pick one from a list. In 10 seconds I could find a server I liked and be joining it but here I'm waiting, 5, 10 minutes. Nothing. But once again, it all just depends. It seems to average out a lot of things and I just end up with a really mediocre (At best - In regards to server quality, etc) game.

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i didn't expect this game to be good other than spec-ops. spec-ops lived up to what i expected, and was a fun experience. single player campaign is worthless, over too fast, and no replay value.

multiplayer is a horrible experience full of exploits, cheaters, and other chaotic conditions. the maps are not even balanced for 9v9, much less 5v5. the spawn system is haphazard, the game rewards cheap tactics, and it's difficult to find a consistent playing experience with mature players online.

definitely, definitely, definitely not worth 60. this game is more like CoD:MW 1.5, not a sequel.

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