When I began writing this post, it was originally about why I disliked Modern Warfare and why I was excited about the upcoming Medal of Honor. I realized there's just too much I don't like about MW and decided to make it its own post and sort of lead into my next blog, which will indeed be about Medal of Honor.

The one thing I love about Modern Warfare is the smoothness of the gameplay. That's about it, really, but it was enough to make me play it for quite a while. When it comes to online games, I'm extremely picky, so being able to sit through months of MW is pretty crazy. I like realism, strategy, smooth gameplay, good maps, some good customization, not needing to empty an entire clip into enemies, and most of all stability within the service itself. Modern Warfare had one of those things (two if you play Hardcore). My favorite online game of all time is Rainbow Six Vegas, and no game I've played since then has come close to matching it. Of course it had its problems as well, but this is the direction I was hoping online gaming would take. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

If you remember, I gave MW2's online a pretty shining review, but to be honest the game didn't begin to wear on me until after a good week or so, and then every problem I had with MW1 came cropping back up, and then some. Instead of writing up a long, drawn out rant, I figured I'd put it into a concise list. These are the five main things I dislike about Modern Warfare and MW2:

5. No lobby system

Quick match systems will always exist for those who want them, but being forced to join a game randomly every time really pisses me off. I like to pick and choose which rooms I enter and I like having control over my online experience. I'll give you an example, which is what entering a game in MW consists of:

*Choose game type*
*Game begins to load*

"I hate this map",
"Thanks for the free loss! How about you don't stick me on the losing team in a game that's almost over",
"Nice balancing, the teams are totally unmatched",
"This host has a horrible connection",
"Why do we always get stuck with douchebags?",
"Fuck this, I'm leaving."

*Leave game*
*Join game*
*Get put in the same game you just left*

"FFFFFFFUUUU!" You get the point.

4. No dedicated servers / LAG!

No dedicated servers means one thing: every game is being hosted by one of the players. Okay, that much is obvious. What it means in Modern Warfare is that you are at the mercy of one of the other players, in more ways than one. They will always be a good second or two ahead of everyone else, connection-wise, and can get the jump on anyone. They determine what your connection is. If they live close to you and have a good connection themselves, your connection is decent. If they don't, your connection suffers. Whether you'll be able to play the game as it was intended is a complete crapshoot. MW does a horrible job of balancing the connections and I don't think I've played a single game where some players don't have a leg up on everyone else. If you play MW, don't even tell me you're not sick of getting shot from around corners before even seeing the other guy, all with no apparent connection issues on your end.

Also, if they decide to end the game, that's it. In Modern Warfare 1, you'd get "Connection interrupted" followed by "Game ended" and that was that. In MW2 they introduced a sort of a host migration system, which worked at first, but after about a week I'd say it worked maybe 20% of the time overall.

Dedicated servers are necessary to make sure that everyone is on an even playing field and won't get the short end of the stick because of someone else. There's no reason for a game with a player base of this size to not have dedicated servers, and with all the money Activision has raked in with this franchise, cost is no issue.

3. Perks

I. hate. perks. It was a decent idea at first, but the way it has completely changed the gameplay for the worse and turned it into an unbalanced mess has totally turned me off to it. When I play a shooter, I want the focus to be on... the shooting! I don't want to have to pick and choose between things that change the gameplay in an unnecessary way and take the focus off of player skill. The problem with perks is that no matter what you choose, there will always be someone that has chosen perks to counter yours. There will always be someone who will have an unfair advantage on you, and vice-versa. Whether you rush your enemy, take it slow, use strategy or rely on teamwork, I want the game to be about how well you play, and nothing more. Furthermore, they take away a lot of the realism. How is a soldier supposed to magically increase bullet power or speed? What is somehow causing him to be able to sprint forever or suck himself into an enemy with a knife from 5 feet away? It's just stupid, and I'm sick of the trend that's taking place where everyone wants "more, more, more!". Learn to play and it won't be necessary.

2. Maps

The maps in Modern Warfare ranged from decent to horrible. After playing MW2, I almost consider those maps to be just short of spectacular. Yeah, the maps in the sequel were awful, plain and simple. Cool locations alone do not make for good maps. Hell, they didn't even have that. They must be laid out well or they will FAIL. Again, it's all about balance and the maps must account for different playstyles and not feel artificial. I want to feel like I'm in actual environments with unique set pieces and the like. You need to take into account that players will need to communicate their location, and that's the problem with the maps in MW2.

"Hey where are you?"
"I'm in that one building... with the stairs and the... other building by it kind of with a wall and..." -dead-
"wat"

You can't just throw together a bunch of hallways, buildings and other generic crap in the middle of a big empty lot and call it a map. You especially can't do that when there are so few of them to choose from (or get thrown into, rather).

1. The fans

That's right. The biggest issue plaguing these games are the fans who just keep demanding more bullshit and not caring. Let's face it, Modern Warfare has become a game for the casuals. By that I mean people who don't play games and don't know games. If you sit on Xbox Live playing MW2 all night and think it makes you a "hardcore gamer": kill yourself. I'm not saying casual gamers can't have their thing too, but when it becomes the standard and changes the way games are made, it makes me fucking RAGE. MW fans don't know and don't care about the things that make this game bad. It's mediocrity incarnate for the all the reasons I've stated above, plus much much more. Those of us who want an actual thought out experience that isn't just "zomg killkillkill! pass the mountain dew! OMG LAG, but who cares lolol" and was developed by those who care about more than just shameless profits and know how to design a working game engine, create online maps, make it a fun, balanced and unique experience, and focus on player skill rather than just jamming it full of crap that makes it appeal to the mindless crowd its managed to hook. Games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and SOCOM, I don't play personally because it's not my style, but I always respect them so much more for being able to incorporate all those things instead of just cashing in and then shitting on the gamers who made the market what it is in the first place.

Medal of Honor has become a sort of beacon of light for me. I haven't played online in a long time, and I'm really hoping a game out there will take enough care to satisfy my need for a well developed system. If you'd like to see exactly why I'm excited for it, read my next blog.