What Problems Do You Have With Modern Warfare 2?

It seems that this blog attracts quite a few Modern Warfare 2 players (probably because I write about it so much), so since that seems to be the core audience here I wanted to post this and get your ideas of what some of the problems with Modern Warfare 2 are. Over the past few weeks all I seem to be reading on Twitter (#mw2), Buzz and other blogs, is how Infinity Ward should fix the game before even thinking about releasing DLC or expansion packs, and my question is, what problems are you people referring to?

Sure, when the game was first released there was the big issue with the lack of dedicated servers on the PC version and the smaller game sizes. Whatever, the servers is not a game play issue, get over it. You knew that there was not going to be dedicated servers before buying it, it made major news outlets (which seems weird to me) so it's not like Infinity Ward straight up lied and said there would be dedicated servers and then changed their minds at release time. There may have been rumblings early on in production about dedicated servers being there, but it was a well known fact long before the release that they would not make it to the final product.

Now for the in game glitches, mainly multiplayer. I see a lot of people upset that there are so many glitches and they are blaming it on the fact that there was no public beta for the game. They say that if there was a public beta, many of these things would have been discovered before the game was released. I'm sure some of the stuff would have been figured out, but majority of it would not have. IW has a slew of in house testers that are paid to sit around and try to break the game, but when I say a "slew' I mean it's maybe 30 people (I really have no idea how many testers they have), but when the game is released, how many people bought it? Millions! So therefore, obviously millions of people are going to be able to find things that the 30 or so in house testers happened to miss. And to be honest, I think Infinity Ward has been doing a pretty good job of getting patches out there to the consumer.

The first major glitch that was discovered was the javelin glitch that allowed you to become a walking bomb. When you would die your body would explode with the radius of a javelin missile, destroying anything around you, it was quite annoying and eventually Microsoft stepped in and started banning people from xbox live, which they have every right to do since it's part of the ULA you accepted when you signed up for Xbox Live. The next big glitch was the unlimited care package glitch which was a bit more of a problem. There were a couple methods for pulling off this glitch, 1 that was pretty easy and another that was more difficult. IW went ahead and patched the easy method, but the harder method still existed causing them to pull back the initial patch from MS approval and fixing it once and for all (it took a little longer to push out the PS3 version, PC was pretty instant I believe). But in the end it was fixed and as far as I'm aware there is no method that still works (until someone finds one). The other glitches were fairly minor like being able to place a sentry gun inside walls so that it could shoot out, but you couldn't shoot in and same with player collisions and objects. I'm sure some of these still exist, but they have always existed in games for those willing to seek them out. There are also some elevators that they patched, but there  are still a few of them that are accessible in the game. For those that don't know, elevators are glitches that allow your player to basically float way up into the sky and shoot down or access places they shouldn't be able to.

So in my eyes the major GLITCHES were fixed. There were some other issues that people had with gun balance that were also changed around, in particular the range of the Model 1887 shotguns, but I don't consider those glitches or an issue really. I never had a problem killing people that were running up on me with the Model's. Sure I've been killed up close by them many times, but they are an up close weapon. I understand the issue here was the range and power, but I never found it to be an issue. Same goes for the complaints people have with Marathon, Lightweight and Commando. Sure it's annoying to be killed by one of these guys, but it's also not that hard to kill them. In my eyes the problem here is skill, there are some good players online in Modern Warfare 2 and if you can't kill the guys running around like this, you obviously aren't as good as them. Personally my only issue with the game is those damn thermal scopes... but it's not a problem with the game itself, it's just the fact that I still get killed by them... oh and noob tubes also... haha.

I know there are also complaints about the lobby times and getting booted out of games and I'll agree that sometimes it takes a couple minutes to get into a game, but it's not a ridiculous amount of time... And at least when the host of a game leaves it usually tries to find a new one, I know it doesn't always work, but at least it tries which is more than I can say for CoD 4. And I know there are also some hacked lobbies with super fast movement and stuff like that, but I have yet to run into one of these lobbies and, as sad as it is, I usually play for a couple hours every day (Xbox 360), so I don't know if it's just a PC issue, but I have yet to run into one of these "hacked lobbies".

So I'm curious as to what everyone's problems are with the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer? Why all the hate towards Infinity Ward? I know it comes off as if I'm trying to defend the game as a whole, but I'm actually just curious as to what problems other people have with the game since I don't seem to have any... I really just want some new maps!

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Modern Warfare 2 Javelin Glitch Will Get You Banned

If you're one of the million idiots on Xbox Live that have been ruining games of Modern Warfare 2 by using the newly discovered Javelin Glitch just be warned that you can get banned if people report you, and if you're in a game with me I will report every single one of you.

For those who don't know what the glitch is it basically turns you into a walking time bomb so that when you die you explode, killing everything around you, with decent range too. I'm not going to post the video here, but you can find it all over the place (or you can just watch a kill cam in-game since tons of people are using it). I'm sure the glitch will be patched this week, in fact, I know it will be patched in the near future as it's already done it's just waiting on Microsoft's approval, but for those idiots using the glitch to ruin games, if you are in a game with me and you see me standing around not moving and you think "nice, easy knife kill", well there's a good chance that I'm reporting you for using the javelin glitch.

Now comes the point when all the idiots out there come with the argument that it was left in the game when it shipped so it's part of the game and should be utilized. Ok, morons, it's clearly not meant to be in the game and even with the extensive testing process that Infinity Ward put their games through they can't catch everything. Thankfully the developers now have the ability to patch games so that these glitches don't ruin the gaming experience for everyone like this one is currently doing. I played for quite a while yesterday and every single game had at least 1 person running around the whole time doing the glitch. The funny thing is though they were still getting their asses kicked.

So those of you that want to continue to cheat until the game gets patched, enjoy it while you can because I (and I know a lot of other people too) will report anyone that uses the glitch even once and there's a good chance you will get banned from Xbox Live for anywhere from 24 hours to 2 weeks. So you decide if it's worth it or not. Oh and a big thanks to the people that post these glitches on YouTube. No, not for the fact that that's the reason why everyone and their sister knows about the glitch now, but because by doing so you bring the attention to the developers who can then patch the game. If you had found a real strategic glitch in the game you wouldn't have posted it on YouTube, you would have kept it for yourselves, but this one ruins the game play experience so I applaud you for giving it the attention it needed to get patched.

The bans are currently only being handed out to Xbox Live subscribers, the Playstation Network has no plans to ban anyone at the moment. It's a free service anyways so what would be the point, you could just make another account if you really wanted to.

Update 12/11/09: As of today the Javelin glitch and the Care Package Glitch have been patched on the Xbox 360. Thank God.

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Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Impressions

As you can probably tell based on the sheer amount of posts on the game, I'm a big fan of Modern Warfare 2 (and all of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty games), so there will probably be quite a few posts on here in the coming weeks revolving around MW2 and it's different game modes and my experiences. I tried to give myself a little more time to play the game before writing this post, but I feel like I got the basic gist of things after about 7 hours of playing between the normal multiplayer modes as well as a few hours last night with the new Spec-Ops mode.  So I'm going to start this post with my first impressions of the new multiplayer experience and I will probably edit and add on to this post in the future.

First let's start with the normal multiplayer mode. This is pretty much the reason why most people bought the game. The original Modern Warfare was incredible online and brought a whole new level to the game with the inclusion of unlockable guns and perks, among other things, but could MW2 surpass what was given to is in the first go around... In a simple answer, absolutely. Essentially Infinity Ward took all of the things that were great about the first one, the perks, rank levels, gun addons, etc and gave us even more. It seems as though they listened to the fans on some of these choices as well. For example, everyone complained that using the juggernaut perk on the first one was considered "noobish" or "cheating" since it made you harder to kill, so Infinity Ward scrapped it from what I can tell. And as far as martyrdom, which I continued to use in CoD4, it is now restricted to a death streak perk, meaning that only when you die multiple times in a row can you choose to drop a grenade as you die. They also did away with the x3 frag grenade perk as to cut back on grenade spamming, which is a welcome change I just wish they also got rid of the noob tube, aka the grenade launcher attachment for certain guns.

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Microsoft Banning More Modded Xbox 360′s With Leak of Modern Warfare 2

This should be common sense by now to those that have a modded Xbox 360 console, but there are are still idiots out there that think that they can get away with playing a game that's not even out yet, on xbox live and not get banned. I understand that there are stealth patches and all sorts of other ways to make it so Microsoft can't tell you're playing a burnt game, but guess what, if you play a game online it attaches itself to your Gamertag whether it's patched or not, therefore Microsoft can see that you're playing it. So despite the fact that you took all necessary precautions in hiding the fact that you're playing a burnt game, you can still be banned for playing a leaked game if your console is signed in to xbox live... oh yeah, you don't have to actually play the game online either. As soon as you put the game in, if you are signed in to xbox live at all, the game shows up on your gamertag thus Microsoft can tell you are playing it even if you're not playing multiplayer matches.

If you want to play a pre-release game and not have your console banned, disconnect from Xbox live completely and don't sign in until the game is released. If you get achievements while offline, as soon as you sign on to xbox live it will send those achievements to the system, thus showing that you played a game you shouldn't have. This isn't a huge deal if the game is already out, but if Modern Warfare 2 starts showing up attached to your Gamertag and the game isn't even out yet MS is going to get a little suspicious.

Now I'm not saying that everyone is going to get banned for playing these games, but Modern Warfare 2 leaked a couple days ago and Microsoft has already started banning people. I'm not saying that they were playing MW2, but this is a pattern with Microsoft, they did it with Halo 3 and other high profile releases so just be smart if you're playing a game that doesn't come out for a week.

And this leak is why all of this new information about MW2 is starting to come out like the nuke at the 25 kill streak level and other stuff which I'm not going to post, you can find that elsewhere.

Update 11/11/09: I just wanted to touch on a few things I've read over the past couple days and after looking at the logs of how people found this post, I wanted to touch on some of the questions people have typed into google that brought them here. The basic idea behind modding the Xbox 360 to play illegally burnt games is flashing the firmware on the DVD drive. The firmware is basically the software that tells the DVD drive how to work and what to read. There is no "chip" that needs to be installed in the Xbox 360 in order to give it the ability to circumvent the game protection, all you need to do is pull out the DVD drive, hook it up to a computer, run some special software and BAM, modded. So knowing that, it seems as though Microsoft has found a way to read the firmware version off of your DVD drive via the internet, they then compare it to the known legit firmware versions that run on un-modded systems and ban those that don't match. Now, this information could be completely wrong, but it makes sense. I know there was rumor in the past that MS could detect some weird wobble to a burnt DVD as opposed to a legit one, whether it was an actual wobble or the speed the disc spins or what I'm not sure, but that was the rumor in the past. But this new method seems a lot more precise in determining which consoles have been modified. And if this is the new method MS is using, even if you are playing a legit copy of a game on a modded system, the firmware will still show up as modded and you will still be banned.

With that in mind, some people have been complaining that they have been banned yet they claim to have a legit system that they never modded. Ok, either they are lying, which could easily be the case, or they unknowingly have a modded system, which is more likely. Say you don't want to spend $200 on a new system because you're afraid it may die on you (which it most likely will) so you head to Gamestop or eBay instead and pick up a cheaper used one. There is no way for Gamestop to tell whether or not the system is modded short of putting a burnt game into every trade-in system and seeing if it plays, which they do not do. The other way you could unknowingly have gotten a modded system is if you're console got the RRoD (Red Ring of Death) and you had to send it in to Microsoft for repair. A lot of the times when MS gets a system in for repair, rather than actually repairing the original system they will send out a refurbished system instead and it appears as though they do not check every system for legit firmware. There have been posts on many forums from people who have bought a refurbished system or gotten one back from MS that has modified firmware on it. So my advice is if you get the RRoD and have to send it in, make sure you document all of the serial numbers of your system as well as the one you get back, and if you get banned you may be able to use that information to your advantage, but I really don't know if that will work. My other advice is don't buy a refurbished system if you don't want to risk getting banned, or get a hold of 1 burnt game to test a system before you buy it, just to be sure, there's really no other way to know.

And as far as I'm aware there is no way to get MS to reverse the ban and it's permanent, I'm sure they hear people claiming their systems weren't modded every day, so good luck getting them to believe you. And it is your console that is banned not your Xbox Live Account (Gamertag) so if you were to buy a new Xbox 360 you should be able to use the same XBL Account.

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Xbox 360 50% Failure Rate Strikes Home

I know you've all read stories about the elusive xbox 360 red ring of death aka RRoD, but it was just announced this past week that apparently the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of about 54%, which is absolutely unacceptable. If the iPhone had a failure rate that high there's no way that Apple would get away with it or let alone not want to immediately fix the problem, but that's apparently not how Microsoft wanted to deal with their problem. Instead of correcting the design fault (which I can only assume is what's causing this issue) they just beef up their warranty to 3 years and fix/send you a refurbished one instead. I don't know, personally  I would rather buy a brand new system that had this problem fixed from the factory than have to send my broken one off to Microsoft for 3 weeks while they fix it (probably not the right way) or send me a refurbished one that was someone else's broken machine. This whole problem is absolutely ridiculous and despite Microsoft claiming that they've fixed the problem in the newer systems there are still people getting the RRoD on those consoles, none of them are safe... Now, including mine.

This isn't the first Xbox 360 that I've been through so I am familiar with the RRoD and it's pain. I bought a launch system the January after it came out, on ebay since they were impossible to find in the stores, and the thing worked great for a long time. Now, I'm not going to lie, I've modded pretty much every console system that I've owned in order to save a little money, but I figured that because of that I wasn't going to flash the firmware on my 360 and actually buy the games for once, plus it was kind of a pain in the ass to do the mod and I didn't feel like dealing with it. So I amassed quite a collection of games over the first couple of years and realized that a lot of the games I was buying I was beating and never playing again and it just seemed like a waste of money. Now I know what you're thinking, why didn't I just trade them in to GameStop or sell them on eBay or something. The thought had crossed my mind, but I always had this feeling like as soon as I sold one of the games I'd get this itch to play it or they'd release some sick DLC that I'd miss out on, so I kept every game.

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