Modern+Warfare+2

 I signed up for Xbox live today under the name bhor420. I was very excited to start what is clearly going to become a serious addiction. I played for an hour and fifteen minutes switching off between team death match and free for all, trying to figure out the ins and outs of the game. at the end of my playing session my stat line was not too pretty. I died 149 times while only killing 71 of my opponents and as for matches I ended up 4-7. The ranking system is based only on experience and not skills, in other words, one can only be ranked higher and gain points, they will never go down in ranking as in other games such as Halo 3. I started as a one, and by the end of the session, I worked my way up to a level 7, or "specialist." With this increase in rank comes different guns and other such equipment. My one critique so far has been the matching up with different players. I have been continuously matched up with people that are leagues better than me, meaning I have to play with people way better than me with better equipment then I have. Basically, you have to be very determined to play the game in the early goings or you can very easily succumb to frustration and give up. This is something I have thus far refused to do. After a brief hiatus, I signed back on, and saw that one gets rusty very fast. I was putting up absolutely terrible numbers, such as 4 kills and 22 deaths. Due to the fact that I was playing so miserably I started paying less attention to the actual competitiveness of the game and more on the design of the gameplay around me. The lengths that the game designers went to detail wise is completely astonishing. One of the more impressive details that I noticed was the language that the flyers and posters are actually in the language of the nations where the "levels" take place. Also, the environment is live, meaning some of it can affect players health by itself. This usually comes in the form of exploding cars, if a car on the level takes too much damage (aka a grenade or large amounts of firepower) it will light on fire and soon explode. If you do not pay attention, take my word, they will kill you. On top of that, if a player dies, while the body leaves the level, their specific gun lays there for others to pick up, if a player died with an AK-47, than I could go to where the player died and I would see the actual AK-47 with the camouflage that the player was using. Overall, I was incredibly impressed by the amount of time that these designers spent on not just the flow of the game, but the details of the environment as well.  this is me playing with the AUG-HUBR with grip and heartbeat seansor, those red dots are my enemies that are somewhat near me. The big explosion in the background is the aftermath of a predator missile. Another detail one an pick up is the little plane emblem in the bottom right hand corner. This means I had an AC 130 kill streak reward waiting (which is 11 kills in a row no big deal). With this plane, i get an overhead view of the map and can shoot at my enemies with one of three guns, which I'm guessing, is how the real AC-130 works.   Below are the primary weapon choices. The choices can be broken down into 5 categories; Assault Rifles, Sub machine guns, Light Machine guns, Sniper rifles, and then the Riot shield. Each category has positives and negatives, it is all about finding which gun works for your style of game play. In most the games I've played so far, there have been all sorts of specialist. People who like to run around often use the sub machine guns because they are the fastest guns in the game, but the downside of them is they do not have great range, therefore causing the player to have to keep moving and hope to find their opponents somewhat off guard. Assault rifles are the most well rounded of the guns because they have the range to shoot from a distance and many of them have very fast shooting capabilities. Light machine guns are also very fast but not very accurate. In my opinion they are the worst categories of gun but I'm sure there are tons of people that I have played and have beaten me that would love to disagree. Sniper Rifles clearly have the best range, but they take the longest to reload and are almost completely ineffective at a short range. The riot shield can be used very effectively because it blocks bullets no matter if you are holding it or if it is on your back, so I often pair it with the "akimbo" Ranger shotguns, which can be found in the secondary weapons. My two favorite combinations overall, including primary and secondary weapons with the perks included are as followed... The M4A1 with the red dot sight and heartbeat sensor, with the ranger shotgun akimbo, and for my perks I have is Bling pro, commando pro, and lightweight pro. My second favorite combination is the Riot shield, and either the akimbo Ranger or Model 1887 shotguns. the perks i use with that is marathon pro, lightweight pro and commando pro. What all of that I just said meant is for another day.... These are the secondary weapon choices. There are pistols, Machine pistols, shotguns and grenade launchers. The Pistols are solid overall, they packs a punch and as far as secondary weapons go they are the best range wise. Machine pistols are decent because they are fast but overall I stay away from them. Shotguns are my favorite because they are fun to use and devastating if used correctly. grenade/rocket launchers are effective but they usually only come with one round, leaving it completely useless after. My usual secondary weapon choice is either the akimbo Ranger or model 1887 shotguns. Below are the weapon attachments that are offered in Modern Warfare 2. All of them can be used effectively, it is just a matter of finding what is right for you. Some of the attachments are weapon specific, or maybe more accurately, don't work with all weapons. You cannot attach a heartbeat sensor onto sub machine guns, you can only use the grip on shotguns and light machine guns and the tactical knife is only used with Pistols. When i Use any weapon except for shotguns, I always attach at least the red dot sight. Whenever I use the shotguns I always attach akimbo which means I carry Two shotgun and can use both triggers on my controllers to control each weapon. Whenever I have the Bling perk set, i can attach two weapons, usually I attach the red dot sight and the heartbeat sensor, but it always depends on my mood and gun. Below are the Perks available in Modern Warfare 2. The player gets to choose one perk in each "tier", with upgrades available when certain challenges are completed. The original perks have benefits but the upgraded perks or the Pro, has even more benefits. For instance, marathon causes the player to be able to sprint as long as they wanted, but marathon pro enables the player to also climb obstacles much faster. Some of the pro perks are very different from their original counterparts, others don't do much to add. Depending on my gun, there are several perks that I like to use. For instance, if I am using the shotguns and have to be on the move quickly, I use Marathon pro (unlimited sprinting, and faster climbing of obstacles), Lightweight Pro (run faster and switch weapons faster), and commando Pro (increased melee (knife) distance and no falling damage). When I am using an assault rifle, I use Slight of hand pro (faster aiming and faster reloading), hardline pro (earlier death and kill streaks) and commando Pro again. The perks are all very helpful in their own ways, and just like the guns it is all about finding the right perk to go with your playing style. I've played with 11 year olds who make me look silly because they are able to use out of the box perks such as scrambler and cold blooded to become virtually invisible. Teamwork is often a very crucial thing while playing Multiplayer. Often times players form "clans" and play together. Clans are teams that you can join or be invited to, and they are symbolized by an abbreviation that is attached before your user name. People form clans with friends or people they meet and want to continue to play with. For the serious players, they form clans with people that they work well with and playing with actually improves their gameplay. During my gameplay I have come across many annoying clans. Many times they tend to consist of a group of pre-pubescent boys who tend to enjoy talking about who the biggest "pussy" is. They gang up on the players that are alone and don't seem to realize that people just tone them out. Trash talking tends to happen a lot, which to me does not make much sense. I don't understand why people sit in their living rooms or bed rooms with their little earpiece on slurring racist and anti-semitic remarks about people they have no idea about? I mean what just happened to listening to good ole' fashioned music while playing video games? ahh the good ole days.

The quest for 70 is officially done people, I have made it to the upper echelon, well if you could say that. It has not been easy, but I put in the hours and am now at the "highest" level in modern warfare. My journey to the top is loooong from over though. After one reaches level 70, they have they choice to stay at level seventy or start "prestige" mode, which causes you to basically start your ranking over and lose all your guns and perks that you had before. I am not so sure I want to make that switch because I really don't want to have to go back and unlock all the things I've unlocked again because I am just really not that motivated. I noticed the biggest flaw in MW2 in that they don't keep the prestiged and the non prestiged separate. This causes players who just prestiged and are obviously very good at the game to go back to level one and play against people who just bought the game. To me this is a very circular motion that doesn't really help anyone, the advanced probably just get bored and the newbies think the game is too hard for them to stick with it, just a thought...... two weeks till mifflin originally aired during the 2009 Eastern Conference Finalsmedia type="youtube" key="KWLxmH4biIA" width="425" height="350" originally aired during season premiere of South Park