Single player? There are good examples out there somewhere.

Multiplayer? TF2. Do it right or don’t do it.

Only employed to good effect in System Shock 2.

as for everything else : I cant be bothered. ‘Medal of Allied Assault on Hill 19 of Warfare Honour Recon Vegas 6’ Can go suck a dick. I sit through trailers hoping for another Delta Force 2 and instead get the comedy writings where We play World war 2 again, only this time there are ten million germans in france, and no english, canadians, french underground, or anyone else, and its Tommy, Butch, Fingers McGee and Bruno-The-Tank-Driver versus the nazis again.

Im tired of it. Its infested holywood scary movies a la the Rock / James Bond and I was getting tired of some megalomaniac wants to end the world shit back in the days where I was starting to change my mind about whether all girls had cooties and maybe I should try talking to them.

anything predicated on real warfare is utter shit these days, usually in a desperate attempt to avoid political confrontation; see also Stupid disclaimers at the start of Assassins creed; “we have a multicutural, multi-ethnic staff and dont hate anyone!”. Makarov and his depressing Ilk are just Games manufacturers way of spawning http://evilheff.livejournal.com/24864.html “Lord Skullfucker” a guy thats safe and expedient to hate.

Bonus SF training for extra ultra realism!

That of course makes the EMP blast thing even more stupidly unexplainable, if NYC / SF / LA / Chicago / Denver / Detroit / Houston / Dallas / OKC / etc. are all under assault too.

OH! I LOVED THE EVA SEQUENCE. HOLY SHIT THAT WAS COOL. A bright point in otherwise stupid storytelling.

So, the thing is that COD:MW was unexpectedly great. The plot was silly but held water, the shooter game mechanics were joyfully & unapologetically mid-90’s in a time when everyone was trying to emulate Halo & Gears, and it took such big risks with that opening sequence of your own execution that I wanted to see where they’d go next.

And man, did that pay off in spades. A game that puts you through the pitched, last-ditch rescue mission, escaping by the skin of your teeth, and then you die in agony of radiation poisoning along with the person you rescued? Fuckin’ A, man. That was brilliant.

For every bullshit moment like defending the ferris wheel, there was the Ghillie suit stealth mission.

So more or less: MW1 got a lot of extra mileage out of being way, way, way better than I expected, having great production values, and taking some chances with the medium. I loved it, even before I got into the multi-. (I only quit the multi- because I took a work trip to CA last November, and when I got back I decided it was best to leave the heroin on the shelf.)

So what I’ve been trying to decide now is whether I’m being too hard on the sequel for not living up to the original, or if the flaws in the sequel serve only to amplify the flaws in the original. It’s like they found the best parts of the first game, polished them off, and magnified all the things about the original I considered problems. I found the airport level to be pretty intense and I was nauseous afterward, but I get emotionally invested in such things. Everyone’s mileage is going to vary on that. Mostly, though, it’s just like they went all fuckin’ Amp Goes Up To 11 on it. You get an Aliens-ripoff proximity meter, the stealth missions seem cool but are arbitrarily ruined by vision boxes and having a big red flashing light on your head when you’re discovered, there’s nothing awesome like sniping was in the original, the snowmobile chase is laughable, the Flavela’s a ruined opportunity of level design.

Gah, the more I talk about it the more annoyed I am.

There’s not even an interesting exercise in stupid-hard memorization gaming for a bonus level this time. (I call this Contra hard.) The challenges are fun and varied, and I wish the bridge sequence had stayed in the main game, but… meh.

So yeah, I agree. Disappointing sequel, but I wonder what could have possibly lived up?

Next on the block most likely to fall victim to my overset expectations: Bioshock 2.

You’re being too dismissive re: the multi-player, btw. The first few passes with the multi- suck because nothing’s unlocked, but eventually you get it going and it’s stupid good fun. The MMO aspect of it makes for a very good time, and you can just mute out the dickheads.