Shortly before the release of Call of Duty: black Ops over a year ago, I made a bold declaration that I would ‘Platinum’ Modern Warfare 2. That is, complete 100% of all achievements.
Now, I’m going to level with you here. When I made that announcement, I didn’t really expect that I would do it, although it would give me the incentive of public humiliation if I didn’t.
Continue reading I have the Platinum Trophy for Modern Warfare 2
From the first opening scenes of the campaign to the warm, familiar waters of online multiplayer you can be in no doubt that this game is good. I mean, seriously good. Black Ops takes everything that made Modern Warfare 2 so good, and just wraps it all up in a comprehensive and coherent package. The game excels with a throughly detailed, layered plot populated full of so many interesting characters. I’m going to share with you some of my favourite things from the main story in Black Ops:
Yep, you heard it here first. For those of you that are of the Xbox persuasion, I guess it means that I’m after 100% of achievements. But it’s not going to be easy. My biggest hurdles are the special ops missions, which present an interesting bunch of scenarios: some are almost too easy (hello Wardriving, Armour Piercing) whilst others verge on the ridiculously tough (big shout out to Snatch & Grab and High Explosive).
You may be thinking Modern Warfare 2 is yesterday’s news- been there, done that, next. Well, up to a point. You see, as much as I hate to say it, I’ll just spit it out anyway- all the games that have come out this year haven’t really interested me. Any games that I might go for, will only be bought once they’ve come down in price. One of the few games coming up this year that I will most certainly buy at full price, will be Call of Duty: Black Ops.
But until that time, Modern Warfare 2 has sustained me throughout most of this year, with the single player campaign completed on veteran, and the online multiplayer to dip in and out of. And of course, special ops! So that’s what I’ve been up to with my gaming.
It’s quite apt for the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare series that I myself have been ‘off the grid’ on this blog for most of April. So what have I been up to? If you were to say wasting countless enemies and blowing stuff up, then you wouldn’t be too far from the truth.
I’ve previously mentioned dabbling with Modern Warfare 2 and moaning about how difficult it has been. So much so I even came up with my own tips on how to complete ‘Loose Ends’ on veteran. As it turns out, after I’ve kept chipping away at the game, I’ve mastered most aspects of it. It’s now really fun and I can pretty much hold my own against anyone. I still struggle with some of the more challenging special ops though. I don’t really see myself completing them all.
So what does a gamer who is new to the Call of Duty series do next? Hungry for more sublime action, I decided to get Call of Duty: World at War. Yes, the game will be two years old this November, but I told you I was new to the series! I’d always fancied getting World at War, but it had always been too expensive. So, I just waited for it to come down in price and with a little help from the invisible hand it was mine for about £17.99 ish. Sweet.
Updated October 2010
So, you’re making good progress on your veteran play-through of Modern Warfare 2. It’s all going reasonably well until you hit ‘Loose Ends’ like a brick wall. Whatever you try and do, you just can’t get through it. I’m talking about the part where you’ve got to run to the LZ from Makarov’s safe house. So I’m going to give a few tips so that the mission will should be as painless as possible, as I found all other content on the internet to be pretty much useless.
I restarted the mission three or four times, and was stuck on this mission for days. So whilst I can’t call myself an expert, I’m pretty well-versed in this mission! If you’ve got any tips for this mission or anything else you’d like to add, please share! In the mean time, here’s my guide:
Following on from looking at the top 5 games to watch out for in 2010, I’ve been giving some thought as to what I should be playing next. PixelJunk Shooter has been completed, as has Burnout Paradise. I’m doing one last play-through of inFamous, and that should cover it. I’m after something that I can get my teeth stuck into.
As far as online multiplayer goes, the extra DLC for Uncharted 2 has me covered, as does the ever-addictive Modern Warfare 2. That also means that I don’t really want to be playing yet another FPS, so that means MAG is out the window for now.
Heavy Rain has been recently released, but for what it is, I’m rather hesitant to be dropping £40 right now on such a release. Instead, I’ve turned my attention to games that have been out for a while and have dropped in price quite a bit. I’m currently thinking along the lines of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, DiRT 2, Resident Evil 5, The Saboteur, and Call of Juarez.
What I want to know is, am I missing something? Also, do you have any idea what you might be playing next?
Had a blast playing some split-screen Modern Warfare 2 with three players (myself included). During a free-for-all there were complaints that I had the bottom half of the screen to myself, with the other two players just having a measly quarter each. Complaints duly noted, so I suggested we have a team death match with the pair of them squaring off against me. It was a whitewash.
I gave them such a pasting that they don’t really want to talk about it afterwards! Whilst I acknowledge that I’m no pro gamer, I do offer some tips so that your team functions: 1) actually communicate with each other so that; 2) you can actually flank someone, 3) you don’t both go down the same narrow alley as you’ll both be blown to pieces by a grenade, and 4) you don’t throw a flash bang grenade in close proximity leaving your team sitting ducks. That is all.
I’m always on the lookout for another FPS to play (and that’s not including all I’ve got left to complete in Modern Warfare 2). And so I’m getting pretty excited about the new Medal of Honor video game. Details are currently scarce, and there’s just that one image of a bearded badass dude, released a couple of months ago. I’m intrigued. I just hope it can live up to the expectations people are going to have for it. There’ll also be the Modern Warfare comparison. Explosive stuff.
Going a bit further, I’m interested about the mention of these mysterious so-called ‘Tier One Operators’. Using these personnel, the new Medal of Honor has the potential to weave a powerful, multi-layered story alongside the mandatory solid gameplay. Modern Warfare 2 provided this calibre of gameplay in spades, but the main story campaign was somewhat lacking. Just some thoughts I wanted to jot down. Share yours!
In contrast to a previous post on this subject, ‘Measuring Difficulty in Games‘ I’ve come up with an interesting slant on this topic. I was having a chat with Rockers Delight and it sparked the ol’ grey matter into action. I ask: Do you actually challenge yourself enough when it comes to gaming?
If you were to go to the gym and hit the treadmill, you’d set it at a level you’re comfortable with, then every now and then you might kick it up a gear and see how you cope with it. Same with the weights room when you’re polishing those guns. Ahem. The point it, when trying to attain peak physical fitness, you don’t stay within your comfort zone, you try and raise the bar, up your game, and other clichés.
On a game like Modern Warfare 2 for example, I take the standard approach of having a play-through on regular difficulty before trying again on a harder difficulty level. Rockers Delight prefers heading straight in on veteran or else she wouldn’t enjoy it. When you’re at the top of your game, why not? I’ve never started a game right from the beginning and put it straight onto hard, yet there’s always one exception to the rule…
How do you measure difficulty levels in games? Can you measure them? I suppose what I’m really asking is who says what games are classified as being: difficult, tricky, mildly taxing, relatively easy or a cake walk? I hope by now you’ve figured out that it’s really each and every single one of us. It’s totally subjective.
Some will have you believe that game difficulty is measured solely on consensus of opinion by the hardcore gamers. A good example is Modern Warfare 2. Consensus of opinion says that it is easier than it’s predecessor. I’ve found it quite challenging on normal settings thank you very much! I’ve often found myself holed down in a relatively safe spot before hearing a loud THWACK and either seeing another inspiring quote or reading the sage words of advice such as ‘vehicles on fire may explode’ and ‘it might be an idea to stay way from grenades going off’ from what I call the game’s hindsight detector.
Ok, so I ad-libbed those pieces of advice. But what I’m trying to get at is that sometimes before I knew it, I had died more times than Bill Murray in the space of a minute! The Gulag level springs to mind, for instance. This may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. In this case, the controls are spot-on, gameplay is realistic, and the challenge is set at such a level that the appetite to try just one more time never diminishes. I’m looking forward to another run through of the game on hardened and veteran.
I can say that Modern Warfare 2 has been the most challenging game I’ve come across for quite some time. Looking at other games I can say that yes, Uncharted 2 is easier than the first game, Burnout Paradise really is easy, Arkham Asylum’s main story is easy enough but the challenge rooms are tough and Assassin’s Creed II is easy. But those are just my words which may seem empty if your experiences have differed. I’m only speaking for myself here. The bit I love about this topic though, is that everyone’s opinion is valid.
Does anyone want to share some of their experiences with different games? The only people I don’t want to hear from are unemployed teenagers who do a 9 till 6 shift gaming. I just can’t compete with that. 😉
