From our front-page news:
Today is a big day. The follow-up to Modern Warfare (Call of Duty 4) is now available on the PC (the game has been available for consoles for the past couple of days), and I can't wait to dive right in. As mentioned the other day in our news, developer Infinity Ward is giving PC gamers numerous reasons to shun this platform-specific version, so it will be interesting to see if that will affect sales or not. With this latest release, though, there's a lot more controversy surrounding the game than meets the eye.
As I couldn't wait to take a quick look at the game, the pre-load status on Steam was dropped at around midnight last night, so I loaded it up. The first thing I saw was quite unique... "Disturbing Content Notice". Sure, MW2 is rated M, like the vast majority of other PC FPS titles, but this was the first time I recall ever being greeted with such a warning. It goes onto say, "Some players may find one of the missions disturbing or offensive." Interesting.
The more interesting point might be the fact that the game actually allows you to skip over that mission in its entirety, with no penalties towards your normal progression. After digging up some information, it appears that the controversial mission happens earlier on in the game, and has the player take control of a CIA agent who goes undercover to work alongside terrorists. That's not the problem... the problem is that there's player-controlled killing of civilians involved - a first for the series.
Is Infinity Ward deliberately pushing the envelope, or is there a reason for such a mission to exist? I plan to begin the single-player campaign later this evening, so it shouldn't be too long before I find that out, especially as the game has only a predicted 7 hour single-player campaign. Slightly off-topic, Modern Warfare 2 will likely replace World at War in our GPU reviews very shortly. Both games are based on similar engines, but MW2 has some updates, and is brand-spanking-new, so it makes sense to include.
The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 features for the first time in video games, the musical soundtrack of legendary Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Grammy Award and Tony winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Source: Modern Warfare 2 on Steam (Official site is down.)
As I couldn't wait to take a quick look at the game, the pre-load status on Steam was dropped at around midnight last night, so I loaded it up. The first thing I saw was quite unique... "Disturbing Content Notice". Sure, MW2 is rated M, like the vast majority of other PC FPS titles, but this was the first time I recall ever being greeted with such a warning. It goes onto say, "Some players may find one of the missions disturbing or offensive." Interesting.
The more interesting point might be the fact that the game actually allows you to skip over that mission in its entirety, with no penalties towards your normal progression. After digging up some information, it appears that the controversial mission happens earlier on in the game, and has the player take control of a CIA agent who goes undercover to work alongside terrorists. That's not the problem... the problem is that there's player-controlled killing of civilians involved - a first for the series.
Is Infinity Ward deliberately pushing the envelope, or is there a reason for such a mission to exist? I plan to begin the single-player campaign later this evening, so it shouldn't be too long before I find that out, especially as the game has only a predicted 7 hour single-player campaign. Slightly off-topic, Modern Warfare 2 will likely replace World at War in our GPU reviews very shortly. Both games are based on similar engines, but MW2 has some updates, and is brand-spanking-new, so it makes sense to include.
The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 features for the first time in video games, the musical soundtrack of legendary Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Grammy Award and Tony winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Source: Modern Warfare 2 on Steam (Official site is down.)
