Modern Warfare 2's first weekend: some crashes and weird bugs, but mostly good times
Renting a timeshare on the exploding car map.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 just finished its official launch weekend after a week of campaign early access, and the word seems to be… good? Warzone 2.0's still due November 16, but basic CoD multiplayer's an institution, and despite some reports of crashing, it seems like the Boys of Autumn are happily quick scoping to their hearts' content.
The number one issue right now is those crashes—they're at the top of the list in the MW2 subreddit's bugs and issues megathread, and players are swapping horror stories in the comments of this post from redditor DemonOfLight. Almost all of MW2's negative Steam reviews cite crashes as the reason for their thumbs down (MW2 is currently sitting at "Mixed" status.) I do gotta hand it to Steam user Neek's summation of "crash of duty: modern errors 2." Got 'em. PC Gamer's own Morgan Park ran into about nine such multiplayer crashes over the weekend, hardly ideal.
In addition to overall stability woes, MW2 does have a few more minor technical hiccups to be addressed. I'm a fan of a graphical glitch where a trippy void blob expands to fill your vision. I've seen it in a Reddit post from user, uh, Cannabisaurus, as well as in this sawn-off sniper quickscoping video from FaZe Bams. Polygon also reports that attachment tuning and pinging have been disabled due to the former causing crashes, and the latter effectively enabling permatracking of your enemies.
There are already rumblings of hackers and overpowered weapons, but these discussions seem to roll in like the tide with CoD and there hasn't been time for the meta to settle. Early favorite guns include MW2's iterations of the M4, AK, MP5, and, curiously, a very easily-unlocked (level 7) sniper rifle, here dubbed the SPR 208. A lot of streamers seem to be mad about something called SBMM… Super Smash Brothers Melee Melee? Who can say.
mw2wtf_did_i_just_find from r/CallOfDuty
With all that said, CoD's an institution for a reason, and people seem to be having fun. Don't let anyone tell you different: The exploding car map, Santa Seña, absolutely rules. It demonstrates the sort of playfulness and experimentation I associate with legendary old CoD maps like Nuketown or Rust.
I love watching people run and gun, just get nutty with it in CoD, and Modern Warfare 2 seems to really prioritize that sort of aggressive play. The FaZe Bams video linked earlier is making me want to saw down a sniper rifle and go gunslinging myself, and PC Gamer's Morgan Park has been making the most of Modern Warfare 2's anti-camper Drill Charge, both for its intended purpose, but also just chucking it at people's heads.
The outlook is good then, following Modern Warfare 2's launch weekend. Its classic multiplayer is as strong as ever, and we'll find out how Warzone 2 stacks up when it launches on November 16.