The Top 7... Ballsiest facets of Modern Warfare 2

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The bigger the game, the more people it pisses off

A sizeable group of players are complaining about the shortness of the campaign, but others (like ourselves, mostly) view it as something rather respectable. There is no filler- the whole ride is intense and engrossing, and it’s assumed that you’ll attack Special Ops and competitive multiplayer with the same vigor. Infinity Ward does not apologize for pacing the experience in a way that makes sense for the sort of game it is- fast and powerful.

A developer with less balls would have…
Inserted an assemblage of meaningless missions involving escorting meaningless people, or “open-world” elements which involve pointlessly treading across land masses for no reason other than to add a few extra hours of holding down an analog stick.

3. %26ldquo;No Russian%26rdquo;

Though it still hasn’t reached quite the same outrage level as Hot Coffee, this mission did stir up a healthy cup of controversy when it was leaked to YouTube before the game. It’s ballsy in that it doesn’t make assumptions about the medium of games. There’s a general perception amongst mainstream types that games encourage anything they portray, because games are meant to be “fun.” This obviously isn’t the case, just as it isn’t with other media. Games are meant to be entertaining, and sometimes entertainment occurs by using interesting devices to further a story or feeling. We don’t want to go become junkies after watching Requiem for a Dream, just as we don’t want to become Russian terrorists after playing MW2.

“No Russian” exists to create a feeling - the player is helpless, and must slowly endure the mission like a bad dream. It sets up the entire plot, and playing through it only to be shot in the face and framed motivated us to attack the campaign more fervor (must… enact… virtual… revenge). It’s a very effective and exciting use of the medium.


Above: Perhaps we can fool the outraged into believing that they all drank too much wine and fell asleep

Granted,Russia isn’t all too happy about it. Okay, fair enough.

A developer with less balls would have…
Implied the massacre with a cheesy cut scene in which stylized images of screaming faces flashed during the crescendos of a cliched orchestral track.

GamesRadarTylerWilde
GamesRadarTylerWilde
Associate Editor, Digital at PC Gamer