Modern Warfare 2 vs Battlefield 2 part 2...

Or How to Swear Like a Drunken Sailor


These two games piss me off. The ridiculous story lines, the single minded enemies, but mostly it's the multiplayer. "Why?" you say "The multiplayer's awesome!". Well, it's because they're so awesome that a handful of poor game design choices ruin, what otherwise should be, two of the greatest online multiplayer experiences ever. So instead heaping praise on all the things they get right, let's dive deep into the seedy underbelly that is : Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 vs Battlefield Bad Company 2 competitive online multiplayer edition. Phew, I hope you're not reading this aloud.



1. Why bring a gun to a knife fight?

Knives are annoying, they always have been and they always will be. It's bad enough that BC encourages players to run around like giant douche nozzles, with the allure of enemy dog tags. But for MW to make it over-powered to the point where you can charge at an enemy head on, while he's shooting at you; that's ridiculous. I can live with being knifed in the back, but when I'm pumping him full of lead he better go down.

The Fix : You can't draw your knife if you're getting hit with enemy bullets. When you get shot by an enemy your aim goes off, makes sense that you couldn't use your knife.

2. Please stop killing me with my own helicopter

The vehicles in these games can be a bitch, especially when you're not the one controlling them. At least in MW they're pretty easy to take out. You grab a rocket launcher, add in a little cold blooded, bada bing bada boom, you're done. No more killstreak. In BC there's no such luck. Vehicles are everywhere, and any idiot can pilot them. What's worse is when you actually get someone who knows what they're doing, they can completely dominate a match. This is especially true with the helicopters. Rockets need pin point accuracy, guided missiles are hard to use, and good luck hitting one of these things with a tracer dart.

The Fix : Make tracer darts travel faster. Maybe not bullet speed but close. That way helicopters will be a lot easier to hit, but you'll still need some teamwork to take one down.

3. Born to die

Re-spawning is tricky business for any game, and neither of these two get it quite right. While BC does have a great system, allowing you to spawn on other squad mates, it doesn't work if no one on your team is in a squad. And in really tough matches this can lead to some awful spawn camping.

MW on the other hand has much bigger problems. Half the time when you kill an enemy, they re-spawn him 10 feet ahead of you behind a corner, just waiting to ambush you. And the other half he's directly behind you, shooting you in the back.

The Fix : In BC force players playing alone into squads and make enemy bases off limits. In MW spawn players away from the action. Hell, large parts of the maps are never used anyway.


4. The more you know

Information is power, and on the battlefield it can be the difference between life and death. There's nothing more frustrating than looking at the wrong side of a killcam wondering what the fuck just happened. And in this regard MW really shines over BC. From enemy locations to where your being shot from, it all works within the rules that are laid out. And it works because it's consistent. BC on the other hand is a total mess. Spotting rarely works, enemies uniforms look like teammates, kill cams are useless, your health level is unclear. It just leads to a lot of WTF moments.

The Fix : Spotting, if you hit an enemy with your bullets he's spotted. It's simple, and you don't have to worry about button spamming. Also change the colour of the uniforms and add a health meter on the HUD. It's not rocket science.



5. Ping the ultimate weapon

When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter how good you are at these games, just how good of a connection you have. It's sad, cause there's really nothing you can do about it. I do have to give props to BC for adding dedicated servers but still hasn't completely resolved the issue.

The Fix : Not much I can say about this other than dedicated servers and better matchmaking based on connection.

I could probably go on forever. Unlimited shotgun range, running through claymores, indistinguishable tank mines. There are a ton of little things that make you scratch your head. Despite all this nit picking, who really comes out on top? Well both, or I should say neither. They're really two very different kind of experiences. Modern Warfare is great with friends or on you're own, but it's focused mostly on killing opponents. While Bad Company is much more strategic, you really need some friends online to properly enjoy it.

Either way, prepare to be frustrated, and love every minute of it.