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MODERN WARFARE 2: Stimulus PackAGE
Sat, 1st May 2010
FYI, this story is more than a year old

In November 2009 Infinity Wardset the world on fire with Modern Warfare 2, one of the biggest releases in history. The single-player was a slick and engaging experience and the online was touted as the best around. However, once the honeymoon was over immediately following the game’s release, some elements of doubt crept in. There were some game-breaking glitches that gave cheats and abusers the upper hand in online matches, and there was no shortage of players to take advantage of them. The game was hacked with an infinite ammo mode and the international community began to lose interest, sick of lagging out of games against international users. The glitches and matchmaking have now been addressed in updates; this is a good thing, but having spent the last month enjoying another high-profile online shooter, I can safely say it’s hard to go back. The map pack weighs in at a hefty 1200 MS Points. At approximately NZ$20, this is an expensive outlay, and even though the maps on offer are of excellent quality, I do not believe they are exciting enough to bring players back to Modern Warfare 2in droves. Included in the pack are two of the best maps from the original Modern Warfare: ‘Crash' and 'Overgrown‘. Both have been refreshed, and the familiarity on offer instantly makes you feel comfortable. The new maps bear the standard Infinity Ward mark of quality, a high level of detail, multiple paths and great functional areas for different game types. Utilising familiar environments from the campaign, ‘Storm‘, ‘Bailout‘ and ‘Salvage‘ instantly feel familiar. ‘Bailout‘ features residential combat with some building-to-building fighting, while the others are more industrial. Overall, as an expansion to an online game, these maps are on the whole more fun to play than the extra maps supplied for the original Modern Warfare. I just feel that it is ‘too little, too late‘ and the people who would have enjoyed this content in recent months have long since moved on to other titles.