Film Guide

Like anything you’ve waited for with huge expectations, Modern Warfare 2 has the unenviable destiny of being a huge disappointment. Take Cloverfield for example, the hype created around that movie was so intense that by the time some people saw the movie, their expectations were so high that nothing could have satisfied them.

Modern Warfare 2 is going the same way. With the release of nothing more than a teaser trailer with no actual game footage or confirmed details, the gaming community descended into a frenzy. We can’t really blame Infinity Ward, all they are doing is feeding the fire, in much the same way as JJ Abrams did with his viral campaign. It’s the end user, the eager fans who blow our own expectations out of control. Sure, Infinity ward play on that by issuing press releases that indulge us with the idea that we can be part of something huge, that Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest selling game, ever.

But then come November, and a whole lot of hype later, and Modern Warfare 2 is released. That’s when the backlash explodes. After asking fans what they wanted to see in Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward havw set themselves up for a big fail. They won’t be able to – and probably don’t want to – put everyone’s ideas into the game. It’s the stuff they don’t put in, the stuff they don’t do that will be perceived as the games weaknesses. People with no experience in game construction will mouth off on XBox Live and on various forums around the net explaining how Infinity Ward SHOULD have done it.

It’s the unavoidable ugly truth of trying to create a squeal to one of the most popular games ever; you can’t please everyone.

Of course, there will be plenty of people, millions of people, who will love the game right off the bat, because they will embrace the new adventure, and Xbox Live will once again be taken to the limits of it’s capacity by the onslaught of online action as millions of people world wide try and be the first the level up and find all the maps sweet points.

As for me, as cynical as I am, I’m confident I’ll be happy with what ever Infinity Ward do with Modern Warfare 2. There’s no indications that they are going to be radically changing the direction of the franchise, only building on the incredible legacy they have created. The only downside that I can see is that we’ll probably never see Infinity Ward make another World War II shooter.