I've never had such a bad first impression with a game as I have with Modern Warfare 2.  I pop the DvD into my drive on my computer, and to my utter dismay, STEAM pops up and handles the installation of the game.  I knew the game was going to use VAC, but for some reason I didn't think I'd be forced to play the game through STEAM.

So, 30 minutes later when STEAM got done installing, validating, and finalizing the installation, I played through the single player.  This is where the game shines the most.  The single player campaign is the single most intense, touching, gut wrenching, awesome display of story telling and execution I have ever seen in any game.  The way the music plays when you come out of a bunker and see a ruined Washington DC, and in many other cases, is awe-inspiring, until the bullets start snapping past your head.  Although amazing, I found the single player campaign to be entirely too easy, even on Veteran.  There are several parts of the game that are only difficult simply because you can only get shot twice before you die, and you have to cross open areas that snipers and machine gunners are just laying constant fire onto.  But that doesn't change the fact that the single player is awesome.

The multiplayer, which is what I, and probably every other person, bought the game for, leaves much to be desired.  It's almost unanimous among my friends, clan mates, and the people that I have played with, that most of the maps are horrible.  And they are.  The map layouts focus too much on being compact, and not enough on being a good, balanced, fun map.  I understand the idea behind the maps, keep the action fast and non-stop, but it's nice to have a bit more open maps with slightly more down time.

All of the PC gamers are aware of the fact that there are no dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2.  Again, I can see where Infinity Ward was going with this, but it comes up terribly short.  We aren't console gamers, other games have tried this before and failed miserably, I'm not sure why Infinity Ward thought that would change.  Lag is prevalent in every game, to the point that it is entirely expected.  Often times you will see people "warping".  IWNet is not consistent at all, and numerous times games will start, drop, start, change hosts, and then will fail to change hosts and just drop everyone from the game.  Often times it splits up your party too, so you have to reform the group.  There is also a fairly common problem that if a party leader initiates a game search, the game will crash randomly and unpredictably, at which point the party just changes out leaders until you find someone who can start without crashing.  The game is also very forgiving to bunny hoppers and those who like to bind prone and fire to the same button, there is no break in fire, and it is completely possible to accurately snipe will jumping or falling through the air.

I can go on all night about the fatal flaws with the PC version's flaws, and they are many.  Modern Warfare 2 is no where close to a tactical, military, or realistic shooter.  Modern Warfare 2 plays more like Quake or Unreal, and everyone needs to be aware of that before they go into this game.  If you are looking for a good military shooter and enjoy more tactical and realistic gameplay, Bad Company 2 comes out March 2, 2010.  I'll see you guys there, because the PC multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2 will not last against that game.