The State of MWII Q1 2023

I, like so many other Call of Duty players, have slacked off on playing Modern Warfare II since launch. The common consensus is that it released in an unfinished state, has some features the community does not like, and has seen little to no significant updates to content or gameplay. Even on the store front things aren't looking all that great. The only upside I find as a committed player is the frantic online multiplayer experience in playlists like Shipment 24/7, or Scrapyard 24/7. They're the only real go to modes for leveling up everything including the battle pass. On the battle pass side of things, things are surprisingly more doable than before despite the heavy XP throttling, and dependency upon XP boosts. I actually feel, and it's odd saying this, that it's easier to complete MWII's battle pass than it is Fortnite's. Fortnite's throttling is beyond ridiculous by comparison. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | The Multiplayer Experience

I've followed, reviewed, and supported Call of Duty since it's golden years. Without fail I've played each new release despite my growing concerns over the multiplayer experience. I witnessed the ups and downs of matchmaking, saw skill based matchmaking introduced, and the lobby system in general struggle to maintain a from the start experience. Problems that continue to persist.

With each new release I stuck by my own claims saying that the biggest problem with Call of Duty was not so much the game itself or the gameplay, but the players who were playing it. To an extent that claim has always held true. Multiplayer continues to be what kills the CoD experience over time. From toxic gamers to hackers, and modders it has grown increasingly problematic. Fast forward to MW2, and almost immediately those player problems reared their ugly heads to an extreme, but that was not the only problem this time around ...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | The Campaign

For those of you who have yet to buy or play through MW2's new campaign you don't have to worry about spoilers here. I will not go into detail about key plot points, story instances, or character roles. I will give you a basic take on the plot, and give you my honest thoughts on my experience with the campaign playthrough ...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4)

The hype. The theatrics. Does Black Ops 4 live up to it all? That's likely the question going through the minds of those who are on the fence about buying into the new experience. With a team based multiplayer returning with 8 game types centered around a new specialist team based combat system, a Battle Royale mode that was meant to be a contender to Fortnite, and a Zombies mode that looked to be more serious than ever one would think there was proper effort put into the construction, and creation of these online only experiences. Unfortunately corners were cut, and that which seemed promising ended up feeling more like a gimmick than a properly fleshed out Call of Duty experience. A mixed bag of tricks that were thrown at the gamer with the obvious intention of having at least one of the three modes be enjoyable to them. While I found the main multiplayer alright, Blackout less than so, and Zombies good I can't help, but wonder what Treyarch was thinking.

Microsoft to Ban Campers

Recently during my browsing of my favorite Youtube channels I happened across a disturbing commentary by "ReviewTechUSA". In it the commentator stated that Microsoft's decision to ban gamers who camp in "Call of Duty" games was an "Awesome" move. His reasoning behind this was simply that he despised being killed off by campers. I think we can all agree that being killed off by campers in-game sucks, but at the same time I personally do not agree with his brand of thinking. There's ways around the "Camper" phenomenon, but there's no way to combat the immense amount of hacking that is the true threat to online CoD. Microsoft, and Sony both do not want to deal with the nagging complaints from gamers such as myself who constantly remind them that hacking is a prominent threat in online gaming. Not only do these corporate bigwigs want to pass the buck off to some other issue such as 'Camping", and ignore hacking altogether, but they are also ill-equipped to handle the ever-growing issue that is hacking.

Blog Update & Black Ops 2 Custom Emblems

There's been a lot going on in my life this first month of 2013. I've been busy tending to my adult blog, and getting business in order on that side of the spectrum in hopes that it might become as popular as my gaming blog. So far I've secured a lot more contributors, and have gained access to some new adult entertainment options for my blog. I know that has nothing to do with "OtakuDante's Gaming Inferno" directly, but it partially explains the reason why content has been so lacking here. As far as game reviews are concerned I have received some requests from XBLIG devs, but have heard nothing from the higher up devs leaving me to almost abandon my hopes for the future of this blog. My fear is that small time gaming journalists such as myself are not going to be able to get the XBLA, and retail games like we previously were able to in 2012. This can likely be attributed to the boom in gaming blog sites, and to the fact that a lot of the "so called" blog journalists out there were not being legit with their requests. In other words they wanted something for nothing, and devs fell for it. It gives honest, hard working journalists such as myself a bad name, and in turn causes developers not to trust us.