| 
After being badgered incessantly by friends and loved ones to pick up that newfangled shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I finally gave in and picked up a copy. I have to say, the guy who sold it to me was a little too eager to get it in my hands. I left feeling a little skeered.
Anyway, I unpacked it, went through the training round, failed it abysmally and was offered my suggested level of difficulty.
They seemed to think I was only capable of "regular". Biatch, please. Now, granted, I don't go Veteran at first because I would like to actually enjoy the story and not throw my controller through the window on the first run. But hardened is something I believe I can handle just fine, thank you.
After several prompts asking me if I was sure I wanted to play the "not-so-nice" scenes, I was FINALLY thrown into the action. They wasted no time. Back in the trenches, it was just like old times. What's weird is that I no longer pay attention to the guns I'm toting. I don't know if it's just plain laziness or just because the names have gotten so convoluted, I just can't remember them. Yes, I must be going senile.
The missions do gradually get harder and as with the previous game, you have a good mixture of stealth and run-and-gun levels. You get to experience a variety of terrain, as well. From a desert in the middle of Afghanistan, to the twisted streets in the favela in Rio de Janeiro, to the blizzard beaten mountains of Russia, you are thrown into the middle of all the extremes. All we need now is a tornado alley scene with flying cows. Driving boats and snowmobiles also made for amazing play. With death-defying jumps and even mountain climbing, there was so much to keep me interested. It really is a well-balanced game and the story is interesting, too. My only complaint was that it was over too soon. I got through it on one Saturday and again, this was on Hardened.
If you're not a loner like me, you have two other options. You can do co-op missions with the "Spec-Ops" mode or you can play team-based multiplayer. As well as playing with others in Spec-Ops, you can tackle the missions alone but they're not easy. I thought just defending a specified location on a map would be fairly easy but there were 5 waves of enemies and they were smart. They would take different routes to my location. They also seemed to be immune to my claymores. Boo.
The sound and graphics of the game are outstanding. They really stepped it up with the dialogue, too. It was pretty amazing to realize that when one of my teammates was yelling, "Second floor!" he actually meant there was an enemy on the second floor. Between the blizzards and the sand storms, it just felt so immersive. Sometimes, you just want to stop and look around. To watch the billows of snow as they fade enemies in and out of view.
Dun Dun Dun...
As for the controversial airport mission, I did play through it and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who can't handle movies based on bad guys vs. good guys. Sure, I get that it's a bad thing because you're actually playing the role of a "terrorist" but I found that I didn't actually have to kill civilians to move ahead. If someone was shooting at me, I would shoot back. That's the extent of it. It is also a very integral part of the story, in my eyes. There was something that made me stop and think, though. I don't recall seeing any of the civilians faces as they were being gunned down. Everyone was either turned to the side or had their back to the group. It somewhat de-sensitized me to what was going on. Also the fact that they are polygon puppets does make a difference. Again, if you're a crack head lunatic with no sense of reality, I would recommend you stay away from this mission. In fact, just stay away from gaming in general. I'd hate to hear that you ran into a crowd of porcupines with a hot rod because you played Brutal Legend too much, let alone shot up an airport full of people because Vladimir Makarov told you to.
There are different flavors of the game you can buy, too. The nicest of these is the Super Elite Edition with console. It's one of the nicest LE consoles I've seen to date. The color is perfect, the graphics aren't obnoxious. It's just sweet. Unfortunately, I don't have the money ($399) to spend on it right now and I'm sure lots of other people out there are re-thinking lush purchases like this in this economy. If only it came out two years ago when everything was fine. Then it would be adorning my mantle with such style and grace... Ahh well... Next time 
There is also the $150 (approx.) Prestige Edition that comes with night vision goggles. I haven't seen these myself but I've heard from many that they're aren't that great. I didn't really expect them to be great, honestly. It does come with the steel case and hardback art book. So if you want a crappy plastic show piece for your gaming collection, go for it. If you just want the steel case and art book, you can get that, too, with the hardened edition. That'll set you back about $80.
