Come March 30th Activision release the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map pack on the Xbox360 to combat “mapathy” (PS3 and PC a month later). It’s apparently going to cost 1200MS points and contain five maps (two from CoD4) and possibly some other graphical but useless content.
I don’t know how much 1200MS points are as I’m on PS3 and work in pounds, shillings and pence but it’s probably about £8 (USD$12) if the World at War map packs are anything to go by. **EDIT: from this blog I found that 1200MS points is £11.** Apparently, there is much resistance to the price, I’m not sure if it’s because there are two “old” maps or some other issue but you can get the general idea from this forum thread at codnation and this blog post at the Gaming Shed Blog – there are probably numerous other grumblings elsewhere, but these are two that came up straight away.
But the main issue with whether to buy the map pack or not is whether you want to play online or spend your time being kicked from games for not having the maps.
I didn’t get World at War until really late – Novemeber-ish 2009 – after all the map packs had been released and found online play virtually impossible. It would allow me to join a lobby…..tick tick tick down the time until game start and then – BOOT, you don’t have that map (well why let me join the lobby at all?!)!
With over 4 million players, I think that those who choose not to purchase the map pack are going to find themselves in a similar situation with no way of opting for non-map pack lobbies. Although non-map pack lobbies would resolve the issue, I get the feeling that those making the green off the game already know that, which is why it’s not going to happen (and is an issue that I’ll comment on in another post).
If you want to continue playing the game online then, realistically you’re going to have to stump up the £11. Personally I don’t think that is a vast sum of money – it’s just over £2 per map. Yes, even the “old” maps. When it comes down to it, the old maps are not going to be direct ports – they’ll be updated graphically, and probably with slight differences to suit the MW2 environments. At a time when many players are getting fed up of the same maps it will add some variety and will generally be welcomed.
The word on the street is that the new maps are:
- Bailout
- Storm
- Crash*
- Overgrown*
- Salvage
*CoD4 maps
Peas and loaves.
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