I spent the final full weekend earlier than Christmas doing two issues: Baking roughly a bajillion cookies with my child and girlfriend, and relentlessly enjoying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s brand-new Shipment map with my squad. (Shoutout HOPO crew!) It couldn’t have come at a greater time, as a result of its sheer wonderful madness papers over my deepest grievances with the ultra-popular shooter.

COD vets will probably be intimately accustomed to Shipment, a close-quarters map that has shipped in a number of iterations of the sport. While the opposite, bigger 6-vs.-6 maps in MW2 function a mix of close-, mid-, and long-range motion, the boxed-in Shipment map forces fixed in-your-face motion. You usually respawn already in enemy sights. Heck, you possibly can even respawn within the midst of a hail of gunfire or explosions, getting mowed down earlier than you actually have a likelihood to get your gun up.

But right here’s the factor: Those horrible respawns work on Shipment. I wanted the breath of contemporary air after battling COD:MW2’s atrocious respawn system on all the opposite maps.

Head over to the MW2 subreddit—or just play the sport for a number of matches—and also you’ll witness countless complaints about this model’s horrible respawn system. Activision Blizzard clearly switched to a respawn system that favors proximity to your teammates over secure entry. As a end result, you’ll usually wind up spawning to an enemy mowing down a teammate instantly in entrance of you, then you definitely instantly after. It’s particularly dangerous if the sport’s just-as-terrible matchmaking function pairs you up towards a squad of bunny-hopping esports wannabes decked-out in CDL skins who’re in a position to lock your crew down in your respawn space.

The respawns are straight infuriating on the bigger maps—Activision deeply wants to contemplate remodeling the mechanic, as a result of it’s trash—however in Shipment, all you are able to do is giggle and hop again into it. Grinding the Shipment 24/7 playlist over the weekend helped take the sting out of the all-too-occasionally wonky spawns you encounter in bigger maps. It’s introduced pleasure to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at a time after I was beginning to really feel burnt out.

The particular method Activision launched Shipment final week helped alleviate a few of my different complaints, too.

Activision Blizzard

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s matchmaking system feels overly punishing in its quest to maintain all gamers round a 1:1 kill:demise ratio. Woe unto you in case you have a number of good video games, since you’ll be solid into hell with these sweaty CDL wannabes for a number of rounds and get completely stomped. It’s one other huge grievance on MW2 boards—however Shipment is so totally nuts that you simply don’t really feel its results in any way. When everyone seems to be spawning in with enemies in sight, everybody dies on a regular basis, no matter ability degree. It’s a hoot.

Launching Shipment on a double XP weekend additionally helped me with part of the sport I particularly dislike—weapons attachments. I normally persist with shotguns and lightweight machine weapons in sport. I don’t care about making an attempt to degree up each weapon in each class. But in MW2, among the stat-boosting attachments on your weapons solely unlock if you happen to degree up totally differing kinds of weapons. It sucks. I don’t need to degree up assault rifles simply to get a snazzy laser for my one-hit-kill Lockwood shottie setup. I simply need eviscerate of us with my shotgun. Rather than drive myself to play with weapons I don’t like, I’ve merely sighed and accepted I gained’t have the attachments I’d wish to have.

Enter Shipment.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Again, COD vets are used to grinding gun camos on Shipment—nevertheless it was spectacular for lastly unlocking these lacking attachments too. Shipment is so gloriously wild that any gun is enjoyable on it. So I tuned my class to maximise expertise positive factors by way of decoy grenades and scorestreaks over ability streaks, loaded up choose weapons that provided the precise attachments I needed (and beforehand thought I’d by no means get), and went completely ham. Since Thursday I’ve maxed out all my shotguns, all my LMGs, a pair sniper rifles, a number of starter assault rifles that unlocked further LMGs at greater ranges, after which these LMGs, hoovering up countless wonderful attachments within the course of.

Shipment is so small that decoy grenades offer you XP when your teammates kill enemies mainly anyplace on the map. With scorestreaks lively and double XP, I used to be getting anyplace from 4 to eight ranges on my major gun per match. I may take a contemporary gun and max it out over lunch. Yes, please.

Of course, whereas Shipment’s chaotic existence papers over MW2’s most egregious flaws, it doesn’t truly repair any of them, and also you’ll really feel the ache throughout common matchmaking. (Shipment additionally drives dwelling how deeply damaged Riot Shields are whenever you use the Overkill perk to maintain one defending your again.) There’s nonetheless a variety of work to be carried out. But all that mentioned, enjoying Shipment 24/7 throughout double XP weekend was an absolute blast—the perfect time I’ve had in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 since its opening weekend.

A particular Christmas Shipment map opens on December 21 and lasts by January 4. Bring on the Christmas noobs—I’m feeling reinvigorated and my laser-like Lockwood 300 is hungry.

Activision Blizzard