MW2 on the PC doesn't bode well.

There's lots of buzz lately about the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, and how the developer has hamstrung a lot of the features that make PC games superior to console games. A lot of this came out of a Q&A session with the developers hosted by Best Buy earlier this week.

Essentially it sounds like they're dumbing down the PC version to the point where it's essentially a port from the consoles. The big one that jumps out at me is the lack of developer console, which prevents you from tweaking stuff like field of view (FOV), something that I've done with most games ever since the Quake 3 days. I like to have more peripheral vision, but it looks like MW2 is going to lock you in at 65 degrees, which makes games feel molasses-slow. Sure this may have an effect of unbalancing the game in favor of enthusiasts as they tweak the game to their preferences, but knowledge is power... and it teaches people to be resourceful. This stuff is not difficult to figure out and accomplish. And the timid can always just stick to the single player campaign.

The other point of contention is the lack of dedicated servers, and in its place they've implemented a dubious peer-to-peer hosting system where PC's are chosen to host the game in progress. Coming from a background of administering my share of private game servers, this sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, as systems with poor asymmetric internet connections and misconfigured firewalls try to host a multiplayer game. I guess that's why they're limiting game sizes to 9v9 only. My question is, is the typical client-server model that every other game uses so unusably broken that they have to reinvent it? Or is this another way for them to control the experience end to end, by quashing the ability to run your own server?

The rest of the features present in COD4 that were seemingly axed from the PC version of MW2 are listed in a pretty concise spreadsheet... and they include such surprises as not being able to kick misbehaving players, no mods, no custom maps, no recording, etc... basically all the reasons why PC games are usually more feature-rich than their console counterparts. In most cases extra maps and similar add-ons are considered DLC on console games and Microsoft/Sony see fit to charge you for such niceties, whereas they're usually free on the PC version. Not any more, they're simply not present in MW2. And other stuff like recording and kicking players have always been boons for more enthusiastic gamers that want to push the gaming experience above and beyond.

This is all being done in the name of "balancing the game" as the developers see fit. I guess we'll just need to wait for the hacking community to step in and restore the proper balance. And as typically happens, the hacked version will be superior to the official version, and not just because of lack of DRM this time... it will most likely have the features that PC gamers actually want.