Since the release of BF2 there has been a lot of back and forth about which is better. Even though in reality better is a meaningless word since its all about personal preference, but that won’t stop me from dissecting both these titles and seeing who stands alone as the best “Modern” war game. We are breaking this up into four rounds. Which ever game wins the most rounds is the grand daddy of war games.

Round 1  – GRAPHICS

These are two very good looking games. It’s really hard to look at both and pick a clear winner, but I picked BF2 and here is why. When I look at both of these games it is really hard to see too much difference between them. You can notice that MW2 does seem to be a bit sharper when it comes to some textures, and graphically it is obviously well polished and has more stuff going on. BF2 has more of a grainy hardcore look to it, and a few less colors. The reason that BF2 gets the nod is the fact that it looks so good but has a much bigger scale involved, and then you add in the fact that almost everything you can see is destructible…case closed. BF2 also has much better smoke and particle effects, and you get to see them way more often since shit is blowing up all the time. Neither game will disappoint your eyes, but BF2 is sweet destructible eye candy. I know this one is highly debatable, but at the end of the day I think that BF2 does a better job of using its visuals to create an atmosphere.

Winner  – Battlefield 2 Bad Company

Round 2 – SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN

This is a tough one to call. I had so much fun with both campaigns, flawed as they both are. MW2 has a intriguing story, but it was told mostly in load screens and through dialogue, which is not a bad thing if done correctly, but in MW2 it’s not. Where MW2 does excel over BF2 is the variety in single player. There is a bit more to do, where as in BF2 most missions just rely on running around killing. That’s not a bad thing as it’s done very well in BF2, but MW2 still has the edge here/

I didn’t enjoy the first Battlefield’s campaign that much, the characters were enjoyable, but the pacing and story lacked a lot. With BF2 is seems they listened and stripped the campaign of most annoyance issues. The campaign is well paced, the humor has been retained, and it just felt way more focused then the first one. I would of however liked to see more of the gameplay revolve around the destruction engine.

Both these campaigns offer a lot of fun for gamers, and both give you around 6-9 hours of play time depending on the difficulty. It was a hard choice, but if stranded on a desert island with a Plasma TV, Xbox 360, Working Power, but no online. I would have to take MW2 along with me. Both campaigns are fun, but the variety in MW2 is what sealed it for me.

Winner – Modern Warfare 2

Round 3 – CONTROLS

Everyone knows it doesn’t matter how good your game looks if it controls like a drunk donkey…cough Killzone 2. You gotta have the gameplay to back those visuals up or the games online community will shrink quicker then your junk at the sight of Lady Gaga…ahem Killzone 2. Luckily for all gamers both these games control like butter. So how do you decide which one is better? That’s a good question because in all honesty I don’t really know either. I can’t really find any kind of fatal flaw in either control scheme. They do each have their own learning curve, but neither is hard to use or excessively complex. There is a lot more to control in BF2 since your class will have more accessories and items, but those blend right into the controls. So I guess all I can do here is call it a tie. Unless anyone of you can come up with a solid reason why one is better then the other.

Winner – DRAW!

Round 4 – MULTIPLAYER

Lets face facts, 90% of people who bought either of these games did so mostly for the online gaming. Each game could have released as online only and still sold quite well. So being the best in the online space is something both developers spent quite a lot of time on and it shows. Both games are amazing to play online. They are intense, and sometimes frustratingly so, but both offer hours and hours of your wasted youth sticking 12 year olds with knives. So how do I separate two awesome games and pick a winner? I will do so by looking at which one offers gamers a more feature rich experience.

Let’s look at MW2 first, basically you run around a map, or camp like an ass, trying to find someone to shoot. It’s the basics of FPS done very well. The variety comes from things like perks, gun selection, and every now and then raining death down inside of an AC-130. There are no vehicles, and the maps are fairly small, but that is what I imagine some people love about the game, because once you strip away all the extras its just a very well done point and shoot. Simple but amazingly fun. The problem with MW2 is that it lacks enough variety. Once you rank all the way up there is nothing really left to do, no motivation to go forward since running around shooting people does tend to eventually get old.

BF2 does all the things that MW2 does, but in the end it takes it to another level. Not only do you have perks and a bunch of weapons to unlock, but you also get so much more variety when it comes to gameplay. The Maps in BF2 are huge compared with MW2. This used to be a problem because you would spend forever running around a map looking for something to do, but in BF2 this is not the case. You are almost always in the action, and action is the right word. BF2 shines above MW2 in Multiplayer because it creates a sense of urgency and chaos that I never felt in MW2. The action in BF2 is so much more involved and intense that it hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t stop or slow down. Another aspect that puts BF2 ahead is team work. Team work in MW2 is basically supporting your friends and laying down fire. In BF2 the classes allow for so much more strategy it keeps the game interesting. One man can make a difference in a game, but it still takes the team to win.

I could write twelve more pages about how destructible cover enhances the game, and how this game may just be the best game to snipe in period, but if you play the game you already know. If you played the first BF and didn’t like the multi player then please give the new one a try. I did not like the first one either, but this one stands on its own as a masterpiece of online gaming.

Winner – Battlefield 2 Bad Company

Overall Winner  – Battlefield 2 Bad Company  3 to 2

I know the trolls will love to hate on this result, but remember that game developers one uping the competition is a good thing for all of us, it sparks innovation and will force Infinity Ward & Activision to evolve Modern Warfare 3, if they still own the right to the game come next year.