I’ve posted part one of a series of weapons guides for MW2 multiplayer – a brief guide to the M4A1 Carbine. More to follow, probably.

Watch on YouTube

Modern Warfare 2 draws ever closer and the hype machine is in full force – with the Launch Trailer released last night, and a bunch of MW2-themed DLC dropping onto the dashboard today.

There are two premium themes – ‘Abstract’ and ‘Tactical’, priced at 240 MSP each, and a bunch of avatar gear, including the usual t-shirts and caps – and, more interestingly, a full Ghost outfit (pictured) and a UAV prop.

Here’s a brief video showing both themes in action:

Modern Warfare 2 – ‘Tactical’ and ‘Abstract’ Xbox 360 Premium Themes on YouTube

I’ve been playing Borderlands this week – both solo and co-op – and just about finished my first playthrough last night.

The game takes place on a far-flung planet known as Pandora, and you play one of four characters intent on unlocking the secrets of the planet – notably a ‘vault’ of legend containing untold wealth.

The four characters each have different specialties, including the rifle-savvy soldier (Roland), the elemental siren (Lilith), the brute force of the beserker (Brick), and the subtler approach of the hunter (Mordecai).

Pros

Interesting graphical style. Cel-shading isn’t always executed successfully, but I can say in Borderland’s case it’s an excellent use – and helps distinguish it from other titles with parallel themes.

Some of the boss fights are tremendous fun – nothing like testing out the new gun you found on some unholy giant beast who can take an impressive amount of punishment.

Grinding for XP and searching for loot is rewarding, albeit in a repetitive way.

The four playable characters boast fairly diverse skills and specialties, and allow for further specialisation within the class with class mods.

The guns handle surprisingly well – I like being able to aim down the sights, and the ‘feel’ of the weapons is just right. It would stand up well in its own right as a pure shooter.

Cons

Sometimes the sheer diversity and range of weapons and mods can leave you spending far too much time comparing the minutiae of damage stats, fire rates and whether it’s worth dropping what you’ve got to pick up some more loot.

Solo play isn’t as rewarding as co-operative, although it’s not without charm.

The story behind the game is largely irrelevant, and the ending is underwhelming to say the least.

Secondary missions are a bit samey: Got to X location, find Y, kill Z, return.

Parts of the game a glitchy: I lost out on an achievement that I should have got for no apparent reason, and on occasion my co-op partner would turn invisible.

At times, the diversity of enemies does seem pretty slim: You spend the first half of the game killing nothing but skags (alien feral dog-like creatures) and raiders / psychos – only once you reach more interesting locales do things get more diverse.

Overall

It’s not perfect, but some of the points I’ve picked up on above are simply artifacts of what the game is – an RPG with guns. The core mechanics are spot on for that – while there may be stats overload and grinding, it’s more of a fault with RPG games than with Borderlands.

Solo, it’s worth the price of admission, but playing co-operatively Borderlands is a must buy. It’s not perfect, but I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun in Pandora so far, and I don’t think the first playthrough will be my last.

The next installment in the GTA IV saga is released today – The Ballad of Gay Tony. Just in time, too – I finished my first playthrough of Borderlands last night, so TBOGT should slot in nicely between now and Modern Warfare 2.

Official Site

I was pretty excited to see the Sky Player turn up on the dashboard this morning – but ‘unforeseen technical issues’ have led to its rather speedy withdrawal.

It appears as though there may have been an issue on Sky’s end (specifically with their Sky Player authorisation service) – I had trouble trying to sign up for their service through the website.

Shame, really – although this already looks like a poor deal for those who aren’t already subscribed to Sky, as the minimum of a £15 monthly cost (in addition to a Live gold membership) is pretty steep.

Sky Player launch on XBox delayed