My father's generation had their Bowling League on Thursday nights. Saturday was reserved for golf. Maybe the Shriners or Elks Club met on Wednesday. I, however, am terrified of bowling shoes. When I was twelve, I went 12 over par at a mini golf course. I look horrible in a fez, despite the fact that I once drove a tiny VW Bug. With all these options ruled out, my friends and I had to find something else to make our own. So we made Tuesday Night Game Night.
On Tuesday, Eye turns into a demon on the shotgun. Stick with him if you want to learn the map.
Six years ago, a half-dozen friend of friends got together for an impromptu LAN party. Everyone lugged their Xbox and CRT to a nondescript basement and claimed table space. A large number of the guys had never met each other, so we all shook hands and made small talk. The general mood was calm and polite, on the verge of shy. Once we put in Halo 2, however, the atmosphere instantly changed. People who had previously never met started screaming at each other. Insults were thrown, and violent threats were made. We had made an in-person Xbox Live – no mother was safe from being the butt of a joke. It was fantastic.
Rando didn't make it to that first LAN, but it fits. He always runs off trying to be a lone wolf, so you won't see much of him. You get used to it.
Every few months one of us would feel the itch and another LAN party would get organized. At the first LAN in a post-360 world, it was decided that we needed our gaming fix more often. Everyone had Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter, and a good number of us already had Xbox Live, so we decided to get online the next week. Tuesday was carefully chosen for one reason: it didn't conflict with Lost, which aired on Wednesday at the time. No one was sure if the dynamic would be the same over a headset rather than in person, and we doubted half people would actually show up. Around 8 o'clock that next Tuesday, however, we all were there. Tuesday Night Game Night was born.
From the very beginning, Neurotic was in charge of demoralizing any kids on Xbox Live who tried to talk big game between rounds. Don't let his gruff appearance fool you, though; he is a big teddy bear.
Ever since that first fateful day, every Tuesday night the gang is online and ready to play. Once we were done with GRAW, we moved on to Rainbow Six: Vegas. Then Gears of War. Then Halo 3. Orange Box. Bad Company. Left 4 Dead. Gears of War 2. Red Faction. Red Dead Redemption. Our group stayed constant, and even grew, but the games kept changing. Once a game had cycled through our Xboxes, it went back on the shelf indefinitely, and we all moved onto something else. Despite this constant churn, one series kept finding its way back into our rotation- Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2.
Thankfully, FiveHole honed his sniping during our Gears 2 phase. He'll cover the rooftops.
Modern Warfare 2 has been scientifically proven as the Best Xbox 360 Shooter by our team of professionals using the most important multiplayer game metric: number of hours played. Tuesday night usually starts with the early crowd playing the flavor of the month, but Modern Warfare 2 almost always ends up being thrown in once the whole gang shows up. The routine rarely changes. Our first game will match us up against a clan, who are always screaming inside jokes back and forth amongst themselves. We happily join in, and after a few minutes of talking over each other, it becomes impossible to understand any thread of conversation. When the map starts loading and you can no longer tell who is speaking, we all start to meow. Once we are all finally in game, the first thing anyone says is "Man, what is the other team's PROBLEM." It's tradition. Then, we play.
Star will ALMOST get enough kills for a nuclear drop. He'll beat himself up over dying at 22, but who cares, that is sometimes enough kills for a win.
There are two secrets to Modern Warfare 2's success in our group. First, it acknowledges that we want to play something different now and again. For most of our games this means a disc is rotated out of the Xbox. Rather than being put on the shelf and risk being forgotten, Modern Warfare 2 offers enough game modes to keep things fresh. Once team deathmatch starts getting old, we pit everyone against each other in regular deathmatch on a small map. When that gets too chaotic, we move to an objective game mode to slow things down. If one of the guys starts complaining about changing the game type too often, the host moves the game over to hardcore mode so he can "accidently" kill them. By offering multiple games types, Modern Warfare 2 can mix things up just enough to keep the game fresh and interesting.
If you hear someone sneaking up behind you, it's either an enemy coming at you with a knife, or HiNo running up to help cover you. Either way, I usually turn around and squeeze off a couple rounds. This is extra funny in Hardcore Mode.
The second reason why Modern Warfare 2 is so successful is because of its careful formula of gameplay options. No matter our skills, or weaknesses, Modern Warfare 2 helps level the playing field. FiveHole's long, my medium, and Eye's short range combat are all effective options. You can stick with your team like HiNo does to cover each other, or you can be a Rando and use a carefully placed claymore to protect yourself. Air drops are there for the better players like Star to call down additional pain, but crate drops are there for everyone else. Even a losing streak gives new options to fight back. It doesn't matter if we are having a "cold" night or if one of us plays differently than the rest of the group. Modern Warfare 2 always gives us a way to help our team win.
Heaven's job is to clear the skies. If you see enemy air support getting called in, yell "bird." Heaven will get to a clear spot to take it down with his rocket launcher.
At its heart, Tuesday Night Game Night is an excuse for a bunch of friends to get together to have fun, and Modern Warfare 2 is more than happy to be the catalyst. Eye, FiveHole, Heaven, HiNo, Neurotic, Star, Rando, and myself can meet up to shoot terrorists, drop predator missiles, snipe campers, insult each other, and yell at random people on the internet. Work problems and family problems exist from 1 am Wednesday until 8 pm the next Tuesday, but the only worry during those 5 hours is flanking the enemy (or Star's router). Modern Warfare 2 is the Best Xbox 360 Shooter because it has proven itself as a game so amazing that it brings 8 friends together, week after week, month after month. By having such a diverse, rewarding experience from one game, Modern Warfare 2 lets us focus on the most important part of Tuesday Night Game Night: hanging out with the guys.
Personally? I'm really good at getting UAVs. If I have the Hardline perk turned on.
