/ Previews / Shooters / Spec Ops 2 / Page 4
	I love you. No really, I do. You are my sun and stars. I love you almost as much as I love assault rifles. And I love them a lot.

Well Jon, you may be saying to yourself, and please do call me by my first name, as I believe we have reached that level with each other. I mean, you have read through three pages of crap for me, and I appreciate that. Until we get some type of interactive 3DGN going, I am going to have to just assume that you are letting me call you by your first name, and if not, well screw you, I don't want to be your friend if you are going to be that way. No, I'm sorry, I want to be your friend, because then you will read everything I type. Yes, friend, we have a wonderful future together. Wow! That train of thought crashed harshly in the first sentence. Let me get back on topic.

I was going to start off this page talking about multiplayer, because I know that a lot of you out there love multiplayer more than singleplayer, I know I do. There is just nothing like going against a real life opponent who is a lot less predictable than the computer and a lot harder to kill. The computer only has three skill levels, while real opponents can range in skill level from 'Newbie Llama Punk' to 'Grand Funk Master of All Things Multiplayer.' I usually range somewhere in the middle of those categories. Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way did not come with multiplayer right out of the box, multiplayer came later with an expansion pack. Spec Ops 2: Green Berets will come with multiplayer right out of the box that will support 16 mamma-jamming fragmasters via Internet or LAN! Players can also set up their own servers that their friends can connect to. Ripcord Games will be working with M-Player and doing online promotions and events. Just think of it, shooting your friends with a grenade launcher and then screaming in adulation or defeat as your grenade blows up killing both of you. Just envision it! I'll give you a moment to get your 'envisioning' gears rotating. Are they rotating yet? Good, because they should be envisioning something sweet and wholesome... something that will suck away hours and hours of your time... Deathmatch! You can play straight up Deathmatch, Team vs. Team DM, plus some fun variations such as Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Assassin, which sounds especially cool. You can also play through all the missions with or against your online peers. You might as well start staying in your room more often so that your parents and friends get used to not seeing you, because you are not gonna have any time left on your hands! Multiplayer here I come!

Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way took a lot of heat for being a game that was very buggy, and needed a lot of patches. I asked Eric Johnsen if there were any precautions being taken to ensure a stable and bug-free game, and he informed me that very extensive internal testing is being done, which they did not do for Spec Ops 1. They have put many more hours into Spec Ops 2 because they know what will happen if you don't. Johnsen was very friendly and amusing in his answers to my questions, and I believe him when he says that they feel Spec Ops 2 is very stable and solid. I take his word, you take mine, and we all go home happy. A happy ending to a happy preview.

But wait! It isn't done yet, I still have to have an apt closer! You may have noticed that I said, "It doesn't get any better than that" or some variation of that many times throughout this preview. That is because I believe this game will rock a phatty and it will be hard to be much better than it will. I love games of this sort, even though I'm terrible at them, and I feel that I can be a good judge on whether they are fun... that is my job after all. Believe me when I say that this game is going to be damned fun, and damned challenging. Lights out. Go home. Oh wait! You can read my entire interview with Eric Johnsen from Ripcord games by clicking the link below.