# Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Fondly remembered as a peak Call of Duty shooter that many called a gaming revolution; critics cite cheating, unpatched exploits and lost self-hosted servers.

## Why people recommend it

- Nostalgic favourite from childhood (2 comments): "I really miss the days of COD/MW2, that was kind of peak for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49203365)) "The game of my childhood." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358900))
- Easy to digest, peak Call of Duty (2 comments): "I really miss the days of COD/MW2, that was kind of peak for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49203365)) "which is maybe the only digestible COD game ever made" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46362125))
- Incredible experience, a gaming revolution (2 comments): "it truly felt like it, a real revolution in gaming" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359935)) "That game was an incredible experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358795))

## What people warn about

- Unpatched remote code execution flaws (2 comments): "Modern Warfare 2 and 3 have an unpatched RCE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48156452)) "there's unpatched RCEs for Modern Warfare II" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49170682))
- Rampant cheating ruins matches (2 comments): "the cheating got so bad it made it impossible to play" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943621)) "every single game is just full of cheaters" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169321))
- Self-hosted servers removed or unavailable (2 comments): "After self hosting servers were removed, the game became less fun." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48438471)) "After about 2010 companies stopped providing the server binary." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48329619))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Quake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake.md): 118 recommend
- [Doom by id Software](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doom.md): 102 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 2004](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament-2004.md): 51 recommend
- [Quake III Arena](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-iii-arena.md): 49 recommend
- [Half-Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life.md): 42 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Call+of+Duty+Modern+Warfare+II+Activision&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.callofduty.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", https://hackerapproved.com/p/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).