The bugs and frame rate issues are seemingly fixed, and we get a first-person shooter that puts us in the role of a guerilla fighter in an alternative history of 2029. In this world, North Korea is a dominant force and a major superpower. America fell into debt and defaulted, causing an invasion by North Korea and its advanced military force. You are a guerilla in Philadelphia getting a modern take on the revolutionary war.

You’re part of a small band of rebels who resist the North Korean occupation. The story is mostly skippable and unremarkable. We get a handful of characters, and all but two are somewhat forgettable. The bad guys are just the North Korean troops and officers, no real nameable villains. Most story elements revolve around giving you an excuse to get in firefights and blow stuff up. I’m perfectly fine with that because it wasn’t the story that captured me; it was the world of the game.

America Under Siege

Homefront Revolution is an open-world sandbox-style game. It’s not exactly a huge sprawling world, but a combination of different zones that are all fairly small and compact. They are dense areas, though, that never feel small, but they aren’t big wastelands of nothing. There is seemingly always something going on and something always to be aware of. There is also verticality, and climbing up and around buildings can be a legit way to get around.

Each of these worlds is either a green, red, or yellow zone. Red zones are open battlefields and bombed-out portions of Philly. Here you’ll run into patrols, tanks, and roaming airships you have to avoid. You’ll find snipers waiting for you to make the wrong move, and you’ll see other resistance members engaging in open warfare.

Yellow zones are civilian ghettoes where there are patrols, drones, and various light armored vehicles roam around. Here you can run into regular people alongside soldiers. The soldiers are always looking for you, and as a wanted resistance member, you have to keep your head down.

Green zones are the North Korean strongholds where the upper crust of North Koreans live, as well as diplomats and American traitors. It’s heavily patrolled by NK forces, complete with soldiers, tanks, drones, and more. Starting a fight here is tough, and stealth is your friend.

The Minimanual of the Guerilla

I will say each zone is unique and interesting. The red zones make you feel like you are in a bombed-out city. Buildings are crumbling, and you can scale and parkour your way around. You can get in street-to-street gunfights. You might need to pin down a sniper so you can cross the street to take them down. In the beginning, you might only be doing that with your handgun, and that’s thrilling.

The weather effects are fantastic. In the game, the sun had set, and a raging thunderstorm moved in. Rain and lighting were pounding the environment, and the light from trash fires set the mood as I crept through the wrecked urban sprawl.

A patrol walked the streets, and I crept into the third story of a building where a barrel trap sat. I released the barrels on the patrols and opened fire with a light machine gun. I killed three troops and a couple of drones. The mothership moved in, and I had to hit and run before I it found me and turned me into a pink mist.

In the yellow zone, you’ll run into people being harassed and homes being raided. You can choose to provide aid or avoid it altogether. When civilians see your weapons, they’ll scurry away or even straight up tell you to leave because the Resistance just causes trouble for them.

As you spend more time in the zone accomplishing objectives and missions, you’ll win the hearts and minds of the people. They will then rebel and begin fighting back, and the patrols will lessen significantly. That’s the world the game builds, and it’s fantastic.

The Guns

The Homefront Revolution guns are a mixture of fictional and real. What’s neat is that while there are only a few guns in the game, the game allows you to upgrade them to various configurations. You can swap your M4 assault rifle to an LMG configuration by swapping the upper receiver. You literally just pop the upper off and toss on the belt-fed upper. This changes the caliber to 7.62 NATO as well. Or you can turn it into a grenade launcher.

Your handgun allows you to rip the slide off of your gun and then toss on an SMG upper and stock, almost like a RONI or KPOS conversion. The pistol is some odd configuration of 1911, M9, and maybe P226, but it looks real. The shotgun is a Mossberg 590/500 series that can be converted to a Sidewinder-style drum-fed automatic shotgun or the Inferno launcher.

The SOCOM 16 is your battle rifle, which can become a sniper rifle in .50 BMG or into the Freedom Launcher that launches fireworks at bad guys. There is also a Crossbow that can transform into an awesome blunderbuss or a flamethrower as well. It’s a neat system overall.

On top of these swaps, you can add optics, vertical grips, lasers, and a few more gizmos to make your gun work for you. You can also wear gear that affects your weaponry, like a tactical vest, to carry more ammo.

Homefront Revolution — An Underrated Classic

When the game was released, it got terrible reviews, mostly tied to its technical issues. All these years later, those issues seem resolved. It’s a fun game that makes you feel like a guerilla. Your armament is interesting, and the game environment provides a unique experience. Homefront Revolution is a great first-person shooter, and I look forward to playing the three DLCs that came with it.

The post Homefront : The Revolution — Red Dawn The Game appeared first on The Mag Life.

Back in 2002, I played a game called Gungrave on my PS2. I had completely forgotten the game and had no idea there was a sequel. To be fair, this was the fourth entry in the series, and I honestly thought it ended after the first game. With that flashback and nostalgia in mind, I hit the download button on Xbox on Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Gungrave G.O.R.E. offers neat character designs, huge bosses, and decent graphics. I played in the cel-shaded mode to give it a cartoonish pop to it. The graphics are overtly cartoonish, and that offers its own charm against the old ultra-violence of the game.

You play as a character named Beyond the Grave, or Grave for short. He’s a dead hitman revived to fight crime. He carries around a coffin on his back for reasons unexplained, and it also doubles as a melee weapon. On top of that, you also carry a set of akimbo pistols that each have two barrels, so you fire four shots with every trigger pull. It’s all about style and flare and not so much tactics and intelligence.

The Plot of Gungrave G.O.R.E.

I don’t like anime because of what I call “Stupid Anime Bullsh!t.” It’s cheesy characters, massive exposition dumps, poor storytelling, and oddly sexualized cartoons. With that in mind, I most certainly dislike the plot of Gungrave G.O.R.E. It’s a quasi-silent protagonist who is trying way too hard to be a brooding bad boy.

He barely says anything, and all he needs is his two guns. Literally, that’s it. The game has you chasing a criminal organization called the Raven Clan, who is producing a drug called SEED. SEED users eventually turn into monsters, and you’ll fight plenty as you play. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you the story. You’re part of a team, but you seem to be the only one doing anything of note. You have an annoying narrator telling you the obvious as you play, and she gets annoying fast.

I don’t mind games with shallow plots. It is all about the gameplay, anyway. Just know that going into this game, you won’t find anything of note story-wise. The story is just a vessel to get you into different environments, killing people. You can certainly skip all the cut scenes, but if you do, you’ll miss some great translation errors.

The Gameplay

Here is the gameplay loop. You enter an environment composed of hallways, then you traverse forward, shooting everything that moves and most things that don’t. Your weapons in Gungrave G.O.R.E. are isolated to your pair of pistols and your coffin. You have a variety of techniques and combos you can employ with those weapons.

This includes some serious gun-fu, charged shots, the ability to take hostages, and a number of special abilities called demolition shots. You chew through hundreds of enemies throughout the game, blasting away with your guns in a symphony of gunfire and chaos. Your finger might get tired of pulling the controller’s trigger.

I don’t understand how the Raven Clan can recruit so many people because by level three. I had to have killed thousands. The enemies vary from guys with guns and rocket launchers to guys with tire irons. Big ups to the tire iron guys rushing a man rapidly firing two pistols in their direction. There are a number of mutant bad guys and various shielded enemies. Certain enemies require you to use certain techniques to defeat them.

Your level objective is literally “Kick their Ass,” and that’s it. Your real objective is to try to get a high ‘beat’ score and a high Art score. Beat score is you keeping up a combo and builds by shooting bad guys and the environment. Art score is built by using executions and Demolition shots. You get graded for both at the end of the level.

The real fun comes from trying to get your Beat score as high as possible, and you can get it up to the thousands of beats with proper planning.

Is it fun?

That’s the magic question. I guess it’s okay. Honestly, I got a little bored midway through and was just hoping to finish levels. The enemies are repetitive, and the bosses never felt super difficult, either. If I had paid $50 for it, I’d have been disappointed, but I didn’t, so here we are. Learning how to mix the beat and art score on top of not dying can be a thrill, but it’s repetitive to a degree.

Not to mention the environments are super tight, and there is no room for exploration. It’s just a run to the finish line.

The Guns

The fictional pistols are the only guns present. I went to the Gungrave G.O.R.E. Wiki and looked up the stats on these bad boys. They are called the Cerberus…which makes no sense since Cerberus had three heads and these guns have four barrels. They fire two 15mm bullets per trigger pull, so they aren’t slouching in the power department.

If you beat the game, you can unlock the Evo Cerberus and Golden guns, which handle differently. The Golden guns shoot much faster, and the Evo Cerberus deals a lot more damage. That’s it for the guns, and don’t expect anything realistic.

Getting Gorey

Gungrave G.O.R.E. is an okay game. Maybe if I was a die-hard anime fan, I’d be more into it, but I found it to drag on. I wished the levels were over about midway through, and I trudged through the game to get it done. It’s just not for me. It’s a mindless shooter that can be fun if you’re into that, but it’s not for me.

The post Gungrave G.O.R.E. — A Flashback to the PS2 appeared first on The Mag Life.

Off the bat, the game is graphically beautiful. The characters look outstanding, as do the environments. Plus, the guns look real, which is always a nice touch. Ghost’s cringeworthy mask and Soap’s faux hawk are on full display and look stunning. The voice acting is also superb, with characters like Laswell, Price, and Graves standing out the most.

The story is a typical COD story. It’s just an excuse to move from set piece to set piece and kill everything in front of you. From the Mexican countryside to a fish hatchery in Spain and even an American border town, it’s just beautiful and runs smoothly without any frame rate issues, even when things are popping off.

I played a lot of COD 4 in 2007 or so, and I loved it. I’ve played a bit of MW2 and realized it’s a reboot for both, not only the franchise but for my interest in it.

Modern Warfare 2 — The Campaign

This is a 1st-person shooter that rides the line between the typical fast-moving COD design and a more realistic feel. The campaign has you traveling to exotic locations and killing bad guys left and right. It’s a constantly evolving campaign, and no two levels feel the same. It never bogs itself down with repetition.

Most of the time, this works. The stealth missions are thrilling, as is the sniper mission. I enjoyed getting back into the AC-130 and utterly destroying enemy forces. I always loved that mission in the OG COD MW, and I love it even more in COD Modern Warfare 2. Most of the time, this works, but sometimes it doesn’t hit just right. For example, a car chase mission drags its feet and takes too long to finish. One mission has you watching surveillance cameras and directing an ally, and I found it dull.

The action is world-class. The campaign especially provides a decent amount of challenge with a variety of enemies tossed at you throughout each mission. It often pays to be clever, and there is more than one way to skin a cat in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

You get to use a wide variety of gadgets and gizmos on top of modern guns with high-tech optics that keep the game moving at a brisk pace.

That Dang Tank

One of the final levels has you fighting a tank on foot. You attempt to throw C4 or shoot it with the rare RPG. It’s a boss battle essentially, and it was a big downside to the campaign. Oftentimes it felt like luck played a bigger role than skill in this mission, especially since several times, the mission would start, and I’d die before I even had a chance to move. The end of the level didn’t even deliver any satisfaction beyond the level finally being over.

Digging Into the Multiplayer

I haven’t played multiplayer much, and I typically don’t enjoy multiplayer games, but I gave it a try. I found it surprisingly addictive. Don’t get me wrong, I suck at it, but I enjoy it. The time to kill is quick, and it makes you play with a bit more caution and skill. The usual modes like Team Deathmatch make an appearance, but those didn’t draw me in.

I really enjoy Ground War, a mode where you and your team seize control points and hold them until a team reaches 250. Invasion is another mode where it’s basically a 20 vs. 20 team deathmatch with enemy A.I. bots dumped in for good measure.

Multiplayer allows for tons of customization for your guns too. The customization is off the chain, and so is the weapon selection. Unlocking different weapons and gadgets never feels like a grind. The guns feel balanced, too, which is rare for a video game.

The Guns

Of course, we have to talk guns. There are tons of them, and each has the ability to be widely customized and configured by the end user during multiplayer. You can have up to five attachments, but you have more than five attachment slots. You’ll have to be picky about what you use on each gun.

Most of the guns are the high-speed video-game-adored weapons you are used to. We have the M4 and AK series, the Mossberg 590, and various flavors of the AUG. On top of that, we have oddballs like a FightLite MCR clone and super modern weapons like the Honey Badger and SIG MPX.

On the flip side, some feel odd in a game that calls itself Modern Warfare. Why are our high-speed operators still guns like the M14 EBR and SIG P220, and why are Browning over/under shotguns so common with our high-speed terrorists?

In terms of accessories, the gun takes a modern stance. We have a thermal red dot that’s very much inspired by the Steiner CQT. Also, red dots on handguns are common and nice to see. Don’t forget realistic P-MAGs in the M4s. There are too many accessories to list, and most are nice. We still have that one very persistent airsoft-grade red dot making an appearance, but it’s a COD tradition at this point.

Blasting Away

What I really like is that the guns all feel different and satisfying. Assault rifles are often select fire and good general-purpose tools. Shotguns are punching and powerful. SMGs are buzzsaws with hardly any recoil. The massive capacity of machine guns makes you want to lay down copious amounts of fire. Even the handguns are fun.

A Return to Form

I do not regret spending $70 on COD Modern Warfare 2. It’s well worth it. It packs a ton of content. I loved the campaign and might grab the 2019 COD MW reboot now just to try it out. I’ve been playing for a month and feel like I’ve barely cracked the game open.

The post Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Gun Guy Goes Gaming appeared first on The Mag Life.

Unfortunately, the game was rated, for you know, tons of violence, but also “Sexual Situations,” and my mom was not cool with a video game featuring any kind of “Sexual Situations.” She didn’t mind me tying a garrote around a man’s neck or blowing his brains out with a shotgun, but lord forbid poorly rendered, triangle-shaped boobs enter my vision.

I did what every smart kid did and waited until my dad needed to run to the store and tagged along with some birthday money. I then put way too many hours into this game. After Hitman 2, I became a lifelong fan of the series…even the not-so-great ones. Throughout the series, the guns changed, but the AMT Hardballers were always present.

A Game of Names

Before we dive too deep into the gun and the game, let’s talk about the naming conventions. In the first Hitman game, the guns are known by their real name and identified as the AMT Hardballers. From there, the companies producing the games often fictionalized the names of real guns.

Sequels called the gun the Silverballers. Hitman 2, Hitman: Contracts, Hitman: Blood Money, and Hitman: Absolution called the guns the Silverballers. The latest games changed the name slights. Hitman, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3 call the guns the ICA Silverballers.

Overall they are the same guns Agent 47 has always used. They just changed the name along the way.

The Game — Hitman

The Hitman series is a combination of third-person shooter and stealth games. Some of the games allow you to enter first person, but the game still handles like a 3rd person shooter, kinda like the inverse of Skyrim where the third-person mode isn’t the way it’s supposed to control and feels funky.

You play as Agent 47. Agent 47 is a master assassin and a clone created by the mixed DNA of master criminals. Agent 47 takes contracts from the ICA, and his handler Diana directs him to his targets. Levels are quasi-open worlds that allow shooters to take a non-linear path through the game.

Players were rewarded for stealth and could kill with guns, garrotes, knives, poisons, or even set accidents that would take the target out. The Hitman series allows you to make choices and choice matters. Choice makes the game fun and opens up replayability.

All the Guns

The games are absolutely full of guns. As a young gun nut, this made me ecstatic. To get a gun in your ‘armory,’ you had the end the level carrying it. I would hunt down every gun in the game and then replay the levels with different load-outs. Sometimes I would be stealthy and finish the levels with a suppressed AMT Hardballer. Other times I might take an M60 and cut down everyone in my way.

Regardless of the game’s weapon selection, Agent 47’s AMT Hardballer pistols were always present. They were the only thing shinier than Agent 47’s head.

Oddly enough, the games would punish you for using guns. Well, kind of. If you wanted to get the lauded Silent Assassin rating, you couldn’t use a firearm. You needed to cause ‘accidents’ or use the slow but stealthy garrote to get things done.

The AMT Hardballer pistols were impressive starting weapons. In fact, they are easily the best gun for most situations. Some guns had more power, some had higher capacity, but the AMT Hardballers were a good balance of the two. Some games using ragdoll physics allowed the AMT Hardballers to fling an opponent across a room.

It could kill bad guys in just a couple of shots and offered impressive range and a relatively high rate of fire with little recoil. Best yet, these guns could be dual-wielded, and you could easily chew your way through a gunfight against long-armed bad guys without issue.

Obviously, the big stainless pistols were quite stylish and made an impression in the game. They’ve become the calling card of Agent 47.

The AMT Hardballers in Real Life

In real life, the AMT Hardballers was a 1911 clone from a California-based company called Arcadia Machine and Tool. 1911s are a dime a dozen, but AMT was the first to make an entirely stainless steel pistol in the 1911 configuration. It’s a quasi custom gun that features adjustable sights, an extended safety, and a massive beavertail.

The AMT Hardballers gained their name because they were only designed to use ball ammunition. JHPs weren’t a big deal in 1977, but semi-wad cutters were. I’ve only handled one long slide AMT Hardballer, and it seemed to fire hollow points fine. I think the only issue it had was with semi-wadcutters. That’s a sample size of one, so take it for what you will.

The AMT Hardballer came in various configurations and calibers. There were compact models, longslide models, 10mm models, and more. The gun used by Agent 47 appears to be a standard government model Hardballers in 45 ACP.

Admittedly the 45 ACP would be easy to suppress. The 230-grain subsonic rounds are quite little critters when dispatched with a suppressor. The 1911 design is also massively popular, and they look cool. A decent part of video game design is looking cool.

They aren’t obnoxious like the Desert Eagle but aren’t plain black blocks of polymer and metal like a Glock. You make a 1911 stainless, and it looks fantastic in a video game, and even with crappy PS2 graphics, it stands out. However, these are big guns, and it would be hard to carry them hidden in a nice fitted suit.

They don’t necessarily fit the role of a stealthy assassin, and maybe a smaller gun would be more practical.

Where to Get an AMT Hardballer

As I type this, Guns.com has one. They were discontinued in 2002, so the used market is the only route to take. There was nothing crazy about the Hardballer design, so you can take any stainless 1911 and make it fit. Also, don’t forget the famed Pachmyr Legend grips with Rosewood inlay.

Of course, you’ll need a threaded barrel and suppressor to make it so. Although, oddly, Agent 47’s guns don’t appear to have threaded barrels but wear suppressors on the fly. Remember, though, if you want that Silent Assassin rating, forego the guns and use your wits to hit your marks. Do you guys play the Hitman games?

Let me know below what you think about barcode tattoos, bald heads, and 1911s.

The post Gun and Game — Hitman and the Hardballers appeared first on The Mag Life.

The Game — Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Younger folks might not realize that Call of Duty made their bones in the World War 2 shooter genre. In the early 2000s, every first-person shooter was a World War 2 shooter, and people were getting sick of it. Infinity Ward finally broke the mold and pushed a game set in the modern world of 2011.

In single-player, you take the role of a SAS commando and a Marine Force Recon bubba in an international conflict that spans the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine. The game had a story, but the story was just there to give you an excuse to shoot up various countries across the globe. If you asked me to describe the story, all I remember is something about ultranationalists and terrorists, and something, something, bad guys.

What I remember most was the catalog of firearms. Modern weapons could be wielded, including the SAW, the M4A1, the Benelli M4, several AK variants, and many more, including the M16A4. The single-player presented a competent campaign that always had you moving and shooting beside AI-driven squadmates.

Going Online

The action never slowed down, and you plowed through enemy after enemy as one of two silent protagonists. Single-player was a fun romp, but a short one. The real magic to COD 4 MW was multiplayer. Xbox live was the wild west back in those days. I heard ten-year-olds say things that would make sailors blush.

Before the internet got gentrified, it was a glorious place where we could all shoot each other full of holes and then talk crap to each other. One of my favorite memories was getting the Golden m60 which meant I got an unreasonable number of kills and headshots with machine guns. It was a glorious time, and there was one gun that helped kill the balance of the game, and it was the M16A4.

The Gun — M16A4

The M16A4 was the last M16 produced and famously carried into battle by the United States Marine Corps. Your humble author is an old man who carried an M16A4 beside his M240 machine gun. In boot camp, I used an A2, but at the School of Infantry, I got my first taste of the rifleman’s rifle. The M16A4 provided the Marine Corps and Army with a modular weapon system that could wear all the modern accessories the warfighter needed.

An optics rail and quad rail took the M16 into modern warfare. Knight’s Armament provided the RAS rail for attachments, Trijicon provided the four power ACOG, L3 provided the PEQ 15, and Eotech gave us the M3X weapon light. In 2008 the average Marine infantryman packed an M16A4.

The rifle still featured the long-ass A2 stock, the front sight base, and semi/burst settings. Functionally, it wasn’t much different than the M16A2. It could wear an M230 grenade launcher, and most Marines used the KAC foregrip because someone told us to, although some used those god-awful grip pods. Don’t forget the stupidly average Blackhawk 3 point sling we were issued until the VCAS became a thing.

As much as people love the shorter M4, the M16A4 was a fine rifle. It was a little heavy and off-balance, but still a fantastic shooter. Most people ignore the full-length rifle, and they are missing out. The long barrel reduces concussion and muzzle flash, the rifle-length gas tube reduces recoil, and ultimately the M16A4 is a super smooth shooter.

With an ACOG mounted, the average infantryman could easily engage a man-sized target at 500 yards. Into our first deployment to Afghan land, the majority of Marines carried M16A4s, and I never heard a complaint about the weapon’s capabilities.

(I mean, we all wanted M4s, but the M16A4 proved itself to be a warhorse.)

Call of Duty: 4 and the M16A4

In the single-player game, the M16A4 only pops up here or there. In the game, the allied A.I. carrying M16A4s look like A2s. However, whenever the player character picks one up, it becomes an M16A4. Well, kind of. The selector switch is a two-position switch, and the gun lacks a bayonet lug. Oh, and it’s full auto and not burst.

Without an optic, the M16A4 uses the carry handle sighting system. With an optic, the carry handle splits, and we get full use of the optic rail, but we also lose the fixed front sight for some reason or another. When you drop an M230 into place, the KAC rail disappears and becomes the old school M203 handguard.

In single-player, the M16A4 doesn’t make a huge impact, but in multiplayer, it ruled. When you chose the assault class, the M16A4 was the first weapon available, and it was stupid effective. In multiplayer, the gun fired in the correct three-round burst mode. This made the M16A4 a battle-ax in multiplayer.

What I mean is, at moderate range, the burst of an M16A4 could kill an opponent instantly with a burst. However, if you missed with a burst, the recovery time for a second burst was slow, and you better hope you can dodge your enemy’s onslaught.

The M16A4 was balance-breaking and a huge pain in the ass. It caused many a rage-induced-fit over Xbox live. If you wielded the M16A4, people would insult your parentage, your race, gender, and perceived sexuality. Equip one with an M203, and oh man, you will be hated.

But your K/D will likely be legit.

Where To Get An M16A4

Well, you can’t, really. In the United States, getting a machine gun is a hassle. Getting an actual M16A4 is almost impossible without lots of licenses, cash, and connections. However, you can get an almost identical rifle with a semi-auto configuration. Two big companies produce very high-quality rifles in the M16A4-lite configuration.

FN Herstal makes the FN 15 Military Collector M16, and it’s the closest you’ll get. It comes with a rail and flat-top upper. FN makes the M16A4 for the United States military, and the military collectors get you an almost real deal option.

For a little less money, Aero Precision produces two types of M16A4. One comes with a rail and the other with A2 style handguards. Both have the 20-inch barrel and flat top upper receivers, but the A2 handguard model is a fair bit cheaper. The railed model is also about half the cost of the FN model, and it’s tough to beat the price and availability of the Aero Precision model.

Noob Tube!

The M16A4 became a part of the collective consciousness of gamers because of Call of Duty: 4 Modern Warfare. It became beloved and loathed. In the Marine Corps, it served with distinction as the last full-sized infantry rifle and found a home in the heart of many a lower enlisted infantryman. 

What do you think about the M16A4? What do you think about the OG Modern Warfare? Let me know below.

The post Gun and Game — COD 4 MW and the M16A4 appeared first on The Mag Life.

So what about the weapons? There are plenty of articles telling you what the best guns of Call of Duty in the game are, within the game. You probably already know that there are six primary gun categories: assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, machine guns, tactical rifles, and sniper rifles. And then, COD also has two categories for secondary weapons that include handguns and launchers. Today though, I’m going to talk about the best guns from Modern Warfare that are actually good guns in real life.

The guns in Modern Warfare are a bit weird. They start as a base model weapon, and by using attachments, the firearms can change slightly or drastically. Some of the guns on this list are only available with attachments, so keep that in mind.

This article originally ran in February 2020.

How Did I Pick the Best Guns?

Easy, I chose them based on their reputations as firearms and their use by professional gunslingers. Successful use by police and military forces, as well as hard-earned reputations by professional shooters, is what helped these guns make a list. On top of that, I chose the best guns based on the Modern Warfare title. The Kar98 was an excellent bolt gun, but it’s not on the list because it’s far from modern.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Sidearms

Glock 34

Three Glocks are featured in the game, the Glock 21, the Glock 18, and the Glock 34. The Glock 34 is a 9mm handgun with a long slide.

The 9mm Glock series has been widely used by military and police forces around the world. The longer 34 has been seen in service with French Special Operations, as well as numerous police agencies. You can’t beat a Glock when it comes to an excellent working pistol.

SIG P320

With more and more police forces across the United States switching to 9mm, we see the rise of the SIG P320 as agencies change guns.

The SubGuns

MP5

The MP5 is a legendary submachine gun. To understand why the weapon is legendary, you have to realize that at the time, SMGs were either big and bulky like the Thompson or cheap open bolt blowback guns. The HK MP5 was a refined weapon and still remains in service decades later.

As far as real guns go, there isn’t a more proven SMG platform. It’s been used by dozens of SWAT teams, the Navy SEALs, the SAS, Force Recon, and the list just keeps going on. In Modern Warfare, you get attachments to use a variety of MP5s, including the A3, A2, SD model, and the 10mm variant.

MP7

The MP7 is the successor to the MP5, and its more of a PDW than an SMG, but those lines are blurred. This little gun uses a unique 4.6m round that punches through soft armor with ease.

The MP7 has since been adopted by various special operations forces around the world, including the SAS, Navy SEALs, Spetsnaz, the Swiss Guard, and literally dozens of other forces. The MP7 is superbly lightweight, compact, and packs a bigger punch than the traditional 9mm SMG.

Real talk about tactics, violence, and leadership — podcasts and online gaming for those of you who are into that.

The Scatter Guns

Remington 870 MCS

It’s hard to find a shotgun more tested by fire than the Remington 870, the Mossberg 590 series might make it, but they aren’t in the game. MCS stands for Modular Combat Shotgun, and it allows you to move from a full-sized combat shotgun to a mini breaching gun.

The Remington 870 has also been used by numerous countries and police forces over the last 50 years, and the 870 has earned its reputation as a close quarter’s killer.

The Long Guns

SCAR-H

The SCAR-H is the most modern full-powered assault rifle out there. The SCAR-L may have become a failure, but the SCAR-H has been a favorite of Special Ops troops throughout the world.

From the Marine Raiders to the Army Rangers, the SCAR-H has proven to be a powerful, accurate, and lightweight option for full-powered semi-auto. It’s compact enough to be used indoors but robust and precise enough to be a sniper rifle at intermediate ranges.

M4/M16/AR 15 Variant

The presence of a Eugene Stoner AR-15ish design is a must-have. We have several configurations based on various AR-15/M4 variants. This includes the Colt 933, the Mk18 Mod 0, the M16A3, the Colt SMG, and even two custom AR derivatives.

These variations show one of the strengths of the Stoner platforms in terms of its modularity. The gun is extremely reliable, accurate, and has served our country for decades for a reason. As far as Modern Warfare goes, the game wouldn’t be complete without it.

AK 47/74

If the M4 is Yin, then the AK series is its Yang. The Russian carbine is spread around the world and is known for its simplicity and reliability. It’s deadly in the hands of both conscripts and trained professionals.

The AK series in Modern Warfare comes in a few different platforms. This includes the traditional 47, the 74, the RPK, the AK 12, and a few more random configurations (and hey, you can carry virtually unlimited AK magazines).

The FN FAL

The FAL is a bit outdated these days, but it has been used around the world for years. It’s earned the name the Right Arm of the Free World due to its disbursement over Allied countries.

The FAL is still used around the world by nations without the means to buy updated weapons. Particularly South American countries. The FN FAL was even used by British Forces up into the Afghan war in specialized roles.

The Big Boys

HK MG5

The HK MG5 is one of the most modern light machine guns on the market. So far, it’s only been adopted by the Germans, but it’s a promising and sleek design.

The infantry model known as the MG5A2 weighs a mere 21 pounds, which is quite light for a medium machine gun. The MG5 is likely only beat by the new SIG M338 in terms of a modern machine gun. It’s ideally suited for the moniker Modern Warfare.

PKM

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the PKM, a simple, but rather old medium machine gun. The PKM is still one of the best guns to ever come out of the Eastern Bloc and, to this day, keeps up with more modern firearms.

The PKM weighs less than 17 pounds, and somehow the United States sticks with 28-pound machine guns. As someone who has been on the other side of a PKM, the weapon is frighteningly accurate and capable in its role.

The Best Guns of Modern Warfare

Call of Duty Modern Warfare has a whole ton of new and old guns. It has some great guns as listed above, and it also has some weapons that are better used as novelties. IE the DP 12 and the Desert Eagle. At the end of the day, this is a video game and not real life. My favorite guns will always be the guns that were successful in real life. Firearms that have made or are currently making history will always be my first choice.

Question for the crowd

As we discuss the best modern warfare guns, let’s also talk about training. What shooting drills would you prefer to run these weapons through?

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