Remember that old dog Call of Duty 4? We did a big ole post on helping the newbies out in Call of Duty 4′s unforgiving, yet completely addicting multiplayer a couple of years ago.  Turns out, that little old post was and still is one of the most viewed pieces of content on this whole site.

Well, the sequel to that fine game is out and Modern Warfare 2 could possibly be the biggest selling FPS of all time. That means lots of newbs.  If you fall into the “newb” category, should you fear the onslaught of CoD4 regulars? Should you cower in fear of high level prodigy’s smoking you from across the map.

One word: Nope. Why, because Modern Warfare 2 has balanced all that stuff out for you, to maximize your starting effectiveness and have produced, arguably, the most balanced first person multiplayer experience ever. Click on over to find out more.

In Call of Duty 4, whether you were an experienced gamer or a newbie to the genre, the CoD4 multiplayer experience was, at least initially, not a pleasant one. Iron sights, crappy perks and overall sensory overload led to an unpleasant experience, until you leveled up to at least 10.

In Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward has taken those lessons to heart and have redistributed the way perks and weapon add-on’s work, to give you perks and upgrades, not only faster, but in a more even handed fashion than its predecessor.

In the original Call of Duty 4, your starting pre-set classes didn’t include weapon add ons, just the plain Jane weapons with iron sights, which put you at a significant disadvantage against players that had unlocked red dot sights or grip add-ons for their light machine guns.

In MW2′s multiplayer you’ll start off with five pretty tricked out kits, with heavy and light weapons, complete with red dot scopes and higher level weapons that you’ll initially unlock, including the UMP, a stocky, stout little SMG that packs a punch at close to medium range. These upgraded starting kits put you on par with most players on the battlefield at level 1.  That’s not bad, but the way they tweaked the perk system is even better.

In CoD4, your starting perks were okay, but in MW2, you can use stopping power WITH slight of hand, as soon as you can create a class at level 4, which, in combination with the excellent starting classes, puts you at a very competitive level. If you can shoot straight and have played an FPS before, you should be okay.

So, if you’re a gamer that’s sitting on the fence about whether to pick up Modern Warfare 2, because of the seemingly impenetrable multiplayer, I think its safe to say that you’ll be okay.  My only question: Why haven’t you bought the game yet?