The "new" maps in CoD4--and really I don't feel like I should be using the word new to describe them because they've been out for months--were great because they add much needed variety to the map rotation. I got so sick and tired of playing the same couple of maps again and again and again because most of the player base only likes to play on a few of maps.
I don't understand how some people don't get sick of playing the same five or six maps ad nauseum. It drives me batty in every fps I play online. I understand that each community gravitates to some maps--in CS it's dust1, dust2, aztec and office, in DoD it's avalanche, anzio, kalt, donner, and flash--but it's not a bad thing to play on different maps every now and then. Really, variety adds to the fun!
I've spent the better part of the last couple of years suffering through Match Making, having to pay for my map packs, not having custom user created maps on consoles and it really, really, really makes me miss server lists and other aspects of the online space in PC games. I miss being able to see the mode, the number of players, what the map is and what the ping is. I miss being able to choose servers with nothing but custom maps, a set map rotation or servers where you vote for the next map. I hate being blindly tossed into games and having to cross my fingers that it's something different from the accepted few maps.
That and the lack of content support drove me away from Call of Duty 4--played initially on PS3 and then GotY on 360. I've got World at War on the PS3 but I have not been sucked into the multiplayer.
Call of Duty 4 was the first online console shooter I got sucked into and it will probably be the last given my experience. Once I'm finally done school next semester one of the first things I am going to buy is a kick ass PC, for work and for games. If a company won't support their own product there's a good chance that the userbase will.
