New Modern Warfare 2 info revealed

Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard showed off Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last night in LA and we were there bringing you all the info live as it happened. Since our live report we’ve got our hands on some extra hot off the press details that we thought we’d share with you in an easy to digest bullet point form.

– The bulletproof shield is not mapped to the right bumper. It’s actually a choice of primary weapon – i.e. you don’t get a major weapon if you choose to use it.

– However, you can now take shotguns as your secondary weapon! So you could combine your shield with a SPAS-12.

– Semtex works like a sticky grenade. It explodes after a short delay. Good for taking down people with shields.

– The Barrett .50 cal is the first sniper rifle you can use. You only get to use it once you reach level 4, which is also the point at which create-a-class is unlocked.

– Players can unlock emblems, a bit like in SF4. “If you’re really into riot shields, you’ll unlock a lot of riot shield titles.” Opponents will see these in games.

– New party support. Players in a party with you are identified by blue markers over their head. Easy to stick with your mates.

There are loads and loads of killstreak rewards, and once you get to a certain rank you can customise the order in which they unlock.

Care Package: Allows the player throw a special grenade that lets off red smoke. After a few seconds, a friendly helicopter drops a crate containing some form of bonus. It might be ammo, health, or another killstreak reward. You might suddenly get a reward that normally unlocks after 10 kills, for example. Also, other players (including the enemy) can steal your crate.

Predator Missile: Viewpoint switches to an overhead view of the map, in black and white, slowly zooming in (as the missile falls). Enemies are highlighted with red squares. The player can steer the rocket and accelerate its descent with the right trigger. You can easily kill four people at once this way.

Sentry Gun: Can be placed in strategic locations and set to operate automatically.

Vehicles: Killer helicopters are back, but this time there are multiple variants. You can eventually summon an AC-130 Gunship. Also, if opposing sides both have vehicles in the air, they will attempt to shoot each other down.

Deathstreaks: Once you die a few times, a perk kicks in. “Copycat”, for example, lets you steal an opponent’s class setup once they’ve killed you four times.

Look out for our hands-on impressions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 soon.