Modern Warfare 2: Resurgence Pack

Have you ever repainted your living room? I haven't, but I watched my Dad do it once, so I got the gist. Essentially what happens is that you get a bit bored with your increasingly dowdy Eggshell white walls, then you go mental with a fresh coat of Magnolia. For a short while, it's amazing: the room is brighter and fresher, you feel happier and more productive just for standing in it. Then, after a while, the newness fades and you forget that it was ever any other colour than boring old Magnolia. You're happy enough, but the burst of newness has faded. Until you hear about Blossom White that is! A snip at only 1200 Microsoft Points!

For what becomes little more than a change of scenery after a few hours' play, it cannot be denied that Modern Warfare 2 map packs are expensive for what they are. Five maps, two of which are recycled, working out at about two quid each. Quite a lot for Almond White turning to White Cotton; although admittedly, with MW2's tight unlock and experience system, it's hard to think of what else could be air-dropped in without making wholesale changes to a system that works, and works well.

Let's get down to brass tacks, though: I love Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, and I love the smell of fresh paint. I'm one of those people: sorry. I have neither become distant due to the power of Bad Company 2 nor the present ill-will towards Activision. Any addition to the moving, bloodied wallpaper of Headquarters Pro or Demolition will give me a surge of happiness like nothing else. The joy will fade, all things do, but as of right now I will leap at any opportunity to open up a new vein for this particular habit.

1200 MS points? I pumped three times that into Crazy Taxi when it first hit the arcades. I've been fined four times that by Southern Rail for the simple crime of losing a ticket. And for an initial double XP weekend? For that I'm more than happy to piss my money so far up the wall that even Bobby Kotick in distant America-land can feel the spray of golden coins on his smiling chiselled face.

So (seeing as Activision have me at the word "teem" of Craig Fairbrass sighing "teem deffmatch" into a microphone) it's just as well that the maps in the Resurgence Pack are of a consistently high quality. As a package they undeniably fit together well, each with their own style and some with - dare I say it - a little bit of uniqueness to boot. Let's deal with the returning favourites first, both of which are updated versions of Modern Warfare classics with spruced up art and a few minor tweaks to smooth out game flow.

Vacant is a network of tumbledown Russian offices that encourages all manner of close-quarters gunplay and hopeful room-to-room flashbang lobs. To me it's always felt like Modern Warfare's variation on CS_Office, and it remains as death-hungry as it ever was. Attached to said office and its windowed kill garden, meanwhile, is a warehouse where the perennial battle between outdoor snipers and indoor bomb guardians is played out through its wide, open entrance.