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It's just you and your buddy

'Modern Warfare 2' devises separate cooperative mode called Special Ops

By Derrik J. Lang Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Modern Warfare 2 is doubling the rapid-fire fun.

Although other shooter sequels, including Halo 3 and Resident Evil 5, added a buddy system to their single-player experience, the developers at Infinity Ward didn't want to sacrifice their game's story — about a Russian baddie named Makarov — to add a cooperative element. So they created a new mode in the first-person shooter called Special Ops.

"It's all about you and your buddy," Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling says.

More than 20 co-op objective-based missions can be unlocked throughout the game, which is set for release Nov. 10 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. Spec Ops can be played online or by split-screen with a friend, but it will be separate from the game's multiplayer mode.

Bowling says Spec Ops is about more than just running and gunning with your B.F.F.

"It's not just go in and kill everybody," he says. "Some might be snowmobile races, where it's you and a friend downhill skiing trying to get more time. Some might be elimination where you have X amount of guys in a map and you have to go choose your own adventure of how you kill them. We also have things like get from Point A to Point B and survive."

Unlike the deep multiplayer mode, players won't be able to intricately customize their soldier. That doesn't mean they'll be stuck with the same old firepower. Bowling says his favorite Spec Ops mission features a house in the middle of the map outfitted with a hidden war room in the basement that's loaded with a selection of weapons mounted on the walls.

"You can just pick and choose," he says."