If I cannot rent a host from Gameservers, set up the map rotation and hardcore rules that I want, and build a community of friends & players that enjoy the game the way I do..then no, there are no dedicated servers.

I tend towards Domination for one simple reason: it lessens the spawn point 'randomness', even if just a little. If my team has A, I generally know where I am re-spawning and where Opfor is coming from.

It's an odd combination of the model\skins being used and the lighting, of all things. There are a LOT of very strangely-lit areas in all the maps I've played so far, and not shadows in weird places-strange....but TOO bright, washing things out in odd ways? Yemen and Nuketown 2025 are the worst offenders so far.

Great review - i spent about 2 hours in both single and multi-player last night (PC), so some thoughts:

Stop comparing it to Counter-strike, if anything. CS struck a mild balance of tactical shooter versus arcade, and that naturally adapted to match-style competition. The CoD titles are effectively arcade shooters i.e. Quake, Unreal Tourney, and the like...just without rocket-jumps.

Late to the party, but I submit Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" - it's quite literally just a girl who gets lost in the woods and what unfolds. It glares directly into what fear really is and how it affects us.