Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

playing this as someone who's used to a lot more PC shooters felt very weird. the controls felt very stiff, the visual effects for getting hit are some of the most jarring and distracting I've ever seen, and I was shocked at just how many times I kept dying again and again on Normal difficulty.

I feel like I'm missing something here, how did people play this as their first FPS on consoles where it's even more annoying to aim

I’ve always been a bit disappointed with the glitchwave scores for Golden Age COD games. Sure it might be a bit of a normie take but MW2 is genuinely the gold standard of multiplayer gaming that fits this niche for me that not many other pieces of media can offer and honestly WAW, BO2, and cod 4 aren’t that far behind.

i can understand how important this is, but i don't think it's for me

the entire call of duty series is nothing but mindless propaganda sludge. lowest common denominator fps-gaming to appeal to anyone dumb enough to think joining the military is a good idea, and then yell in their faces "JOIN THE MILITARY PLEASE" while they play the game.
the gameplay mechanics are sometimes alright, and I enjoy the modern warfare trilogy storyline (barring the often racist, xenophobic, and warmongering undertones of the story), but its impossible to play these games without feeling like you're just playing an interactable commercial for the US marines

(that's why the rating's so low, for the commenters that're confused)

I've played on the PC servers for a few hours and enjoyed it but I won't comment any further on the multiplayer. As for the campaign...

Oh. My. Goodness. There were so many tangos everywhere gunning me down instantly. The game was at it's most nightmarish at act 2 which is where I almost gave up and uninstalled the game. I'm too used to Dark Souls where I can memorize my way through everything but there's nothing here to memorize. It's just a slow, painful crawl to victory. If this painful campaign was IW's way to promote their anti-war message, then they've succeeded.

I was playing on Hardened.