24 hours of Modern Warfare 2: The Aftermath

You guys are awesome. That’s all we can conclude following our epic 24 hour celebration of the noble art of man-killing last Friday. Between our transatlantic office space and a staggering number of hardy Radarites located far and wide, weably kept a Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer session running for a solid day, and ye gods, did we have a good time along the way.

Between the site, the forums and ourUSandUK podcastswe’ve seen a thoroughly badass community growing up around GamesRadar for quite some time now, and there really couldn’t have been a better indictment of its current strength than the raucous fun we had online a few days ago.

Above: Don't let Nathan's body language fool you, It was a facepalm of joy.

It started innocuously enough, as these things often do, as Radar UK kicked things off at 10AM GMT. Head toour Facebook pageand watch as Nathan calmly, nay innocently, talks you around our set-up. Oh how things were to change… We tentatively signed in to check our friend requests, each man quietly hoping that things weren’t about to cruelly fall apart by way of empty inboxes and emptier lobbies. We needn’t have worried. MrBubblesIPA saw to that, he being the first one of you to appear, getting the exploding death ball rolling with admirable style.

Above: A box of doughnuts and a vipers' nest of cables. The typical Radar UK breakfast.

Bubbles, it should be noted, is based in America, and thus, had been awake for a good long time and was steadily working his way through a modest number of beers. No sleep for him. Oh no. The man was a machine, staying with us for an inhumanly long time considering the circumstances, and doing his damnedest to drum up more players during the whole time he stayed conscious. Oh how we all mourned as his last beer toppled to a premature death.

But from that point on, the flood gates were obliterated, as Radarite after Radarite poured into our lobbies to join the noble fight. We laughed. We cried. We pwned random folk far and wide, and swore gratuitously when they did the same to us. Not that that happened often of course. Team Radar is a strong and mighty one. Also, Dave H nailed 6 nuclear-strength Lucozade Alert energy shots (The RDA is 1) and developed the ability to aim at people before they were even on screen. Dave M nailed several beers and got all emotional about Jurassic Park. Again.

Above: Meikleham toasts the heroism of the T-Rex. Houghton stares in unblinking, caffeine-fuelled concentration.

But long into the day you continued to join our merry band. Players said their sad goodbyes, new ones said their jubilant hellos upon arriving to replace our fallen, and quite a few departed players couldn’t resist popping back once they’d got their less important offline obligations out of the way. Truly, it was a brilliant celebration of gaming, the Radar community, and the never-ending joy of excessive digital violence. And there can be few finer combinations than that.

Standout players? You all brought a hell of a good time to the day, and turned a rainy Friday in Bath into one of the most fun and funny days we’ve had in a long time. But we do want to give a particular mention to A SPASTIC TIGER, SPAZZ FM1 and FuryAc3, who, as far as our now addled minds recall, blasted the living crap out of us on a relentless and merciless basis whenever they were in game. Truly, a score against any of them was a trophy kill. We salute and fear all three in equal measure.

Above: Any claims that excessive gaming caused our minds to snap are greatly exaggerated.

We’ve tried our damndest to compile a list of all who joined us at Radar UK. First up, our sincerest apologies if we’ve missed you. Dave H and George started the day with the best intentions, furiously scribbling down the names of each new entrant as they appeared, but between the sheer number of you and the beers consumed, we may not have got everyone down. But regardless of whether we did or didn’t, if you friended us up and/or played, you were part of a thoroughly epic day at Radar towers and shall glow in our collective heart forever.

Want to continue the celebration? Head over toGamesRadar's Facebook pagefor more photos from the day, and make sure toswap your favourite war stories inour official forum thread.

Photos and a match report from the US side of the great battle

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