MC&MP's Favourite Gaming Maps

Everyone has a favourite map from a game, one that sticks in their mind and will be played so much that it could be drawn from memory. Whether it's because it looks brilliant, offers an amazing experience or is just incredibly well-balanced, there's something that makes that map special. Here are a few of ours:



Tom - dod_Donner from Day of Defeat: Source
It's not the most-played map, that would probably be the massively imbalanced dod_Flash, which for some reason is really popular, but despite this it's probably the most respected. Everyone who plays it will admit that it's a cracking map, a real classic of design. It offers multiple avenues of attack for both sides, each of which is interesting and challenging to both attack and defend. Some are easier for the Axis, some for the Allies, creating a good sense of there being an asymmetry to the different sides beyond the basic load-out differences. It's also very well balanced, with the last official stat putting it at a 52.60% win rate for the Allied team, which is not bad at all considering the amount of hours that have been played on it.

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What was most surprising to me was that I didn't even have to think about the names of the key locations when I put the above screenshot together. Despite not having played in a while, I was immediately able to recall every pertinent location on the map (with the correct names I might add) from when I used to play. The experiences I've had on this map are uncountable, from playing in random public matches, chatting with the other players, to playing the ad-hoc realism mode, to being destroyed on it by far superior teams in small tournaments. These memories won't go away, and whenever I feel an urge to go back to Day of Defeat, I know which map I'll be going on.


Russell - Shipment from Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
While not being a particularly well designed map, I've found it's outrageously fun, particularly on split-screen. I have fond memories of hours spent with friends just goofing around in the different game modes. The size of the map means that even with only a few people it was still fun and exciting - there was no running around for a half-hour trying to find one another. Of course if someone got an attack chopper, there was no where to run. Hardcore mode made for some particularly tense games because of how easy it was to die. Old School mode often just devolved into silliness, mostly due to the ragdoll effects.

COD 4 in general had pretty memorable maps. There never felt like there was anything lacking, or there were any unfair advantages. It was just fair, mindless fun. Even now I can name most of the maps, unlike any of the other games' selections. Although honestly, that might just be the sheer amount of time I spent playing the game and nostalgia-tinted glasses. Regardless, the map that always stood out to me was the tiny, chaotic mess that was Shipment.

Joe - cs_Office from Counter Strike: Source

The premise is simple. Terrorists have seized an office and have taken four workers hostage. Counter-Terrorists deploy in an adjoining garage, and must either kill all of the Terrorists or rescue the hostages within a set amount of time. There are two ways out of the garage. The CT’s can either head towards the main entrance of the office across open ground, or they can take a more direct route through the back of the garage, up a confined corridor. Either way, the Terrorists have plenty of time to cover the entrance points and prepare for the assault.

Over many years of competitive gaming get-togethers, Office has seen by far the most playing time in our group. We know all of the best vantage points or hiding places, all of the best strategies, and we could probably navigate around the map with our eyes closed. And yet this is the map we keep coming back to. Playing on other maps is just practice – a warm-up. When we play on this map, it’s the real deal.

Why? Because it welds together the best elements of Counter Strike – precision and brutality. Within a few metres you can move from long, open corridors in which the skilled sniper can dominate, to stairwells and storage closets where the shotgun is king. The fact that all of this takes place among half-consumed mugs of coffee, white-boards covered with pie charts, and a disconcertingly large number of grey filing cabinets lends a degree of surrealism, which helps to cement this as a map which we will seemingly never tire of competing in.

All the other maps are practice. This is the real deal.