Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has had one of the most successful launches in the series' history, and therefore in video games, considering the wide popularity of COD, but perhaps inevitably this has also led to players calling out for various balances and "fixes". One of the most widely held criticisms among players, going by the number of requests seen on developer Infinity Ward's social media accounts and on subreddits, has been about aim assist. Apparently, it is broken (via GamesRadar). The aim assist is designed to level the playing field between console players and PC players. However, many Modern Warfare 2 fans have been saying that the aim assist is overpowered and that its effect should be reduced so that crossplay servers will be fairer and more equal. But this is an opinion not shared by all as some say the aim assist isn't as OP as others allege.One social media post seemingly showing the level of aim assist on offer in the game for console players got a fair amount of traction. To the soundtrack of Elton John's Rocketman the video shows the player using the PS5's DualSense and seemingly not doing much to control their character, but when shooting, the aim assist appears to be helping rather a lot.
However, not everyone is experiencing this issue. One comment under the above tweet says: "I'm going to be real my shit doesn't do that" and has received nearly 3,000 likes at the time of writing.
On the Modern Warfare 2 subreddit, some redditors have been posting about the aim assist issue, with one heavily watched thread showing a video of a player using his Xbox controller to move his character while at a gun range in the game. Moving his character from one side to the other, using only the left analog stick, the video shows the gun aiming at the targets automatically without any input from the player. However, others have tried the same thing with varying results, suggesting that the level of aim assist might not be the same for all console players. It's certainly become a divisive issue.
Aim assist is often applied to shooters or games with shooting elements (such as Red Dead Redemption 2) in console games, as controlling the aim with a console controller is usually less accurate than with the WASD keys and mouse of a PC set-up. But as seen, this auto assist can vary quite a lot from game to game, and can often be tweaked in settings and under different difficulty modes.
Since launch, Modern Warfare 2 has seen a variety of bugs and glitches, including one that seemed to allow players to easily farm weapons XP. But like many big games, and especially one with a popular multiplayer component, these things can take time to balance out and be all resolved, while balancing is necessarily an ongoing process. We'll have to wait and see if Infinity Ward does anything about this particular "problem".