COD4 patch ruins experience for Xbox 360!

The call of duty 4 patch has been out for a week now on the Xbox 360 and after the brief excitement of some relatively small changes, I am left wondering what ever happened to that once great game.

For me, the game has become near impossible to play online. The previously frequent green bars and 10 player kill streaks have been replaced by horrid red bars in 8 out of the 10 rooms I join and a kill ratio that is going down like the Titanic.

I believe the optimized server selection update is primarily to blame, with those of us in smaller territories (NZ / AU) forced to play under a North American host. This is far from ideal and has me considering whether I need to be replacing my nightly game of choice with something a little less frustrating. This from Robert Bowling, the Director of Communications / Community Manager of Infinity Ward:

That doesn't mean it will always choose a US player, but I understand that the odds are typically stacked against some of our more remote players to be selected as host. We're currently looking at options available that might help out with those odds and I'll keep you updated on it.

Doesn't sound too promising if you ask me. I am open to suggestions (except from Halo fan boys) of other FPS games that don't handle like a pea shooter and offer a solid online component. More...