Call of Duty 4 annoyances

Just installed COD4 and I'm blown away by the visuals, sounds, missions... it's fantastic. But there's a few really annoying things:

First, they got rid of the stance up/stance down in favour of 3 separate buttons for jump, crouch and prone. Having got so used to the COD1 and 2 controls, I am now at a complete disadvantage. I can't understand why they've done that and it feels like a real step backwards.

Second, how do I get onto ranked servers? I want to play against other people just starting the game, not teams of generals and field marshalls. Am I being blind?

Third, I can't seem to get onto punkbuster servers. I've got punkbuster enabled, I can see it in the active processes in the Ctrl-Alt-Del screen - but I keep getting kicked. What am I doing wrong? (I did download a No-DVD fixed exe so that I don't have to keep putting the disc in, could that be it? I did buy it legally)

Fourth, and this is something that annoys me about most online shooters - all the maps seem to be open arenas with so many ways to get round the back of your opponents. That's fine for some maps, but I would like some maps to have definite fronts and choke points, where you can feel pretty safe at your end of the map and you know what direction the enemy will be coming from. I think that would make for some real wars of attrition.

I wonder...

Yeah, exe cracks prevent Punkbuster from working, I'm assuming due to it doing a crc-check on the file.

I can't see why they don't just make multiplayer a seperate executable and allow no disc to play from there since you need a serial key to play online anyway.

If you don't to risk ruining the cd, make an image of the play disc and mount it with Alcohol 120% or something.

The stupidest thing about the game in my opinion is the fact that stats are local. So its impossible to see how you rank against others.

Okay, point taken :)

About the controls- I like the one button for crouch/stand, with holding it dropping you to prone. Running gets you up off the groud if you don't want to go from prone to crouch first. So, you're mainly using two keys. (shift + ctrl)

"I think that would make for some real wars of attrition."

Having played a far bit of CoD4 online, I think it'd make it pretty boring. One of the maps is a bit like that, and it's one of the worst to play. That said, there are a fair few choke points in the maps... it's just that the maps aren't based around that one thing. Wait for the tools, and play it a bit more. You'll grow to love it ;)