Originally Posted by RedForman

I can't say my experience with CoD 4 on Live is that bad. I've had some laggy matches (like pretty much any other gane I've ever played.) But usually seems pretty smooth to me.

Do you play with a standard group of friends where atleast 3 or more of them are in the same state or a adjacent state ? . If so , that may be why your having better luck then I do on this game. The system makes sure that if a group of players has a majority of close ping(general area) then someone in that area will always be host or you will be placed into a game with these standards.
If you use a party system and fill it up with friends in a general area the game finds a host in a area closest to you and your group's combined ping.
The host is also switched each match based on what players come and go and what the majority ping is. The game is best played when your playing with a party of friends in the same state or adjacent state.

One other thing is this game shows very little lag (visually) but if you watch the kill cam you will see what really went on when you died. I know this because when I play on the pc the kill cam shows that 90% of the time you died the way it played out on your screen(give or take a millasecond or so), If i'm playing on a server where my ping is above 100 I will experience kill cams that show the invisible lag.

There was a huge discusion on this when COD4 first hit the consoles. One of the dev's explained how the console hosting system worked. Once this was explained so much Heck started on the forums that the dev's said they would add a local search option in future cod games on console. Even though Infinity ward didn't make COD WAW this feature was added into WAW and I imagine you will see it in any upcoming COD games on consoles.

I personally would still prefer real dedicated servers. Between what we pay for games and xboxlive memberships its just straight up Greed that we don't get real servers.
Sadly the majority of console players don't understand the huge benefit of picking out a server in a list that shows either a ping meter or a ping number by each server. They can also have a quick match option if you don't want to use a list to pick your game.

I try to spend my money on games that have real servers however this is not written in stone for me but it is one of the top factors in my choice of games that get my $60. The other one for me is fully customizable controls.
I find it very arrogant that Developers expect you to play a game under the controller layouts that they create and don't give you the options to play with any layout you desire.

Thanks for your time and consideration, DESODE