Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, 2007)

This game shatters ALL OTHER first person shooters out there. Call of Duty has reinvented itself as well as helping move the first person's genre along to a completely new level.

Call of Duty 4 IS the new revolution of gaming.

Story: 9/10
From the moment you first pop this game in you will be in for one wild roller coaster ride. The game is so in-depth, and so interesting it will keep you strapped to your seat for hours on end!! Between the diverse missions, different weapons, items, vehicles, and characters this story packs quite a punch!! The only criticism on this storyline is that its short.... very short. I beat it on one of the harder difficulties in less than three days.

Graphics: 10/10
For those who thought gears of war had the best, allow me to introduce the new king of next-gen graphics. EVERYTHING... and I mean everything is beautiful. The explosions, bullets, shock waves, grenades, characters, lighting, ground, sky, airplanes, and everything in between have never looked to so good on a console game until now. From silently stalking through the sniper mission to a high stake shootout in a tv broadcast building, this game will make you stop and admire what infinity ward has done for you. Bullets leave their mark and can now pass through walls and other obstacles. Rockets now leave realistic smoke trails and the sight of a helicopter spinning out of control is breath taking. You will find yourself so memorized by the graphics of the action and scenery that you might just have to re-start from the last checkpoint!!

Controls 10/10
The layout for the controls is the basic FPS layout... very easy to use and even customizable. The Right trigger is fire, the left trigger is the zoom on your sight, the y button switches weapons, the right bumper throws grenades. Your gear is managed using the d pad, with up being used for night vision, down for c4, right for claymores, and the left for your weapon attachments. Think halo controls with a few extras.


Sound 10/10
The most realistic bullets and explosions you will find next to being in a war yourself. This really feels/sounds like your at the shooting range firing off a few rounds. From the sound as you empty out your weapon, to bullets whizzing by you and taking out your comrades, this game is a master of the audio. If you plan on getting this game, GET A GOOD SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM. You will literally be blow away.

Multi-Player 10/10
Where to start with this? The multiplayer in COD4 is one (if not THE) best in a game to date. You think halo did multi player right? Well they did, but think Halo x10... It far surpasses Halo as the new benchmark for online FPS gaming.

As you earn kills, head shots, grenade kills, and other aspects your rank goes up and you earn new weapons and abilities. This unlocks rank, weapons, weapon attachments, camo, challenges, and a ton of other stuff. This leads me to my next criteria...

Weapons System 9/10
The weapons system is amazing!!! Tons of different primary weapons, sidearms, and specialties. There is a huge array of weapons from a light machine gun to a .50cal Sniper rifle. Attachments are very customizable in multilayer, although I wish the would have more available. Overall, you will not be disappointed with the weapon

Fun 10/10
Never have I had this much fun with a game. Storyline is great (although short as mentioned above) but the multilayer will keep you going for a long time!!! Great fun, great re-playability, GREAT GAME!!!

This game in my opinion. Is the best multiplayer game available. Before continuing to talk about the multiplayer. Lets review the Campaign first.

It's like the others, you play through a few missions as a differant force. Marines, SAS, etc etc. The campaign is good, from what I played of it, I've heard it was short. I didn't finish the campaign yet. I'm up to the first mission as SAS in veteran difficulty. It seems like great fun so far. I've read other reviews complaining of the multiple grenades that will surround you. Which is true to an extent. It does get annoying, Especially when you have a good spot and you're eliminating enemies left and right then all off a sudden a grenade drops by you and well back to the checkpoint!. I really hate the fact the enemies have pin point precision as to where and when to throw grenades as well. The grenade warning isn't too useful at times, When you see it pop up you can run away from it, But most of the times it gets you no matter how far you've gotten away from it. Other than that the graphics are great. Good weapon choice and some really cool missions you get to go on. Everything from ground assault to air attacks, Its in the package. There is no co-op but hopefully they'll be offering that as downloadable content on live soon. Let's go on to the multiplayer.

Before I say the good things lets get the bad over with.

Cons: It tends to freeze a lot (Sometimes in campaign as well). Theres considerable lag during these times which you can completely unload 100 rounds from a saw into someone 3 feet away. And they're still alive!.

The freezing issue after further investigation through google, seems to be Infinity Ward having server issues, why would it freeze in campaign? Speculation is if you're signed into live when they're having problems it will also affect your campaing play. Which is stupid. But lets talk about the good things now.

Pros: The graphics in multiplayer are just as good as campaign, there is no downscaling from what I can tell. Leveling up enables you to unlock perks, weapons, and new challenges. The perks pretty much just give you an edge of advantage against lower ranks who've not yet gotten the chance to unlock these items. They range from, Increased bullet damage, To more health, steadier aiming and a ton more. Weapons are set to unlock at certian ranks. Differant sniper rifles, shotguns, light machine guns, assault rifles, and pistols (you get a desert eagle at lvl 54). All weapons have their up's and down's. It's a lot of fun playing with each weapon and trying to complete the challenges. Each challenge gives you more experience, every kill you get, gives you experience. You gain experience all the way to level 55 where you will continue to gain enought to entere prestige mode. Whats that?... Well basically once you enter prestige mode, Everything you've worked so hard to get, the challenges you've completed ALL GONE!. But the plus is you get a really cool insignia beside of your name to show what level of prestige you are (you can complete prestige levels up to 10). Some find it useless, But I find it makes the game more fun, gives it a lot of replay value that way. Some of the challenges are a bit tough if you're not a seasoned gamer, But spend enough time and you'll be knockin 'em out in no time.

My thoughts, This is the most amazing game available for the 360 right now. You're not going to beat the graphics/campaign/multiplayer. You get your moneys worth and more.

If you are looking for a game that you will keep playing over and over, then this is it. CoD 4 definitely delivers as a first-person shooter. Having played and owned many shooters in my life, this one ranks well above most. The production values are outstanding, and the game plays like an action movie.

The graphics, being almost 1 year old to date (game was released November 2007) still stands out as one of the most visually amazing games on any next-gen system.

The gameplay is nothing short of masterful. You will not be disappointed at all. The campaign (single-player) captures your attention from the get-go. The AI (artificial intelligence) is far superior to competing games in the market, like the Tom Clancy franchise or medal of honor. On the Xbox 360, the control scheme is very easy to get used to, and after the brief tutorial in the beginning, you will be ready for combat.

This game will last for quite a bit in your Xbox console. If you have Xbox Live, you're in for a treat. Infinity Ward (the developer) integrated a role-playing-esque system, where you can choose a class that you want to be when online. Depending on the map, you may choose a sniper class (for maps requiring long-range accuracy), a shotgun class (for cramped maps requiring heavy firepower), etc.

In summation, I bought this game and loved it. So will you.

There was a time when the Call of Duty franchise was beginning to look a little stale. Call of Duty 3, the Treyarch-led travesty of the otherwise stellar series, took some of the steam out of the franchise, and the World War II gaming niche was overpopulated by the time the game came out. There needed to be a big change for Call of Duty to recapture gamers' interest.

Taking the established war-game formula into the modern era, COD4 not only successfully maintains the trademark frantic gameplay, but also expands on past efforts with an increase in both scale and scope. The feeling of being just a single soldier in an all-out war has never been so prominent; you'll feel engulfed by danger in nearly every mission. This is a game where you want to turn the lights down and the sound up.

The biggest changes from the modernization include a more "contemporary" presentation and some advanced weaponry. The story is now told as a single narrative, rather than a collection of campaigns viewed from different perspectives. High-tech news feeds and video briefings accompanied by grid-based overlays break down the missions, and the transition between narrative and gameplay is extremely smooth: the map-level overview zooms down directly into battle. It's a visual treat and serves as a moment's respite before you are thrust back into the unrelenting action.

The advanced weaponry provides some new gameplay elements. While your standard equipment operates more or less the same as its WWII counterparts (grunt-level fighting feels as though it's the old game with a new skin), certain missions really play up the modern setting. In one, you'll need to make a long-distance sniper shot using an extremely powerful rifle: you have to correct for wind, relative humidity, and the Coriolis effect. In another scene, you'll use the white or black-hot heat sensors of an AC130 gunship to wipe the opposition from the skies.

The single player campaign runs a moderate length (roughly 7 hours) at the normal difficulty, though hardcore players will likely return for the signature Veteran difficulty. Thankfully, there's incentive to go back and play it again, as Infinity Ward has introduced a "cog tag"-like collection mini-game, scattering 30 enemy intel laptops around the campaign. What really makes the single player compelling though is the sheer relentlessness of the gameplay: the action doesn't stop from beginning to end, and, given how different one player's decisions will be from another, there's quite a bit of variation in play experience.

Gameplay: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10

The World War II first-person shooter genre is officially dead and buried. So sayeth the folks at Infinity Ward, developers of the celebrated Call of Duty series. This is the franchise (along with EA’s Medal of Honor series) that brought the genre to a new level of immersion and intensity that we had never seen before. However, thanks to a glut of imitators (some quite good, some terrible), gamers quickly tired of the WWII shooter, especially ones that didn’t offer any new gameplay mechanics or innovations. Now, with the upcoming release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, they’re about to relegate the WWII shooter to history’s dustbin. Infinity Ward has succeeded in creating a masterpiece of the first-person shooter genre, adeptly blending an intense, story-driven single-player campaign with an addictive multiplayer mode.

Modern Warfare kicks off with a brief tutorial designed to teach the player about the game’s controls, followed by a trip through a testing area. Though this was created to determine which difficulty level the player should attempt, this editor highly recommends that hardcore shooter fans play on the Hardened difficultly level. Like Halo 3, the normal level is just a bit too easy, and most players will be able to get through it without too much trouble. There have been a lot of people questioning how long Call of Duty 4 is, and the answer depends mainly on how you want to experience the game. Personally, I found that 8-10 extremely intense hours on Hardened was more fun than 6-7 very intense hours on Regular. As you might have gathered, this is one hell of an intense ride no matter what difficultly you play on.

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While the previous Call of Duty games simply followed characters through their particular WWII campaigns, Infinity Ward decided to scrap that approach in favor of a tight narrative structure. The plot is seemingly ripped right out of the headlines, touching on everything from Islamic fundamentalism to missing Soviet-era warheads, as well as a number of other hot-button issues. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting too much from the story, as I’ve seen all of this Tom Clancyesque stuff before. However, I’m happy to say that I was blown away by just how engaging and immersive it was. Modern Warfare features a number of stunning plot-driven sequences, and the fact that many of these scenes are shown from the first-person perspective only makes them that much more gripping.

Part of what makes the story so great is the fact that you’ll actually feel an emotional attachment to the soldiers fighting alongside you. These aren’t just a bunch of random dudes who run into battle with you, although there are a few of them here and there. Instead, you’ll spend the majority of your time watching their backs as they watch yours, and you’ll likely come to enjoy the interplay between your teammates. The British S.A.S. squad is particularly memorable, and we’re sure that Capt. Price and Gaz will go down as two of the most beloved supporting characters in the history of the Xbox 360. To say that Capt. Price is one of gaming’s biggest badasses is an understatement, and we really hope that he gets a spin-off of his very own in the future.

Although some people out there might gripe that they can’t give orders to their teammates or some such nonsense, we found that not only could our squadmates hold their own in battle, they were actually too good at times.
Overall Rating- 10 out of 10