Call Of Duty 4 (xbox 360)

The first thing I have to say about this game is.. GO OUT AND BUY IT! Seriously, this game is everything I hoped for, and more. After much contemplation when I got home from the store, I decided to try out the single player first just to make sure I had a good feel for the game. The single player starts off with a training mission, your basic aiming, running obstacle course. Once this is completed, you and your team of British SAS soldiers are dropped onto a cargo ship via helicopter in the middle of a horrendous thunder storm. Right away, I knew this game was going to blow me away. I'll try not to spoil any of the story for you, but I will say that playing this game, I felt like I was watching an award winning movie and was constantly on the edge of my seat. As the player, you switch back and forth between the perspective of a British SAS soldier, and a UNSC Marine. Both perspectives sport their own storyline, but at the same time, intertwine with each other to create a spectacular story worthy of Spielberg.

Depending on the difficulty that you're playing on, the enemy AI is extremely smart; setting up in various formations and constantly trying to flank your position. Smart enemy AI is always great, but what about the friendly AI i.e. your teammates? Your teammates are just as smart, and really do their part in the fighting. At times I felt as if I could just sit back and let my teammates handle the fighting, and at times, they did. You really get the feel that your teammates are there to have each others backs. Playing on the veteran (hardest) setting, I found myself being saved by a teammate countless times. On one occasion, I had been shot and sought shelter in a small room to regain my health, next thing I knew, a grenade flew in the room with me, I wasn't able to react quick enough and prepared myself to start at the last checkpoint. Just as I gave up hope, one of my fellow marines rushed in, grabbed the grenade and threw it back to the enemy, saving my life.

I was able to beat the Single player campaign in one, 5 hour sitting on the medium difficulty. This was a perfect length game for me, it was just enough to satisfy me and not leave me begging for more, but also didn't have me wishing the game would end ASAP. Just remember if you play on the veteran difficulty, expect the game to take around twice as long to finish. Once you have completed the game, you unlock arcade mode which is basically the single player missions over again, but it keeps track of the enemies you have killed via a points system.

So you just completed one of the best campaigns to ever be seen in an FPS game.. what now? MULTIPLAYER OF COURSE! the best aspect of this game. If I could remake this multiplayer system, I would not change a thing. Infinity Ward has always made great multiplayer games, and this one is no different. I find myself having a lot more fun online in this game than I ever did with Halo 3. Your skill is based on a number rank, somewhat like Halo, except your number represents you in every single gametype you play, and is not specific to just the one gametype on the playlist that you play most. Another GREAT thing about the ranking system is that your rank is based on the points you earn during a game, and does not reflect how your team did. This really encourages me to continuously play, even when none of my friends are online to make a solid team. Each kill you get, you receive points for, as well as other various tasks you may accomplish during a game. Leveling up and getting more points also leads to the RPG aspect of this game. As you level, you will find yourself unlocking new guns, camo, attachments, and perks. Perks are a new feature which are basically special tasks that you can assign to your character to help you on the battlefield. There are only a limited amount of perks that you can assign to yourself, so choose wisely according to your style of play.

There are a total of 16 maps in the multiplayer, and I can't think of one that I do not like. All of the maps were well put together and are perfect for playing the various types of games to be found in matchmaking. The playlist provided by Infinity Ward is beefed up and will accommodate any ones preferences to gametypes. You will never go into a game wishing that you could back out, because in this game, you get exactly what you asked for, especially with the ability to veto maps if majority votes in that favor. I'm not going to go into much detail with the different game modes because there is nothing new here that you haven't seen before. There is the basic Team Death Match, Free for all, Search and Destroy (CS style of game), Capture the Flag, and so on. During an online game, you are rewarded for getting certain amounts of kills without dying.
3 consecutive kills = UAV (radar)
5 consecutive kills = Air Strike on position of your choice
7 consecutive kills = Helicopter (flies around wreaking havoc on your enemies)

I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone that owns a 360 and enjoys First Person Shooters. Even if you just picked up your copy of Halo 3, put it down for 2 minutes and give this game a try, I guarantee you'll forget that a new Halo game just came out, and you'll find yourself continuously picking this game when trying to choose what game you feel like playing.

I'm going to give this game a 9.8 / 10