PC Games Reviews

Call of Duty: World at War Videos

2010-04-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: World at War Launch Trailer

Call of Duty: World at War Video Review

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GC 2008: Call of Duty: World at War Official Movie

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2010-04-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: World at War Review

2010-04-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Good

Gritty, exciting story
Same excellent multiplayer system
Four-player cooperative campaign
Bayonets and flamethrowers
Nazi Zombies.

The Bad

Familiar setting
Familiar game mechanics
Familiar guns.

Shortly:

Treyarch has been on the short side of the development cycle for a while. Turnaround times for its release of off-year Call of Duty titles really prevented the company from putting its own stamp on the series. So what happens when it gets a full development cycle, and doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel in terms of a game engine. Call of Duty World at War is what happens.

Built on the CoD4 engine, Treyarch has had the opportunity to focus on the gameplay. CoD 4 was a journey into the modern world. For WaW, Treyarch went back to World War II but instead of focusing on the European Theater, the dev team expanded that to play the game – through scenarios – on two fronts. Players will be immersed in the Pacific Theater in the war against the Japanese Imperial Army, and will be part of the Russian push toward Berlin.

For the most part, you will play the game as a Marine private, or a Russian sniper. Once the game departs from those predominate scenarios to allow you to play the gunner on an aircraft, but as much as hopping from gun to gun and blasting boats is fun, this almost seems like an afterthought rather than a mission that integrates the other elements well.

There are 16 missions in all, starting at Japanese fortifications on Makin Island and ending with the Russian destruction of the Reichstag in Berlin. The unfortunate part of the game lays in that when you move through a scenario, if you fail, you can count on – more or less – the same enemy actions. Too often the character controlled took up a semi-screened position and then sniped away. The enemy, as if they either couldn’t see the bodies stacking up or were just too stupid to think much of it, would often take up positions of their fallen comrades. For example, a Japanese soldier pops his head up between a truck and a broken bit of wall. Waiting for him was easy. One shot, one less enemy soldier. Wait about five-eight seconds, and then another does the same thing.

While the action was fast paced, at times the AI made some poor choices.

One of the center points of the game, though, was the inclusion of the Japanese way of fighting. This does not often give you the opportunity to thoughtfully progress through an environment. They were not adverse to banzai charges, or even hiding in the brush, camouflaged, and then jump up at you when you were near enough for bayonet work. That element alone highlighted a small flaw in the default key mapping. To counter a melee attack, you were to hit V, which is not all that intuitive a key stroke if you have your fingers on the W,A,S,D keys for movement. And with the reaction time being so short, it can be an awkward movement.

Generally, though, the control set-up is intuitive.

The game plays out on the PC in a very visceral way, with incredible texturing, dynamic lighting and animation that is exceptional. Crank up the graphics settings, and enjoy the ride. The sound is also solid, with very good voice work. Some of the game’s story scripting is a bit obvious, and feels forced at times.

When it comes to multiplayer, though, CoD:WaW is a thrill ride. There is a couple of ways to play it – either in the deathmatch scenarios that many fans of the game have come to know and enjoy or in a cooperative setting. The latter will take up to four players, plop them into one of the scenarios and let them take on a ramped-up enemy. The game is very nicely realized, with players able to revive fallen comrades. This is sort of a competitive setting, with players vying for not only completing the scenario but also for scoring points in a variety of ways – from revives to headshots.

Multiplayer also has a cooperative element in which a team defends a house against Nazi zombies. There are several entry points and all sorts of weapons involved, including a ray-guy thing. The zombies come in waves and the idea is to see how many waves, or levels, you can survive. It ramps up fast and the pacing can be rather insane at times.

In many ways CoD:WaW is a guided experience that feels relatively short. Players should complete the main mission modes in about 8 hours. The replay value stems from the cooperative and multiplayer action.

World at War offers some nice elements, from the Japanese combat elements to the new weapon (flamethrower), but the game is more of the same in terms of the way it all plays out. That is not a bad thing, but for players coming off CoD 4, this is not a big step forward for the franchise. CoD fans will enjoy it, though, as the game will not only challenge but entertain.

Detailed:
Call of Duty: World at War is a lot like its predecessor, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. In most respects, this is a good thing. The guns are tightly tuned, the tone is gritty and mature, and the action is exciting and fast-paced. It boasts the same addictive multiplayer system as Modern Warfare, and even expands the multiplayer possibilities by allowing four players to play through the campaign cooperatively. Like every game in the series before Modern Warfare, this Call of Duty takes place during World War II. World at War does an admirable job of spicing things up, but between the well-worn source material and déjà vu game mechanics, there is a pervasive familiarity to the game. Still, though World at War lacks the freshness that made Modern Warfare such a hit, it nevertheless provides a hearty, filling meal--one that shooter fans are sure to savor.

The action is as explosive as ever.

The most salient difference between World at War and Modern Warfare is the WWII setting. In the campaign, you split time between two soldiers in two offensive theaters: the Russian push out of their homeland and into the heart of Germany, and the American struggle to wrest Pacific islands from the Japanese. Though you'll alternate between them every few levels, the campaign feels like one solid progression, thanks to the adept pacing.
Each soldier's journey begins at a low point. Weaponless and surrounded by the enemy, you get a taste of the despair many soldiers are never rescued from. Though the emotional tone eventually rises toward triumph, you never quite forget the fate you nearly met. The first few levels are a hard scrabble as you and your fellow soldiers try to gain a foothold for your country, while later levels are suffused with a sense of hard-won momentum as you fight bigger battles and push closer to your enemies' capitals. Throughout each level you are accompanied by a superior officer who sets the emotional tone through well-acted dialogue. The vengeful, spitfire Russian pumps up your adrenaline to intoxicating levels, while the grim, determined American provides a sobering influence. This grim sobriety is further enforced by the actual WWII videos, photos, and statistics presented in stylish interchapter cutscenes. The message is, by nature, a conflicted one: Though you may feel like an action hero, you are actually participating in the most horrid of human endeavors. How you ultimately feel about this message will depend on your personal disposition, but suffice to say that the elevated emotional timbre makes for an exciting campaign.
Also exciting? Bayonets and flamethrowers, the two standout new weapons in World at War. You wield both in the American campaign, using them to enthusiastically dispatch enemies in trenches and fend off the aggressive banzai raiders. These raiders snipe from the treetops, or pop out of holes and charge you with merciless determination; this aggression makes the American campaign feel uniquely tense. The Russian campaign is slightly more predictable, but it remains vigorous throughout and ends in a spectacularly satisfying way. Explosions and gunfire will cause enemies to lose limbs and copious amounts of blood, making World at War a sight more violent than Modern Warfare. Still, in between the burning, stabbing, and gibbing, there is a lot of crouching behind cover and picking off enemies with your trusty rifle. This kind of action, and most of the other weapons, will feel familiar to anyone who has played a World War II shooter before. It's a well-tuned and exciting familiarity, but it doesn't make any notable leaps.
World at War does make a leap for the Call of Duty series by offering two-player split-screen and four-player online cooperative campaign play. It's the same campaign as the single-player experience, though the number of enemies increases for every player that joins you. You can turn competitive scoring on and see who can earn the most points by killing enemies or reviving teammates, and this adds a bit of fun to the campaign and lightens to mood (it's hard to feel grim when there are point values popping up all the time). There are also special items called death cards in each level, and collecting these will allow you to enable a cheat for cooperative play (for instance, enemies die by headshots only or headshots cause enemies to explode). These add a little more spice to the pot, but the only tangible incentives are challenges. Completing these tasks (such as kill 100 enemies with pistols or take first 20 times in competitive co-op) will earn you experience points that go toward your multiplayer rank (co-op is not similarly ranked). Cooperative play is fun in its own right, but linking it to the addictive multiplayer ranking system makes it relevant in a whole different way.

Multiplayer battles are as fast and deadly as ever.

In case you missed it last year, the multiplayer system introduced in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is fantastic, and World at War has updated it to fit its WWII setting. The hook is experience points, which you gain by winning matches or completing one of the aforementioned challenges. As you earn these points, you'll rank up and earn access to new weapons, new accessories (like sights and suppressors), and new perks. Perks are special abilities that grant you a wide variety of bonuses, but you can only choose four (one of which is vehicle-specific). This introduces an engaging element of customization: Will you choose to toughen up by increasing your health and bullet damage, or will you go the stealth route and increase your sprint speed while becoming invisible to enemy recon planes? Perks are well balanced, and you have multiple save slots, which enable you to easily switch between your various pretweaked loadouts. This allows you to take full advantage of this deep, engaging system that is just as great this year as it was last year, albeit slightly less novel.
There are, of course, new maps, and the bonuses you earn for kill streaks have been updated (notably, the attack helicopter you earned after seven kills in Modern Warfare is now a pack of nasty attack dogs). There are also a few maps that support tanks, powerful additions that mix things up without being too dominant. Most of the modes remain the same, though some have received slight tweaks and Capture the Flag has returned after a hiatus from Modern Warfare. The most striking new mode is actually a cooperative game called Nazi Zombies, playable when you beat the campaign (or play with someone who has). This absurd game puts up to four players in a house that is being assaulted by the undead. Killing the fiends and repairing the barricades earns you points that you then spend to replenish ammunition, buy new guns, and unlock new areas of the house. Each subsequent wave brings tougher, faster, more numerous enemies, and the game inevitably ends in grisly death. Though the random weapon box, assorted power-ups, and skills of your teammates add some variation, each play-through is similar to the last. Still, it makes for some intense, frantic fun and provides a welcome, if slightly bizarre, change of pace.
By staying largely true to the formula that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare so successful, Call of Duty: World at War has ensured a proven level of technical quality, particularly in the multiplayer arena. On the other hand, one of Modern Warfare's strengths was its fresh approach, and by embracing a familiar setting and familiar mechanics, World at War achieves greatness but falls short of excellence. This is only a bad thing if you are expecting this game to top its benchmark predecessor. If, however, you are hoping for an exciting campaign, fun cooperative play, and engaging multiplayer action, then you'll find a lot to be happy about in World at War.

Call of Duty: World at War Game Info

2010-04-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: World at War

World at War brings proven Call of Duty mechanics back to WWII with great success.

Ranking:

5 Great

Game Rating:

Gamespot: 8.5 great

IGN: 9.2

Gamezone: 8.5

Critic Score 8.5

User Score 8.3

Gameplay	8.5
Graphics	9
Sound	8.8
Difficulty	Medium
Concept	8.4
Multiplayer	8.8
Overall	8.5

System Requirements:

Minimum:

System: Penium 4 3GHz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Hard Drive Space: 8000 MB
Other: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or ATI RADEON 1600XT video card with Shader 3.0 support

Game Info:

Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Developer:Treyarch
Genre: Historic First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Nov 10, 2008 (more)
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Connectivity: Online
DirectX Version: v9.0c
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista


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2010-03-27T05:36:00.000-07:00

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2010-03-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty Video Review

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Call of Duty Review

2010-03-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Most anyone who plays games would more than likely be very impressed with Call of Duty's authentic presentation, well designed and often very intense single-player missions, and fast-paced, entertaining multiplayer modes.

Shortly:

There seems to be a lot of World War II games coming out, and while some of them aren’t worth your time, Call of Duty definitely is. Brought to us by Activision, Call of Duty is based on the American, British, and Russian armies as they fight German forces in Europe.
The game has a good length for its genre. To keep it from feeling too long, they split it up into campaigns that follow different soldiers from different countries. This allows you to see more battlefields, use more weapons, and experience a variety of events. While the first two campaigns are mediocre and offer nothing too new, the final campaign is amazing. It follows a Russian soldier as him and his comrades try to take back Red Square. The entire campaign is breathtaking and quite emotional.
Before each mission you are treated to a short briefing as it loads. Each campaign’s briefing is done differently depending on the country which is nice. These reading breaks usually offer more background on what you’re about to do, so reading them is beneficial. Also, there are a few video briefings featuring footage from World War II that are very interesting.
The nice thing about Call of Duty is the variety to the missions. You never feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over, and each mission is just the right length to where it doesn’t feel too long. Also, the missions flow really well together, so nothing ever seems out of place.
The controls are great. As with any other First Person action game on the PC you can set up the keys any way you wish, although the default settings are very well mapped out.
The graphics are some of the best I’ve seen in a First Person Shooter (FPS). Realistic models, lighting, and textures make up each level. The wonderful sound and graphics, along with the great script and AI, really make you feel as if you are there. Your AI teammates will go back for wounded allies, dive to the ground to avoid mortars, provide cover fire, and work together to open up a tank and drop a grenade into it. Aside from very little gore, Call of Duty is the most realistic World War II experience out there.
The soundtrack and sound effects are wonderful. The constant gun fire and explosions make you feel as if you’re actually fighting in a war, and during emotional or epic moments the appropriate music will start up.
I sometimes had a problem with the weapons; a lot of times they seemed very inaccurate. Otherwise, the amount of damage they dealt was very realistic, depending on where they were shot. There’s even a level where you control a tank, and shooting buildings with the cannon puts holes in them. Grenades are useful as well, spraying shrapnel that do great damage within a certain radius of the blast.
Call of Duty offers traditional Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag game modes, but it brings two new ones to the table as well. Behind Enemy Lines and Search and Destroy are the new game modes that offer a unique way to play. In Search and Destroy one team protects an object that the other team needs to plant explosives on and destroy. Behind Enemy Lines takes a handful of Allied soldiers and puts them right in the middle of tones of Axis players. If an Axis player is able to kill an Allied soldier, he then spawns as an Allied soldier and the Allied soldier comes back as an Axis soldier. It’s a lot of fun since the Allies are greatly outnumbered. Call of Duty also has a feature called the Kill Cam. If you are killed in a multiplayer game, you will be able to watch the last few seconds of your life through your killer’s perspective.
I didn’t think Call of Duty’s multiplayer was that great. The game’s engine seems to be built really well for the single player experience, but it just doesn’t feel right as a deathmatch game. Team Deathmatch and Behind Enemy Lines are really fun, but I would still rather play Medal of Honor or Battlefield 1942. It feels a little slow, and the weapons are extremely inaccurate unless you’re using a sniper rifle like everyone else.
Overall, Call of Duty is a game not to be missed. The single player missions are amazing, and if you don’t think so right away keep playing - the Russian campaign is like nothing you’ve ever played. Activision has even made it easy to mod, so we can expect multiplayer mods to lengthen the replay value in the future. If you have a PC capable of running Call of Duty, don’t miss out.

Detialed:
There is no shortage of World War II-themed first-person shooters available, and it's no secret that a number of them, including Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Battlefield 1942, are extremely good. Now you can add Call of Duty to that list. The first game by Infinity Ward, a studio composed of some of the same team that worked on Allied Assault, Call of Duty presents outstanding action all around and is at least as good as, and in several ways is simply better than, any similar game. Though both its single-player and multiplayer modes will be familiar to those who've been keeping up with the WWII-themed shooters of the past several years, most anyone who plays games would more than likely be very impressed with Call of Duty's authentic presentation, well designed and often very intense single-player missions, and fast-paced, entertaining multiplayer modes.

What would it take for a WWII-themed shooter to distinguish itself in this day and age? A whole bunch of stuff that's in Call of Duty.

Call of Duty's distinguishing features, by and large, can't be considered innovations--that's too strong of a word. However, this is a game that pulls together many of the best aspects of other, similar games, and also includes all sorts of little "wish-list items" that may have crossed your mind while playing those other games. The result seems, above all, very well designed. The action in Call of Duty, ultimately, is arcadelike--much like in Allied Assault or Battlefield 1942. You can't survive a shot to the head, but you can take a few bullets anywhere else and can keep going just fine. There's also a clear onscreen indication of the direction from which you're taking fire (and, as you're getting hit, the screen shudders to make it look like it hurts). Luckily, first aid kits, conveniently placed in the levels or occasionally dropped by killed enemies, instantly restore large portions of your health. You hardly ever need to activate a "use" key in this game. When you do, you'll use it to instantly set explosives or grab documents, but you won't use it for opening doors.

Actually, that's because you won't be opening any doors. One gameplay contrivance that's presented in the first few seconds of the first mission is that any time you see a closed door in Call of Duty, it's supposed to stay closed. This seems like a minor point, but how many shooters have you played in which you fumbled for every doorknob, trying to find the one door that would actually open? That's simply not an issue in Call of Duty. Despite the highly authentic atmosphere created for the levels in the game, there tends to be an intuitive, clear path from the beginning of the level to the end. The levels can be challenging, at least at the higher two of the game's four difficulty settings, but they're not frustrating. If you die, you can restart at your most recent save almost instantly. You don't need to worry about hitting the quick-save key all the time, either, since the game automatically and seamlessly saves your progress not just at the beginning of a level but at several points throughout the level. The game's brief tutorial at the beginning of the single-player mode will be second nature for experienced players of first-person shooters. However, since it's in the context of a military boot camp, it will also provide, for new and experienced players alike, some valuable advice on (and practice with) the nuances of Call of Duty's gameplay.

Call of Duty does an excellent job of modeling American, British, Russian, and German weapons of the era. You can shoot your weapon from the hip, aim down its sights, use it as a bludgeon, or change its firing mode, in some cases.

You cannot sprint in Call of Duty, nor can you tiptoe. While standing, you move at a constant pace that's not too slow and not too fast but is just right. You'll have no trouble quickly getting from point A to point B. However, when you're running from cover to cover in an area that's under fire, you'll be painfully aware of how vulnerable you are. You should probably keep your head down, and Call of Duty lets you easily switch between standing, crouching, and prone stances. You move slower while crouching--not too slowly though--which makes this the best way to get around when in the thick of battle. Movement, as well as turning, is understandably much slower while prone. Sometimes, however, this is the perfect option for staging an ambush or staying out of harm's way. As in many shooters, you can also lean around corners in Call of Duty, which can be a real lifesaver during some of the game's deadly firefights when you need all the cover you can get.

Call of Duty features a wide arsenal of authentic American, British, Russian, and German WWII weapons, including various rifles, submachine guns, side arms, and grenades. You can carry only two larger weapons at a time (as well as a pistol and some grenades), so, typically, you'll want to have a rifle for out-in-the-open engagements and a submachine gun for tight-quarter combat. While armed with any of these, you may shoot from the hip, raise the weapon to eye level and aim down the sight (for more accuracy at the expense of movement speed), or use the butt of the weapon to try and club an enemy to death. Manually reloading your weapon tends to be faster than letting the clip run out, and some weapons let you switch firing modes, like going from full-auto to single shot (though, since you can squeeze off single rounds in full-auto mode, this isn't very useful). Your crosshairs expand when you're moving and contract when you're steady, pointing out how much more inaccurate you'll be if you try to run-and-gun. The weapons themselves are modeled very convincingly, thanks in no small part to the tactile sense you get from being able to look through their sights or use them as bludgeons, and most every one will earn your respect since, in the right situations, they can all be deadly effective.

Sniper rifle-type weapons tend to be extremely powerful in first-person shooters, and you'd think that players' inabilities to run at the equivalent of 60mph in this game would make them particularly easy targets during multiplayer matches. Call of Duty has some good solutions here as well. For one thing, when looking through the scope of a rifle, your view will be severely restricted, and your peripheral vision will be virtually eliminated. This makes the scope work properly as a means of lining up a long-ranged shot but not so useful for just scanning the horizon and spotting enemies from farther than the eye could see.

Call of Duty's single-player missions let you experience some incredible battles from the perspective of an American soldier, a British commando, and a Russian conscript, who isn't even given a gun.

Additionally, multiplayer Call of Duty features the very clever "kill cam," which lets a player who's been killed relive the last five seconds of his life from his killer's perspective. The implications of the kill cam are pretty significant: If anyone isn't playing fair in a multiplayer match, the kill cam ought to make this quite clear, and then players can vote to have the offending player kicked. When playing a deathmatch-style multiplayer mode, you can easily skip the kill-cam sequence and get back into the action, but if you're playing one of the multiplayer modes in which you can't instantly respawn, it can make for an entertaining five-second consolation prize.

Call of Duty bills itself as having three distinct single-player campaigns--one for the Americans, one for the British, and one for the Russians--but this isn't exactly the case. You do get to play a number of exciting missions from the perspectives of each of these allied forces, and each one takes place in a different part of Europe. However, you play through all of the game's missions in a linear order, and there's no clear transition from one "campaign" to the next. There's no epilogue when you finish a series of missions, so all you get is a different-looking between-mission loading screen to clue you in that you've moved on to the next chunk of the game. Overall, the single-player portion of Call of Duty is of approximately average length, meaning it should take you some 10 hours, give or take, from beginning to end. None of it is filler.
Much like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Call of Duty really doesn't tell much of a story. You'll get to survive through some harrowing experiences and help accomplish some significant victories, but don't expect to become best friends with many of the game's characters (and don't choke back any tears when some of them get gunned down or blown up), and don't expect to get a sense of the different main characters' unique personas. All there is to distinguish the game's three main characters from one another are their names; they never speak, and the game never gives you a look at them, since you see everything from their perspectives. And, no, there aren't any mirrors lying around on the battlefield.
Also much like in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the absence of a conventional narrative in Call of Duty is a trade-off that gave the game's designers the creative license to put you, the player, in a number of different situations. These situations are very intense in their own rights, but, collectively, they would never have been experienced by one man. In fact, Call of Duty is a step in the right direction from Allied Assault in this regard, since that game suggested that the same one character was responsible for all the heroics that took place. In Call of Duty, you're no hero but just a soldier in the war (three different soldiers, one at a time) presented with incredible circumstances. You just happen to be in the right place at the right time and have the opportunity to make a real difference, or, at least, you can die trying. The single-player levels, like those of Allied Assault, are sort of an interactive roller-coaster ride. The scenarios are heavily scripted. Battles, fortunately, don't unfold in precisely the same way each time you attempt a level, but, basically, you need to follow a set path through each level to end up experiencing it in just the fashion that the designers probably intended. If you keep dying, you're probably just doing something "wrong" and should try a slightly different approach. Levels obviously aren't walled-in or anything and look realistic, so things like barbed-wire fences and minefields (as well as a handy onscreen compass pointing to your next objective) will keep you from straying off course.

The kill cam is a neat feature of the game's multiplayer modes, and it allows you to relive the last five seconds of your life from the perspective of whomever it was that took you out.

One of Call of Duty's most distinguishing features in the single-player mode is how many humans, both friend and foe, it manages to cram into an environment. With the exception of a small handful of corridor-crawl-style commando missions (which, while pretty good, are probably the least interesting parts of the game), you'll never be fighting alone, and you'll always have allied soldiers fighting--and dying--by your side. These allies are mostly for the sake of ambience; they mostly look realistic as they fight from behind cover and draw some of the enemy fire. They even sometimes charge the enemy, as you'd expect them to under the circumstances. However, they won't do your job for you and can't be depended upon to take out the bad guys.

In fact, in some cases, the presence of all these allied soldiers unfortunately works against your suspension of disbelief. The occasional mission-critical character might get shot, only to get back on his feet because the mission couldn't go on without him. (The designers apparently didn't want to punish you for not looking out for your own.) You'll also sometimes see soldiers fail to react properly to an enemy standing nearby. Still, far more often, the effect of being in the middle of a pitched battle with seemingly dozens of soldiers on each side is quite convincing and dramatic. This is especially true in the Stalingrad mission of the Russian campaign, in which legions of conscripts, some bearing standards instead of arms, can be seen charging the entrenched enemy and getting mowed down. You're just like the rest of them, only you manage to find a sideways route instead of rushing at certain death head-on.

The Russian missions are perhaps the most memorable in Call of Duty, particularly because this is a perspective of the war that hasn't been portrayed as frequently in the Western world--and understandably so. Nevertheless, if you've read the history books or seen films like Enemy at the Gates (whose opening sequence clearly inspired the first of the Russian missions in Call of Duty), then you'll have a sense of the particularly dreadful circumstances that Russian soldiers faced in a conflict that left tens of millions of Russians dead. The American and British missions have some incredible moments as well. Many first-person shooters now feature "turret" missions, in which you're working the guns but not actually driving the vehicle from which you're shooting. Call of Duty has a couple of excellent such levels from the American and British perspectives, which are some of the finest such interactive chase/shooting sequences to date. As the British, there's also a terrific battle where you and your fellow soldiers are pinned down and are under attack from German reinforcements who are coming from all angles. Your objective is to merely hold out for several very long minutes until help arrives. Throughout the missions, your German foes will pose a significant threat. They're good shots, and they'll smack you with their rifles if you get too close. They'll even toss their grenades at you, and sometimes they'll even throw your grenades back at you.

Call of Duty puts a ton of people on the screen--an effect that gives the game a rather different and more believable look and feel than other WWII-themed shooters.

The single-player component of Call of Duty is thrilling for as long as it lasts. The multiplayer component of Call of Duty is what will likely keep you entertained for much longer. The game features five different multiplayer modes--deathmatch, team deathmatch, a keep-away-style mode called "behind enemy lines" where the allies are heavily outnumbered, and two Counter-Strike-style objective-based modes (one called "retrieval," where one team tries to recover important documents from under the other team's nose, and another, called "search and destroy," where one team attempts to blow up an objective that is being defended by the other team). All that's missing is a character-class-based mode, though by choosing your primary weapon you're essentially committing to a particular role in battle. There are a dozen multiplayer maps in all, and each is available for use with four of the five modes, though there are only four maps designed for use with the search-and-destroy mode.

Because the core gameplay and weapon balancing in Call of Duty is very well done, and the 3D engine and netcode capably handle situations where a ton of action is going on all at once, all the multiplayer modes are inherently enjoyable. The aforementioned kill cam is another nice touch, and the same sort of excellent level design found in the single-player portion of the game can be found in the multiplayer maps. These are each quite large and easily accommodating of 32-player games, and they offer plenty of cover and plenty of places to set up ambushes. Each of the main types of primary weapons has real value, and real weaknesses, on these maps. A server browser lets you easily get in on a multiplayer match so you can have at it. The game also readily invites user-made mods.
Call of Duty's graphics, somewhere down the line, are powered by the Quake III engine, but the game looks great--not dated. Occasionally, some of the character animation doesn't look quite right. For instance, the animation for when killed soldiers fall from banisters or balconies looks particularly weak. Additionally, there are a few clipping issues here and there. Also, some of the scenery, particularly small shrubs and such, looks blocky and ugly if you get right up to it. We also experienced some graphical issues running the game with an ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card, which didn't properly handle the game's occasional motion-blur effect. Other than these specific issues, the overall look of the action is excellent. Realistic weather effects, explosions, and muzzle flashes help make the game's environments come alive, and the character models for friends and foes are surprisingly detailed given how many of them can be onscreen. Additionally, the game runs very smoothly in comparison to other recent shooters. If you get a good frame rate out of other PC action games, this one will be silky smooth. Call of Duty, like Allied Assault, squeaked by with a "T" rating from the ESRB despite the extremely violent subject matter it portrays. Unlike Allied Assault, it even shows a little blood in the form of a red mistlike spurt that's seen when a bullet hits its mark. For better or worse, there's no graphic violence here, but the animations are realistic, and action is visceral.

Call of Duty is a thoroughly impressive game.

The audio in Call of Duty is even better than the look. You'll learn to tell most every weapon apart by its own loud and clear roar. In those rare instances when shooting isn't occurring all around you, you'll still tend to hear shooting off in the distance--an ambient effect that reinforces the sensation that you're in the middle of a war. Some of the more action-packed single-player missions are practically deafening, what with all that's going on with the bullets practically grazing your head, shells flying, aircraft making strafing runs, and more. In a great touch, if an artillery shell detonates near you, you'll be shell-shocked, rendering you temporarily deaf and substantially disoriented. In fact, you'll struggle to get back on your feet as the sound of battle eventually rushes back to your senses. The game's sporadic use of voice acting is good, though it's a bit of a shame that much of the Russian soldiers' voice-over (and some of the Germans') is in accented English rather than in the native language. For a game that attempts to appear as authentic as possible, this seems a little incongruous. Amidst all the cacophony of Call of Duty, it can be hard to hear the game's orchestral musical score, but it kicks in on particular occasions and adds even more drama and cinematic flair to the proceedings.

Call of Duty is an all-around excellent game that confidently challenges, head-on, all the other WWII-themed shooters out there and comes out on top. When a game is outstanding, like this one is, some people invariably expect it to be something completely different from what's already available. That's not true of Call of Duty, which is directly comparable to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and other such games. Yet, on its own merits, this game is executed extraordinarily well, and, therefore, can be wholeheartedly recommended not just to fans of other WWII-themed shooters but to anyone looking for a first-rate action game.

Call of Duty Game Info

2010-03-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Most anyone who plays games would more than likely be very impressed with Call of Duty's authentic presentation, well designed and often very intense...

Ranking:

17 Great

Game Rating:

Game zone 9.4

Game spot 9.0 Editor's Choice

IGN Score 9.3

Critic Score 9.1

User Score 9.2
Press Score 9.1
Reader Score 9.1

Gameplay	9.3
Graphics	9.8
Sound	9
Difficulty	Medium
Concept	6
Multiplayer	8
Overall	9.4

System Requirements:

Minimum:

System: Pentium® III 700MHz or Athlon® 700MHz processor or equivalent
RAM: 128 MB
Video Memory: 32 MB
Hard Drive Space: 1400 MB

Game Info:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Genre: Historic First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Oct 29, 2003 (more)
ESRB: TEEN
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Violence
Category: Action

Connectivity: Online, Local Area Network
Online Modes: Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1-32

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Call of Duty: United Offensive Videos

2010-03-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: United Offensive Video Review

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Call of Duty: United Offensive Official Trailer 1

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Call of Duty: United Offensive Official Trailer 2

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Call of Duty: United Offensive Images

2010-03-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

United Offensive is an excellent expansion that takes the intensity of Call of Duty and ratchets it up even higher.

Call of Duty: United Offensive Review

2010-03-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

short:

United Offensive is an excellent expansion that takes the intensity of Call of Duty and ratchets it up even higher.

Last version of Call of Duty stood out as one of the best titles of the year, as well as one of the best action games ever made. Therefore, it would seem a given that FPS fans would be chomping at the bit for an expansion pack to the game. Well, the wait is over, and less than a year after the original game’s release, Call of Duty: United Offensive is hitting store shelves. The follow-up offers the same kind of high-intensity World War II action as the original, easily rivaling (and often surpassing) anything in the original game. If you enjoyed the original Call of Duty, then you need to pick up United Offensive right now.

Just like in the original game, United Offensive drops you into the boots of three different Allied soldiers (an American, a British and a Russian soldier) fighting against the Nazis. This time the single-player campaign will take you through a variety of action packed missions, from the Battle of the Bulge to a bout on board of a British bomber plane to the epic Battle of Kursk.

The epic sense of scope was extremely impressive in Call of Duty, and United Offensive even manages to up the ante. From the very first mission in Bastogne, Belgium (the Battle of the Bulge), you are thrust into a huge battle against an insane amount of enemies. You begin the mission by hopping on the back of a racing truck and manning a gun as Nazis fire at you from all sides, from caravans, buildings and even tanks. After that, you take to your feet and finally get a full view of what you’re up against. Tanks, half-tracks and legions of Nazi soldiers pour over a hill in an effort to break the Allies’ line and defeat you and your squadmates. You must get a hold of weaponry, duck for cover in foxholes and destroy as many enemy units as you can. The Battle of the Bulge mission is extremely intense and a single bad move could cost you your life.

Following the American soldier campaign, you’ll switch perspectives and fight as a British soldier. This mode starts you out on board of a bomber plane and requires you to shoot down German fighter planes before they can return the favor to you and your squad. This stage does a fantastic job of showcasing the new graphics implemented in the expansion. The billowing smoke and fire effects in the stages are incredible, a noticeable step up from the original game.

Finally, the Soviet campaign’s main centerpiece mission has you fighting back Nazi Germany’s final push against the Eastern Front in a bombed out city. You will push through buildings, fighting against hordes of German forces and even fending off bombing runs from German fighter planes.

The thirteen-mission single-player campaign is pretty short, clocking in at about ten hours. But then again, the original game was about this short as well. While the game is over pretty quickly, the white-knuckle gameplay will make sure it’s a sweet ride.

The presence of drivable vehicles is quite minimal in the single-player campaign, but vehicles add a whole new dynamic to the multiplayer modes. Tanks and jeeps are predominant throughout the multiplayer modes, giving the game a Battlefield 1942 feel. Manning vehicles has its obvious benefits (protection, speed, weaponry), but also a few downsides. If you are scooting through a village with very narrow roads, it’s very easy to get trapped and ambushed by opposing forces. However, the addition of the Kill Cam is a bonus for people who have a problem with snipers camping out and picking them off. An ingenious little device, it shows you your character getting killed and the person who killed you, effectively giving away their position for when you respawn and need to kick some butt.

I hinted earlier at the improved graphics, and they truly are a sight to behold. The newly implemented particle system displays debris, fog, fire, smoke and explosions very realistically, and now more than ever you will feel like you are really in the middle of a chaotic gunfight. The new graphics push the aging Quake III engine to its utmost limits, causing a few bouts of slowdown on even high-end machines when the action gets really heated.

The sound has been left unchanged, which is definitely not a problem. The surround sound is very cinematic, with sweeping a musical score, realistic gun sounds and explosions, and great voice acting.

Call of Duty: United Offensive is a real gem of an expansion pack, adding a ton of new content and some fantastic multiplayer features to the original game while introducing some compelling new levels that no fan of the original should be without.

Check it out now.

Detailed:

There's no doubt that Call of Duty was one of the standout shooters of 2003 thanks to its addictive blend of intense single-player action and wild multiplayer gameplay. By taking its cues from Hollywood movies and television shows such as Band of Brothers, Call of Duty manages to immerse you in a virtual cinematic experience as you fight the battles of World War II on the front lines. So it's not too hard to imagine that developer Gray Matter faced a daunting task when it was asked to make an expansion for Call of Duty, which was originally developed by Infinity Ward. However, apparently Gray Matter was more than up to the task, because the developer took everything that was great about Call of Duty and then ratcheted the gameplay's intensity even higher. The result is that Call of Duty: United Offensive is a truly great expansion.

Get ready to receive waves of Germans in the many harrowing battles of United Offensive.

United Offensive follows a similar format to that found in Call of Duty. You play as three Allied soldiers--an American paratrooper, a British SAS commando, and a Soviet infantryman--who are caught in the great struggle against Nazi Germany. Over the course of the single-player campaign, you'll go from the frozen siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge to the epic German counterattack at Kursk. Throughout most of the campaign, you'll participate in huge, heavily scripted, set-piece battles that make the squad-based battles in Call of Duty look downright minuscule in comparison.

A good case in point involves Bastogne, which represents the opening segment of the expansion. After a short joyride in an American jeep through German lines (not unlike the similar sequence found in Call of Duty), you and your fellow paratroopers have to repulse a powerful German attack on American lines. While a battle in Call of Duty usually involved Germans that came at you in manageable numbers at a time, the sheer number of opponents that the computer throws at you in United Offensive is almost overwhelming (at times). We're not just talking infantry, either, because the Germans come at you with tanks and half-tracks as well. With gunfire and tracer fire all around, you must run from foxhole to foxhole in a desperate defense of the lines. And just when you think that things can't get more intense, P-51 fighter-bombers streak in on devastating bombing runs. It's an awe-inspiring moment, to say the least.
The expansion switches gears a bit for the British portion of the campaign by starting you off as a gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress that's on a bombing mission over Germany. It's a visually stunning sequence, though you don't get to do much other than shoot down waves of incoming Luftwaffe fighters. Luckily, it's a one-time event, so you'll spend the rest of the British campaign on the ground partaking in commando missions that are probably closest in scale and scope to those found in Call of Duty. These include a Guns of Navarone-style mission where your team must destroy coastal guns that are threatening the invasion of Sicily. While packed with variety, the British segment of the campaign feels relatively low-key compared to the rest of the expansion, mainly because it lacks the massive set-piece battles that are at the heart of the American and Soviet segments of the campaign.
Thankfully, the gameplay returns to over-the-top form with the Soviet portion of the campaign, where you and your Soviet comrades face Hitler's last major offensive on the eastern front. This segment weaves from chaotic trench warfare to house-to-house--and even room-to-room--combat as you attempt to clear the Germans from a broken and burned-out city. It culminates in a climactic battle for a rail yard that pits you against oncoming German infantry and tanks, with Stuka dive-bombers making strafing runs over your positions. It definitely makes for a harrowing experience

During the British missions, you can fly as a gunner on board a B-17 over Germany, where the Luftwaffe swarms all over you like flies.

About the only complaint about the single-player campaign is that it's not that long. The fast pace of the action works against the game, because there's somewhere between six and 10 hours of total gameplay, depending on how proficiently you're able to get past the tough parts, of which there are many. On the medium difficulty level, you can generally get past most battles and encounters after one or two attempts, but there are some notable sequences that may require a greater number of tries. The key in those situations is to recognize what the problem is and to figure out a way around it. The original Call of Duty featured its own fair share of challenging, almost puzzle-like sequences like these, so the overall level of difficulty in United Offensive is actually about the same.

You'll also get some new toys to play with, including semiautomatic rifles for the Germans and Soviets, which represent more than welcome additions. Another big addition is the machine gun, like the German MG34 and the American .30-caliber, which can deliver a heavy rate of fire but which can only be used while stationary and prone. And since Gray Matter developed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it's not too surprising to see that it has imported the memorable flamethrower from that game to United Offensive.

After you've exhausted the single-player campaign, you can look forward to the impressive new multiplayer modes in United Offensive, which reinvent the multiplayer features from Call of Duty. For example, there are 11 new, huge maps that easily dwarf the largest multiplayer levels from Call of Duty. United Offensive also introduces vehicles to the mix--mainly jeeps and tanks. Jeeps are useful for scooting around the map quickly, while tanks have their obvious benefits. Tanks aren't too overwhelming, though, since both teams have access to armor, and there is usually plenty of antitank weaponry laying around for infantry. Snipers are less of a problem with tanks around, and it also helps that the maps are so large that snipers are more spread out. In fact, one of the nightmares of Call of Duty's multiplayer was the high concentration of snipers on relatively small maps, which often turned the entire affair into camping fests.

United Offensive also features a sea-based mission, which is a first for the series. Check out the pretty water.

The new multiplayer modes certainly feel influenced by the popular Battlefield 1942, particularly with the addition of the vehicles. The domination mode is very much like Battlefield 1942's conquest mode in that each team must take over a set of strategic points on the map to win. Though it lacks the sheer variety of Battlefield 1942 in terms of settings and vehicles, it still makes for a fun gameplay experience as your team has to use combined arms tactics effectively in order to win. Base assault is another new mode that should prove popular, as the goal for each team is to destroy the opposing team's bunkers. The catch is that destroying a bunker is a two-stage affair. First, the bunker has to be shattered by heavy weapons fire, and then infantry must run into the gutted ruins to plant explosives. The maps themselves are well designed, and most of them offer a mix of huge, open areas for vehicle combat, along with narrow, indoor areas that are perfect for close-quarters infantry combat. A good example of this is the Berlin level, which offers narrow streets for tanks to roam, and plenty of gutted buildings where infantry can hide and lay ambushes, as well as a sewer system to move around. Then there's Kharkov, which features huge, wide-open avenues, as well as rooftops where infantry can rain antitank rounds down on tanks.

Another welcome multiplayer addition is a ranking system that rewards players for helping their teams win the match. Above each player is a rank symbol, which resets at the beginning of each match. The more you help your team win by seizing objective locations, the higher you rise in rank. A high rank means that you get special bonuses, like extra grenades, and at higher ranks, you have access to binoculars which can be used to call in powerful artillery strikes. The rank system is a good incentive to actually work as a member of the team rather than running around as a lone wolf, as you get more points for seizing objectives than you do for simply killing the enemy.

It's worth mentioning that we encountered a slight bug while playing United Offensive. The expansion retains Call of Duty's mechanic that prevents you from opening doors on your own. As a result, you have to wait for another soldier to run up and open a door for you. The problem is, we ran into a couple of instances in which the scripting broke, and that soldier didn't appear. So then we had to go back to an earlier save point. Also, though you can quicksave the game at any point, it automatically saves at certain checkpoints, which is helpful when you're caught up in the game's action. However, when you're low on health, the autosaving doesn't kick in (apparently so that you aren't stuck at death's door if you load up the saved game). We mistakenly thought this was a bug as we played through long stretches without any autosaving.

It sure is fortunate that there's an antiaircraft gun nearby when the German heavy bombers appear over Kharkov.

As testament to the sheer amount of chaos on the screen, United Offensive pushes the aged Quake III engine to its limits, and even high-end machines may stutter at times to keep up with all the action. However, the action is generally smooth, and the graphics have even been improved a bit from Call of Duty. In particular, explosions and smoke effects are rendered beautifully now, and it's a visual treat to watch an artillery barrage rain down around you. You'll see trees shatter, huge plumes of dirt will kick up into the air, and the earth will shake all around you. And, yes, the excellent sound effects that were in Call of Duty are back, from the overwhelming noise of gunfire and explosions to the squeal of tank treads in the distance to the dreaded sound of a Stuka dive-bomber coming in for a bombing run.
By turning up the intensity, United Offensive breathes new life into Call of Duty, which is saying quite a bit, because Call of Duty is an impressive game by itself. Nonetheless, this is an excellent expansion. The single-player campaign may be a bit brief, but it's packed with plenty of cinematic moments, and the new multiplayer gameplay should keep you busy long after you've blown through the single-player game. It's a no-brainer to say that United Offensive is a must-have if you enjoyed Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: United Offensive Game Info

2010-03-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: United Offensive

United Offensive is an excellent expansion that takes the intensity of Call of Duty and ratchets it up even higher.

Game Ratings:

game zone: 9.3

gamespot: 8.9 great

Critic Score: 8.7

User Score: 9.1

Gameplay	9.3
Graphics	9.3
Sound	9.5
Difficulty	Medium
Concept	9.3
Multiplayer	9.3
Overall	9.3

System requirements:

minimum:

System: 800MHz or equivalent
RAM: 128 MB
Video Memory: 32 MB
Hard Drive Space: 1200 MB

Recommended:
System: 2.8 GHz Intel or AMD Processor,
RAM: 512 MB RAM,
other: 8x CD drive,
Video memory: Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 or greater or with pixel shader 2.0

Game Info:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Gray Matter
Genre: Historic First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Sep 14, 2004 (more)
ESRB: TEEN
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Mild Language, Violence

Connectivity: Online, Local Area Network
Online Modes: Competitive, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1-32
Number of Online Players: 32 Online
DirectX Version: v9.0
Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP

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Call of Duty 2 Images

2010-03-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 2 Videos

2010-03-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 2 Official Trailer 1

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Call of Duty 2 Official Trailer 2

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Call of Duty 2 Video Review

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Call of Duty 2 Review

2010-03-11T03:17:00.000-08:00

If you liked the original Call of Duty, then you're sure to enjoy the sequel, which stays true to the strengths of its predecessor.

The Good:

Excellent presentation
Aggressive enemy AI
Makes you really feel like a small part of a bigger war
Varied campaign
Fun multiplayer.

The Bad:

Performance can chug at times.

The Review:

When the original Call of Duty was released a few years ago, it made an impact both on critics and on consumers, even in the already-crowded WWII shooter genre. Call of Duty's visceral action struck a chord with PC shooter fans, thanks to a well-designed campaign, enjoyable multiplayer, and outstanding sound effects. If you liked those aspects of the original, then you're sure to enjoy the sequel, which stays true to the strengths of its predecessor, while enhancing the sense that you're just one soldier in the midst of a massive war machine. It doesn't really break any new ground, but the game nails the core aspects of first-person-shooter gameplay so well that it doesn't need to.

As in the first game, Call of Duty 2's campaign will put you in the shoes of a few different soldiers fighting for different Allied factions. You start off as a private in the Russian army, visciously fighting off the invading Germans in Moscow and Stalingrad. The British campaign is unlocked after beating the first Russian mission. For most of these missions you'll be fighting in the sand-swept deserts of North Africa alongside the Desert Rats against Field Marshal Rommel's troops. The final mission in the British campaign sends you to the bombed-out houses and hedgerows of Caen, France. After you're done with that, you'll play as an American corporal in Europe. Yes, you will be doing a D-Day landing, but not on Omaha Beach or Utah Beach, which you've probably played several times before. Instead, you'll be scaling the sheer cliffs of Pointe du Hoc as artillery with the Army Rangers. If you already thought rock climbing was an "extreme" sport, try doing it with artillery and machine-gun fire raining down on you.
Each of the game's 10 missions is broken up into a few different stages. If you play the game on regular difficulty, you could blow through it in about 10 hours. Ratcheting up the difficulty a notch makes the game much harder and more tactical (this is probably the experience the designers intended). Since you'll be creeping and peeking more carefully through all the encounters, you'll lengthen the campaign significantly, and enjoy it more.
Breaking up the campaign into several different narrative vignettes arguably weakens the impact of the plot as a whole, although that was never the strength of Call of Duty in the first place. What this does is allow the designers to put you in a lot of different, interesting situations. One memorable moment in the Russian campaign has you crawling through a raised pipeline to sneak behind German lines and into a fortified factory building. As you make your way through the pipeline, you'll spot and snipe small pockets of German infantry through holes in the pipe. When they fire back up at you, you'll notice bullets tearing through the rusted pipe, ripping open holes for shafts of light to poke through. It's a thrilling effect. You'll also get quite a rush from both participating in and defending against all-out infantry charges across open city squares in Stalingrad. But just as the novelty of these wears off, you're shunted over to the British campaign in North Africa, where you'll do things like participate in night raids of small Tunisian towns, climb up to the top of spires to call in artillery on enemy tanks, and even drive a tank yourself. The American campaign has its own memorable moments, like scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, or sniping at German mortar crews from the top of a grain silo. The game paces itself so that you're always on your toes, and you'll find yourself switching back and forth almost constantly from an offensive position to making a defensive stand against counterattacks on the objective you've just captured. Yes, at the end of the day you're still just shooting a lot of Nazis, but the constantly varying contexts of how and why you're doing it keep the game compelling from start to finish.

You won't be participating in these forays alone; far from it. In every setting you'll be surrounded by what seems like dozens of soldiers, both friends and foes, who move and act in a realistic fashion. Lots of your artificially intelligent mates will die by your side, along with the dozens of enemy soldiers you kill, but more will come in from the rear echelons to take their place. The designers often do a good job of reminding you that the war isn't just the infantry skirmish in which you're fighting. From time to time you'll see planes engaged in dogfights flying overhead, or when you complete an objective of capturing a German harbor, you'll call in a naval strike and see enemy merchant ships being sunk at the docks.
In each confrontation, you'll find yourself setting up at logical stopping points to exchange fire with German resistance. You can snipe dozens of enemies out of the windows and from the trenches in front of a house, for example, but reinforcements replace them. It never feels as though the game is cheaply spawning in more fodder for you; it just does a great job of making you feel like there are a realistic number of soldiers holed up in a building. You need to get a feel for the flow of each pitched battle, and this can be done by advancing your line when the enemy ranks look thin enough, and then breaking into the house or bunker. Your allies will follow you in and help you clear out the objective. Of course, if you're too meek at attacking and pressing your advantage, the enemy AI is wily and aggressive enough to take charge. They're not afraid to pour fire on your position and toss tons of grenades at you. Thankfully, a handy grenade danger indicator lets you know when and where you have to scurry away from an impending blast. When you do die, the game reloads very quickly, and you're even treated to a quote about war from various historical figures. One that sticks out in our minds is an ironic one from Solomon Short: "The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky."
One aspect of gameplay that has changed since the first Call of Duty is that you no longer have a health bar. As you get shot, you'll see the screen growing more and more red along the borders and your character will start to grunt and pant. If you continue to take damage in a short span of time, you die. So as you get shot that first or second time, you need to get yourself back to cover and hide for a couple of seconds to recover. Once your vision clears, you're good to go again. Some people may be put off by this Halo-like gameplay conceit, but it actually works very well here, and it really is no more contrived than hunting down and hoarding health packs. In the context of Call of Duty 2, we'd go so far as to say that it's an improvement over the traditional health system, as you never find yourself at a tough checkpoint (the game autosaves quite a lot) without enough health or medikits. Ammo's never an issue either, as there's never a shortage of dead bodies to loot for guns, bullets, and grenades. The focus stays squarely on the fight.

Speaking of grenades, the other major new gameplay conceit is the use of smoke grenades. You can pop these in front of machine-gun nests or to obscure the view of enemy snipers, making infantry charges a more viable option. The smoke effect looks outstanding and comes in handy in both the single- and multiplayer aspects to neutralize the effectiveness of fixed machine-gun nests and snipers. There's also nothing quite as exciting as running through a dense smoke cloud and finding yourself face-to-face with the enemy (the view from the opposite side is pretty cool as well).
Multiplayer Call of Duty 2 picks up right where the original left off, offering standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag modes, along with the search-and-destroy mode from the original game, where one team has to plant a bomb and destroy one of two objectives while the other team defends. A mode called "headquarters" is also available, and it's probably the most enjoyable mode of the five available in COD2. In this mode, two different areas on a map are designated as capture points for either of the two teams. To score points, a team must control and set up a headquarters on one of the two areas. Once that's set up, points begin increasing for the controlling team. The other team must attempt to overrun the position to try to stop the points from ticking up. During the time a headquarters is set up, the defending team members can't respawn (if they're killed) until their headquarters is overrun or the HQ expires. Once one of those two things happens, capture points are changed to different locations and the teams begin anew to try to set up a base. The nature of capturing, defending, and a constantly shifting HQ location makes this mode fun, because teams must adapt to different roles quickly and on the fly. As far as weapon balance goes, there's a predictable relationship between bolt-action rifles, semiautomatic rifles, assault rifles, and submachine guns. The smoke grenades can also change battlefield dynamics greatly, as snipers can sometimes find their favorite killing fields obscured. The shotguns are also extremely powerful in close-quarters situations, and they're fun to use.

The presentation in Call of Duty 2 is also topflight. Each mission is introduced with video footage from the Military Channel, as well as documentary-style narration that helps set the historical setting for what you're about to do. The game's graphics are also great, particularly the smoke effects from smoke grenades and explosions, as well as the fantastic amount of detail put into both the indoor and outdoor environments across a wide variety of landscapes. Textures can sometimes be a little less sharp when looking at vehicles or character models up close. But since most of the game is so fast and chaotic anyway, you don't notice much. The unfortunate thing is that the game can chug very badly in some key spots, reducing frame rate to 15 or less. For the most part, it ran well on our primary test system, a Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 OC with 128MB. But in certain spots, like some massed infantry charges, or the armored-car getaway sequence, our rig really struggled to keep up, even using the game's chosen "optimal" graphics setup, which seemed somewhat modest. Sound is where Call of Duty 2 excels like no other. Between the stirring score that kicks up during key moments, to the top-notch gun and explosion effects, the game sounds fantastic. The speech is also pretty good, particularly the yelling that your squadmates and enemies do during battle, which plays right into your excitement and tension as you fight.
Call of Duty 2 is just about everything you would hope for and expect from the sequel to one of the most successful World War II shooters of all time. Its varied campaign, excellent sound and gameplay design, and generally good AI make it a worthy successor to the original. At the same time, though, it's still a World War II shooter, and if you've grown weary of them, then Call of Duty 2's lack of new material might turn you away. It can also be murderous on your computer if you have modest hardware. What Call of Duty 2 does do well is nail down just about all aspects that define an ideal first-person shooter. If you liked the original and have been thirsting for more, Call of Duty 2 will definitely deliver that.

Call of Duty 2 Game Info

2010-03-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 2

If you liked the original Call of Duty, then you're sure to enjoy the sequel, which stays true to the strengths of its predecessor.

Rating:

GameSpot Score: 8.8 great
Critic Score : 8.7
User Score : 9.0

System Requirements:

Minimum:

System: Pentium IV 1.4GHz or AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB
Hard Drive Space: 4000 MB
Other: Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported, LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers

Recommended:

System: Intel Pentium 4 540 3.2Ghz w/ Hyper Threading and 1MB cache or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Video Memory: 256 MB
Hard Drive Space: 80 MB
Other: 256MB GeForce 6800 PCI-Express, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Game Tech Info:
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Genre: Historic First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Oct 25, 2005 (more)
ESRB: TEEN
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Mild Language, Violence

Online Modes: Competitive, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1 Player
Number of Online Players: 32 Online
DirectX Version: v9.0c
Operating System: Windows 2000/XP

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Videos

2010-03-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Video Review

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Uncut 'Infamy' Trailer

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Images

2010-03-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Game Info

2010-03-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 boasts an exhilarating campaign, engaging cooperative play, and addictive multiplayer, but the high price and limited multiplayer features may tarnish its appeal.

Rating:

GameSpot Score : 8.5 great
Critic Score: 8.9
User Score : 7.2

Tech Info:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Genre: Modern First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Nov 10, 2009
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Language

System Requirements:

System Requirements*
Intel Processor	-	Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
AMD Processor	-	Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
Nvidia Graphics Card	-	Geforce 8800 GS
ATI Graphics Card	-	Radeon X1800 Series 256MB
RAM Memory	-	2 GB
Hard Disk Space	-	12 GB
Direct X	-	9

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

2010-03-09T04:14:00.000-08:00

Modern Warfare 2 boasts an exhilarating campaign, engaging cooperative play, and addictive multiplayer, but the high price and limited multiplayer features may tarnish its appeal.

The good:

Intense, action-packed campaign
Engaging cooperative missions
Richer, deeper, more rewarding competitive multiplayer progression.

The Bad:

Costs more, has fewer multiplayer features than other PC shooters
Campaign is short
Plot is muddled and inelegant.

Review:
As one of the most critically acclaimed shooters of all time, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a prime example of a tough act to follow. Yet, amidst a raging storm of anticipation and expectation, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has done it. The new campaign is chock-full of intense action and dramatic moments, and though it is more muddled than its predecessor (in more ways than one), it's still an absolute blast. The new Special Ops mode allows you to experience some campaign-inspired thrills with a friend and it's an engaging challenge to coordinate your maneuvers and tackle the varied objectives. Last but not least, the competitive multiplayer that took the online shooter community by storm two years ago is back. Though the addictive action remains the same at its core, there are a host of new elements that make matches more accessible, more strategic, and more rewarding. Unfortunately, these improvements are marred by limited online flexibility that may leave the PC shooter community out in the cold.

If you compare Modern Warfare 2 on the PC to its console counterparts, the game is every bit as awesome and enjoyable. Yet when compared to other online shooters on the PC, the multiplayer component is decidedly limited. Players cannot set up dedicated servers to host their own custom-tuned matches, and the player count for each match has been capped at 18 as opposed to the possible 64-player matches of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Furthermore, there is no support for user-created content, so rather than enjoying free mods and community maps, PC users will have to pay for downloadable content. And the money issues don't stop there: Modern Warfare 2 costs $10 more than most full-price PC games. Paying more and getting less is abhorrent to consumers, and this deterrent, along with the online restrictions, make Modern Warfare 2 much less appealing from a multiplayer perspective. Yet despite this disappointment, there is still a lot to love about the online multiplayer, and the other elements of the game remain unblemished.
The campaign picks up where its predecessor left off, and there's a new violent ultranationalist terrorist on the scene. Once again, you play as a few different soldiers who are part of the effort to make the world a safer place. Your missions take you around the world to a number of exotic locations and engage you in a variety of different conflicts, ranging from stealthy and silenced to crowded and cacophonous. The action is smooth and exhilarating, thanks to sharp shooting and movement mechanics that allow you to be as quick and deadly as your skills permit. Environments are well designed and detailed, though many textures don't look particularly good upon close inspection. Modern Warfare 2 isn't a beautiful game, but it looks great in action. The diverse levels not only provide varied sights, but they are also cleverly designed to allow the action to flow at an exciting pace. Opportunities for cover and flanking present themselves naturally, allowing you to move through the battlefield in a variety of fluid ways. The aggressive enemy AI will keep you on your toes, and achieving your hard-earned success is satisfying.
Modern Warfare 2's campaign, like that of its predecessor, is quite short, and you'll likely finish it in about five hours. Though it is disappointing that there isn't more of it, what you do get is a relentless barrage of tight combat and thrilling set pieces. In one early level, you man the turret of a Humvee patrolling the claustrophobic streets of a Middle Eastern city. Enemies seem to be around every corner, but you are ordered not to fire until fired upon. The tension builds, and once you are engaged by the enemy, all hell breaks loose. After a hectic (and unsuccessful) flight from danger, you end up fighting door-to-door in the streets and ruined buildings. This frantic combat ratchets up when you head to the slums of Rio de Janeiro and reaches a whole new level when you find yourself engaged in similarly intense firefights on the grassy lawns and paved driveways of suburban America. The fight on the home front has some very cool moments, but it doesn't mean you're done adventuring abroad. A dramatic prison rescue, a marine infiltration, and a snowmobile chase are just some of the other exhilarating moments that make this campaign so enjoyable.

Though completing the campaign is an intensely satisfying and exciting endeavor, you may not feel very triumphant when all is said and done. Modern Warfare 2 features some dark plot turns, and your missions sometimes have drastic unintended consequences. In one mission in particular, you infiltrate a terrorist cell and are called upon to do the kind of things that terrorists do. What follows is a neutered attempt at portraying the grim reality of terrorism, and concessions are put in place to keep the plot from getting too dark. Despite these limits, the scene in question is undeniably disturbing and undermines your sense of remaining on high moral ground. The game gives you the option to skip this particular level entirely, but the shocking consequences of this grim mission ripple throughout the game, making it difficult to feel like a hero. Subsequent developments further muddle your overall objective, and it doesn't help that many of the subtleties and connecting threads are mumbled during voice-overs between missions. The plot ends up being a bit disorienting, and you may get the feeling that, rather than being the tip of the spear, you are just along for the ride.
If you're looking for some campaign-style action that is unburdened by any sort of plot, then Special Ops is the place to go. The timed missions are campaign excerpts from Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that you can play solo or online with a friend. The missions cover a variety of objectives, which include surviving waves of enemies, moving from point A to point B stealthily (or not), eliminating a certain number of enemies, and racing snowmobiles. You earn a rating based on your completion time or difficulty level and unlock new missions as you progress. Though the missions will adjust to allow you to play solo, Special Ops missions are made to be played cooperatively. Two guns are better than one when clearing out a crowded slum full of enemy combatants, and coordinating a simultaneous sniper attack is much more fun when you are counting down with a buddy. There are also a few missions in which one player uses an airborne vehicle-mounted gun to clear the path for the other player on the ground, and these are frantic and explosively awesome. There is no matchmaking, however, so if you don't have any friends online and need a teammate, you'll have to go fishing in the multiplayer lobbies. As is the nature of cooperative play, missions can fall flat if teammates don't communicate or go off on their own. It can be tough to find a communicative teammate who is willing to let one player take point, but it is certainly worth the effort. When you have a strong team assembled, cooperative play is uniquely fun, and Special Ops provides a great variety of engaging missions.
Of course, you could completely ignore both the campaign and cooperative modes and be very happy with Modern Warfare 2, despite the aforementioned online limitations. The insanely addictive, intensely exciting multiplayer formula pioneered by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is in full effect here. The action is even faster and deadlier than the campaign, and killing enemies, accomplishing objectives, and completing challenges earn you experience points. These points increase your level and unlock new guns, new equipment, and new skill-boosting perks. You can design different classes to highlight different skills and then switch between them to adjust for the ebb and flow of battle. The core action remains largely the same, so folks who didn't enjoy it the first time around aren't likely to have a change of heart. And players who thrive on the diversity of dedicated servers and the creativity of mods and community maps will feel a keen sting of disappointment. Yet despite these omissions, Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer action is so expertly balanced and riotously fun that it's hard not to have a great time with it. And a number of new tweaks and additions make the action more engaging than its predecessor.

First off, weapon loadouts have been restructured. Guns you may have previously equipped as primary are now only available as secondary, so you can equip both an assault rifle and a shotgun if you so desire. This restructuring creates an intriguing array of gun combinations, and one of the new options isn't even a gun. The bullet-resistant riot shield can be equipped in your primary slot and used to assault heavily contested positions. Having multiple-shielded teammates can change the battlefield significantly, and new equipment items deepen the strategic possibilities. The blast shield can protect you against grenade-happy opponents, while the tactical insertion flare (allows you to designate your next spawn point) can be a powerful asset in objective-based modes like Demolition and Domination.
The perk system has also received an overhaul. Perks can now be upgraded through use and will eventually grant a secondary ability. These bonus abilities are often just as potent as the primary perk, though they aren't a linear extension of the primary ability. Upgrading the perk that grants increased melee distance, for example, will cause you to take no fall damage (allowing you to perfect your drop-and-stab maneuver). The new death streak perks may seem familiar to those acquainted with the infamous martyrdom perk from COD4, but they also provide some welcome (and cleverly implemented) aid for new players. These perks kick in after you die a few times in a row without getting a kill. Painkiller grants you increased health for a short time upon respawning and makes it easier to resist getting spawn killed. Copycat allows you to mimic the class of the last person that killed you, potentially granting you the guns, equipment, and perks of a much higher ranked opponent. Nothing mitigates the frustration of getting killed by a weapon you can't access like getting your hands on that weapon and doing some killing of your own.
Customizable kill streak rewards are the other significant addition. In COD4, kill streaks of a certain length would earn you rewards like air strikes and attack helicopters. In Modern Warfare 2, there are a host of new rewards that you can unlock and then equip as you see fit. The rewards themselves range from tactical aids like unmanned aerial vehicles that reveal enemies on the radar (or counter UAVs that block the enemy's radar) to powerful assaults like gunships, air strikes, and the exceedingly fun laptop-guided predator missile. Each kill streak requires a certain amount of kills to activate, and you can only equip three at a time, so there's a risk/reward mechanic at play. The chopper gunner reward is superpowerful, but if you aren't confident you can score the required 11 kill streak, you'll essentially be wasting a reward slot. Even if you can't string together 11 kills, you can still use some of the more powerful rewards courtesy of care packages. This reward drops a crate onto the battlefield that either contains an ammo resupply or a kill streak reward, such as a precision air strike. Not only do these rewards add an engaging strategic dimension, but they also do so in a way that allows all players to enjoy them.

The result of all these multiplayer tweaks is a richer, more strategically nuanced experience and a busier battlefield. Fortunately, the action generally remains on the good side of hectic, and the stream of rewards is as satisfying as ever. Two new elements, title and emblem, are little graphics and titles that you earn through your match performance, ranging from serious to totally goofy. While not exactly in keeping with the serious tone of the campaign, they add an amusing way to further customize your online presence. Though it features a robust variety of playlists in which to ply your deadly trade, Modern Warfare 2's competitive multiplayer is still limited compared to modern standards and will likely disappoint many hardcore shooter fans. The high price point sharpens the sting of these restrictions, but the core multiplayer action is still very addictive and very rewarding. The inelegant campaign plot may make you feel like you're just along for the ride, but it is such an intense, roaringly great ride that you will be glad just to have played it. And the cooperative missions provide a uniquely fun angle on the action that rounds out the package superbly, making Modern Warfare 2 thoroughly entertaining and thoroughly rewarding.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Videos

2010-03-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Official Trailer

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Official Movie

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Images

2010-03-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game Info

2010-03-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Game Rating:

Game spot rate: 9.0
Critic Score : 9.2
User Score : 9.1

System Requirements:

Recommended:

System: 2.4 GHz Duo Core or faster or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Hard Drive Space: 8000 MB
VGA: GeForce 7800 / Ati Radeon X1800 or better

Minimum:

System: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or faster or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Hard Drive Space: 8000 MB
VGA: GeForce 6600 / Ati Radeon 9800Pro or better

Game Info:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Genre: Modern First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Nov 5, 2007
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Resolution: Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Online Modes: Competitive, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1 Player
Number of Online Players: 16 Online



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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

2010-03-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

The single-player campaign is over in a flash, but the high quality of that campaign and its terrific multiplayer options make Call of Duty 4 a fantastic package.

The good:

High-quality story mode packs in a lot of thrilling and unexpected moments
Well-designed multiplayer progression gives you something to shoot for online
Terrific audiovisual presentation.

The Bad:

Campaign mode is much shorter than those of the average shooter.

Review:

It took awhile, but Infinity Ward finally got the message that World War II is played out. With modern times and international affairs becoming more and more, shall we say, interesting in recent years, the 1940s just don't carry as much weight as they used to. Perhaps that's why Call of Duty 4 has a new subtitle, Modern Warfare. By bringing things into a fictionalized story that still seems fairly plausible, the developer has made a much heavier game. But COD 4 is more than just an updated setting. It's also an amazing multiplayer first-person shooter and a great but brief single-player campaign with the visual chops to make it a standout shooter in an era filled with seemingly dozens of standout shooters.

The only real catch is that the single-player is almost shockingly short. If you've been keeping up with this style of game, you'll probably shoot your way to the credits in under five hours. While you can raise the difficulty to give yourself more of a challenge, the main thing this does is make the enemies frustratingly deadly, which sort of detracts from the fun.
While it may have a lack of single-player quantity, it makes up for most of it with its quality. The game tells its story from multiple perspectives, and you'll play as a new British SAS operative as well as a US Marine. The campaign takes you from a rainy night out at sea on a boat that's in the process of sinking to a missile silo where it's on you to save millions from an unsavory nuclear-powered death. Along the way, there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments where you'll look around the room for someone to whom you can say, "I can't believe that just happened." In a world filled with war games in which the good guys come out unscathed and the world is left at total peace, Call of Duty 4 will wake you up like a face full of ice water.
The action in the campaign is usually very straightforward. You have a compass at the bottom of your screen, and the direction of your current objective is very plainly marked. But getting from point A to point B is never as simple as running in a straight line, as you'll be conducting full-scale assaults in Middle Eastern countries by moving from house to house, taking out what seems like a never-ending stream of enemy troops along the way. You'll also get an opportunity to raid Russian farmhouses in search of terrorist leaders, disguise yourself as the enemy, and, in one sequence, don a brushlike ghillie suit and crawl through the brush as enemy troops and tanks roll right past you. It's a breathtaking moment in a campaign filled with breathtaking moments. Unfortunately, it's about half as long as the average shooter, and there are plenty of sequences where you wish there were just one or two more hills to take.
Of course, if you're looking for longevity, that's where the multiplayer comes in. Up to 18 players can get online and get into a match on one of 16 different maps. Many of the levels are taken from portions of the single-player and they offer a healthy mix of wide-open, sniper-friendly areas and tight, almost cramped spaces where grenades and shotguns are the order of the day. There are six game modes to choose from. The old standby is team deathmatch, though you can also play in a free-for-all deathmatch, which isn't as much fun as the team modes. The other modes are more objective-oriented, and a couple of those have you lugging bombs across the map to blow up enemy equipment, or preventing the enemy from blowing up your base. Others have you capturing control points. Lastly, you can change up the game rules a bit with a hardcore setting that makes weapons more realistically damaging or an old-school mode that puts weapons on the ground as pickups and generally moves away from the simulation side of things.

In addition to just firing your weapon or tossing grenades, you earn some more interesting tactical moves for skilled play. If you can shoot three opponents without dying, you're able to call in a UAV drone, which basically is an upgraded radar that makes enemy positions show up on your onscreen map for 30 seconds at any time. Normally, enemies blip up onto the map only if they fire their weapon to make their location known. If you can go on a five-kill streak, you can call in an air strike, which brings up a shot of the entire level map and lets you place the air strike wherever you like. When combined with a UAV sweep, this can be really devastating. If you can make it all the way to seven kills--which is actually easier than it sounds--you can call in a helicopter for support. It'll buzz around the map and automatically open fire on enemies, though enemies can shoot it down, too. These additions to the normal first-person shooter gameplay really open up the game a lot and make it superexciting to play.

You'll also always have something to work toward, regardless of mode, because in standard, public matches, you earn experience points for just about everything you do. Capturing control points, getting kills, calling in support, all of these things give you points that go toward your rank. Ranking up unlocks most of the game's multiplayer content.
The class system in Call of Duty 4 is also very interesting. Each class has a different weapon loadout and different traits, called perks. As you rank up, you eventually unlock all five of the preset classes and the ability to create your own class. This lets you pick your own main weapon, your sidearm, attachments for both weapons, what sort of special grenades you want to carry, and three perks. The perks are broken up into three groups to help keep things balanced, and as you continue to level, you'll unlock additional perks. These class traits are one of the game's neatest tricks and, again, really helps to set COD 4 apart from the pack.

Perks in the Perk 1 group are more focused on explosives, letting you get more flashbangs if you like, or letting you lug around a rocket launcher, which is great for taking out enemy choppers. The other two perk groups have traits like juggernaut, which increases your health. There's also last stand, which activates when you are killed by dropping you to the ground and switching you to a pistol, giving you a moment to kill the guy who took you out before he realizes you're still squirming around and finishes the job. Our current favorite is martyrdom, which causes you to drop a live grenade when killed. It adds a healthy dose of mayhem to the proceedings. The perks and other unlockables feel nicely balanced, too, so you probably won't run into situations where one class is just better than the other. As it should be, your ability to point the red dot at the head of your enemy and squeeze the trigger before he does the same is still the deciding factor.
While there are a ton of compelling gameplay reasons to play Call of Duty 4, it also has top-notch presentation. The graphics are fantastic throughout, and they do a great job of rendering wide-open fields, tight buildings or houses, smoke-belching silos, and lots more. Some of the multiplayer maps look like they've already seen a lot of action, with blast craters, destroyed tanks, and other things that you can hide in or behind. It also has terrific lighting, so everything looks as it should. Everything sounds right, too. When you hear a battle raging in the distance, it sounds appropriately muffled, and up close, the crack of an M16 or the full-auto barrage from an AK-47 are appropriately loud and angry sounding. There is also quite a bit of voice work throughout the game, and it's all nicely done. The music, for the most part, is the typical sort of action-movie music you've come to expect from a first-person shooter, except for a rap over the end credits that seems to simultaneously detail the game's story while also acting as a subliminal diss record with some slick talk about how this is the third chapter by Infinity Ward, perhaps lightly inferring that you should ignore Treyarch's contribution to the series, Call of Duty 3. It's great.

COD 4 is available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, and each version holds up admirably. The differences between the two console versions feel mostly negligible. Both systems deliver good frame rates and have good, easy-to-use multiplayer setups that most closely resemble Halo 2 and 3's party system and matchmaking playlists. The PC version of the game uses a more traditional server browser to get you into games. Both systems work just fine on their respective platforms. The PC version has the ability to run in a higher resolution, if you're equipped with a PC that can handle it, but it seems to scale quite well. You can also create servers that allow up to 32 players to play at once on the PC, as opposed to a limit of 18 in the console versions, but given the size of the multiplayer maps, putting 32 players in them makes things a little too crowded. Despite listing 1080p support on the back of the box, COD 4 appears to prefer 720p on the PlayStation 3. The only way to get it to run in 1080p is to tell your PS3 that your TV doesn't support 720p or 1080i, but the difference seems minor. Either way, you'd be hard-pressed to tell it apart from its Xbox 360 counterpart. And all versions control just fine, making the decision over which version to buy totally dependent on which controller you like the most.
It's a shame that the single-player is so brief, but you should only skip out on Call of Duty 4 if you're the sort of person who doesn't appreciate great first-person shooter multiplayer. The quality of the content in the campaign is totally top-shelf, and the multiplayer is some of the best around, making this a truly superb package.