First, the trailer… (WARNING: This clip contains violence!)

NOTE: If you can’t see the video above, click here

So… this is arguably the most anticipated game “of the decade” according to some. For me it was perhaps the most anticipated game of the year, with Forza Motorsport 3 following closely in second place.

I plan on reviewing Forza Motorsport 3 at some point as well, by the way, but I want to make a Forza 3 video first. The making of this video is currently unfortunately hindered by a bug in the ffmpeg video encoding utility, which I’m hoping will be fixed at some point soon!

Anyway, back to Modern Warfare 2…

The game plays out a fictional war between Russia and the United States and is a direct follow-on from the “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” game. Take a look at Wikipedia for the full plot.

I should also mention, at this point, that the game contains a somewhat controversial scene (which players can decide to skip at the start of the game) in which Russian terrorists open fire in a Russian airport before shooting the under-cover American operative to make it look like American terrorists had opened fire, thereby causing a war to break out between Russia and the US. This has, not surprisingly, caused the game to be banned in Russia, despite the idea seeming to be making the Russian terrorists look like the bad guys, as opposed to the country of Russia itself. Lots of information can be found about this on the web, of course, if you wish to know more!

Now some actual gameplay (WARNING: This clip also contains violence!)…

NOTE: If you can’t see the video above, click here

As you can see, the storyline is relatively gruesome, as are the graphics, but as a game from the “first person shooter” genre, I think it’s pretty amazing! As a nice bedtime story, it’s obviously awful.

There are many things I like about this game, and a few I dislike. I like the graphics, the suspense, the feeling of panic that often sets in (within the realm of computer gaming, anyway!) and the overall realism. This game still obviously contains computer-generated graphics, but they look more realistic than any game I’ve seen in life so far. Much more movie-like than previous games, especially in 1080p.

I also like the multiplayer side of the game – it’s highly addictive. Each time you shoot one of the enemy, you gain “XP” points. As you gain XP, you level up and gain access to better weapons, skills, titles and ranks. There is obviously a need to keep playing because the more you play, the better you get, the bigger your weapons become and the more you can beat your opponent!

I dislike, however, how short the single-player campaign is – it took me 6-7 hours on my first play through and given that Half Life 2 kept me interested for 40 hours, and Fallout 3 for 75 hours, 6-7 hours is kinda short. I’m not expecting Fallout 3-type time scales with a game like Modern Warfare 2, but I still felt it was a little short for my liking.

One thing I have just begun to attempt is the single-player campaign again, but this time on “Veteran” difficulty instead of “Recruit”. This will almost certainly take a lot longer, but will also be much more difficult. I am about 30 minutes in so far and have already “died” 15 times or so. We’ll see how that goes over the coming weeks.

There is one area I’m undecided about – “Special Ops”. For some reason, I’m finding the Special Ops much harder than the single-player campaign. It’s not that they are not as enjoyable, they certainly are, but they do seem more difficult. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that they seem to be so much more difficult, that I’m struggling to achieve anything in any of them whatsoever! I’m sure I will improve though, as time goes on, especially with all the multiplayer time I’m putting in!

Overall, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is arguably my favourite game of the year, and possibly of the last 2-3 years. Perhaps it’s tied at the top spot with Forza Motorsport 3. I need to let the initial excitement wear off first, wait 6 months and see which of the two I’m still playing. Then I can decide which one is my favourite!

Well, that is just about everything I can think of saying about Modern Warfare 2, so I think I’ll end it there!

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