Modern Warfare

The Call of Duty games by Infinity Ward (specifically, COD2, COD4 and Modern Warfare 2) are highly regarded games in the industry. Not only do they receive critical acclaim but they also get the sales figures to match. All in all, one of the highlights of the FPS genre.

Which probably makes it surprising for you to hear that I don't own any of the COD games.

The main reason for this is that Activision always prices the COD games with a heavy premium. The second reason is that I have a friend who likes the COD series and I was able to borrow both COD2 and recently, COD4 from him. And it was well worth the wait!

Stuff I liked
Set pieces
COD4 is full of fantastic set pieces. Right at the start of the game, you are involved in a night raid on a tanker in the middle of the ocean. Near the end, the tanker gets taken out by a Mig with you still inside and the game becomes a mad dash as you try and get out of the bowels of the sinking ship! And this is before the opening credits have rolled!

Sharp controls
As you probably know by now, bad controls piss me off. Luckily the COD games have always had great controls which are responsive and well adjusted to the xbox controller. Its hard to put into words but part of the reason that the COD games are so much fun is that the controls are so well done that you just don't need to think about them at all. I've played lots of FPS games on the xbox and very few feel as good as COD4.

Achievements
This may sound silly but I love the fact that all of the achievements for COD4 can be attained via the singleplayer. Considering how late I am to the game, there is not much point in me jumping online. The only people left playing online at this stage would be the die-hard experts and would likely be able to wipe the floor with me even if all they were armed with was a pistol.

Having said that, the achievements aren't easy to get. Completing the game on Veteran difficulty was hard. And frankly, getting the mile high club achievement looks like it may be out of my league (won't stop me trying though!).

Stuff I didn't like
Length
Its probably unfair to rag on this game for length as it seems like most FPS games these days last in the 6-10 hour range. Having said that, after finishing COD4, I really wanted to keep on playing. Also, I can't think of anything else to complain about and I couldn't just leave this section blank, could I?