When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was announced, a lot of our more hardcore readers expressed what they believe is viable concern that the franchise has sort of stopped evolving at the pace which would keep a lot of the fans anxious about the sequel.

And you know what, Call of Duty has always been an underdog of sorts. Sure, it is in fact one of Activision's most successful franchises, but back in the day when I first saw at one such show like this, Infinity Ward were an obscure developer that really shone through that year with pure quality and the amazing intensity of their FPS.

You'd be surprised how similar Call of Duty 4 is in that sense. While the game is far more story-driven, with different campaigns involving US Marines, British SAS and Russian loyalist troops fusing into this one major storyline set in near future, the circumstances surrounding the E3 presentation are similar in a way. And once again, the game sort of asserts itself to the media with its quality and trademark intense combat, spiced up with some new moments for the series. I've both tried out and watched two very different missions from the game.

The plot focuses on the character of a Russian ultra-nationalist, who is using a staged conflict in the Middle East as a diversion for the civil war he's waging in Russia. Players will find themselves in the role of both US special operatives and SAS guys as they engage the ultra nationalist troops.

The first mission I saw was a sniper operation, a two man team stealth infiltration mission, where your task was to sneak your way behind enemy lines. This was the British part of the campaign set in some remote part of Russia. As our two protagonists used their sniper skills and camouflage to get by enemy checkpoints, the action culminated with them two lying in thick grass as a whole squad of enemies was sweeping the area. You can imagine the gravity of one such encounter – a vulnerable sniper is lying prone in the tall grass as imminently Russian soldiers are going to reach their position.

Throughout the demo, I kept admiring the incredible shadow work in the engine, as well as the level of detail of both the interiors and exteriors.

While the sniper mission carried its own form of war drama, the boat rescue mission I saw just now (also carried out by the SAS) was pure and unadulterated Infinity Ward madness.

As the SAS made their way through the ship in what seemed almost like a cross between Rainbow Six and Call of Duty combat, the quality of the AI path-finding was more than evident. The code as well as the action looked as smooth as any finished product, even though the voiceovers still weren't implemented (some of the guys from the team voiced the soldiers), and, according to the game's lead designer, Call of Duty 4 is still in pre-beta.

The precise military operation went more or less smoothly before a huge explosion rocked the ship which started sinking.

With a flick of a switch, the rather stealthy op. turned into a mess of water, fire and melting metal as the British SAS sprinted their way to the surfaces of the sinking ship. The dramatic moment finishes as you leap for your life off the ship and into the helicopter being helped by your captain who drags you into the chopper. Exciting stuff. You could tell that all the sound wasn't yet in place, but the potential for pure fun in these missions was certainly there.

You can clearly see that the guys from Infinity are excited about this one, and after seeing the game in action I can perfectly understand why.

Just off the top of my head, you should see the rain effects in the game; they are absolutely great. Best rain effects I've seen in a shooter here. Sure, it's a random piece of information to finish off this report, but I'd see how focused you'd be after walking by the lovely, blue ocean time and again without actually taking 10 minutes to go for a nice and relaxing swim.

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Hey, wait for us, ya bastards! F**k!

Looks like a peaceful enough neighborhood to me…

	Vader	[STAFF] [mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply This, I gotta play. Though, I've skipped CoD 3, I really have a good feeling about this one.

	fatman	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply CoD 3 was meh. but this looks pretty interesting may just give it a shot, the gameplay pretty much gets boring after a while though.

	Pavarotti	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply Shooting people with WWII weapon never gets boring. But the graphics are still sloppy.