Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Hands-On

I played each mission through again and tried differing tactics this time, enjoying the slightly different experience as much as I had the first time. I then took a break (and some Tylenol) and made my way through the other rooms where the console versions of the game were being demoed. After watching each version for a few minutes it occurred to me how good each one looked. Not just good, but it was like the game was not running on different systems at all. On every platform, the game was richly detailed, ran fast smooth and had terrific audio. Other development teams should look to Infinity Ward to learn how to develop a title for consoles and the PC at the same time. It appears no corners have been cut for ANY platform and while the control schemes may differ, the game shows amazing quality regardless of what you are playing it on.

After my painkillers kicked in it was time for some multiplayer on the PC. Since the Xbox 360 multiplayer beta ended last week, the team has responded to feedback from the gaming community and has tweaked things a bit. First I saw there were several new game modes to play. From maps featuring flags that had to be held for a certain amount of time until they changed to your team's allegiance (thereby giving you points), to a mode that reminded me of Counter Strike where one side has to deliver, arm and defend a bomb at one of several targets while the other side tries to take out the first team or defuse the bomb. Of course there was the death match we loved during the multiplayer beta, that had not changed, but point rewards have been tweaked slightly and the game now gives you better feedback when your shots hit home on an enemy. All the changes only made the multiplayer experience more enjoyable and I was very disappointed when the server was shut down after a couple of hours.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is slated to ship in early November and from my hands on time here today, it looks ready for its release date. With amazing combat and tense missions that are the hallmark of a Call of Duty title from Infinity Ward and the multiplayer component that is going to have people playing, LONG after they complete the single player game. This is one title that is going to be a front runner for Game of the Year and soon everyone will be able to see why.