Like many FPS fans, the moment I heard about the release of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 I was full of excitement and anticipation. One of the most high profile game releases of this year has landed and is here to take its rightful throne as daddy of all the FPSs.

Graphics: It seems IW have just been plain lazy with the graphics for the main part of this game, they haven’t changed an awful lot, but when you do get the chance to dangle tantilisingly close to the edge of a gaping chasm in the Cliffhanger mission, you really do feel it and the snow effects further on in that mission are top notch. The little touches are what I appreciate the most though, for example when you spend a long period of time outside in the snow, your gun gets some snow on it and when you go inside, it melts. Amazing! On the whole the graphics haven’t changed much since CoD 4 however the little touches more than make up for it. 8/10

Sounds: The sound in CoDs of old were absolutley crapola, however IW have really cleaned up their act with this one, the gun noises are excellent and the voices of fellow soldiers is second to none. Even the engine noises from BMG (Big ass machine gun cars!) are very nice. 8/10

Gameplay: This is one of the CoD series’ very large up points, it’s brilliant. It’s the same controller layout which is very simple to use and is brilliantly laidout. The missions in this game absolutely rock, they range from driving a snowmobile full pelt down a hill to holding up in a fast food place, it is brilliant. The offline multiplayer is just as awesome, and as long as you don’t cheat and get your 3 year old cousin to play with you it’s just as good as online. The Spec Ops (that’s Special Operations) is a new multiplayer mode, similar to the “Nazi Zombies” that Treyarch spearheaded in the last CoD game, and the “Horde” in Gears of War 2, basically you and a buddy team up to fight wave after wave of bad guys (the same ones you encounter in the campaign) each wave gets harder and harder for example you might start out with 21 hostiles to kill, then in the next round it’s 25 hostiles and a jeep and so on and so forth. 9/10

Anything Else: The first expansion pack for this game is due for release in Spring 2010.

You get a nice shiny 48 hr Xbox live trial if you buy the Xbox version (obviously) which is nice and handy if your Xbox live runs out all of a sudden.

There are other “luxury” versions on this game, Hardened, Veteran and Prestige, depending on how much you want people to hate you.

If you’re like me and don’t have Xbox Live and henceforth can’t get updates, this game comes with an update preinstalled, enabling you to make an avatar!

Overall: This game is easily the best FPS shooter this year, with lovely little touches that I know will make you smile and cracking sound quality. Awesome gameplay and some nice additional features, this game is a must buy for ANY FPS fan. 9.7/10

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