Best shooter ever.

First person shooters are freakin’ awesome.  The first, first person shooter (FPS) was Maze War which, for 1973 was pretty revolutionary.  The simple line art indicated space and users should move along and shoot opponents.  We have come a long way from this:

to this:

Call of duty 4 has got to be the pick of the litter at the moment.  In fact after I finished it I went back and played the other Call of Duty titles.  There is some top notch gaming there.  Part of reason I was so impressed with this version, apart from the amazing graphics was the environment.  The very first mission sets up the level of realism with a bucking deck of a cargo shop, which causes your view to pitch accordingly.  I actually found myself leaning in the chair to account for it.

Also these have an actual plot.  It isn’t just mission after mission, there is a story that goes with it.  While I felt parts of the plot were a little scant on details, such as the backgrounds of the badguys, I thought interweaving stories of the American US marine and British SAS agents was well done.

My favorite part of the entire game is a flash back where you become Lt. Price and have to sneak your way into position to witness the hand off of documents.  What makes it so cool is that you must sneak in or else it you die.  With many shooter  games, you just need to get your back to a wall and blast all comers.

Another neat section is where you are in a plane using thermal imaging to find and eliminate all the enemy threats.

There is a final mission in the epilogue described in Wikipedia as

Epilogue

British SAS counter-terrorists attempt to remedy a hostage situation aboard a jetliner. After a swift gun fight through the passenger decks, the terrorists are neutralized and the VIP is rescued. The team jumps off the plane with the hostage before it explodes in mid-air. It is unknown how, if at all, this mission ties into the campaign.

All in all a brilliant game, but short.  Any serious gamer can finish it in a day. Last time I played it took about 7.5 hours to complete.  I am looking forwards to another expansion pack…Infinity ward I am looking at you.