I have not been a huge fan of previous Call of Duty games, but hearing of the thematic break from old wars being made with COD 4: Modern Warfare, and the apparent heavy featuring of the SAS I must say my curiosity was sparked.

In all honesty there is not a huge amount for me to state about what made this game work well for me. I think cheifly it was the variety of mission objectives and settings that players are presented with in the single player that made it stick in my mind. There are a few golden moments in COD: 4 that stand out for me and im going to start this review with them:

First and foremorst, the almost clinical nature of the C-130 'Spectre' gunship segments felt as if they were bringing me as close to real war as I was going to get sitting at my desk. Eradicating entire squads of enemy combatants with the devestating array of weaponary availible to that craft and hearing the totally un-emotional responses of the rest of my crew was truly chilling, moreso when you learn that the radio transmissions for that section of the game are pulled directly from USAF recordings.

Secondly, the intense flashback segment where you are deep behind enemy teritorry with the true-brit of an SAS officer as your commander had me on the edge of my seat, and frequently praying to gods I don't beleive in that my presence would not be discovered.

Thirdly, the chaotic nature of some of the later missions in Iraq really struck me as being something a little different from almost any other shooter, the sniper fire, unpredicable nature of enemy AI and the general ease at which i was able to be torn to ribbons by my foes kept my heart racing and my blood pressure dangerously high!

Those particular moments aside, the rest of the game is attractive, smart, easy to pick up and FAIRLY well put together (ill touch on that in a sec). There were scant few sections where I felt I was simply going through the motions of completing a game and this boils down to the excellent pacing of the game in general.

Sound effects are fantastic and realistic as you would expect from a AAA FPS title of this scope. Music seemed mostly complimentary but often it felt an unessesary distraction, when you are trying to be as 'hardcore' as you often have to be in this game, as if you were playing Day of Defeat online you do not want any other audio getting in the way of hearing footsteps, locating sources of enemy fire and hearing your squadmates.

The plot of the single player campaign is well constructed and genuinely enticing, the mission structure keeps it fresh and rather uniquely I identified with my squadmates (perhaps aided by competant AI) instead of trying to kill them for their weapons / for fun etc.

Back to my point relating to the game's general construction, I was SEVERELY dissapointed when my progress through the single player mode was stymied entirely due to scripting and/or AI errors, the most noticable example was on one of the last (and therefore hardest and requiring the most attempts) missions where you must storm a missile silo and get your squad to ventilation ducts to absail down into the undergound facility. Twice i was forced to restart the entire lengthy mission because somehow either the AI failed or the mission scripting came loose and no matter what I tried (and belive me, every enemy was dead etc) my squad would not begin the operations to enter the vents, I know I am not alone in this experience either and i was using the most patched version of the game availible at the time. I had a similar situation on one of the middle eastern missions regarding a locked door but i do not remeber the specifics as it was at the start of the mission and thankfully did not re-occur.

Onto the much touted Multiplayer...
Here is where I may be going against the grain, it just wasnt that enjoyable for me, infact I stopped playing it completely after I had got promoted and unlocked the weapons and abilities I desired and went back to playing Team Fortress 2. There just didnt seem to be much tactical variety in the scenarios or game modes on offer and whilst the multiplayer is going down a storm on the consoles i feel that perhaps for PC gamers there was a distinct sense of 'ive been here before' and 'if i want to go here again I have a superior selection of titles at my disposal (hats off to Valve et al)'.

I had a couple of hours of fun with the various cheat modes I unlocked as a result of my prowess in the single player, but as amusing as they (enemies exploding into tires and a sped up ragtime old-timey moview mode etc) are the appeal doesnt last too long.

Overall this is a fantastic title, but it does have its problems and at least for me was not the multiplayer experience I had been expecting.

My my!, this was quite a long review, perhaps my longest yet, but it turns out I actually had quite a lot to say on this extremely popular shooter!