Call of Duty Modern Warfare is easily one of the best first person shooters of all time. Though the game may or may not be innovative (as in the first to use a leveling up or a reward system) it certainly brought many elements such as the perk system and in game rewards, which came together in such a cohirent package. I can go on all day about how polished the game's controls, presentation, writing, and gameplay are, but then I'd end up writing a review. We all know that the game is awesome, so I'll leave it at that. Infinity Ward knew that they had a hit, and knew that onceActivision announced to the public that they were working on Modern Warfare 2, fans wanted instant gratification by wanting to know all about their upcoming juggernaut. Over the course of the last 6 months, Infinity has released teaser trailers and infolayering one ontop of the other, building up the anticipation.

The orginal Modern Warfare held Infinity Ward's signature cinematic presentation that they've always been known for. Fire fights were fast paced and brutal, and cutscenses incorperating the story carried an epic scale and intensity that only they can deliver. Though the game was short, it was some of the most satisfying7-8 hours (if not less) ever spent. Warfare 2 looks to follow what was in the previous installment and multiply that serveral fold. The second reveal trailer shows off their Hollywood like presentation. It seems that the sequel will be far more engrossing and far more adredline filled than the last. It was personally one of the best premire trailers I've ever seen; every time I take the time to watch it every now and again, it gives me goose bumps andreminds me how awesone this game is gonna be.

Though it saddens me that the amount of scripting, directing, and devlopment it took to make what I'm sure is gonna be a fantastic campaign wont get all the attention it deserves, it cannot be helped that the single attraction here is gonna be Modern Warfare 2's behemoth multiplayer. In the original game, the bar was raised so high, that titles released afterward that tried to use similar systems (i.e. Killzone 2, Vegas 2 and others) couldnt even match it. The only game that came on pare with MW was Treyark, Call of Duty's B team,in World at War. But Infinity Ward has taken that back and proven that thisis their baby, and no one can do it better then them. After E3, a few multiplayer trailers revealed some satisfying footage. The first, which showed off the most, showcased the customizable KillStreak system, allowing players to customize what rewards they get during a killstreak to a certain extent, the 11th reward which will be the use of the mind blowing AC 130 which was only featured in the single player campaign in MW. One part of the trailer showed someone launching a homing missle towards the AC 130, but just before it was gonna hit, it fired off flares that threw the missle off course. At the end was a surprise reveal of sticky grenades similar to plasmas in Halo as he stuck it to an enemy player's head and watch it explode next to a copy machine, showing off it's dynamic particle effects. The second showed a short run-through called "Flag Runner" which didnt reveal too much at first. But just like the last trailer, the surprise at the end showed the player throwing a knife at the back of an enemies head. Bad @$$. Recently, Activision held a Call of Duty event allowing journalists and others in the industry to try out Modern Warfare2's multiplayer first hand. Previews covered the following: New perks: deathstreak- allows a player who dies 4 times in a row to gather all perks and weapons oftheir previous killer plus a health boost, tactical insurgence- instead of a grenade, players can mark their own spawn point (great for snipers) Bling- allows 2 attachments on a weapon, and pro perks which are upgrades of a perk. New rewards: predator missle which is a guided missle that rains down from the sky, supply drops (thinkMario Kart, but with rewards), anti UAV, and a refined air strikewhich allowsthe modification of the strike's direction; and of course new weapons and maps were included. There is so much more going on in Modern Warfare 2, its almost hard to imagine.MW is still going strong as one of the most played console online games. Infinity Wards newest installment is likely to repeat what happened 2 years ago and hold the number one position as the most playedonline console game, except this time, a lot longer.

Other titles released thus far arent likely to compete with MW2 forgame of the year. It's only competition are Halo ODST, Uncharted 2: AmongThieves, and maybe a few others such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age Origins. Halo suffers from the disadvantage that its an old franchise that hasnt changed drastically since over the years. The campaign takes a new turn with the Shock Troopers instead of Master Chief, and Firefight is Bungie's interpetation of co-op types such as Horde mode in Gears 2, Survival mode in Left 4 Dead and Nazi Zombie in WAW. But all in all, this is a beefed up expansion pack compared to a full blown retail copy. Uncharted's action movie like campaign is bound to as good as or better than the last, and it does feature the series first multiplayer mode. MW's multiplayer is guarunteed to easily out perform Uncharted's, together with its campaign, it could very well be more impressive than Uncharted as a whole. Publisher's (whether they want to admit it or not) pushed their games to next year, avoiding holiday competition with Modern Warfare (Valve, good luck with those sales). Infinity Ward is taking the Call of Duty franchise in a direction that is likely to impact the genre once again and top its predicessor in virtually every way. This one is already getting my personal vote for GOTY.

Boy it took a long time to get this one out, but since the game has been out for so long, so lets hit the ground running.

Presentation:

Impressive from a tehcnical standpoint only in certain areas. The entire game seemed that it just wasnt quite there. You've got bump mapping, and great particle effectsin some parts, and muddy textures in others. Remember the whole "looks too generic" campaign that ran many months ago? Too bad that spilled over into the visuals. (Note, generic look and gameplay are different. COD 4 looked generic as another war shooter, but turned out to be one of the best first person shooters of all time) The back drop environments look TERRIBLE. Bland color pallet, fogettable "art direction", the game doesnt suck you in like most first person shooters should.

Gameplay:

Sure, HVS did the right thing by making the aiming controls completely customizable, that cant be denied. But some of the options represent some of the dumbest game design ideas I've ever seen. And when I say that, I'm looking at the aiming style. These aiming styles are purely gimmicks and show the lack of experience HVS has with shooters. IfI get into that, I could type a whole other post, but in short, u can do what ever you want in the single player campaign, but for the most of you, dont expect these obnoxious styles to work in multiplayer. The real testinment to aiming going up against tactical AI. Does that exist in the conduit? NO. Running through the game felt like a shooting gallery: Dude pops up, I pop him in the head. One level towards the very beginning of the game i was riunning up the stairs to the elevator and a Trust soldier is standing up there looking at me. I'm like, "WHAT R U LOOKING AT?" And he just stands there.Put a few rounds in him just to make him sturr, but he wont even budge. The only thing that made this game more challenging was the AI getting increasingly aggresive, not smarter. The entire game felt, op... here's that word again...GENERIC. Hallway after hallway ofcookie cut enemies popping up only to be mowed down shortly after.Rinse. Wash. Repeat. There was little variety in the gameplay, and this so called innovative ASE was a joke. Uninspiring to say the least.Even some of the worst shooters on other platforms can out perform the Conduit easily.

Multiplayer:

Good lord the multiplayer. I just gotta stay this, why the hell is the lock on system implemented into muliplayer? It (explitive) feels likeI'm playing (explitive)Metroid Prime! Anyone whohas played FPS's as much or more thanI have would laughed at this and fed the disc to their dog (feel free to call me a jerk for saying that. as it lacks logic, cause they could have returned or never bought it in the first place. which it what i did.). At leastthe lock on isnt a complete handicap where ud automatically shoot an enemy player, you still have to aim. But it just doesnt feel like I'm playing a REAL FPS. Match making is a pain in the rear. It could take up to 5 min to connect (note: dont you dare comment and blame this on internet connection. there's no excuse for this. my ps3 and 360 run perfectlyfine. the fault falls on either Nintendo, HVS, or both.), and other times it'll fail.The lobby is also a step backward. Other titles such as Halo and CODuse a veto system thatgive players the opportunity to experience all of the maps, and vote only the chosen map out, leaving them with the next choice. The voting system that the Conduit failsbecause most ofyou online sessions could be spent on one map (and im sure for the most of you, that map is Streets). Frame rate is a big issue and conflicts with these aiming controls.Its bad enough that these controls just arent that intuitive (yes, there. i said it. iwould much prefer dual analog, especially on 360 than pointer controls. juggling between COD 4 and the Conduit, COD boasts tighter and more reponsive controls. that "reality" that wii has better shooter controls hasnt been realized yet. even so, no shooter on wii comes close to any other console.), but the framerate interrupts the flow of combat. I cant really complain about the feature set in multiplayer becauseI expected it to be this BASIC.

So there you hav it. TheConduit is just not that great. I dont agree with gamespot's criticism, but this game is tailered to JUST the wii audience. Anyone who owns another console should just skipthis all together.

And here we are again. A few days ago, I wrote about how Suda plans on stopping the NMH franchise on Wii to move it to other platforms and linked that with Rockstar porting Chinatown Wars to the PSP. Now a new publisher brought up these decisions in their breifing. MMV, the Japanese publisher of Muramasa Demon Blade, Arc of Fantasia and tie ins with NMH and Little King Story (all of which show the companies strong support for the Wii) have discussed plans on releasing titles for the other two platforms this ficical year. They also considered porting over titles that have already been released for the Wii onto other platforms. Seeing that this was a financial breifing, this goes to show that again, another company is concerned with the Wii's less aggressive market for core titles and is seeking to focus their effort on either or both the 360 and the PS3. I need not to repeat myself, but this is becoming a pattern with publishers and developers moving away from the Wii. Nintendo, I hope you're paying attention, because it looks like your hardcore market is dying slowly.