Modern Warfare 2 answers the call...
Modern Warfare 2 keeps up the good visuals, despite what some people might think about the engine beginning to look old. The models are still wonderfully detailed and some of the locations are beautifully designed especially climbing the mountain at the beginning of Cliffhanger, seeing a war-torn Washington D.C with trenches everywhere and of course observing a Nuclear missile from the orbit of the Earth. The Call of Duty franchise has always been good at the Hollywood type visuals and they never get old to look at.
Another area Call of Duty has never had a problem with is the sound department from the wonderful array of voice acting they hire to the noises of battles both big and small. Just like with the look of the game, IW offer another Hollywood type experience and simply their are not many games that can compete with the level of sound quality that Call of Duty always delivers.
Call of Duty offers the typical gameplay that was seen in Modern Warfare apart from a few new gimmicks like the snowmobile chase and boat chase though both are brilliant. I was worried about the controller not being as responsive as a mouse/keyboard but it works really well and the quick aiming to help switch targets is a great addition. There is a great array of weapons and their all easy to use so new players won't be put off. To be honest there is not much more that can be done in the gameplay area and it comes down to level design and story to really push the game forward and both will be crucial to the future of the franchise.
The A.I is the probably the weakest area of the game but its far from average but could just be better. The enemy A.I is very smart and accurate providing a worthy challenge that sometimes will leave you fighting for your life. The problems arise within your own squad A.I due to there inability to provide decent cover and can be a little slow sometimes to shoot the enemy. I do think COD 4 had better squad A.I as I remember plenty of times when my team mates would save me from getting splattered by a guy who had his gun pointed at my head. Its not all bad as your squad are very good at verbal communication and telling you of dangers ahead that you may not spot at first.
I've always brought Call of Duty for the single player because on the PC, the online play has always been susceptible to hackers and I don't really like the perk system in COD 4 and WAW. However I have to admit my first experience of Call of Duty online on the 360 has been very enjoyable, much more than I expected despite still disliking some perks like Last Stand, Heli/Harriers and the Nuke is simply an awful idea. Also half the maps are too small in my opinion but you can still have alot of fun online and I look forward to many hours online. My biggest gripe with online is an issue with Killcam as on occasion I have been killed and Killcam shows something different to what I saw on my screen...for example killcam shows that I wasn't around a corner or fired late but before my death my screen disputes killcam, which can only be put down to lag via the IW.NET system despite the fact I have a green ping bar.
Apart from a few glitches online, MW 2 is a well polished game with very few bugs. Also despite another short single player that is not quite as good as COD 4 due to a messy/Implausible story, the single player especially in latter stages is great fun and should be played through. The addition of Spec Ops provides great co-op fun though I would of prefered a full co-op campaign like in World At War. If you love previous COD games or online FPS in general you should really own the game.
It may not get in my 9.0 club due to the series is starting to age a bit and offers alot of the same old stuff, its a must buy game that keeps the franchise going on past what some may consider its peak.