very good at what it does but needs to innovate to progress
The single player game puts you in a very familiar setting - you agianst pretty much everyone else in a corridor populated by identi-kit terrorists in an envirorment that would have looked amazing in a game 3 years ago.
The multiplayer has a few twists on ideas played on in previous games, but hasn't got the WOW! factor of the original, or even the 'hey this is different' factor of the currency system in black ops.
Why then do I give this game such a high score when i have so many criticisms?
The combination of amazing set-pieces with just the right amount of interactivity and good, varied level design, combined with the familiarity of an online system that's worked for so many years, amalgamates into a game that's more than just the sum of it's parts.
This is why Modern Warfare is so popular, but it must progress both in terms of graphical polish and style in order to keep it's crown in the FPS pantheon.