I have played COD2, finished it and immediately wanted to play more. It was the first game - even with MOHAA out there - that made you feel like you were doing something actually GOOD. Even if the game was a non-stop series of killings - which is what all FPS's are, games about death - the player woul feel righteous, he/she was after all fighting on the RIGHT side.
With COD4 the "heroic" element is wipped out by the sheer brutality of the action and the unbelievably blatand and provocative propaganda against "the omnipresent, diabolical terrorists", who want to destroy our way of life (Would that be the AMERICAN way of life??). COD4 in single player mode looks like something that Gebells could have written in 1936, just substitute theOpFOr with the Jews... I was seriously contemplating the idea, that Cheney had something to do with the script work or someone from the ultra-fanatic Neocons.

Multiplayer in COD4 is a tottally diferrent issue. I trully believe that the game should be issued to bootcamps and be played by marines or soldiers as part of their training. It's the closest thing I've seen to a combat simulator - and I don't want to hear anything about Operation Flashpoint... The game's break-neck pace depicts the panic and anxiety of the troops on a battlefield with almost docu-like accuracy. (Not counting players that use aimbots, if the server you're playing has a decent ping, playing COD4 multiplayer one will experience what I think it was like beeing n Iraq during the invasion in 2003). The first time I played at a friend's house the block almost had a heart attack from the ferocity and pace of the game - and he used to play UT3!!

To summ it up - this is a huge comment I know, bear with me for a little longer - COD4 is the ultimate multiplayer game and the true heir to CS, because it makes you come back for more, always one more knifing, one more headshot.... It's single player scenario on the other hand is ,to say the least, dangerous and alarming for what the future brings in a world run by fanatics - on both sides.

PS: The death of the main character is rightfully a jaw-dropping moment in gaming history.

It was a solid FPS with some pretty cool scripted events, very good graphics, amazing animation, good gameplay (with exception of dated never-ending enemy spawn points). The multiplayer was very good with an even better leveling system. I think that's why there's so much love for it (at least multiplayer wise). The graphics were great, but I think the dated gameplay was too overlooked (as far as the aforementioned spawn points). Game of the year though, I don't know. I don't think its not deserving of its praise though.

I will never understand the mass love of CoD. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine game, but it's nothing groundbreaking. There are stories to be told in this medium, and as long as we keep squeling for sequels, we'll get the same ol' stuff we've been getting for years now...

If I'm honest, I don't think CoD4 should have got as many awards as it did. Hmm. No question about things such as Fallout 3 for most wanted? LittleBigPlanet didn't excite anyone?

Bejeweled 2 as mobile game of the year?! Did no-one play Peggle?! Jimmy Lightening will have a stroke!

Wicked-sick.