Warfare Goes Modern
-George Chin

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the eighth installment in this first-person shooter franchise developed by Infinity Ward. The game will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DS and the Windows PC on November 5, 2007 and it’s the first Call of Duty game to receive the Mature “M” rating by the ESRB.

As the title suggests, Call of Duty 4 will not take place in WWII like its predecessors. Instead, this game will take place in modern-day settings. This game will feature a new campaign style, taking away the familiar three country storyline plots that were featured in the previous Call of Duty games. The series now takes on a more film-style plot with storylines focusing on the player as a member of the U.S. 1st Force Recon and the British 22nd SAS Regiment.

With the game taking place in a modern setting, new weapons and technology are introduced into the game, such as the FGM-148 anti-tank missile, MP5SD submachine gun and IR laser pointers. The game also has many other new features. In a recent interview on Gamespot, Vince Zampella, the studio head at Infinity Ward, revealed the class customization mode. This will allow players to customize their character’s equipment such as the weapons they can use during the course of the game. New weapons and equipment can be unlocked as the game progresses.

The online multiplayer game will feature 5 preset classes with selected weapons and will also allow players to create their own custom classes after achieving a certain level and gaining enough experience points from online play. There will be 8 different multiplayer modes, including the ever popular Capture the Flag mode and Domination, where the team with the most flags wins the match. Modern Warfare’s new innovative multiplayer features are sure to appeal to die-hard shooter fans and give Halo 3 a run for its money.