Get some! EH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EH. Get some!

To say I've always been a fan of first person shooters would be like saying Hitler was always trying to start a bar brawl with the Jews. So it was this Christmas past that I asked my mate Scott what he'd like as a present, suggesting maybe a 360 game to make up for my lack of gifts on other occasions. Call of Duty 4 was mentioned, and lo I felt a bit miffed as I purchased it; not because I begrudged him it, but because I had no Xbox 360 myself at that point and had heard said game was indeed "the shit".

I had a chance to play it when I visited home in February 2008 and popped through to Glasgow to see Scott. We fired up CoD4 on his shiny hew HD LCD TV and about half an hour later I was making my excuses. Hours later it was the early morning and I was on my way back to Liverpool at speed. My girlfriend Kate was on her way over to meet me. "We need to go to Tesco Home Plus. No time to explain. Just get here quick". As it happens I ended up buying my console in ASDA, but that's nother story.

To cut a long story short, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is indeed "the shit". The kind of "shit" that's worth buying a console just to play that game. Actually, that's only really true if you happen to have an Xbox Live (or PSN if you own one of those silly Sony things) account, but more on that later. As a single player experience, Cod4 is as near to perfection as the military FPS has so far come. It's gameplay strikes a fine balance between large scale open battles and claustrophobic CQB, both offering different tactical opportunities as well as hazards. You can carry two weapons; one primary and one secondary (read "pistol"), as well as having a selection of grenades at your disposal, and in this respect it sounds awfully like a real-world version of Halo. Fear not, intrepid infantryman. Any doubts over the limited nature of armaments are dispelled by the variety of weaponry dropped and made available by deceased enemy combatants.

Variety is also afforded by the swiching between missions of your character from U.S. Marine to British S.A.S., each offering differing scenarios and weapons as their stories play out in parallel, albeit in very different theatres of war. As Private Paul Jackson of the Marines you will find yourself battling through the dusty heat of an unnamed Middle Eastern country on the hunt for a renegade warlord who just pulled off a military coup, whilst hardened Brit "Soap" McTavish of the S.A.S. battles through former Soviet states in a bid to gather intel and prevent a rogue nuclear launch. It may sound like stock stuff, but the plot plays out like something from one of the better Tom Clancy books and is both written and acted by a talented voice cast to a much higher standard than the genre usually musters.

To explain the mechanics of play would seem pointless, as the seamless whole is far greater in real terms than the sum of it's parts, suffice to say it's the best single player FPS I've encountered bar one small gripe. It's far too short. Experienced players playing on standad difficulty could hammer through the story mode in, or possibly under, six hours. While replay value is far above your average genre entry thanks to the intense nature of the combat and a number of brilliant setpieces, it's still a bit much to expect a non-networked soul to pay, and in lieu of a Live account I would recommend you wait for a release on the Classics label. For those of us equipped with online play capabilities, however, the story is very different.

Online, CoD4 transcends from mere software to something else entirely. Call of Duty 4 has become a way of life. If you can afford to I'd recommend taking a year off work, as five months into ownership my play time has diminished only in relation to a current lack of free time. Were it not for my work bandying me around the country at this present time you'd easily be looking at a level six Prestige ranking and someone whose eyes resemble a cross section of red onion. As it is thi game absorbs all my free time, day and night, and a lot of time that shouldn't be free but would only otherwise be reserved for such menial tasks as sleeping and maintaining a sanitised living environment. I'm aware that I'm not exactly divulging much of the nature of play in this "review", but if you haven't already played Cod4 online then you're most probably beyond help. I should like to ramble on some more, but it'd only be eating into my play time.

Buy this now or I'll break your legs.