Few games of the last decade can claim to be as innovative as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which took the moderately successful franchise and transformed into into an annual commercial juggernaut that has yet to be matched by any of its competitors. The single-player campaign may only have lasted around 6 hours (and the relevance of a campaign in the series has only decreased over the years), but it was ground-breakingly cinematic and memorable for unexpectedly switching perspectives and having players take control during awesome cinematic moments. But still, it's all about the multiplayer, and Modern Warfare served up an online experience unlike anything we'd played at the time. Borrowing the progression system from the RPG genre, players would "level up" as they killed more players, unlocking upgrades as they headed to "Prestige Mode", all while special perks could be used to give yourself an advantage in a time of strife. Sure, we take all this for granted a whole 7 years later, but without Modern Warfare, the gaming landscape would be very different: progression wouldn't be such a big deal, and less promisingly, not as many games would have online multiplayer thrown in for the sake of it.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
