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‘Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ Turns 10 Today And It’s Still The Best

‘Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ Turns 10 Today And It’s Still The Best

It was praised across the spectrum for being one of the best first person shooters, and yet it's still brilliant to this day...

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

There have a whopping 15 Call of Duty main games released with several more produced for different consoles or handheld devices.

They've covered past wars, present battles and hypothesised how armies will fight in the future and there have been hundreds of millions of copies sold since the first COD was unveiled to the public in 2003.

But there is one version that stands out from the rest: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

via GIPHY

Don't get me wrong, the titles before it were revolutionary and incredible, but Modern Warfare was the first game in the series to be set in modern times (duh that's where the name comes from).

The previous three titles were placed in the First or Second World War, but the fourth instalment featured weapons and firearms that made the gameplay more enthralling.

More than 100 people took two years produce the masterpiece that is Modern Warfare, but they wanted to avoid referencing wars that were either recent or ongoing in the 2000s and therefore the campaign mode was light on the details about the opposing sides.

The development team spoke to Marines to get a feel for what it's really like to be in a modern warzone, and they attended a live-fire exercise in the Californian desert to better simulate the sights and sounds associated with a tank.

via GIPHY

When it was finally released, on this day 10 years ago, it received praise from virtually every corner of the gaming world. Metacritic gave it 94/100 for Xbox360 and PlayStation 3, GamePro, GameSpy and X-Play gave it five stars and it got 10/10 from Game Informer and OXM.

The Official Xbox Magazine wrote: "Simply put, Call of Duty 4 does everything right and nearly nothing wrong. But where it elevates itself above even the best 360 shooters is how all of the good stuff is ludicrously good. The campaign never lets up, while multiplayer is a triple-A affair in itself."

Modern Warfare also got a bevy of awards from video game sites and publications including Best Action Game, Best Shooter, Best Military Game and Game of the Year.

via GIPHY

One of the things that elevated this game above its predecessors was the 'Killstreak' function, which gave players some epic rewards for continual kills without dying. When you were on a particularly good rampage you could call in an airstrike, an attack helicopter or find out where your enemies were hiding on the map.

Having customizable weapons was also a massive bonus, and while following games expanded on the options, it was a breath of fresh air in Call of Duty 4 to have some ownership over what you were carrying.

Sure, the game wasn't 100 percent perfect for some people - but it was definitely a game changer. Ten years since it was released, it still stands out as one of the best video games ever.

Sources: Official Xbox Magazine

Featured Image Credit: Activision

Topics: video games, GAMING, Awesome, Call of Duty, Technology