By Jason Van Horn

For a year when E3 came without the bells and whistles and bustling booth babes, it was nice to see that there was a bit of spectacle still involved, though all the action and wonder of it all came from the rightful source - the games. One such game was Call of Duty 4, which just wants to blow your mind with how freaking good it looks and plays! If there was one game that had the longest waits to play, it was most certainly Call of Duty 4, and for good reason too.

Infinity Ward took a break from Call of Duty after the second installment and let someone else focus on numero three, though it remained just as consistent and amazing as the first two games in the series. With Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward setout to change things up, not wanting to go back to the well that is World War II and deliver yet another Nazi killing first person shooter experience (no matter how intense and fast the action may have moved). With Call of Duty 4, the war has been brought to current times, with very real and current military equipment, moves, and scenery dominating the gameplay. Taking place in a Middle Eastern like environment, the preview level of Call of Duty 4 saw soldiers running through city streets and buildings come nightfall, as bullets were sometimes seemingly the only light flashing from a muzzle, and it could be difficult making heads or tails if that was your squad or an enemy up ahead. The game was just as action packed as it has always been, featuring furious gun fights and balls to the wall Michael Bay-esque action set pieces, as if Infinity Ward had never taken a break between games.

People were already dumfounded by how good Call of Duty 4 was looking, but then came the piece de resistance, which solidified the game as one of the best of the show. Pushing into a building come nightfall, the whole place is dark, so the soldiers have to revert to night vision goggles to see where they are going or where enemies could be waiting in ambush. When in night vision, the game takes on a light green hue like you've seen with night vision before, but then the game has to bust out the laser sightings, and suddenly it's one of the most spectacular shows ever seen in a game. Imagine tons of your soldiers, bursting into a room, their laser sights pointing in every direction, looking for the next enemy, and through it all your night vision is picking up their lasers perfectly, so now you've got these brilliant bars of light shining in every direction, and there wasn't a hint of slowdown to be seen either.

A second level shown off went for the more scripted route, as you find yourself in a tanker going down, and you've got to run for your life to escape before the whole boat sinks. As you rush from one corridor to the next, the whole level is tilting, and debris and people are tumbling in the direction of the lean as they can't keep pace and hold on. You finally reach the top, only to jump, miss your helicopter, and slowly start to slide off the landing platform; luckily for you, however, a few hands grab you to save you from death. It's going to be hard for someone not to play this game and have their heart racing.

Though the multiplayer wasn't shown off, trust us that it is there, and sounds pretty cool. For starters, you won't be given every single piece of the multiplayer to begin with, as you need to go up the military ranks in order to unlock them, making it so noob players won't be playing against the higher, more experienced players, and so that everyone will have a good time by being setup with their proper opponents, making it so the matches will be more leveled and closer too. You'll also be going into online battles with your own customized weapon, which you can tweak to fill your needs, such as attaching various sights, silencers, or even a shotgun on to something else. The gun customization is a unique feature, and one that should have players everywhere trying out new sets and combos, trying to figure out what the ultimate fragging weapon is. Of course skill will have to come into play too, but just imagine all the amazing weapons one could make in this game.

To date, the Call of Duty games have yet to have a dud in their midst, and Call of Duty 4 certainly doesn't seem to be the first to break that line of excellence when it comes to gaming. If anything the past games were a simple handgun, and Call of Duty 4 is a massive RPG staring you right in the face. If this game doesn't get your blood pumping, nothing will.