Articles: Online Games

War rages on in the fourth edition of Activision's acclaimed war game. For the first time in the series, Call of Duty moves away from WWII to the modern battlefield.
The game takes place five years after the original Modern Warfare game. Throughout the game, you play as five different characters in different areas of the world. In one scene you are in Siberia racing from your enemy on a snowmobile. In the next you are chasing an enemy across roof tops in Rio de Janeiro. This caused some initial confusion for me and may those new to the COD series. Still, the game pieces fit together flawlessly to advance the story.Modern Warfare on the Wii is a faithful port, in that very little has been left out. Every level, character, gun and multiplayer mode remains intact. The music and voice acting are lifted directly from the original, and thus excellent, although the sound effects are noticeably toned down, to the detriment of the game's tone.

Yet while the core of the Modern Warfare experience is still evident, this Wii version is at times a far cry from the visceral thrill-fest the original game's 15-million-plus players are used to. For starters, the game is, to be blunt, ugly. Screenshots don't quite do it justice – the difference between this and the original version is comparable to Charlize Theron's transformation for Monster.

This rather severe makeover has an adverse effect on the gameplay as well. Enemies are often difficult to discern within their environment, and on some missions it's far too easy to get friends and foes confused, and the awful lighting and particle effects ruin the immersion. As a general rule the warfare you wage feels decidedly less modern on Wii.