Call of Duty 4

After hearing all the buzz about Call of Duty 4, I decided to rent it for my PS3. After completing a few missions in the single-player campaign, all I have to say is that the game is worth the hype.

The first thing I love about this game is the health system. This system has become increasingly common amongst shooters, and even moving into other genres (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune uses this system, as well). The system I speak of is where there is no health bar, and no health pick-ups. You can only take a few hits before dying (depending on the difficulty setting), but you recover health by keeping out of the line of fire. So, it's somewhat like infinite health, as long as you're able to get behind cover and heal up. For an intense shooter like this, that kind of system is a must, and it works wonderfully. But I still found myself dying a lot.

The game controls well, it looks amazing, and the sound is fantastic. It can be difficult to make out what your allies are saying at times, but that's to be expected when grenades and other stuff are exploding all around you.

My one complaint so far have been the vehicle portions. One part had me manning three separate weapons on a helicopter to give air support for allies (who I had just been playing as on the ground) as they got to the landing zone for evac. I was forced to use infra-red vision, and the guys on the radio gave vague orders. They told me not to hit the church, but I couldn't tell which building was the church. It was rather disorienting. The latter part was me manning a grenade launcher on the side of a helicopter. That part was okay, but trying to accurately hit targets while flying around was a bit of a chore.

Otherwise, the game is great. It's fantastic. Probably the best PS3 game yet.