Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)

This game BORES me. There I said it.

Okay I can't leave that one sentence as my entire review so I guess I had better explain myself and why, despite all the rave reviews this game has received ever since it was released, I have come to the conclusion that it is boring.

Well I guess it comes down to the fact that with everything that was being said about this game and the huge amount of hype it was generating I was expecting the next best game...instead I found it to be generically mediocre at best.

The story which invloves the UK SAS team and the US Marines joining forces to stop some Russian madman and a bunch of middle eastern terrorists starting a nuclear holocaust, or some such crap that they slap on these kind of FPS games (does anybody actually care about these things in FPS's?) is highly generic with a high sense of 'been there, done that, seen this before'

"Well" I hear you say "It makes a change from killing Nazis" and I guess that is indeed true, it does make a change. That, however, does not make it better. Sure there are lots (and I do mean lots) of games out there where you play a soldier killing Nazis, but then the Nazis were a truly evil regime and you get a good sense of making the world a better place with every one you kill (even if they are entirely fictional digitized ones). The problem with having Middle Eastern people and Russians as the villains is that I don't know enough about these places or their people and regimes for me to care one way or the other. To tell the truth, the only thing I do know about the middle east is that the last Prime Minister of my country lead us to war based on the lies of President Bush... nice job there, so making them out to be this nation of evil despots who desperately need the UK and US to rush in and kill them all is a bit like saying all Germans in the 30's and 40's were Jew hating Nazis.

But what about the actual game? Well like the story the gameplay is also something I have seen before and seen done better. Like all FPS games it basically boils down to run through a level and kill things while collecting stuff on the way...and that is about it. Sure there is a few levels where you need to sneak and snipe and a surprisingly fun one that ends with you underneath a giant Ferris Wheel killing a seemingly never ending supply of villains while waiting for an airlift, but really the whole run and shoot phrase pretty much sums up the entire game.

As for the controls... Most of the time I found the controls to be sluggish and unresponsive with a strange desire to shoot the person to the left or right of the one I was actually aiming at. Of course none of this would be a problem if your so called team actually did their job and helped you. But, like all these kind of games, your team is populated by morons who do nothing but get in your way or attract the enemies attention to your presence which normally results in a quick death for you. Also the way you run by clicking in the left thumbstick is a bit cumbersome as it is hard to keep it pressed in and move the stick around, this makes it much more hardwork then it really should be.You see I always assumed games were meant to be fun to play, but this one feels more like a chore than an enjoyment.

Back on teams for a moment. When was it decided that FPS games need to be a team affair? I have always found the "single person against everyone else" style of gaming to be much more enjoyable as everyone on the screen was someone to kill which meant you could just run through blasting and to hell with anybody who got in your way. Now you have to stop and make sure the person in front of you is not a team member / friend which not only wastes time but can also lead to your untimely demise.

Graphics? Well I can't fault the game there. This is a truly beautiful game with well rendered graphics and a great sense of scope and realism that really uses the 360 to its full potential. Shame they couldn't have done the same with the gameplay

As for online... I hate online play, period.

Not only does listening to the whiny voices of other players get on my nerves seriously fast, but running around the same levels killing the same people gets old very very fast. I am sorry but leveling up your weapons by getting so many kills or headshots does not make me want to play it longer. Oh and why it is you can empty several clips into a person and they live yet they shoot you once and you die faster than Kelly Osbourne's music career? Talk about unfair...

That brings me to your character. I feel the game could have been a bit better if you had more control over your characters appearance. Other than choosing what weapons you would like to start with your character is a generic one based on whatever side the computer decides to put you on. Online-wise Rainbow Six: Vegas is no better than COD4 but at least you can fully customize the look of your character which gives him (or her) a unique personality and not just another faceless soldier in a vast crowd of faceless soldiers.

So really I feel that I could not in good conscience recommend this game to anybody

2 out of 10