I got a new video card, an 8800GT based XFX card overclocked to 670mhz. It's a pretty great card, especially for the money, and it runs COD4 like crazy. Even with pretty high detail, it seems to be able to sustain 60+ FPS easily, usually more like 90.
That's also really what makes COD4 impressive in my eyes. I've been playing Crysis as well, and my machine struggles with it. COD4 is not the graphical masterpiece Crysis is, nor is it nearly as open ended, but it's still very nice graphically, and it plays FAST. The COD4 engine might be a step or two behind Crysis in terms of features, but it seems a step or two ahead in terms of efficiency.
The single player game in COD4 is solid. The story is surprisingly depressing and casualty laden, but there are some pretty good moments. Flying as a gunner in a Specter gunship looked just like all the YouTube videos of gun camera footage, I was totally blown away how well the engine rendered it, and made it feel like the real thing looks. The missions in Chernobyl were impressively atmospheric, and show how S.T.A.L.K.E.R should have looked, but didn't.
In general the missions are challenging, but not too hard, a bit cartoonish on the volume of killing going on, but effective overall. There're enough different features worked in, from wounded enemies limping, or falling and pulling their pistol, that there will definitely be moments that seem very cinematic, which I think has been a goal of the COD series all along.
Given the briefness of the single player campaign, and the obvious efforts put into the multiplayer, I tend to think this was their ultimate focus for the game. And multiplayer is tough for me to rate.
On one hand, there's a very rich set of options there. As you play you gain rank and experience and unlock new weapons, weapon upgrades, and personal upgrades called “perks.” Tons of different weapon models and skins are on display, all nicely done. There are a bunch of different mission types, the usual team deathmatch, plant and defuse bombs, hold map positions, etc. etc. There are different realism levels from “hardcore” where you have only iron sights to aim with, and single shots usually kill you, to a more cartoonish version where leaping around spraying with SMGs works far, far too well.
On the other hand, I find it to be totally frustrating to play, and in the end, very unrewarding. At some point I may have to accept that I'm getting too old and slow, or something along those lines, but I tended to just get beat up in this game. I just don't find any of the modes particularly fun. They're either too hectic and pointless, or too drawn out and slow. I guess I've never really been a twitch player, I've always gotten by on maneuvering and situational awareness, not on being fast with the mouse. I was able to use that skillset to dominate the Battlefield games, but in COD4, I'm a perpetual victim.
In the hectic game modes, COD4 seems to have some sort of rolling spawn system so that you're generally spawning surrounded by friendlies. This is nice, in that you rarely get spawn camped, but ultimately I don't think it works, since it means that the enemy can be coming from anywhere, and you can never really flank them. I've never been shot in the back so many times as I was in this game, and it's really not a case of making mistakes, the enemy simply is appearing behind you. I applaud the developers for trying to find a way to get rid of spawn camping, but if the cost is a game with no tactical logic to it, no meaning to maneuvering, it's a cost not worth paying.
All in all, I found the multiplayer to just be totally wrong in some way I have to ultimately blame on myself. I'm not arrogant or liberal enough to pretend the whole world is wrong except for me, but this game sure did feel that way. I certainly missed my fair share of shots, and cursed my clumsy aim, but a LOT more often than that, I found myself wonder what in holy hell I could do better to get myself the kill.
Ultimately the multiplayer component of this game is like Counterstrike++. It's got even more potential for greatness, and yet it's even EVEN more infuriatingly inexplicable. It's an endless parade of getting the jump on a guy, laying into him, and having him somehow turn around and kill you. It's a constant festival of grenades being thrown blind and smoking you. The game includes a killcam to show you what the other guy saw as he took you out, and I was endlessly amazed by how little they were doing, how poor their aim was, how often they were just guessing with their grenades, and yet beating me out pretty consistently.
On a few servers I also got the strong impression that people were cheating. Their killcam footage showed ultra-precise aiming, even while hopping, and never making any use of the weapon's sights, which the game generally requires for accurate aim. COD4 uses Punkbuster for cheat prevention, which appears to be an industry standard, but given that I had to jump through hoops to get it installed, and I've had trouble with it in the past, I tend to think it's a piece of crap that doesn't work.
The multiplayer maps are a mixed bag. Some are pretty good, some are utterly terrible. All are a bit too small, and artificially boxed in. By and large, I'd consider the map design in multiplayer to be a definite weak spot.
All in all, COD4 is a very nice engine with a lot of nice content. The multiplayer experience so totally soured me to the game that I find it hard to be as positive as I should for this review, because the game is very good at its core.