Metareview: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

War is good -- for games. Infinity Ward's latest, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, hits the shelves with resounding applause. It really will be a good quarter for publisher Activision. Call of Duty 4 drops all that feel-good WWII stuff and goes straight for the modern war quagmire resulting in an even more intense experience than the series is known for. Modern combat apparently brings out modern intensity.

• Game Daily (100/100): "Combat is visceral and unrivaled. You've never experienced anything more vicious and unforgiving. Rockets zip past your head, attack choppers shred nearby houses with gunfire, jets carpet bomb an area, tanks blast through walls and soldiers fall by the hundreds. The insanity, coupled with your character's inability to absorb as many hits as in other games (Halo 3, Bioshock), causes you to question your actions and rethink strategies. Bottom line, if this game represents even just a fraction of the hell actual soldiers deal with on a day-to-day basis, we have a newfound respect for the armed forces."

• IGN (94/100): "The single-player experience is easily Infinity Ward's best work to date. Calling it intense may be an understatement. The overall story is standard action movie fare, but the relationships built over the short five hours of play are surprisingly strong. Though the single-player lacks length, the multiplayer should keep you invested in COD4 for the long winter. This is a truly fantastic multiplayer offering that's as deep as any other online game available."

• GameTap (90/100): "COD4 grips the imagination and finds a way to impact the player's emotions. And though we've seen a ton of games on similar subject matter, COD4 distinguishes itself with a washed-out gritty look and profound attention to detail. That same level of detail carries over to the online campaigns, which are just as vast and in-depth as anything found in the single player missions. From beginning to end--especially the end--COD4 is an amazing immersive experience. All other first-person shooters coming out definitely have to step it up at this point, because the bar has been set high."