Call of Duty 4 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, the true sequel to the popular Call of Duty 2 (COD3 was developed by some other team and therefore sucked major balls), takes you out of the trenches of World War 2 (or as me and my war buddies call it, dubya, dubya 2) and places players in the shit of modern war. Although this is a typical first person shooter, the quality of both the single player and online make this not only the best Call of Duty, but one of the best console shooters ever and possibly the game of the year.

Like the previous games, you play as multiple characters that are all fighting the same "war". I say "war" because unlike previous games, this doesn’t have history to use to set the stages, all of the battles and skirmishes are fiction. That doesn’t mean that it feels entirely fiction, as most of the story seems feasible and appropriate in today’s political climate. The plot, which involves those damn terrorists stealing a WMD and hostages and all that good stuff, is very tight and takes place from the perspective of American and English special forces. Although it is a bit short (six hours or so), the fact that it is so tightly paced features such good characters makes it not only fun, but as intense as any episode of 24 or Michael Bay.

The combat in COD4 is typical of other shooters and the COD franchise in general. Basically, no matter how many computer aided squad mates, it comes down to you versus an entire army of no good, dirty bastards. By the end of the game, you will easily have killed enough people to populate the state of New York, and have soaked up enough bullets to take down 50 Cent ten times over. The missions are fairly linear, but allow some improvisation with multiple objectives that need to be taken out. Although everything works well, the game could benefit from a cover system, or at least the ability to lean around corners as both allies and enemies can do this and use this greatly to their advantage.

The multiplayer game is by far one of the deepest online experiences of any first person shooter on the market. Unlike Halo or other current console shooters, COD4 offers not only the typical play modes like deathmatch and capture the flag, but also an almost RPG like system that lets you level up, receiving new weapons, add ons, abilities and classes. Although Halo lets you level up, it never really rewards you with new weapons or abilities, only small aesthetic pieces that don’t really add much to the experience. COD4 shows what happens when developers think outside the box, and what all new online shooters will have to strive to be.

All in all COD4 is an no brainer. Couple an intense single player campaign with the best current online shoot available, and you have a package that you won’t be able to put down for months.