When it comes to military first person shooters no one does it as well as Infinity Ward and Call of Duty 4 is an excellent example.  All prior Call of Duty games have taken place during World War II but this time the stage chosen is current day taking place in the Middle East and Russia.  This iteration of the game takes the best parts of the previous installments and gives them a modern story that hit a little too close to home.

Call of Duty is known for their epic battles that require you to keep moving forward and find the best way to flank your enemy.  In COD4 you will often find your self on the wrong side of an uneven fight.  There are a variety of mission types in COD4 but the majority of the game you play as part of a small SAS British special forces group.  On these missions you will infiltrate behind enemy lines and have specific goals you need to accomplish and then get the heck out.  The other part of the game you play as a Marine invading a Middle East country that has just overthrown their president.  On these missions you will work with a large group of soldiers working to hunt down the leader of the revolution.  These missions are absolutely amazing with the fast paced action. 

What will really grab you about Call of Duty 4 is it's incredible graphics and it's excellent story telling.  The game looks absolutely amazing and is probably the best looking Xbox 360 game to date.  That is what you notice right away but what will have you floored is the story behind this game and how well they use in game cut scenes to make you truly feel what is happening around you.  There are three terrific moments in this game that you have never seen done in a game before.  The ending of the game is extremely gripping and caught me off guard.

If there is any complaint about this game it has to be about the length and difficulty settings.  I chose to follow the advice you some reviews and play the game on Regular difficult and then replay the game on the harder difficulties to challenge yourself.  Well, I think I picked this game up on Monday and beat it on Regular in three nights time.  I'm guessing I spent maybe 8 hours playing the game.  The issue that really comes up is the difficulty of the game ramps up on very much on the two higher difficulty settings.  I'm now playing the game on it's most difficult setting just to get a feel for how much it is different.  This game has some classic brick wall moments that may take away from the game if you play at a higher difficulty than you can handle.  There are a couple such moments that aren't impossible but just may feel that way.  I played the majority of Call of Duty 2 on it's hardest setting and some of those brick wall moments lasted hours.  They can be solved but it's up to you if you want to face them down.

So in closing I really feel this is the best military first person shooter I've probably ever played.  It is an amazing journey on one crazy ride that will bring you as close to real combat as you ever will want to get.  You will see scenes in this game that will utterly amaze you and grip you like no other game has done before.  I highly recommend this game that is available PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3.  You will be blown away by the grittiness of this title and the story it tells.