14 DAY TRIAL // 
How many more WWII franchises can you stand? This year we had a flood of such games, spanning from RTS to the FPS genre. Still, the real question is: can any of these come close to ?Call of Duty?, because this is an amazing game. If you thought there were no more wars to start against ?Zee Germans?, Call of Duty comes to the rescue.
Story: Do we really need a story? Well, everything can be resumed to: this is a real war, you are small and insignificant and most probably are going to die. It really makes you wonder how could have someone survive such a conflict.
You simply play four different men in three different campaigns: the Russians, the British and the Americans. You fight to achieve small objectives with the help of your comrades; you?re not saving the world by defeating the entire German war machine by yourself.
Gameplay: For gamers who crave for some reality check, this is the one you want. It?s war. Everybody it?s dying around you, even you sometimes.
The game doesn?t have a quicksave / quickload system anymore. It has been replaced with a checkpoint system which works extremely well; if you happen to die you will probably return o a close position.
Another interesting (and bothering at some extent) aspect is the lack of med kits or similar items. Moreover, you don?t even have a life gauge. Whenever you reach a critical state all you have to do is just stay put for a few moments, stop screaming and everything is going to be okay. Just like that. Maybe this is not the most realistic approach, but it?s the most effective. It leaves the player the liberty to simply have fun without having to worry too much about his (virtual) health level.
There is also a small on-screen warning for grenade proximity. Whenever one is too close to you, a small icon appears on the screen. If you don?t move away quickly enough, you will see a message of great wisdom which says, more or less: ?You have been killed by a grenade. If you are too stupid to run from a grenade please click to continue?. I didn?t like this message every time I got killed by a grenade. I liked the war quotes better.
There is little blood and no dismemberment. Enemies die fairly quickly and now they have some AI. Even if the Call of Duty series is known to use lots of scripting, the enemy is no longer depending entirely of it. They will use cover, will not come out if they are fired upon and run if you throw presents at them, ? I mean grenades.
All in all, it?s a game with non-stop action. You never ever stay put, being always on the move. It?s probably one of the most alert titles I have ever played.
Graphics: Obviously, this is no longer a Quake 3 Arena engine. Instead, they came up a new one, built from the grounds up, the kind of engine that will probably be used in a couple of other ?Call of Duty? games.
There will be some people complaining it?s not as good looking as a Crytek or Doom 3 engine, but in fact it?s better that all of them. This monster is capable of delivering a huge number of effects and enemies.
Why am I saying this is one of the best engines I have ever seen? Well, you have to keep in mind they are rendering a lot of events and enemies at the same time and still manage to make them look great.
Almost everything you could want in term of technology is there: specular maps, normal maps, anisotropy, antialising and even ?SLI Compatibility? for those happy owners of NVidia hardware with such capabilities.
It runs pretty smooth on medium systems if you?re not setting every option at maximum level. It even has a ?force DirectX 7? compatibility mode for those who still have a GeForce 4 MX video card. Yes, we know you are out there, don?t be ashamed.
However, when running on highest quality settings, it?s a resource hog. You will need at least a 2500+ processor, 1 GB of RAM and a minimum of 6800GT in terms of graphic power. It?s still an OpenGL engine, so you may experience some refresh rate issues, which can be easily fixed by several utilities.
Audio: The audio is awesome. Planes are flying and fighting above your head; there are mortar shells, machine guns, screams and bullets all over the place. Once more, ?Call of Duty? lives up to its standards. And please use a 5.1 system, you?ll get your money?s worth.
Multiplayer: All the multiplayer modes are back from the old versions, but from what I?ve played online, they are too similar to Counter-Strike. Not because of the gameplay, it?s the players? fault. You see them jumping around all the time, sniping and stabbing you in the back. What I think it lacks the most is a cooperative mode. It would have been great.
General impression: It?s impeccable. It?s exactly what I expected and this is something that most games nowadays cannot achieve. If you liked the previous titles in the series, you?ll love this one. If you hate WWII games, give it a try, you may like it. This is one of the few series out there that actually gets better with every new version. It?s the ultimate war experience. You?ll forget every other WWII game!
Story: 8 Gameplay: 10 Video: 9 Sound: 10 Multiplayer: 9 General impression: 9 Softpedia Mark: 9
