I’ve been playing COD4 for a while and it’s been a typical COD experience.

So rather than lavishing it with praise, there are some things that do encourage me to cock the proverbial eyebrow:

• The enemy. Okay, I understand they’re a fanatical mob of misfits that come from that place in the mysterious East (but somehow in the Middle as well). They may not have the same training and precision that is enjoyed in more organised military outfits, but they’ve got the numbers to throw at whatever Coalition of the month happens to be in season, and for every man that falls another fanatic will take his place. I don’t know if the developers decided to demonstrate the enemy’s willingness to die for their cause by having the enemy stand still on open ground in the heat of battle, casually taking aim and firing pot shots in my direction, but it’s a bit offputting. Does make for an easy battle, though.
• The cover system, or lack thereof. Ever since Rainbow Six: Vegas and Gears of War I loved the fact that I no longer had to rely on walls to throw a grenade into a room. Now I’m back to using the lean keys to move all of 10cm in an attempt to try and get a handful of shrapnel in there.
• Recycling of sounds. I never realised that the word for "grenade" sounded the same in Arabic and Russian as it does in German.
• The feel of the weapons. When I fire the M16, it feels suspiciously like a Thompson. When I fire the M16 SOPCOM, it feels suspiciously like a silenced Sten. The M60? Shoots like a BAR. I suppose you are meant to understand that guns do evolve and have the same basic principles, and a gun is a gun is a gun. They just shoot and sound a lot like the guns in COD2.

But the presentation, the cinematogaphy and the all-round spit and polish of the game is top notch. Makes me wonder what it looks like with all the eye candy turned on.