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Xbox 360 | Action | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Boxart for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Publisher: ACTIVISION
Developer: Infinity Ward
Release Date: 11/06/2007
Genre: Action
Number of Players:
ESRB Rating: R/P
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52 screen shots

GRAPHICS: 5.00
SOUND: 5.00
CONTROL: 5.00
FUN FACTOR 5.00
AVG USER SCORE 4.6
AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.9

Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

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Feature: Call of Duty 4 vs. Halo 3 (Page 3 of 7)

Feature by Travis Moses | 11/08/2007 | 13:26:43 PM PST

Graphics

Call of Duty 4: Two words: Intense atmosphere. CoD4 is more like playing a major motion picture than a videogame. Post-processing effects, high-res character models, and a living, breathing battlefield make CoD4 the leading graphical powerhouse on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Every object casts a shadow, "even the bullet casings" as Project Lead Jason West proudly pointed out in a recent demo. It's this sharp attention to detail that makes CoD4 the most realistic looking game to date.

"The Bog" will blow your mind.

The graphics are particularly spectacular during a mission called "The Bog," during which the player rampages through Middle-Eastern slums during the dead of night. Dazzling anti-aircraft fire streaks across the night sky, and the clouds glow orange from the fires below. The mission begins on a dangerous freeway. Flaming cars block the exits and MG42 gunners unload from the windows of the surrounding buildings. Above you, a brigade of friendly helicopters fly overhead, but one is hit with an RPG and spirals to its doom below the freeway -- all at a consistent 30 frames per second. CoD4 is so close to photorealism it would make any military recruit think twice about signing up.

Halo 3: What continues to impress in the Halo games is the size and scope of the outdoor environments. Since the release of Halo 3's multiplayer beta this past spring, critics slammed the graphics for looking like "Halo 2.5." This isn't entirely inaccurate: Halo 3's multiplayer matches are clean and crisp, but not a vast leap over Halo 2's.

The best HDR lighting we've seen to date.

Where Halo shines is, well, in its shine. Bungie's use of HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting gives the game a bright, almost blinding, sheen. But the visual effects came at a cost; due to the technical demands of HDR lighting, Bungie had to drop native 720p support to a slightly lower resolution of 640p. This sacrifice is a minor one, but owners of big-screen HDTVs may notice a more pixel-y look.

On the upside, thanks to the flatter geometry and lower resolution of Halo 3's single-player campaign, the Xbox 360 has processing power to spare and can handle a smooth frame rate, along with sizzling particle effects and high-res environment textures.

GRAPHICS WINNER

Call of Duty 4. It doesn't get anymore photorealistic than CoD4, unless you own an outrageously expensive gaming PC that can run Crysis at max settings.

Sound

Call of Duty 4: The CoD theme song may not be as recognizable as Halo's, but the drums of war are even more piercing. Like its attention to visual detail, CoD4's sound design is meticulous and immersive. Each individual sound effect is amplified by distance, caliber, and even atmosphere, and blistering 5.1 surround sound delivers every staccato gunshot and screaming RPG like a punch to the face.

Stun 'em and gun 'em.

The best part about the sound in CoD4, however, is the actual in-game dialogue between characters. Captain Price returns from both CoD 1 and 2 with his same 'ol badass demeanor. He bellows commands like "Hold," "Clear right," and "Move out," and you had better listen. Watching your fellow squad mates dynamically respond to these commands gives you a feeling of playing with real people.

Halo 3: For the third game in the series, Halo 3 composer Marty O'Donnell waited to score some of the most significant moments in the game until late in the development process. The result: a more grounded, tightly knit feeling to the music. Like its predecessors, Halo 3 uses its soundtrack to highlight the emotions of the cinematic scenes. In this way, Halo 3 is truly the Star Wars of video games, as much of the emotional heavy lifting is done through the orchestral soundtrack and less through the acting and script.

Kaboom!

The nuts and bolts are also impressive. With crisp 5.1 spatial effects and distinctive positional audio on weapons fire, Halo 3's sound effects tilt towards the pragmatic. They're not fancy or elaborate, but they're instantly recognizable. In essence, they work.