I’ve been playing through Modern Warfare 2 since it’s release on November 10th 2009, finding that it does a grand job of distracting me from my studies- myself and every other Xbox-fiend student across the land. In fact, it would be more accurate to say across the world, for it had a simultaneous release in both NTSC and PAL regions, with the sales to back it up. According to Activision, MW2 sold 4.7 million units in the UK and States in the first 24 hours of release. The total revenue gained from that $310 million- the biggest entertainment launch in history. Most impressively, as of January 18th 2010, the game had taken over $1 Billion in sales. The behemoth that is Call of Duty is now alongside film franchises such as Titanic ($1.8bn), LOTR: The Return of the King (1.12bn), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07bn) (all figures courtesy of BBC News). Its lagging someway behind the colossal revenue of Avatar, at a whopping $2.6bn, the highest grossing entertainment product of all time, but its hard to ignore the simple fact that the once belittled past time of the youth is now a fully fledged money spinner for the big cats in the suits.

At 40 quid a pop, its not a purchase to be taken lightly (for most of us) and so the feat of selling so many units must go some way to attesting the quality of the game- its certainly got a lot of fans. Suffice to say, I am one of them. Having played the COD franchise since its conception on the PC, I’m a big fan, although this instalment isn’t without its faults. Chief among them has to be the short single player story- even on the harder difficulty settings you can whizz through it in a few hours. MW2 also uses the same respawn mechanics as it’s predecessors- you know EXACTLY where the enemy is going to be. Infinity Ward is yet to take a leaf out of its main rival Bungie’s book (Developers of the Halo series) where the enemy A.I has a great emphasis on self preservation- I swear those terrorists you fight here have a death wish... Nonetheless, this isn’t to say that the campaign isn’t any less enjoyable; there are some moments that really throw you, even on your second stomp through on single player.

Speaking of these moments, many them have been well documented in the news as Modern Warfare 2 sparked much controversy- The massacre in the Russian Airport and the Easter Egg (involving the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the American Military) to name but a few. The game kicked up such a big storm it was even discussed in the House of Commons (although kicked out swiftly, and the accuser belittled for collaborating with the Daily Mail to whip up ill-founded support for his archaic campaign. It is, after all, just a game.)

Where MW2 does shine is with the execution of it's multiplayer. No questions need asking, it is by and large an identical affair to its predecessors. Unparalleled in depth and remaining balanced, players aren’t able to rain down drone attacks continuously. The classes one can play has also been updated, the pre-loaded ones available are actually pretty effective. Regardless, I feel it pointless to delve deeper into the multiplayer of MW2, as the series has reached a plateau where by proxy it is solid. My personal favourite new inclusion of MW2 has to be the “special ops” missions, which can be played either solo or co-operatively. Easily the feature with the most replay value, players complete what is essentially a series of mini-missions. Be warned, they can be quite addictive, the temptation to better one’s time is quite compelling, as I am confident many failed students will attest to after this semester ends.

Modern Warfare 2 is without a doubt the must have game of last year. If you own a console, buy it- you won’t be disappointed. It isn’t quite the revolution fans may have hoped for, nor should it be the de facto template for all other First Person Shooters that follow (well, emulating it’s multiplayer framework couldn’t go amiss), but it does what it says on the tin, and it does it well. The herd of sheep that play it religiously are not wrong. However, you’ve been warned- pick up a copy and be prepared to re-take this year.