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THIS REPORT IS LATE SOLDIER
THE ARMY DOES NOT TOLERATE HAPHAZARD WORK
SLOTHFULNESS CAN GET YOUR [[garbled]] PLATOON KILLED
HEAD DUTY FOR THREE WEEKS SON STARTING NOW
DEPLOYMENT IS NOT A [[garbled]] OPTION
[[suggest: I WILL]] TELL YOU WHEN YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DEPLOY
[[continue line]] AND THIS TIME BE [[garbled]] READY TO GO
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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Like Halo: Combat Evolved, I dare say that Modern Warfare changed the face of combat shooters that are played in the first-person perspective. The default controls of Modern Warfare have been ported to plenty of other shooters, securing its niche as one of the definitive games of this generation...so far.
With Modern Warfare 2 on the horizon, will its predecessor hold its place as one of the most popular online games played today? We don't know, but the recent flood of Modern Warfare 2 information has inspired your resident gun nut to return to the original; quite literally the first current-gen game that landed at the McLaughlin home.
Killstreaks are an event that occur several times in an online match, sometimes devastating and sometimes impotent. Getting three kills in a row without dying will grant you a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) scan, which shows the location of each enemy on your radar (provided that they do not have a jamming perk equipped). Five kills in a row is good for a one-time airstrike, and seven kills will get you an attack chopper that buzzes around the map for 30 seconds, mowing down anyone in the open.
Early on, I learned that the most effective way to perform an airstrike that will be worthwhile is to wait until a UAV is active. Sure, you can "call in" a UAV scan and get two subsequent kills to unlock the airstrike and thereby become a one-man Killstreak fiend...but many times you'll reach your fifth kill without stopping to call in the UAV. Also, if you are killed with an airstrike available, then you'll respawn with it ready to go; it's at this time that a teammate's UAV comes in handy.
Asking for someone to send up a UAV is not only a good way to keep interesting communication alive...it also serves to remind people to activate their Killstreak rewards and gain extra points for the team. Teammates will be all too happy to contribute.
The Killstreak feature of Modern Warfare was carried over to Call of Duty: World at War (translating to the more appropriate World War II-era equivalents Recon Plane, Artillery Strike, and Attack Dogs), and will be featured in Modern Warfare 2 not only as fixed strikes, but as unlockables that can be configured to your custom loadout. Players will be able to choose Killstreak rewards that extend all the way to the eleventh kill; in addition to offensive strikes, the Counter-UAV will make its debut, throwing a new strategic twist into the mix.
Modern Warfare also made famous the Hardcore game modes. While not the first game to introduce Hardcore-style gameplay (which removes the heads-up display and increases weapon damage), there's no denying that Modern Warfare made "Hardcore" a mainstream term among shooter fans. Here the UAV Killstreak reward makes all the difference, creating a map of enemy locations where there normally isn't even a radar available.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is not a realistic game by any means, and may not even satisfy anyone's lust for precision tactics...but without a doubt Modern Warfare is a game best played as a tight-knit team that communicates and works toward getting the flag home and getting the airstrikes dropped where they need to hit.
Modern Warfare 2 will ship with a co-op mode for two players -- called Special Ops -- but we're happy to see that it will continue the tradition of Killstreaks, and in a unique and more inclusive way for players that really like to make an impact on each match. In the meantime, Modern Warfare still rocks. Catch me online.