Call of Duty 2

The Good
The game looks fantastic, even with low detail settings - it's very scalable, and can run on older machines. The sounds are just awesome - if your windows aren't shaking from all the mortar fire, then your speakers aren't loud enough! The combat chatter that both friends and enemies will shout really adds to the atmosphere, and the weapons look and feel highly realistic. This truly feels like a war.

The Bad
There just aren't enough missions. Just as the game feels like it's reaching its climax, it stops. Multiplayer is also somewhat flawed.

The Bottom Line
This is a very awesome World War 2 shooter, and in my opinion, is the standard by which all further WW2 games should follow.

The Good
>>> Gameplay (Rating: 8/10)
The story-line brings you through the Russian, British and American campaigns. Each time you switch to a new campaign, you play as a different character. It's a cool way to play and they've got some neat new guns I've never seen before.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Rating: 9/10)
I absolutely loved all of the things that the AI said! They would run around shooting, while taunting the enemy. "You poor fascists came all this way just to die!!" They also had a great variety in the intelligence of the AI, the privates weren't too smart, but the captains and such were very smart; this was great to see.

Graphics (Rating: 8/10)
Stunning detail here. Their was a guy standing next to me and he stepped in front of the window to see if it was clear (how stupid); he was immediately shot in the head by an MG42 that flipped him over! It was awesome to watch; the ragdoll physics of this game make all of the shots different and it sure is nice. You could also see that a lot of detail was put into the soldier's faces; their faces looked quite real. There was also a part early in the game, in the Russian campaign, at which we blew down a large building; the graphics from the explosion were amazing! Smoke and debris were everywhere. Speaking of smoke, this game has the best smoke grenades of any game ever! If you throw a smoke grenade, you cannot see through it at all; these are the best smoke effects I've ever seen.

Audio (Rating: 9/10)
Great sound effects and I loved all of the different voices they used for the AI.

Multiplayer (Rating: 10/10)
Although I only ever play Deathmatch, I am extremely pleased with the Multiplayer in this game. I could sit there and play multiplayer for hours. Yes, it's just your basic Deathmatch, but the areas they've got make this fun.

The Bad
>>> Gameplay (Rating: 8/10)
The story-line was all that immersive; it was good, but I'd say it could've been somewhat more immersive. I would've been much more "in to" the game if I hadn't had to keep switching characters each time I played a new campaign, but that definitely made sense. You play a Russian in the Russian campaign, British in the British campaign and American in the American campaign.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Rating: 9/10)
Some of the AI were stupid, but some of them were very smart. Nothing I didn't like about the AI.

Graphics (Rating: 8/10)
Some of the explosions, such as the first one in the game that blew up a vehicle, we're very unrealistic. Flat fire (a technique known as billboarding) flew up into the air. I said to myself, "No way is that next-gen graphics." Many times layers of flat fire will be used and it can look realistic, but this didn't.

Audio (Rating: 9/10)
Some of the sounds seemed to have come from earlier versions of Call of Duty or some other game; I've definitely heard these old sounds in other WWII games.

Multiplayer (Rating: 10/10)
Nothing I didn't like about the multiplayer.

The Bottom Line
>>> Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Oh yeah, buy it. It's a great next-gen game with graphics like you would not believe. As I said, the story isn't incredibly immersive, but single player was still really fun to play. Multiplayer is definitely awesome. So what are you waiting for? Go get it!

The Good
An old game I got from a friend and which plays only on my XP laptop. This is a fun and fast paced FPS which was greatly inspired by SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BAND OF BROTHERS. Even some of the dialog is lifted directly from the movie/HBO pieces.

I didn't care too much for driving the tanks but being a military grunt was awesome. Get used to higher ups ordering you to always be on point or do the impossible because, well, it wouldn't be much of a game if you got to hang in back.

Lots of replay for this game allowing you to choose the scenarios at various difficulty levels, too. Barriers and peeking around corners are vital towards your survival. On another note they actually take the time to detail how it was back in the day so you get introductory clips in black and white. Not bad for those who know little about WWII.

WHEN PLAYED: July and August 2010; PLAYING TIME: 15 hours; REPLAY VALUE: B plus to A minus; OVERALL GRADE: A minus.

The Bad
Mostly technical. I hated not being able to play it on my Vista desktop and had to do it on my laptop XP but that's not the fault of the game.

The Bottom Line
Assuming you have the platform for it this is an admirable WWII FPS. Enjoy!