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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

More This-Gen than Next-Gen

There's been plenty of discussion, mostly positive, regarding the game's visuals. While not disappointing, the game doesn't have outstanding graphics. What it does have is a sense of polish and continuity. Environments are busy and detailed, though the texture work isn't at the same level of quality as the character models, which are finely detailed. Animations are fluid, and despite having a large assortment of discrete animations, there's no hitching as characters transition from one animation to another.

A screenshot taken at the highest possible quality settings

The same burning dumpster with medium texture and detail settings. Textures aren't as crisp, and the lighting model is simplified

Ragdoll physics are implemented, and thankfully the effect isn't exaggerated (as is the case in many shooters). Only a small portion of the game's arsenal is available in the demo, but the weapon models are very well done. Infinity Ward's in-house engine is capable of the full line up of contemporary 3D effects, such as depth of field and bloom lighting, but nothing is overdone. Every effect, from the explosion of an automobile to the depth-of-field blurring when looking down a rifle's sights, supports the overall visual package. Again, there's nothing ground-breaking here, but the engine does a great job of supporting the game's visual style, which in turn enhances the gameplay experience.

A busy scene: another screenshot taken at the highest visual settings

Medium-quality visual settings: less detail and fewer effects

I gave the demo a whirl on a few test setups. On an  Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 2.4 GHz with an  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX and 2GB of RAM, the game purred at a steady 40-plus FPS at 1600x1200 with all visual settings maxed out. On a less-powerful  AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (a single-core CPU) with a 256MB  NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS and 1GB of RAM, the highest playable resolution was 1280x1024 – that, with texture settings set to medium and lighting effects lowered or turned off completely. There's little doubt that a powerful system will be required to run the game at an acceptable level of detail and steady, playable frame rate. This likely means a dual-core CPU and at moderately recent Shader Model 3.0-capable GPU with at least 256MB of video memory. A host of graphics options are available for performance and quality tweaking, a pleasant surprise from a console-centric title. Those with older system, take note: visual quality quickly degrades when settings - particularly texture and effects quality – are dropped from the maximum.

After disposing of an anti-aircraft installation, the air support comes in to finish off the enemy

Oorah indeed - a Marine catchphrase, but expect a few different playable characters

The brief run through the Call of Duty 4 demo was exciting and left me wanting more. As a marketing tool, it has served it's purpose admirably. While it's not a striking departure from convention, the game is polished, challenging and, best of all, fun. Judging by the demo, Infinity Ward have successfully pulled their trademark gameplay out of the 1940s and into a contemporary urban combat environment. The plot may be borrowed from a B-grade action movie, but the combat-centric gameplay doesn't suffer as a result. With a meaty single-player campaign and class-based multiplayer (promised in the final release but absent from the demo), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare looks to be a respectable return to the PC after a one-release hiatus. We'll give you a complete review after the game's release in early November.

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Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Graphics, Hardware and Summary

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