Video Game Vintage Title: Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Microsoft Windows. It was released for the Mac in September 2008, then released for the Wii in November 2009, given the subtitle Reflex Edition. It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is the first in the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as the first game in the series to have a Mature rating. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years. It uses a proprietary game engine. On September 10, 2009, it was re-released in Japan by Square Enix.

The story takes place in the year 2011, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an ultranationalist movement starts a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Force Reconnaissance Marine and a British SAS commando, and are set in various locales, such as the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes, and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.

Critically acclaimed, the game received an aggregated score of 94% from both GameRankings and Metacritic, and is considered by many to be the best Call of Duty in the series. The gameplay and story received particular praise, while criticism targeted the failure of the game to substantially innovate the first-person shooter genre. The game won numerous awards from gaming websites, including IGN's Best Xbox 360 Game. It was the top-selling game worldwide for 2007, selling around seven million copies by January 19 and over thirteen million by May 2009.

Plot
Part of the game takes place in Pripyat, Ukraine, featuring several iconic aspects of the abandoned city, such as this square.

In 2011, a civil war has broken out in Russia between its government and ultranationalists who seek to restore Russia to its Soviet-era glamor. Meanwhile, a separatist group lead by Khaled Al-Asad seizes power in a "small but oil-rich" country in the Middle East through a coup d'�tat. Al-Asad is ruthless and has extreme anti-Western views, which prompts the United States to invade the country. In the afternoon of the second day of invasion, a platoon of USMC 1st Force Recon is sent to capture Al-Asad. The platoon attacks a TV station in which Al-Asad was thought to be broadcasting live and then engages in urban combat in an unnamed city south of the capital. In the meantime, the British Special Air Service (SAS) conducts two important operations, one on a ship in the Bering Strait and one in Russia. Intelligence gathered from the two missions indicates that Al-Asad may be in possession of a Russian nuclear device.

In evening of the third day, the U.S. launches a full-scale assault on Al-Asad's presidential palace in spite of the SAS warning about the possible nuclear device. As U.S. Navy SEALs invade the palace, the Marines engage Al-Asad's ground forces. The assault, however, ends in catastrophe when the nuclear device suddenly detonates, wiping out most of the city along with everyone in it.

Refusing to assume Al-Asad dead, a SAS strike team supported by Russian loyalists attacks a potential safe house in a village in Azerbaijan. Led by Captain Price, the strike team eradicates the occupying Russian forces and capture Al-Asad. Shortly into the interrogation, Al-Asad's phone rings. After hearing the voice of the caller, Captain Price executes Al-Asad and reveals that the caller was the leader of the ultranationalists: Imran Zakhaev.

Captain Price tells the story of a mission in Pripyat, Ukraine in 1996. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev took advantage of the turmoil to profit from nuclear proliferation and used his new wealth to lure soldiers from the Soviet Army to form his ultranationalist party. Price was sent on a black operation to assassinate Zakhaev. From his vantage point on the top floor of an abandoned hotel, Price fired upon Zakhaev with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, but the shot only severed Zakhaev's arm. Price barely escaped Zakhaev's henchmen.

The SAS, the Marines and the Loyalists attempt to capture Zakhaev's son, Victor, to learn Zakhaev's whereabouts but as they corner him on the roof of an apartment building, Victor commits suicide. Enraged, Zakhaev retaliates by launching nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which could kill 41 million people. The SAS and the Marines, however, manage to seize the launch facility's command room and remotely defuse the missiles over the Atlantic Ocean. They escape the facility in military trucks with Zakhaev's forces in hot pursuit.

An ultranationalist Mi-24 Hind helicopter destroys a vital bridge and traps the joint force. The ensuing fight with ultranationalists leaves everyone in the joint force either dead or severely wounded. Zakhaev himself arrives and begins killing wounded soldiers when loyalists suddenly destroy his Mi-24 Hind and join the fray. Zakhaev is shot dead. Loyalist forces start tending to the wounded immediately.

In the outro, the missiles incident and the ultranationalists' support of Al-Asad are hushed up, thus causing the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.