[Chris Britton]

I know it's a few hours late but blame my dodgey Internet. But as i announced I was working on a collective review of Call of Duty 4 and Medal of Honour Airbourne. Now as RV did point out I should really not waste my time reviewing the latter. However I really felt that I could not review MoD without referring and comparing it to it's older Cousin. So without further ado, lets dive right in.

A brief history lesson for all those concerned, the MoH series has been going on since 1999. Officially longer then the actually WW2, it's popularity was partially thanks to the renewed interested in that part of history owing to the wonderful masterpiece of a film Saving Private Ryan. The game was a nice solid shooter which set a nice atmosphere, the sequel continued that nice mix except now you were behind enemy lines as part of a resistance movement, and it just made the setting much more rich, and I only need to mention Frontline to everyone to remind the people of what a fantastic, superb game it was, a perfect mix of front line and behind the lines game play with beautiful levels which although linear were able to deceive quite cleverly. The highlight was storming the beach and it was no suprised people did this enough times that they could have just done the whole operation themselves. However the series then contracted EA syndrome and has been getting much more sickly ever since, only surviving thanks to hefty wallets. Sadly like Super Mario galaxy is trying to recapture the SM64 lightning the same can be said for the Frontline lightning, and this one missed and hits that tree with two lesbians under it.

CoD has been around since the early decade. At the height on MoH's reign. Although the first couple of games were not quite as good as Frontline there was a certain charm to the game, the opening missions in Stalingrad were simply epic, it caught another side ot the thing and made some aspects of moH already seem tame, it had potential and as the first few missions on Finest Hour showed it was a budding Rose growing in the Activision Garden. CoD 3 not only topped that, it completely blew away all opposition like a class 5 Tornado, it was carnage, yet beautiful and deep and just stunning, like you have just ran into your definition of the perfect woman and no amount of willpower can stop you from holding her and saying every compliment under the sun.

So now we come to the latest offerings from both series, and while CoD 4 deserves all the praise it gets i also have to be honest and say that while MoH Airbourne is not bad, and is the best game of the series for years it still feels like the franchise is on life support, although out of the coma which remains with it. And thats me feeling generous for a change. Because from here on end the franchise gets into more twists then a thumb screw.

Now as you guys know I am not paticually fond of those old samey shooters in which you play the one decent recruit in the army totting a heavy machine gun and try to be realistic at the same damm time, just look at the things i slung at Crysis, but it's especially the same for war franchises where an endless stream of Nazis appear. WW2 however is still a hobby of mine and I will give a game credit if it manages to pull off the WW2 feat superbly. however CoD franchise has taken an interesting twist, they have decided to try setting a game in the present day around the time of the Gulf Wars. This at first came as a shock in the region of 20,000 volts up my balls. I was concerned as despite the lack of imagination evident in this days and age it was a case of if they could pull it off, even if it would be fighting Arabs or Ex-Communists and Nukes, this was right on the money but it's executed in such a compelling way. The series has been takening in a enw and imaginative way for it's type and i love series which try to mix things up.

Unlike most war games in which everyone is shortsighted and convinced my country is better this time you play from two perspectives, the British SAS which means stealth and the US marines which means all action carnage, it changes hands so often boredom is impossible, the controls are tight and funky enough and story and gameplay go hand in hand like a lovestruck couple in a field of sunflowers. Especially in the scene after a nuke is dropped.

Ok the game is not perfect, its always up to you to move forward unless you drop a grenade so your men are not stuck shooting in the same spot for days on end, and the British sergeant and his moustache reminds me of those German porn stars you hear about. However each character you get attached too which came like a kick in the nuts. or the ending which comes in the middle of a damm gunfight with no closure at all, like you have had a nice meal except the chef comes to fart in your face, but i am just picking at hairs. In short CoD 4 is by far the best of the series, a shining example of what a shooter needs to be to engross someone and the best shooting game I have played since MoH Frontline incidentally enough.

MoH Airbourne I have yet to touch on, however the game is shorter then Veryne Troyer however that it all stays in balance, unlike coD which loves it's realism this time MoH must be in an alternate universe where the Nazi's are gun totting cartoon villains on a sleepy Saturday morning and all your friends are giant colossal morons. To try and open the game up, which is trying trying to get your tis out of a sharks mouth you are parachuted in at the start of each level, a practice which becomes sleepily dull and you only have a couple of spots you can actually land in without becoming swiss cheese and bullet bum rape. However unlike CoD 4 where your allies actually know to fire properly MoH allies are less use then a pack of swiss cheese, mainly because cheese does not leap in front of you when your trying to mow down a squad of fascists, a recurring disease within the MoH games like a persistent zit what you can;t squeeze out despite destroying all the skin around it. At least then they don't say it's all your fault like a schizophrenic moron. they also seem to realise this and reply on yourself to actually do all the fighting. The germans also seemed to pick up on this and fire and you and ONLY you. it brought back sad memories of GTA 3 where even if you got attacked the moment you defended yourself the police would just arrest you as it seems you were a fool for just playing it safe.

The only realism in this is that it reminds you of how annoying and tough war can actually be, and not in the pleasant way. several times I got stuck like i was playing in tar for the 19 ****ing bastard time once again. it's like Farcry in that you don't possess the amazing cyber vision your enemies have to spot all 15 snipers at once while they gun you down before I can Boobies. Also unlike CoD who like to show us how each nation contributed in some way British troopers are somehow absent from this game. We are left with men who are all somehow handsome and can take 5 bullets in the groin and still carry on. I have plenty of respect for the US but it is nice to show how each country did it's little bit for the effort. Britain's airbourne made an impact and it would have paid to do what CoD have done and have a British Storyline. EA seem remarkably Biased against anything non German or American while CoD featrues not only those two but also Britain, Russia, Italy, Poland, France and Canadian Armies, EA seem to have forgotten it was a World War where everyone did their bit.. The Germans all sound like Hannibal but to their credit the game is accurate in that their guns are better, not stealing one in the first 5 seconds usually warrants a beating 10 seconds later. They also seem to make the Germans more evil then Darth vader sadly. I know my war and i am quite sure there was never an elite rank of Stormtroopers which had mini guns, gas masks and somehow took 4 bullets to the face and still did not ****ing die! I am also sure they did not have a gigantic armoured 15 story concrete tower probably more like a Fortress of Doom aside from the bunkers on the Normandy Beaches. I would not have been surprised if Hitler had showed up wearing a huge mech-suit and was atop a gigantic robot spider. in reflecting the game is briefer then my underwear, it's boring, repetitive but the shortness of the game should be a godsend. As much as i praise the series for also trying to mix things up it's not on the same level, in fact it's barely off the ground floor, I did not mind para jumping but after that it's just the same MoH game from before just now with better graphics.

So in hindsight to me the CoD franchise is the shining perfect recruit for any army, it's still in it's prime and if Activision can continue using their imagination and resources then I can't see this franchise slowing down any time soon, the fact they are now merged with Blizzard can only mean CoD 5 may contain the WW2 equivalent of a Zerg Rush but quite frankly I was blown away and unlike Crysis or indeed Halo 3 I was left drooling like a retreated sex obsessed Nerd wanting more. MoH on the other hand feels like the tired veteran now pushing 40 but since EA don't frankly care what i think or indeed what anyone thinks i can expect that thery will continue letting blood out of this franchise until such time that we have called evolved into lizards. I would not be surprised if the next MoH was set at sea where you constantly bored every German u-Boat form here to the moon.

Next weekend I won't be here but in 2 weeks time i attempt to string the game we all called Guitar Hero III.