Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

The game with the potential

to become a new Canon Game

2890
Sherlock Cai
Background Information

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a first person shooter game published by Activation in 2007. The game is
developed by Infinity Ward and first designed for home consoles like xbox360, ps3 and Wii. The game
simulates real war environment and brings the players into an amazing experience of being a soldier with
modern weapons. The game provides a thrilling first person game mode and also a multi-players mode which
supports up to 54 players to player at the same time though Internet. The game is the best selling game of
2007 with a record of 7 million copies. The verisimilar graphics and the awesome game play make it a
milestone in the Call of Duty series.

Horner and Awards

The rank from 4 game sites or publications

Game of the year(2007) ----- GameSpot
The Best Graphic Of E3(2007)
The Best PS3 Game of 2007------ GameTrailers
Best Overall Game of 2007 ------ Game Pro

Spike Video Game Award ------ Best Sound Design & Best Shooter of 2007
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences ------- Console Game of the Year, Action game of the Year, and
Overall Game of the Year.
British Academy Video Games Awards ----- Best Game play of the Year, Best Story and Character of the Year,
and People's Choice Game of the Year
Why this game has the potential to become a Canon Game
 The Subject Matter

As we known, every episode from COD (Call of Duty) Series are all based on history happened during the
World War II. But COD 4 breaks the rule. The develop group of Infinity Ward revelates a real and cruel modern
war in front of the funs. In the game, players can follow the storylines go to several ‘Hot spots’ around the
global. The game has two clues. One clue is to follow the step of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The
other clue is fight as the Special Air Service (S.A.S). The battlefields include Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia,
and Ukraine Prypiat etc. Famous counties are involved, America, Russia, UK, Iraq, Ukraine…
The game is really dark and contains strong political overtones. Even the first mission of the game involves
nuclear bombs. The after scenes all contain sensitive globe issues. Though all the warfare happened in COD 4
are made-up. But as the game is set as present, so the players can still kind of relate the game scenes to
some famous events happened or happening on earth. This proved to be a brilliant idea by the sell record of
over 15 million copies world wide.
For example, the first chapter of game is located at the Middle East, where the rebel army killed the president,
and USMC send troops to search the rebel leader. But the rebel leader has already gone, before he leave, he
set a nuclear bomb inside the city and detonate it after USMC occupy the whole city. 30,000 American
soldiers die instantly in the explosion. Use this tragedy as a opening of the game means the after game player
will be amazing because we all know that the USA will not leave the things like that.
After all, the battlefield changes from WWII to now a day are a wise decision. The next year, the EA published
their FPS game - Battlefield: Bad Company. The game also chooses to show the modern war. If COD 4 keep
focuses on WWII. It’s not hard to guess that they wouldn’t reach the height they have reached today.

 The Story
The single person game play of this game will be around about 5-6 hours. The story makes the game more
and more attractive. There are total 5 chapters and 20 different scenes (missions) in the game. The story
includes multiple clues and different clues goes wove together. Also there is one mission which is based on
the memory of one of the main characters. It’s the best part of the game.
At start, the player plays as a member of the S.A.S. Search a freighter which is confirmed carrying weapons
on the Bering Strait. When they find out the weapon is a nuclear bomb, the freighter attacked by unknown
troops and the S.A.S team is forced to leave. Right after that, the game switches to Middle East, and for a
whole 10 minutes, the players are a prisoner being handcuffed inside a car. The player can do nothing but look
left and right. The car slowing drives through the chaotic city and finally reaches a square. Not until now
when the players can realize that the man being transferred is the president of the county. And as soon as he
got out of the car, on main villain comes up and shoot him in the head with out hesitate. The whole scene is so
cinematic and everyone will surprised by the result. And this is only the opening chapter of the game.
The following chapter switches the two different part of combat and let the player players them one mission
after another. At the end, the S.A.S got escaped under the heavy fire support from the AC-130. Players can
play as the operator inside the AC-130. It is the first time in game history that players can play in that way.
The other side, the USMC gets to the location where they told the bad gay should be, but it’s just a deadly trap.
A nuclear bomb has been set under the city. The troops start evacuate immediately. But it’s too late. The
bomb has been detonated and all the 30,000 American Amy in the zone was killed instantly. It’s so tragedy.
At the epic snack in mission, player with the NPC partner went to Prypiat to assassinate the main villain. They
made their way to the assassinate location but finally miss the kill shoot. On the way to escape, your partner
got injured by the helicopter they shoot down and can’t move. You decided to carry your partner and rush to
the rendezvous. It’s a touching moment when the character carry up his partner without hesitate. The
emotion is very strong there. Because the back up still needs more time to get over, so you and your partner
have to survive under flood of enemy attack for several minutes. And at last, you and your partner got picked
up by the back up teams. From snake in to use snipe-rifle to kill and at last the long way escape. The plot
makes the players intense, nervous, surprise, touch, staunch and excited. It is one of the best levels in FPS
game history.

 The Evolution of Game Engine

This game was developed by Infinity Ward. This company has now developed 4 episodes of the COD games.
They got a team of about 100 game makers and developed their own game engine.
The game engine which used to make COD 4 is called the IW 3.0. It’s based on id Tech 3, which was used on
the first Call of Duty game. The IW engine has been considered one of the best game engines of this
generation.
With this magnificent engine, the infinity ward was able to create the amazing game. The effect and graphics
of this game are excellent. We cannot say it’s the best graphic ever, but it sure is the best at it’s time. The
texture, lighting, physics and render are all running at a very high level. Now the IW engine has been modified
to IW 4.0. The IW 4.0 was used on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The most evolutional technique is the physic simulation. Every kind of weapon has different attributes, and
they have all been set to the data as they in the real world. Different bullet comes out from the barrel with
different speed, and when they hit the wall. The engine will decided whether the bullet can run though it or
just leave a mark there according to the material of the wall. And the bullet can still cause harm after it run
though the wall. If the player hides behind a wall which is wood of plastic, it can’t prevent the player of being
hit by the bullets or explosions. In the classic snipe scene, there is one moment the player needs to take out
the bad guy from a very far distance with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle. The wind situation is involved in the
calculate. The player has to wait until the right wind direction and strength. It’s really a very cool experience.
 The Graphics
Talking about the graphics of this game, first let us compare some pictures.

Picture 1: The image from COD 2

Picture 2: The image from COD 3

Picture 3: The image from COD 4

Through compare these three pictures, we can clearly feel the change of the game technology and developed
level. COD 4 uses the IW 3.0 game engine to create the game world. The texture and the lighting are all
incredibly beautiful. The particle system is one of the most important parts of the game. In the Middle East
scenes, players can feel the dust in the air, and the billowing smoke rise up from the city are so real.
Different locations are made very carefully and believable.

The explode effect. We can see fire and rocks inside the range of explosion, pay attention carefully to the
blood which sprayed from the poor man killed by the explosion. There also some wave on the screen
simulates the explode blast.
This image shows great lighting and reflection details appears on the gun.

We can see the forces in the image. Also the realistic smoke effect after a RPG passed by..
Through this image we can see the depth of field has been well shown.

The great graphic image makes the game more credible and attractive. At the sniper scene, all the villain
snipers are hiding under the grass. The player is really hard to tell where they are even if you stair at them,
unless they move a little bite, you can’t be sure there is a man hiding there. It’s so realistic and the player has
to risk their life to attract the sniper to shoot at themselves and catch the fleeting reflection come from their
scope.
This image shows the environment. The whole scene looks awesome and realistic. The Sky is nice and the
plants got precise details. And they have reacted to the environment because they are physicalized. And the
image also shows details of the weapon. The gun has been modeled carefully and the textures are good.

After we analyzed the images above, we can clearly feel the power of the IW engine. Every frame from the
game looks pretty solid. That’s an incredible achievement to make the game graphic so realistic and full of
details. And to run the game, it is not necessary to use a top computer.

The game has a very detailed menu to let the player conveniently adjust the attributes to make the game run
smoothly on their computer.
 The Animation

Play the COD 4 is like to watch an exciting Hollywood movie. In addition of the awesome graphic and sound
effect, the well animated characters and AI play an important rule of it. Most of the normal actions in the
game is using the motion capture system to record. That is the reason why every one in the game moves like
real human. There are many different reaction of a same purpose. For example, the AI’s reactions of being
shoot in the head. Most games have 3 or 4 different reactions. But in COD 4, that number is up to 16. It means,
if you shoot an enemy in the head, you will see at least 16 different ways of dying instantly. And that’s just the
head part. There will also be different actions if you shoot the other body parts. This game is really dynamic
that all the things are changing in the game so the player will never get bored.

The awesome thing about the game is that many animations are played with the game play. So if the player
did something, it may probably activate some plot. In the sniper scene, during the escape, the players can
shoot down a Mi-28 helicopter. The Mi-28 falling down towards the player, the wings hit the buildings and the
player dash to avoid the crash, but final one of the character hit by the helicopter and badly injured. That’s
one of the coolest scenes I’ve ever seen in video game. It’s a perfect example of combine the game play and
animation.
There are many similar parts in the game, each of them looks exciting and make prominently improves to the
game plot and game play.
 The Weapon and item system

All the weapons in the game are real. Players can use more than 30 different weapons over 8 categories in
this game. There are Assault Rifles, Sub Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Rocket
Launcher and Missiles and Mines. Most of the main weapons can have different Attachments.
The weapons in COD 4 cover most of the famous killing machines in the world like M16, AK-47, DesertHwak,
Barrett sniper rifle, Uzi, RPG, and G3 etc.
Player can carry two heavy weapons, one pistol, several grenades and a knife. Enemy will leave their weapon
when then dead, and the players can pick it up and us. The ammo of the weapon will automatic fill when player
pass the weapon use the same ammo.
Weapons have 4 kinds of aiming apparatus, mechanical aiming system, sighting telescope aiming system,
infrared targeting system and reticle aiming system. Using aiming apparatus will substantially increase the
accuracy of shooting. Player will pick up weapons with different aiming apparatus. It’s vital to get use with all
of them.
Some of the weapon can attach with the M203 grenade launcher. Grenade and mines can play a significant
role when the players are trapped. There are frag grenade, smoke grenade, flash grenade and shock grenade.
One of the most practical weapons is the Claymore Anti-personal Mine. It uses infrared to detect the target.
At some scenes, players will be required only use certain weapon to complete the mission. Multiple weapon
attacks the male players and also increase the fun of the game.

 The Multi-Player Mode

A part from the single player mode, the multi-player mode is also very creative. COD 4 features 2 types of
multi-player mode, one is team-based and other one is deathmatch-based. Several maps are provides for
maximum 56 players to play at the same time. Each mode requires special tactics to win. The basic thing is to
kill the other team’s members and get points. The team with more points wins.
There is an upgrade system. Win more brings more new weapons and upgrades.
The players can have special ‘perks’ to improve your ability. Three combine of perks are available. Perk 1 you
can bring more weapon such as grenade and claymore. Perk 2 make the player expert the weapons. Perk 3
contains many useful skills make you survive longer than the others.
The player will receive a gift if they kill a certain amount of enemy without dying. The gift will be Rader Scan,
Air Strike or armed helicopter attack.
The multi-player mode is great because in the game you deal with real person not AI or NPC. The player can
use the same weapon and items as in the single-player mode.
The Impact on future FPS Games

This game stars a new age of FPS games.

Because of the game, there is now a new standard in the industry, COD 4 contains too many features that
worth other game company to learn.
Good Graphics, sound effect, weapon system, Multi-Player Mode. Every part is perfect. The later game should
all follows the step of the COD 4,
The game takes over 100 game developers spend 2 years to finish. It is a work with soul and passion. A lot of
game play and technique are brand new ideas and pretty decent.

The Conclusion
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a great game. It is voted as the 3rd of the greatest FPS games in history. The
realist game graphic and physic effect is the best at it’s time. The game play concept is great and most game
developer should play this game and learn the dynamic design.
After COD4, there is several same type of game. Like the COD: Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad
Company 2. They are all affected by the COD 4 to some extent.
COD 4 sold more than 15 million of copies now. It should become one Canon Game and remembered by the
gamers.