It has been a rough couple of weeks leading up to the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward has been hit with endless criticism due to their apparent abandonment of PC gamers and controversial advertisements. It seemed strange that the developer who created Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which received dozens of Game of the Year awards and was considered by many to be one of the best shooters ever released, would suddenly find itself on gamers' bad side. It was as though they were beginning to crack under the pressure of creating a follow-up to one of the highest rated games of all time, and the burden to deliver an experience as good, if not better, for their fans. Luckily, these strange occurrences were no more than minor hiccups, and with Modern Warfare 2, the developer has proven again that they are truly masters of their craft.

Modern Warfare wasn't just good, it was shockingly good. Gamers expected BioShock and Halo 3 to be obvious shoe-ins for game of the year, but didn't think that the Call of Duty series had enough relevancy to really compete for such a title. In a way, it set the tone for the following years of gaming. While the story was short, it was so captivating that no one complained. Whereas the multiplayer in CoD4 wasn't really all that different, it was so refined that it is still one of the most played games online. It set bars wherever there were any to set, and effectively showed other FPS makers how it’s done. With Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward seems to remember what made the original so popular, something developers too often lose sight of.