Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Random Thoughts - Part VII: The Revenge)

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240709.html?tag=result;title;2

* All right, let's play this broken record: Infinity Ward had two years to make this game and all they could deliver was a five-hour single-player campaign?

Don't get me wrong, thanks to the multiplayer, this game is worth every penny -- but the single-player sometimes feels like an afterthought. Not to say it isn't good. It is very, very good indeed. When these guys hit their mark, they can produce the feeling that you're in a big summer movie like few others. And there's a lot of these moments in MW2, but they always remain moments, instead of forming a cohesive whole. The story is all over the place, muddled, and often difficult to follow, especially to those who didn't replay the first Modern Warfare in the weeks leading up to this game's release.

If you're like me, you're going to have fun, but you're going to say "That's it?" as the credits roll.

* After playing MW2 and Halo: ODST so close together, I've decided that Infinity Ward and Bungie need to collaborate on a game. Each developer is strong where the other is weak. If Infinity Ward produced the excitement (the gameplay, the engine) and Bungie the emotion (the story, the music), you would have a game good enough to make grown men weep.

* Please don't milk this franchise to death, Activision. With a third studio added to the making of Call of Duty games (see link above), the risk of franchise overkill is becoming a real possibility. Thanks to the staggered releases from the two different CoD developers, Modern Warfare 2 is the third game in two years to follow the same basic template, even if World at War and MW2 featured numerous tweaks and improvements.

This series could become the next Tomb Raider or Tony Hawk, and I'd hate for that to happen.

* It seems I've bagged on this game more than praised it, so let me say this: I have played the ever-loving shit out of this game. I devoured the single-player campaign and counted the minutes at work until I could go home and log in a few rounds of multiplayer. That means that the men and women at Infinity Ward are doing something right.

End of line.