In the minds of most fans of the genre, the Call of Duty first-person WWII action franchise ranks as perhaps the finest examples of furious set-pieces mixing with epic and chaotic battles within some of the most realistic cinematic marvels we've yet seen. After half a dozen PC and various console titles carrying the same theme, most punters would accept the time was well nigh for a change of scenery within one of the more established and popular franchises in the gaming world. So after accepting an invite to attend a presentation on Infinity Ward's new 'surprise' title, it wasn't that surprising that the devs have finally chosen to go with a more modern take on war, with the announcement of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

In fact, as Infinity Ward's Big Guy Grant Collier explains, the studio has been working on Call of Duty 4 since completing development on Call of Duty 2. "Pretty much this is the game we've wanted to make for a long time. While we were working on Call of Duty 1, we had a bunch of ideas that came up, that we couldn't put in a WWII setting. Call of Duty 2, same thing, bunch of ideas coming up. So finally, when we were finished with the development of Call of Duty 2, we were busting to make this game."

Up until the recent release of the Modern Warfare trailer, fans of the franchise were treated to 18 long months of media silence on the title. Speculation on the game and its story has been rife and wide of the mark for quite while. The premise of the game is quite simple and much more relevant to players than rumour would have it. Rather than going to down the path of two powerful nations clashing in a titanic struggle, with the inevitable result, in many of today's games, of one being turned into a giant car park, as Grant explains, "...that does not appeal to our sensibilities and what Call of Duty game play is all about."

By taking the fictitious route, or one of those 'what if' scenarios quite possible in today's charged political landscape, we have an archetypal baddy playing a Russian Ultra-nationalist called Zakiev. Styling himself after Stalin, his one goal in life is to bring back Russia's pre-eminence, which it enjoyed as a superpower during the Cold War era. Of course, being a nasty bastard, he turns towards the usual nefarious means of creating a new world order - assassination, blackmail, espionage and the odd massacre or two. So, time to bring in the good guys - and who better to duke it out with the baddies but the intrepid British SAS. Helpfully, the nosey Brits have been accumulating a dossier on Zakiev's arms-dealing activities along with his four cronies (who are called The Four Horsemen, obviously of the Biblical variety) for the past 20 years, so they know exactly what they're up against.

The plan is simple yet savage, as Grant explains with obvious glee: "Zakiev is about to cause a civil war in Russia, and he knows that the West will get involved and doesn't matter how much Oligarchy money he's got to fund his ex-Soviet mercenaries (Oligarchy: Russia's new billionaires), he's gonna get outnumbered and get squashed. So he decides to even out the playing field and he does this by causing a coup in the Middle East (presumably Saudi Arabia), because he knows the attack-dog of the west, aka the USA, is a sucker for a conflict in the Middle East."

While the Americans are neutralised in what appears to be a diversionary tactic in the Middle East instigated by one of his trusted offsiders, Zakiev initiates his civil war in Russia. Luckily, those wily Brits smell a rat and together with an element of loyalist Russians convince the Yanks to separate off a small element of their elite Marine force, known as 'Force Recon' to track down Al Sad. Meanwhile, the British SAS have their hands full fighting Zakiev forces and trying to stop his civil war. Eventually, the Marines and SAS join up to stop some Doomsday scenario. Of course, what's a Doomsday story line without nuclear weapons thrown in? I imagine Russia's huge stockpile of warheads will make a nasty appearance.

So, we have the story, but what about the game play? Before that segment of the event started, Grant threw in a few more tasty morsels of info, such as the game taking place over the course of 30 days, with the intention of the game to play out like an action series on TV. Well known Hollywood writers were brought in for their ability at providing episodic content (I wonder if that was an inadvertent hint at what we can expect with future Infinity Ward titles...) of similar quality to some popular TV series (don't think he meant Desperate Housewives, unfortunately), where viewers become accustomed to cliff-hangers each week. Grant expands on this by saying, "... we really want Modern Warfare to play out in this fashion. We want gamers to be, at the end of a level, so hungry to figure out what's happening next 'cause we're gonna be changing. One minute you're going be with the SAS attacking a cargo ship on the Black Sea, next you'll be flying in with the United States Air Cavalry doing a quick strike in the Middle East, then you'll go back in time 15 years, trying to assassinate Zakiev, then you'll be a Cobra attack helicopter pilot."

Without further ado, Grant jumped into one of the first British missions in the game and quite frankly, I was impressed from the first moment. I could hammer off a few choice superlatives right now but for simplicity's sake, I'll stick to saying it was bloody impressive. Having boarded a cargo ship heaving to and fro in heavy swell, the action took awhile to arrive, but when it finally did, it felt like a sharp slap to the face. Small, precise firefights showing impressive samples of AI and a high degree of battlefield chatter from both sides, as well as impressive shadow and particle effects turning what could have been a simple battle scenario into a nightmarish spectacle. It's fairly obvious that the vast amount of time spent developing the games propriety engine has paid off: shadowing, self-shadowing, light and particle systems combine to push this title ahead of the upcoming crop of first-person titles to come.

In contrast to the action on the high seas, the next level shown was located in the Middle East, with the US forces having a hard time suppressing the enemy located inside a multi-story building. Again, it was an impressive display and perhaps highlighted what players may expect across the entire game - non-stop action on afterburner. Environmental detail was in abundance, with the flora and fauna adding substance to the battlefield, such as clouds of flies on corpses, butterflies and the occasional flock of seagulls flying by while translucent effects gave an edge to the water detail. The all-important environmental destructibility hasn't been forgotten with cars, buildings and a parade of other objects showing the same level of resiliency you'd expect under any type of fire.

Grant was keen to emphasise the level of graphical detail on each in-game figure, particularly the self-shadowing system that works in conjunction with the lighting system, meaning equipment itself will, under the right conditions, place shadows on the characters themselves.

In an attempt to increase levels of realism, to have the player feel like he's in the shoes of the soldier, this is what Grant had to say. "We want the player's screen to actually be what they see through human eyes, so we've done a lot of work with adaptive fields. When you're aiming down the sight, targeting the enemy with a lot of the weapons, the target you'll be looking at is very crisp, very clear, but there will be a slight blurring at the edge of focus." Attention was also given to realistically reflect how the human eye works under low intensity light, how much detail is given to objects in such conditions, as well as how the eye grasps night-vision as shown via goggles and various other devices.

When it comes to multiplayer, players can expect persistent statistics covering such details as number of games won or lost, headshots, types of matches played and preferred weapon types. An experience points system also rears its (ugly?) head with unlockable options such as different weapons, skins and new gamer tags for Xbox 360 & PS3 players and the usual classic and realistic play modes. By the way, those PC players expecting to join up with their Xbox 360 cousins online who are simply dying to show off who da boss really is? Prepare to be disappointed, as the option won't be available.

Wrapping up the session with the usual series of questions and answers from the gathered group of local game journos, I couldn't help but smile in anticipation as I recalled those countless enjoyable moments I've experienced within the entire series to this point. As always, time will tell. From what I've seen though, so far so good.