This game is worthy of its own post.

I still play Halo 2 more often than not, in spite of the new 360 titles… the truth is that the majority of my online friends don’t have a 360 and mostly play Halo 2… so if I want to be social, I have little choice in the matter. Besides, I find that I’m playing better in Halo 2 with the wireless controller, new headset, and brighter and sharper images! In addition to that, on all of the 360 titles, I haven’t been playing in online games yet.

So why single out Call of Duty 2? Especially when I didn’t play Call of Duty 1? Simple: It’s a remarkable experience.

You’re shooting enemy humans. You start on Russian campaigns and then move on to English ones… You’re living World War II. Except you get to re-spawn, since it’s a game. You also recover health as you go and the effects of shell shock don’t last very long. After all, ya need to remember: it’s a game.

The game play itself is pretty killer. Only had one crash with it, and that was on day 1. Since then, it’s been running well… graphics are incredible. Light, shadow, dark, smoke, snow… the smoke grenades alone are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They also include war clips from what I can assume is the History Channel, but in high-def. Oh, and when you use the binoculars, they are actually gritty, like you’d expect them to be… only downside is that I can’t remap the buttons… I’m used to the Halo 2 layout and since this has similar game play, I would like to remap the keys, but alas, they don’t let you.

And while it’s still a game, it’s also an experience. With all of the “video games promote violence” arguments going on right now – or still – this title will probably be near the top of the list. While GTA is an easy target due to all the crime, this is a war game: while there’s no crime – or looting or hookers – you are shooting humans, and at this level of graphic capability, it will certainly raise some eyebrows. Blood sprays from wounds. Shoot a guy in the arm or leg? He usually he doesn’t die even if he does drop. Usually he’ll try to crawl away… and if you let him live, he will shoot you from the ground, so you have to shoot him first. Honorable? It was in Europe, 1943.

Still, it’s a game to be played. Experienced. Worked through with determination, even if we all know the outcome. It’s made me flinch. Made me go “OH!” as I’ve shot people that were charging me. And frankly, I think if more people played CoD2, they wouldn’t take war very casually anymore. If this is how WWII actually was for the guys over there, we need about a dozen more veteran days and we need to never repeat this style of war, at all costs…

Scary when a “simple” video game can turn into a pseudo-window of history and offer so much impact… at least it has for me.