The Call of Duty series has always set the bar for the action-packed gaming world of FPS (first person shooters). With their newest release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, gamers get a taste of pure cinematic and game play perfection.

With pre-orders alone helping Modern Warfare 2 become one of the biggest selling games of all time, many people, especially COD enthusiasts, wondered if it could possibly live up to the massive amount of hype. Now that it’s out, is it everything gamers expected?

It’s everything and more.

I have played the Call of Duty series ever since the beginning and I can say, without doubt, that this is by far the best one yet. Modern Warfare 2 has surpassed my expectations in every single way. With a nail-biting single player campaign mode, a new and exciting Spec Ops mode, and of course the vastly popular multiplayer mode, this game simply has it all.

When I first popped the disc into my Xbox 360 at 12:14 a.m. on the game’s release date Nov. 10, I was bombarded by party requests from online friends. Nearly every single person on my friends list was playing MW2, even guys I have never seen playing a Call of Duty game.

I started playing the multiplayer mode with some friends and was immediately blown away. The basis was the same yet there were so many new developments and upgrades from the original.

Along with the excitement and unpredictability of the online multiplayer mode, the Special Operations mode offers a mind-blowing co-operative experience. In Spec Ops you and your partner blast through 23 different missions. This is where it gets tactical. No more runnin’ and gunnin’ through the hailstorm of bullets and artillery, you must play with your comrade and for your comrade. This mode is highly addictive and extremely fun.

While the single player campaign game mode offers an explosive, but at times over-the-top storyline, you will find yourself glued to your television. Along with the graphics, great sound (especially if your have surround sound with a subwoofer) the story that takes you through different countries with different task forces will make it difficult for you to put your controller down.

According to reports on PC World magazine, the game has been pulled from shelves throughout Russia. Sales of both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game have been canceled.

According to PC World, “Apparently the thematic content of the controversial ‘No Russian’ level in which players must choose whether to fire on innocent civilians in a Moscow airport managed to escape broad public notice before launch. It’s not clear whether the threatened governmental ban came about because of the level’s play mechanics (the compulsion to shoot and terrorize innocent civilians) or the fact that you play a CIA agent pretending to be a Russian ultranationalist pretending to be an American terrorist. Presumably someone’s decided Russia comes off looking badly, and that America comes off looking nobler-than-thou (albeit, per the level in question, pretty single-minded about it).”

The graphics as well as the sound effects are noticeably better. The bump up in graphics is only complemented further by the increased attention to sound design, with the effects of many returning weapons being re-recorded, even more in-level chatter among your allies, and a truly captivating score by Hans Zimmer which builds based on specific in-game moments. Modern Warfare 2 feels like an action movie through and through. The beauty of it is you don’t just get to watch the entrancing story unfold, but you actually navigate the characters through the crisis; and if you’re lucky, you just might survive.