While I stood in line this morning for my copy of the much hyped shooter, I wondered to myself just how long this game was going to keep my attention before I felt the need to move on to something else (mainly Left 4 Dead 2). I got home, turned off my phone, and fired er' up.

There were a couple things that I was keeping an eye out for, such as the length of the SP campaign, the approachability of the multiplayer mode, and the games ability to keep me interested.

SINGLEPLAYER
I knew going into this that the story would remain compelling, and it was. Although there were some things which I found irksome, such as the fact that IW removed the ability to lean as well as the ability to change fire modes. I decided to play through on Hardened- and intro to credits took me a mere 7 and a half hours. Admittedly, I only found 5 out of 40ish secret intel drops which should give some perspective as to how thorough I was.

The levels were varied and the fights were fun, although there was a point near the middle when everything felt dreadfully repetitive. I suspect that I will play the single player maybe once again in the life of the game. If you are the type of person that loves to change your weapons up every 30 seconds or so - than this is the game for you! Thanks to the fact that each enemy seems to carry their very own personal militia, there is never a point when you are stuck to one gun set.

The visuals were good, with sharp textures and no pop-in, although the game does not contain a gameplay tab in the options, and as such does not allow the player to alter the violence. I am never one to reduce the gore of a game, yet there were times throughout the campaign when I desperately wished for a way to turn off the blood splatter overlay. It often was the case that once I was hit, I was blinded - so I often got the impression that 1 hit= death. After a while, it got to be cumbersome. There were occasional moments where the graphics would choke and my GPU would spike to 95c from 78c. oddly enough this was most noticeable during the credits.

The end of the game comes rather suddenly and leaves you wondering if they purposely cut it short so that they could release the rest of the game as DLC. Despite the jarringly abrupt end, I left the single player portion with highlights from the game reeling through my head. It will stick with you, that much I can guarantee.

MULTIPLAYER

seeing as how I purchased the PC edition, I was immediately aware of the fact that I would not be playing on dedicated servers. I stayed optimistic that their matchmaking mode would be a welcome change in disguise. Although outright I must admit that I miss the old system of scrolling through 100s of server lists, scouting out that one special server that's running all the right mods. I miss moderators being able to kick DB's and noob tubers. I miss the rediculous server side mods that bumped the player count up to 32 vs. 32. there are many things that IW did to improve upon the core mechanics of multiplayer - but the omission of the ability to chose what map you play on makes all their work seem like a cheap trade. I want to be able to play on a server that has mixed game types in their rotations, and I want to be able to play all modes on hardcore. perhaps IW will follow in the footsteps of Valve via L4D and release a patch which will add dedicated servers. here's wishful thinking.

now that my rant is over, there are many good things about the MP portion of COD6- and in all likely hood, I will continue to play this version. One addition I particularly like is the ability to silence your sniper rifle. There are other fun things like akimbo sidearms and a whole slew of new killstreak modifiers... as well as the inclusion of deathstreak modifiers. There are a TON of maps, although each one the game put me on seemed to be one of only 3. The game has all the standard modes, although you have to obtain a higher rank if you want to play them all. One difference from the previous installment is the lack of a hardcore variant to all modes, rather now, there is only a hardcore team deathmatch mode. I never got around to playing the spec ops mode- but give it another day or two and I'll update this to include the new mode.

If I were given a second chance, I probably would wait until the game is a bit cheaper- if only because of the surprisingly short campaign and lackluster multiplayer system. The game is fun, and the multiplayer engaging- but the whole time I got the feeling that I was having my hand held throughout the process. Playing was like taking an amusement park ride through your old house after new furniture was added. The furniture added some flare and the whole thing maintained a sense of familiarity, but at the end you realize that your encounter was restricted. You realize that this is a very different experience.

what's your take on the game so far?