It seems that the success of Infinity Ward's WWII FPS has inspired more than just a little celebrating over at Activision - the game earned the honour of Game of the Year, and the company wants us all to know that. The result is Call of Duty: Game of the Year Edition - essentially a repackaged version of the original, albeit complete with a host of post-release updates and other goodies.

Developed by a team of ex-Medal of Honor coders, Call of Duty treads a similar path, dropping you into ... more >>

It seems that the success of Infinity Ward's WWII FPS has inspired more than just a little celebrating over at Activision - the game earned the honour of Game of the Year, and the company wants us all to know that. The result is Call of Duty: Game of the Year Edition - essentially a repackaged version of the original, albeit complete with a host of post-release updates and other goodies.

Developed by a team of ex-Medal of Honor coders, Call of Duty treads a similar path, dropping you into the midst of some realistic WWII combat action. The game follows the events of the war from multiple perspectives, giving you the opportunity to battle the enemy forces through the eyes of American, British and Russian soldiers. Starting the game as an American Paratrooper on D-Day, you eventually progress to a member of the British Special Forces, and finally rise up to become a Russian tank commander. As such, a diverse array of missions is on offer, including such objectives as infiltrating a POW camp, a British assault on the Eder Dam, and the re-taking of Red Square.

One of the key elements to the gameplay is its emphasis on squad-based combat. From the outset, you fight as part of a team and, as such, need to stick together, communicate and cover each other, as well as carry out certain objectives shouted to you through the blaze of oncoming fire. For example, an early level sees you defending a town from an onslaught of tanks. Someone's going to have to go and grab the rocket launcher and take them out - can you guess who it is yet?

As you would expect, the game comes complete with some comprehensive multiplayer support, allowing up to 32 players to fight it out over a LAN or the Internet, across a wide variety of popular game types. Since its original release, the multiplayer aspect of Call of Duty has been extremely well received by the online and LAN gaming communities - anyone who has had the chance to experience this side of the game will understand why.

As far as the extras are concerned, Game of the Year Edition's aforementioned post-release updates include the likes of new multiplayer modes and maps, EAX 3 sound support, a map-making toolkit, and other multiplayer gameplay enhancements. Obviously, the dedicated COD fan will have already acquired these updates, but for the uninitiated, this re-release is an unmissable opportunity to discover the very well deserved Game of the Year. << less