“Call of Duty 2” - 2005, Published by Activision (360)

As far as World War II games go, the original Call of Duty was pretty much at the top of its genre. Just as intense as the original, Call of Duty 2 goes for the most realistic of shooter experiences.

Ranging from battles in the snowy ruins of Stalingrad to dusty trenches in Africa, this game beautiful. Explosions all around you, bullets zipping back and forth--the presentation of Call of Duty 2 is top notch.

By all means, the first player campaign is worthy of my coveted 5/5 rating, however, that's the only part of this game that works.

First of my gripes: online multiplayer. Talk about lame. Featuring a barebones Live interface (no creating game rooms or inviting friends), matches are limited to 8 players. Frankly, this is inexcusable. This is a next-generation console, so where's the 64 player games quite common in PC games? And the very limited fun of a 4 vs 4 deathmatch is only hindered further by excessive lag and frequent cheating.

But most of all what angers me about Call of Duty 2 is a known bug that causes your single player game saves to be deleted. The debate rages on as to whether or not this is due to an error in the 360's hard drive or a problem in the code of the game, but it is so incredibly annoying that I'm having doubts that I will even complete this game (or will even be able to). Seriously, I paid $60 for this game, it had damn better work.

Twice now my game save has been deleted after getting roughly 50% through the game. Granted, it's a fun game to play, but it's not that great when you're forced to repeat the same tedious sequences for no reason.

Key Moment: After securing a courtyard in a hard-fought battle with German Afrika Korps, you must defend you position from incoming Luftwaffe with an AA gun.

Rating: 2/5 (4/5 had it not been for the saving problems)

~Khyron 2005