I'm going to be honest, the first time I saw gameplay of COD WaW I said wtf. It looked so goofy and the guns looked retarded I rethought my preorder. But once I got it I proved myself wrong.
I loved call of duty 4, the multiplayer was fantastic, addictive, and altogether fun, hell I even played through the single player about 7 times, but COD WaW is 5 times better. The multiplayer is basically the same overall, except this time around its much slicker. The guns are far more varied with the different attachments and rewards and they feel a little more realistic. They may look a little too polished and shiny, but trust me, look at the real life versions and they look exactly the same. The maps are great and in my personal opinion, better because they provide many different places/points for different classes, primarily the sniper. The maps are very rugged and dirty in a pretty way, with the exception of makin, which is overall very pretty. The maps are perfect and have zero glitches, although I'm sure someone will find one eventually, its great so far. Plus, the great sniping points are easy to get to, which is great for beginners. Going prestige has great benefits such as giving you more create a class options and gamer pictures. Lets just get down to the point, if you loved COD 4 multiplayer then youll love this.
The single player in this COD is far different than that of COD 4, in an awseome way. Its far more intense and the jungle sequences are the true highlights. Killing Nazis will always be fun, but killing japs is just plain awseome. They hide in trees, in grass, and they even play dead, so watch out. Unfortunately they are a bit braindead.While COD 4 had enemies who would take cover, the japs tend to stand in the open. While the nazis also stand in the middle of things, its not near as bad as the japs. Maybe its the open jungle setting, but still there is tons of tress, to take cover behind, hell even in caves with plenty of cover, the japs still tend to stand around and shoot at you. Really though thats the only bad thing, stupid japanese people, but its still fun to shoot them. In conclusion If you just like COD 4 then, you should definitly get this game because it its 5 times better. I would have said that if you loved COD 4 go out and buy it, but I'm sure you already have. So just buy this game. Oh crap, I forget the zombie mode will... um you shoot hundreds of crazy NAZI zombies... nuf said.

Show of hands. Who was a little disappointed when, after the success of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," the folks at Treyarch decided to head back to World War II for the next installment of the series? I know I was. Yes, CoD is arguably the best WWII franchise out there, and there's plenty of competition, but seriously, are we still interested in playing games about this war? Well, first off, they're doing something that doesn't get done much - they have you play in the Pacific theater for some of this game, which is a welcome change. But forget that. For a series that has always gotten gamers' adrenaline flowing, "Call of Duty: World at War" takes it to a whole new level. Suffice it to say, if you loved "Modern Warfare," you won't mind so much that this is a WWII game.

As with previous games in the series, you play as multiple people. As U.S. Marine Miller - having one name is so badass - you fight against the Empire of Japan in such real-world battles as Peleliu and Okinawa, including the storming of Shuri Castle. And as Soviet "comrade" Petrenko, you fight in that dreary old European front, pushing the Germans out of Stalingrad and back to Berlin. (Apparently, since the level "Death From Above" in "Modern Warfare" was so much fun, there's also a level where you play as a gunner on one of the "Black Cat" planes, shooting down enemy Zeroes and rescuing American sailors.)

From the very first scene, you know this ain't your daddy's Call of Duty. The first scene is disturbingly realistic and violent, and you haven't even had the chance to kill anyone yet. From there on out, it doesn't let up. There's blood, limbs getting blown off - conspicuously absent from all previous games, even "Modern Warfare" - burning corpses, bayonets. I could go on and on. All of this is rendered beautifully, using the same engine from "Modern Warfare," which means all the controls also work the same. The Nazis you'll face also play more or less the same as they did in previous installments - even the voice acting is the same.

The Japanese, meanwhile, are totally different. Sometimes, they'll play like their Nazi counterparts, taking cover and only peeking out to fire off a couple of rounds. Other times, they'll take cover in trees and snipe at you. And sometimes, they'll rush you in a banzai charge, trying to stab you with bayonets. The first time this happens to you, it'll make you freak a little bit, even though it's not that difficult to deal with. It does, however, make you reexamine your FPS skills. Usually, enemies don't come after you with such gusto - and I mean in any game. Unfortunately, your friendly AI counterparts aren't usually a huge help. Most of the time, they're not great shots, and they're often most useful as point men. Of course, one or two are always invulnerable, as per all CoD games, so you'll never go it alone.

One thing I will say is that this game is a lot of fun to play, even in the single-player mode. The pacing of the game works well - you get eased into the first mission, which is not really difficult, and then you work your way up to more difficult fare, learning such valuable techniques as how to use a flamethrower (hint: don't let it "overheat"). It's truly addictive. The one problem I have with this game is that there's not enough single-player stuff. I have the Xbox version, but not Xbox Live, so I'll end up playing this solo most, if not all, of the time. If I had Xbox Live, that would be different, since all the stuff you liked from "Modern Warfare" - perks and whatnot - are back. There's nothing like fragging a few friends - you get a totally different experience from fragging pixelated AI creations. Without online stuff, though, there's only so much to do - apart from the Nazi Zombies mode. (Yeah, you read that right.)

Still, I'm crazy about this game, and I suspect I'll be playing it through a lot. Maybe I'll get a chance to do the deathmatch. I need to practice.

Everything that we love about CoD4 has been left intact and every area that could have been improved upon has been. Can you say "Game of the Year"?