This is largely due to the fact that Infinity Ward has managed to craft a game which perfectly balances the inclusion of some fantastic new features with the maintenance of everything that worked in the first Modern Warfare instalment (COD4) in terms of its core gameplay experience. The control system is smooth and intuitively mapped to the controllers. The visuals have been given a polish and the frame rate is excellent. The sound effects remain largely unchanged from COD4, but this is by no means a bad thing when one considers how integral to the in-game experience they are. The weapons feel weighty and give a satisfying kick depending on their size. Overall, the experience of playing Modern Warfare 2 is very similar to COD4; Infinity Ward hurl everything at the player including the kitchen sink and the result is a white-knuckled, visceral shooter which hits the player at gut-level throughout its entire duration. The sense of a world that exists outside the game is obliterated by the firefights onscreen. The player is both thrilled and disorientated by the constant pace of the action which comes so thick and fast that the player really does feel that death (or at least game over) could come at any second. It's in this way that Modern Warfare 2, more than any other shooter in the market, both challenges the player's reflexes and accuracy while at the same time engaging their primal need for survival. It all adds up to some of the best shooter action money can buy.