E3: Modern Warfare 2

Tension comes next, as mines are placed and files are downloaded, all while patrols tramp past mere inches away. There's a delicious sense of inevitability as you wait for things to go wrong. They do, of course, and after an understated aircraft hangar standoff between MacTavish and a dozen enemy soldiers, in which you have a chance to provide cover fire, Infinity Ward makes the timely switch from quiet to commotion as gunfire erupts, and the slow, teasing progression of kill-shots and incremental advances gives way to a headlong guided rumble that fills the sky with smoke and the sound of gunfire.

It's here above everywhere else that Infinity Ward really sets itself apart from a lot of its competition, driving you forward through something that really feels like chaos, throwing you past smart combinations of geometry and enemy emplacements as you fight back out of the military installation, the previously windswept calm replaced with ricochets and blood, the jets that rose out of the mist a few minutes ago reduced to burning rubble as attackers take cover behind wheel wells. All the while, whether they're guiding your eye with a distant explosion or directing you with alarm sirens and screams, the developers have proved themselves masters of the linear shooter.

After that, the ensuing snowmobile chase across the mountains is almost unnecessary, but the game never breaks a sweat or drops a frame as you blast off downhill, taking out enemies from all angles, and ducking falling trees, while MacTavish hijacks his own ride with a single swing of his ice pick. Suddenly, a tense, confined game is thrown wide open, with slopes rolling as far as the eye can see, and the pace changing from a thoughtful trek from one advantageous position to the next, to an all-out scramble for the safety of your waiting helicopter. It feels like a rollercoaster, but the truth is, even back there when Modern Warfare 2 was at its most stately, you were already on one.

The snowmobile sequence is apparently made possible by the team's new texture-streaming technology, which allows for larger environments without a jarring loss of detail, and, despite the speed of the delivery, this remains a very detailed game. From the tiny icicles hanging from window ledges, to the snow building up on the flapping tarpaulins that cover the base's crates, there's something to see everywhere you look, and the animation's as strong as the environment: MacTavish's practiced swipe of the ice pick, or the manner in which he readjusts his ropes after a long climb, are entirely natural, and character and weapon models boast both detailed mapping and normal mapping.