This year's Call of Duty is, officially, Modern Warfare 4. It takes place primarily in South Korea, it'll have a regular campaign, and they're bringing back the DMZ extraction mode. But for many, Modern Warfare 4 is significant for one big reason: This is the first Infinity Ward game in four years.
That's the longest that the original Call of Duty makers have gone without making their mark on the series, and a lot has happened in the years between: Activision became an organ of Microsoft, which has been hard at work destroying its reputation with full-breathed AI mania and cooperation with Israel's genocide in Gaza. All the while, Call of Duty has fallen into another rut: Modern Warfare 3 was an unpopular, rushed sequel made by a different team. That was followed by Black Ops 6, which was well-liked, but its own quick followup Black Ops 7 immediately squandered that goodwill.
