We've already had a first look at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and we've seen the multiplayer video that was pre-alpha, but this was the first chance for us to snatch up the controller and get our hands dirty in the actual game. Sure, it's a beta build, but the first thing we can say is yes ... it does look that good.

The second thing we can say is yes ... it does look that good, and then some. Activision had an event at a trendy bar / club in Los Angeles yesterday, and we were among one of the first groups to get our game on outside of Infinity Ward. Despite some major router issues on their end that delayed things by a couple of hours, the game still managed to blow us away thoroughly.

While not as visually or aesthetically appealing as the Children of Men-esque landscape in a previous trailer, this footage from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer match gives a feeling for how their designing death match, as all we see in thirty seconds is our perspective shooter running in with a rifle, switching to pistol and getting shot. Thrilling.

The game is still in pre-alpha but already looking pretty. You know the drill: video embedded after the break.

Over at Game Videos there is some new footage from a very early, pre-alpha build of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The scene, entitled "Bog Rescue," takes place in a desolate, urban environment that reminds us of the backdrop for the last one-third of the film Children of Men.

Much of the combat takes place through night vision goggles, and a visible laser shoots out from your gun to the turret -- when you see a wall of laser sights shoot out from flanking buildings, you get a feel for the atmosphere developers Infinity Ward are going for. Video embedded above.

Infinity Ward's studio head Grant Collier, who we reported yesterday was unhappy with the overuse of sandbox gameplay and destructible environments, told IGN in an interview that there was no interest in using Live Anywhere for PC and Xbox 360 cross-play.

The Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developer put it bluntly: "We said no and they didn't call back." Clarifying, Collier said "[it's cool] if you're playing online poker, but who wants to be playing an RTS on a console and have some guy on a PC clicking and dragging all his troops, attacking your base while you're sitting there with your thumb sticks." The keyboard/mouse vs. gamepad argument is a long-standing battle, and clearly Collier feels that they cannot be equals for fast-paced strategy or first-person shooter titles.

Live Anywhere is currently in use by Halo 2 (update: nevermind), Shadowrun and the action-packed Uno.

Sandbox gameplay. Destructible environments. Those are a few of the latest video game buzzwords used to sell ideas, and Grant Collier, studio head of Infinity Ward (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), is not happy with it.

In an interview with IGN, Collier sees a problematic trend with using sandbox gameplay and "total destructibility" without first considering if it will make the game fun. "And total destructibility, you can really ruin the gameplay," he said.

Collier cites Counter-Strike's über-popular Dust map, where the two choke points serve as the focal point of entertainment, and how that could be compromised with destructible environments.

"It's not fun because you can blow up everything," he said, "it's fun because you know where the action's going to be and there's races against time to get to that action."

"So I think right now it's a fad, and the fad will pass, we're not going to be bite on in it - we want the game to be fun first, and destructibility comes second," he said. The over-indulgence may be a fad, but the interaction that destructible environments and sandbox gameplay adds is something that isn't (and shouldn't) go away, and we think Collier would agree that said features, if properly implemented, can potentially augment gameplay.

Unfortunately, we can't attribute Michael Pachter's warning to Activision as a direct quote, as analysts are forbidden from saying "Hey" and are forced to substitute the informal greeting with "pardon me" or "pay attention to me, please." In commenting on Activision's glowing fiscal report and strong NPD presence to GameDaily BIZ, Pachter draws attention to several challenges Activision faces in the coming months. "All things are not perfect in Activision's world," he says.

Pachter predicts that the glaring imperfections (to put it mildly) highlighted by reviewers in the Spider-Man 3 games will curtail sales, and that Call of Duty 4's proposed Iraq setting may prove to leave an equally bad taste in the consumer's mouth. More interestingly, the analyst notes that if Harmonix's EA-published Rock Band is fully playable with just a guitar controller, it will "compete quite favorably with Activision's [Guitar Hero]." He suspects the instrument protagonist genre will remain kind to RedOctane's owner, but adds that "new entrants will impact future growth of the band." Or did he mean brand?

Once the dust settles in the battle of the fake bands, will Pachter still stand by his belief that Activision was right to buy RedOctane over Harmonix?

As the first game under the Windows Live brand to bring both PC and Xbox 360 gamers together, Shadowrun isn't the most casual-friendly title imaginable. So unexpectedly complex that after the initial training exercises and multiplayer matches, we were overwhelmed to say the least. A few hours and a dozen or so matches later, it hadn't fully connected, but the pieces were starting to fall into place.

Like we said in our previous coverage of the game, Shadowrun is about finding your niche and sticking to it. In other shooters, your niche can be as simple as controlling the rocket launcher or defending the flag. In Shadowrun, it's defined by the powers you equip, how you utilize them and what role you take in your group. Even if you consider yourself a sponge for tactical knowledge, a learning curve this high won't be conquered in your first hour of play. And for a high profile, predominantly multiplayer shooter, that could spell trouble for Microsoft and FASA Studios.

If you've ever wanted to see just how ugly modern game development can get, Gamasutra has just the article for you. Released in November 2004, Spark Interactive's Call of Duty: Finest Hour is still home to plenty of discussion, as long as you're looking in a courtroom to find it.

The story itself begins in 2002 when future employees of Spark were still employed by Electronic Arts Los Angeles and, even better, actively working on the Medal of Honor series. It all hit the fan about the time twenty of EA's employees jumped ship over to the Activision owned Spark Interactive and it has been trouble ever since.

Considering all the roadblocks and meltdowns that occurred during the development of Finest Hour, it's amazing that it even found its way to store shelves in the amount of time given. Unfortunately, the legal battle it stirred up will long outlast the impact of the game itself.

Gamasutra published the full development contract for Call of Duty: Finest Hour. The backstory is in 2005 developer Spark sued Activision for "breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation." Activision "counter-sued for fraud, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, trade-mark infringement, false designation of origin, and false advertising." To make the legal jargon make sense to those without a law degree, Gamastura got together three game attorneys to comment on every page of the contract. The document includes "milestone payment specifics" and other tidbits on the purely business side of game development. This contract was publicly released as part of the legal dispute between Activision and developer Spark.

Attorney Tom Buscaglia explains, "Contracts such as these are rarely made public because they inevitably contain confidentiality provisions that prohibit the publication of or even talking about their terms. But once the contract was filed as an exhibit in the lawsuit, and then unsealed by the court, the contract became public information." It's a fascinating read for those interested in learning what goes on behind-the-scenes. Plus, it beats the normal way of getting information about development: Hooking up code monkeys with a lot of booze at the Game Developers Conference and pumping them for information.

The first in a series of new Call of Duty 3 maps is now available to Xbox Live Gold members. Dubbed "Champs," the mid-sized map is free to download; although the forthcoming Valor Map Pack won't be (guess Activision couldn't find a sponsor). Still, with Gears maps yesterday, and a COD3 map today, we're content -- and glad to have the spare change to spend elsewhere.

"We can't go outside, so I prefer to keep inside and keep myself alive."

The words are from Wisam, a gamer living in Baghdad. Wisam is a rarity, and listening to his story on Iraq blog / vlog Alive In Baghdad explains why. Wisam, a recent graduate of the Baghdad University English Department, explains that he spends upwards of $200 on electricity each month -- partly from a local generator that runs 4 p.m. until midnight and partly from the fuel he buys for his personal generator. That's a hefty sum

Wisam said he learned his English from games such as Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. MTV News' Stephen Totilo has a thorough piece on Wisam and the crew of Alive in Baghdad. Among the game-related topics discussed, Wisam talked about the decline in interest for war shooters like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. "We hate the attacking, the gunfire in games," Wisam told MTV News. "We started to hate it."

In a sad note, Wisam described how Grand Theft Auto is much like Baghdad right now. Omar Abdullah, who interviewed Wisam for Alive in Baghdad, concurred, telling MTV News that "it was very, very similar to Baghdad. We were like, 'Oh my God. These are the same actions that happen in Baghdad.' There are some places that are divided. For each place, there is a gang ruling that place. You can go down the street and drive any car. If you want to jump on a motorcycle, you can do it."

With all the news that circulates about Baghdad, include tonight's U.S. Presidential address, it's thought-provoking to see a often missed perspective on the region.

The Call of Duty 3 Multiplayer Team released its Xbox 360 patch today, addressing Ranked and Player Match issues (full details here). The fix-up seems in part to be preparation for a map pack release expected after the holidays. With its multiplayer better intact, Activision hopes to build on the small fortune its amassed selling COD-related premium content to Xbox Live users.

Valor Map Pack (800 points) will include five multiplayer maps; Activision will also offer an additional map, "Champs," for free. Set in Port Royal de Champs, France, the bonus map is ideal for small- to mid-sized matches. No announcement has been made about offering the Valor maps or alternative content to PlayStation 3 COD3 players.

For those of you who just can't wait until Sunday to get your hands on something Wii-branded, some North American Gamestop stores are already selling select Wii games that were shipped to stores on Tuesday. Our local store was selling Super Moneky Ball: Banana Blitz, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Call of Duty 3, and GT Pro Series (other titles were in stock but explicitly embargoed until launch day). Of course, supplies and availability may vary at your local store, so call ahead first if you're planning on jumping the gun.

While you obviously won't be able to actually play the games until you have your hands on the system this weekend, you can stand them up next to your Wii accessories from Target and stare at them lovingly as you count down the seconds.

Back in March, some reliable intel informed us that the Call of Duty franchise was splitting off in two directions. We learned that a studio other than Infinity Ward was working on another WWII-based CoD entry. As suspected, this turned out to be Treyarch's Call of Duty 3. Our sources also detailed Infinity Ward's next CoD effort, dubbed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which would introduce the series to the 'war on terror.'

Some eight months later, Amped IGO reports its sources have re-confirmed Infinity Ward's modern-day CoD installment. The major bullet point posted in this report is that each rendered head will feature 16 critical points of contact, allowing players to experiment with trick shots like spinning an enemy's helmet by shooting the corresponding point. Allegedly, you'll even be able to blast off your enemy's ear.

Amped also claims that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4 (what Amped refers to the game as) will bring the franchise back to PC (in addition to consoles) -- Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 is currently console-only. Sources have placed multiplayer support at up to 54 players.

Someone call Activision and let 'em know that 720p means 1280x720, please. Games-Aktuell, a German gaming outlet, has discovered that Call of Duty 3 and Tony Hawk's Project 8 are not running at a 720p high-def resolution.

When the tests were run, CoD3 was shown to be running at 1040x620 pixels and THP8 at 1040x584 pixels. The pixel drop reflects a resolution drop of 30% and 34%, respectively. The resolution drop could be assumed to help keep framerates up, but THP8 reportedly has framerate problems. So what's up?

Activision Germany told Cynamite.de that they weren't aware of the problem and are looking into it. Lower resolution is not something that normally just happens by accident, but given the recent quality assurance problems with CoD3, these resolution problems may just be another woeful mistake. If intentional, why the resolution drop in THP8 when the 360 is clearly powerful enough to handle something like Gears of War just fine?

We've included a machine-translated link of the original German post.