Modern Warfare a very welcome return to form

CALL of Duty: Modern Warfare will not ever reach the dizzying heights of its venerable namesake, but it nevertheless feels like a giant leap forwards for a series that has lost its way and perhaps has spent too much time taking notes from its peers.

A true return to form for Modern Warfare wouldn’t be possible without the reintroduction of the campaign mode, something which was glaringly absent from last years effort from Treyarch. That being said, while so desperately reaching towards the provocative and controversial, Modern Warfare’s latest campaign never really stops toeing the line. Nonetheless, the return of Captain John Price combined with the Russians being the bad guys again are sure to draw misty-eyed nostalgia from long-time fans of the series.

Despite the relatively short runtime of the campaign - par for the course for Call of Duty - the five-hour story is as masterfully crafted as we would expect for the veteran game studio. Chock full of surprises, morally grey moments and a Hollywood blockbuster-esque attention to detail, no true fan of the series could possibly be disappointed.

That’s not to say that Call of Duty sticks to the status quo of the series thusfar, there are a number of tender and surprising moments devoid of the Michael Bay audience blinding typical of the series. One such scene has you play as a child with dialogue choices, while another takes the weapons completely from your hands and tasks you with a stealth mission in an embassy building.

Elsewhere Modern Warfare’s multiplayer is a beautiful but flawed beast. The return to form wouldn’t be complete without otherwise good maps ruined by spawn camping and points of extremely limited engagement and the latest instalment to the series doesn’t disappoint in that regard.

What is a most welcome diversion from the paltry selection of decent maps is the return of Ground War. Taking place on either one of two gargantuan maps, Ground War features teams of 32 players each being divided into four-person squads and furnished with helicopters, tanks, ATVs and other vehicles to fight for control of five points. The various other multiplayer modes are much of the same, but still acting as very welcome palate cleansers should you tire of one mode or another.

Overall Modern Warfare is a very welcome return to form for a series that seems to have lost its way in the last five years or so. A fantastic effort from a legendary studio. ‘Orinoco Flow’ is the song that provided Enya with a springboard to international fame and fortune. Released as the lead single from the Donegal singer’s second solo album ‘Watermark’, it had a threeweek run at the top of the UK singles chart and was a top thirty hit in the US.

Enya (Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin) began her musical journey in 1980 when she joined her siblings and uncles on Clannad as keyboard player and backing singer. She left to pursue a solo career two years later, taking with her Clannad manager and producer Nicky Ryan, and his wife Roma Ryan, as her lyricist.

1985 was a pivotal year: on the urging of Nicky, the name was changed from Eithne to Enya (to make it easier to pronounce), and Enya was commissioned to write music for the six-part BBC TV documentary series ‘The Celts’. When a selection of that music was released in 1987 as Enya’s debut album, it attracted the ear of Warner Music UK chairman Rob Dickins and a recording contract was duly offered and signed.

Clannad fan Dickins recognised Enya’s talent but didn’t foresee the commercial success. Famously, he said: ‘Sometimes you sign an act to make money, and sometimes you sign an act to make music. This was clearly the latter ... I just wanted to be involved with this music.’

Credited as a producer on the Watermark album, he is referenced in the lyrics of ‘Orinoco Flow’, in the line ‘We can steer, we can near, with Rob Dickins at the wheel’.

Enya’s career took dramatic flight after the success of ‘Orinoco Flow’ and ‘Watermark’.

The girl from Gweedore is now one of the best-selling music artists of all time with sales of 26.5 million albums in the United States alone, and an estimated 75 million records worldwide.

She is Ireland’s bestselling solo artist and the country’s secondbestselling artist after U2.