My opinion on the whole COD series is that they are nice singleplayer games, the whole atmosphere in MW3 with the invasion of New York, the attack on the Oscar II, very nice. With MW2 you have the nuclear explosion in space, and some very cinematic scenes. It may be on rails somewhat, but then again so are most FPSs and at least there is some attempt at realistic modelling of units, even if their deployment (an Oscar II that close to shore?) is perhaps a bit suspect (suddenly, Russians, thousands of them).
Multiplayer is...well, it's the Mos Eisley of the online FPS world. So probably best avoided, but I'll say this for the makers of COD, they can tell a story, and tell it cinematically, and make Michael Bay jealous. It's not going to win any Oscars or literature prizes, but it sure looks good.
Now if only they'd do one for a Cold War gone hot in West Germany...wouldn't be a particularly long game though, four days of retreating followed by nuclear apocalypse.
