Not a fan of playing soldier boy.

The original Call of Duty (and its expansion pack, United Offensive) still remains my favourite. I've enjoyed quite a few games in the series (although I no longer buy CoD games due to dedicated servers being eliminated/marginalised), but the original is the one that I always love to come back to.

If it didn't have that damned regenerating health, I'd say World at War, with CoD 2 close second. Since most of the games have health regen, the answer is obviously CoD 1.

Brothers in Arms.

The original game or the first Modern Warfare. The others are pretty derivative and the Modern Warfare sequels really fucked up the pacing and story.

I liked World at War's Russian campaign a good bit, but the Pacific one sucked.

The first Call of Duty definitely.

World at War is good and so is Call of Duty 4.

So, I have a question for you guys. I've had Call of Duty 2 on disc, but hadn't gotten around to playing it until reading this thread and... why do you guys like it so much? I mean, it plays ok, but it just isn't as engaging as Call of Duty 4 and beyond games (I haven't played MW3 of BO2, so, you know). I'm part way through the American campaign and I'm thinking I'm close enough to done.

I think my list looks like this:

1) Black Ops
2) World at War
3) Modern Warfare 2
4) Call of Duty 4
5) Call of Duty 2

Black Ops barely beats out World at War purely by virtue of having "Five." I look forward to eventually playing Call of Duty 1 at some point.

I mean 2 and up are basically the same game, it's only really aesthetics that change. I liked 2 at the time because it felt new and different and looked amazing, but it not holding up to all the sequels wouldn't surprise me.

Well, from 4 on they had a story, that tended towards the simple, but effective. 2... doesn't have that. It feels like a greatest hits compilation, except it's an early game. Also they have terrible vehicle levels. I hate vehicle levels in this series.

I think the campaign i enjoyed the most for it's story was Black Ops 2. It's probably the only COD game that goes beyond the cliché "bad guys x good american guys". It even has some branching paths and storylines, which was a welcome addition to break the linearity a bit. The villain has a strong personality, he's not just a random terrorist trying to take over the world for no reason, he's a guy you can actually sympathize with. It's a very well written story for a FPS. I'd love to see mature storylines like this one in future CODs. I think Treyarch is doing a much better job for the franchise than Infinity Ward in the last few games. Sure COD reached it's peak with Inifinity Ward (and was created by IW), but after the first MW nothing really good came out from them.

Black Ops 2 also has the best soundtrack of all the COD games. The main theme song was composed by Trent Reznor and it's awesome, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U9MIKA4uV8 . There's even a song composed by Avenged Sevenfold which is just as great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJbrTgUL0Dk .

Gameplay wise i think i still prefer the first COD. Multiplayer wise they're all pretty much the same after MW, except for some balance issues here and there and different killstreaks. The one i have played the most in multiplayer was MW3, but i wouldn't call it the best since it has some serious balancing issues (the MP7 being extremely powerful, for example). The first MW for me was the worst, especially with those fucking annoying martyrdom and last stand perks (which later became death streaks instead of perks). Black Ops 1 and 2 are balanced enough in my opinion. Some people hate the progression system in these games, i actually like it. I like getting an incentive for playing and doing well in online games. And i don't think it makes the game unbalanced.