How on Earth do you review a game like Modern Warfare 2? A behemoth of a game set to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2009 (and possibly 2010) by a country mile. A 200lbs school bully whose intimidating bulk pushed a dozen weedier triple-A titles into 2010. The most-anticipated game of the year – the decade, even, if you believe the TV ad's breathless hyperbole. The sequel to the 13 million-plus-selling original with a Metacritic rating of 94% and an IGN score of 9.4. A media event with no less than 35 videos already sitting on IGN's servers and 102 features. Google takes 0.12 seconds to find 38 and a half million hits. And that's a long time for Google. And it's not even been released yet. How? You sit down. And you play it.

And around seven hours later, with campaign completed on regular difficulty, you'll feel like you've just burped and crossed the cutlery on one of the gaming meals of your life. This is the Gordon Ramsey of games: aggressive, confident, spectacular, sweary and garnished with essence of pure testosterone. And you'll need a similar long sit down and a nap afterwards. You'll have travelled a Bond-style tour around the world from the streets and caves of Afghanistan to the snowy wastes of Kazakhstan via the edge of Earth's atmosphere, the sweaty favelas of Rio and even stomped mud across that famous eagle rug in the Oval Office.

Spec Ops is great fun and works well in split-screen as well as online.