It’s that time of year again….Call of Duty time! In honor of the industries biggest military shooter, we decided to dedicate this week’s Top 5 to, well, military shooters!

Sam:

5. Medal of Honor: Frontline (Xbox)

In my opinion this is the best World War 2 shooter that we’ve ever seen. The stellar campaign took you all over the place, but its highlight is very likely the first level of the game. The D-Day invasion is dramatic, tense, challenging and a hell of a lot of fun. From there the campaign has you take on stealth missions, tactical skirmishes, and one very evil Nazi. There are a hell of a lot of WW2 shooters out there, but if you are looking for something to scratch that killing Nazis itch, Medal of Honor: Frontline is your best bet.

4. Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox)

Along with Halo 2, this game established Xbox Live as the best place to gather with a group of your friends and shoot strangers from across the country. Rainbow Six 3 is the reason I bought Xbox Live way back when, and it’s competitive online-scene kept me and my friends playing for months. It also featured a very good campaign that was playable with either an AI squad or a group of friends. Along with some great guns and level design, Rainbow Six 3’s execution on the three core elements of competitive, co-op, and solo play make it a top 5 candidate for sure.

3. Counter-Strike (PC)

Is it the Best Mod of all time? Maybe. Personally, I’d give that title to Dota, but I’d respect anyone who said it was Counter-Strike. Regardless it is definitely one of the best military shooters of all time. A Half-life mod, Counter-Strike was officially acquired by Valve and released in 2000. It helped to pioneer multiplayer loadouts, and tactical cover-based FPS game play. Counter-Strike and it’s sequels continue to be competitive multiplayer mainstays, generating tournaments with prize pools that number in the hundreds of thousands.

2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon (PC)

This is the first military shooter I ever played and therefore holds a special place in my heart. But beyond that, Ghost Recon earns a place on this list because of it’s excellent squad mechanics and tactical combat. Ghost Recon puts you in charge of six elite soldiers and allows you to assign them 4 distinct classes and up to 3 squads. Then you are pretty much set free in the level to accomplish the mission objectives as you see fit. Pair that with a satisfying upgrade system, specialist soldiers, and perma-death and you have one of the best squad-based military shooters ever.

 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)

Ghillie. Suit. Level. The game that defined the current swath of Call of Duty games is arguably still the best of them all. It features an unbelievable campaign, filled with outstanding set-piece moments and a level that would likely make it into the top 10 first person shooter levels of all time. Modern Warfare gave us a world that was ready to collapse and filled it with nasty villains, badass allies, and plenty of water-cooler moments. And on top of that it gave us the multiplayer model upon which just about every military shooter since has been based.

John:

5. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand may not be viewed as a straight up military shooter, but this game is actually closer to military than you might realize. Blood on the Sand is a thugged out, over-the-top shooter now, but it actually started life as a serious military shooter based on a series of Robert Ludlum novels. Apparently, the people in charge got cold feet, and the game was switched to include a plot about 50 Cent. This change, in my opinion, was quite fantastic because Blood on the Sand became a solid, yet average shooter with a dedicated swear button. Plus, who wouldn’t want to track down a diamond-encrusted skull while blowing up countless helicopters and nameless soldiers?

4. Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

Army of Two isn’t a revered game series. Actually, most critics view Army of Two as a series of games with decent potential and almost no fulfillment. These critics are more accurate than I would like to believe, but I truly don’t care. Army of Two is one of the most entertaining series I have ever played, and Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is the best entry in the series. The Devil’s Cartel follows a mercenary group as they deal with an evil cartel in Mexico. Honestly, the plot doesn’t really matter because the game plays like a virtual version of Bad Boys, complete with ridiculous collapsing hotels, cooperative play, and gigantic gun fights. More importantly, Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel had an achievement for shooting New Era hats off of gang members.

3. Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Sam Fisher has been known as the master of political intrigue and spy thrillers for many years, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist just added to that reputation while adding in some new features. Splinter Cell: Blacklist followed Sam Fisher and his crack team of spies as they searched for a new threat against the world. Ubisoft also added multiple elements to Blacklist including a central hub for missions and new takedowns that seemed to be inspired by Assassins Creed. On top of all these additions, Ubisoft brought back the ability to carry and hide bodies that had been missing in Splinter Cell: Conviction. The result was a great return to the old school Splinter Cell games and the new additions/interesting story made it a great military shooter, albeit one with a different pacing.

2. Spec Ops: The Line

As far as military shooters go, Spec Ops: The Line was one of the most emotionally draining games of the last generation. Sure, the shooting and action weren’t amazing, but they took a lesser role to the exceptionally crafted story. Of course, a great story is only as strong as the actors in the roles. Nolan North did a fantastic job portraying Captain Martin Walker during his slow descent into madness that was brought on by the horrors of war. Even better, North forced you to follow his mad descent during horrible sequences like murdering civilians with white phosphorous mortars. Spec Ops: The Line was a solid shooter with a great story and even better acting.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is by far the greatest military shooter ever made. This game created a short, but extremely memorable campaign and paired it with the most addicting multiplayer mode ever created. Infinity Ward created a progression system just for their multiplayer mode that unlocked new weapons and perks as you racked up the kills. This progression system turned Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare into the most addicting multiplayer game around. Additionally, All Ghillied Up is one of the single most entertaining and tense missions around. Sneaking through the tall grass while surrounded by enemy soldiers and tanks was extremely stressful, but it made for an intensely satisfying experience. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the must-play games from the last generation, and it rightly deserves to be listed as the best military shooter around.

Sean:

5. Call of Duty 2

I’m kind of playing my hand here, but I really enjoy the arcadey, action movie fun of the Call of Duty series and it all started with Call of Duty 2. Borrowed from a friend when I first got my Xbox 360, I started the game was immediately blown away. From the opening sequence on D-Day, and the assault of Pointe du Hoc, the game throws you right into the heat of the battle, with fellow soldiers dying all around you, the game presents a sense of scale unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The game uses an NPC generator that constantly replaces fallen comrades with new ones, giving you the feeling you’re involved in something bigger than yourself. Something that I am slightly disappointing that the series has shied away from in the past several installments. I would like to have that scale back with a modern or futuristic setting. Anyway, I enjoyed Call of Duty 2 so much that I went out immediately and picked up Call of Duty 3….but that’s for another conversation.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

The campaign was definitely awesome, but it does lack some of that awe factor provided by Call of Duty 4. However, the muliplayer was on a whole other level. Taking the concept of sequel and how it should be bigger, better and more of everything, Modern Warfare 2 succeeds in spades. More weapons, more gear, and more killstreaks, it took what worked in Call of Duty 4 and improved upon it in nearly every way. The only reason why it’s not higher on my list is because unfortunately it was also some of the most annoyingly hacked/glitched gaming while it was still popular. Joining games in which you would literally be spawn trapped, people running a double speed due to a care package glitch and Akimbo Model 1887’s that had sniper accuracy from 100’s of feet away kind of soured the experience for anyone but the worst griefers. Still though, when it worked, it worked brilliantly.

3. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighther

I came to GRAW pretty late. Regardless of missing the zeitgeist, I’m glad I did get to finally play it because it’s a really fantastic game. With good third person controls, awesome weaponry – like a gun that can place over cover or around walls to snipe targets, GRAW was truly the trail blazer for futuristic weaponry in the militarily shooter genre. Good stuff.

2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas

I have yet to experience better teammate AI than exists in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Giving commands to “breach and clear” or “smoke and clear” always, without fail, sent your AI teammates into a room and they would flashbang, smoke, grenade the room, and kill everyone until no one was left standing. “Weapons free” meant they could shoot “Tangos” on sight, “Go silent” caused them to attach their suppressors and so on. In fact, the AI was so good you could play whole levels without firing a shot. The muliplayer remains my first and favorite experience of playing online. Communication is key to success and everyone has a role on the team. Playing hours upon hours of Attack and Defend on Calypso Casino never got old. The game is that good. Rainbow Six: Vegas is tough to beat….except by one game….

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

3 for 3. It may seem trite and predictable to have Call of Duty 4 as the number one game on my list, but I honestly can’t think of another game in the genre I’ve sank more hours into and have enjoyed as much. It’s hard to remember after every game in the series working extra hard to top it, but the campaign in Call of Duty 4 was mind-blowing and exhilarating. With pitch perfect pacing, a simple but fun action movie plot, and memorable supporting characters and villains, it was ahead of its time and set the bar so high that none of the other games in the series, or many others, have been able to top it. And then there’s that multiplayer. Addictive as crack, as well as fun an rewarding, I spent well over 1000 hours over the course of 2 years and I still go back to it.  Be it the ground breaking campaign, or the ground breaking multiplayer, the game set such a bar for console shooters that nearly every game with shooting has aped it in some way.

So there you have some of the We The Nerdy games teams favorite Military Shooters. It’s a pretty big genre so I know there are some left off our lists that you preferred. So let us know how wrong were are in the comments!