To celebrate the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, we're reloading and staying in cover as we review the 10 best hits of the franchise, going from worst to first. Ever since we first played as Private Joe Martin in the original 2003 Call of Duty and starting mowing down Nazis during Operation Overlord (the Battle of Normandy), players felt like their actions were important and greatly impacted both the battlefield and the lives of their fellow soldiers onscreen. There was something about the franchise that just made it standout from its contemporaries. While Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare would help the series become a household name and an online multiplayer phenomenon, lets not forget its origins.

By the time the first Call of Duty debuted in 2003, the Medal of Honor series already had already released 5 difference first-person shooters set during World War II. The first three Call of Duty games were also set in World War II and went toe-to-toe against the Medal of Honor series. Unfortunately, this led to gamers becoming relatively tired with so many first-person shooters taking place in WWII being released in such a relatively short time frame. As a result, Infinity Ward and Activision decided to break away from WWII by moving things to the present with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Utilizing the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, the online multiplayer of Modern Warfare revolutionized the genre, and the series became the FPS juggernaut that it is today.

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