Why though?

I'll always be partial to Modern Warfare 2 simply because of the variety of ways to play. There were a lot of complaints regarding the game's balance, but it just simply offered so many fun ways to play and do well.

Well i think it has the best single player. I probably also give that extra points as it was the first one i played and have never played a game half as much as that one, i spent 16 days on the online compared to 7 days combined across WAW, MW2, Black Ops and MW3.

I also think it had the best multiplayer maps of them all.

I think Call of Duty 2 is a very underappreciated game. Like Modern Warfare, it has an excellent campaign. But unlike Modern Warfare, its campaign isn't too short.

CoD 2 will always be my favorite. I do so enjoy killing nazis and there were so many to kill in that game!

Infact its hard to pick a favourite they all have different things going for them, i thought WAW single player was much worse than COD4s as was the online, but it had the Zombie mode and i spent hours on that.

MW2 had a better campaign and online than WAW, but it didnt have Zombies though it did have Spec Ops which was also pretty fun and i spent hours getting those 69 stars but it didnt have the replay value of the Zombies, but it didnt get old like the Zombies either.

Black Ops probably has the best multiplayer overall but i found the maps boring and the campaign was pretty weak but it also had Zombies come back.

MW3 has the best campaign since COD4, the Spec Ops and Survival missions are kinda fun and different and i havent played a great deal of the multiplayer yet but it doesnt seem as good as Black Ops.

Which is the best CoD game? None of the ones in the poll. Either the first or second one. Put of all those in your poll, I'd have to go with the original Modern Warfare, the only one of those that I actually enjoyed.

Andrespetmonkey; going four years back in time is nostalgia now? I feel so old!

MW2.

Once you got to grips with the game you could get some huge killing sprees going, and overall the game felt very rewarding, especially trying to unlock all the unique callsigns.

As Montana mentioned, there was a variety to the gameplay. I had load outs made for different levels, so you would be switching from a sniper class with a heartbeat sensor on one map, to a shotgun with marathon for the very next game. For the most part, most set ups could be viable on most maps, so it came down to a choice of how you wanted to play.

You also had enough health that you could evade and avoid enemy fire if you reacted quickly enough, leading to some hilarious situations where you enter a room with 3 enemy's, all trying to shoot you, and you wipe them all with a shotgun.

I was really hoping MW3 would just be an improvement of MW2, but so far the awful maps and Lower health (I think?) have really ruined it for me. It can be fun, just not on the same level as MW2.

Black ops, Great Single player + Great Multi + Zombies.

MW3 has been good, not liking most of the maps at all though.

@ Bolded

You put it perfectly, MW2 felt quite similar to COD4 in the campaign too even if the story became convoluted, MW3 feels like a Michael Bay movie.

I also liked COD5 but it lacked something the Modern Warfare game had, especially in the multiplayer. Zombies was a great idea though, absolutely brilliant mini game.

Campaign: COD4 > MW2 = COD5 > MW3

Online: COD4 > MW2 >>> COD5 = MW3

At first I thought MW3 was pretty great and almost as good as the other Modern Warfare games, then I realised how shitty the story was and how over the top the campaign was. I realised how bland the Spec Ops was and even though Survival is pretty good it is nowhere near as fun or original as Nazi Zombies, and lastly I realised how broken the online was. Maps are boring and poorly designed, weapons feel samey and they aren't as diverse as they were in the other COD games, the game has unexplained lag spikes making it almost unplayable and I don't know if this is just XBL or not but I'm sick to death of people abusing weaknesses in the games' balance. Don't even get me started on the campers.