“Lest we forget” is the message we hear every November, but that hasn't diminished the popularity of video games about armed conflict. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; rated mature) is no exception. Developed by Infinity Ward, the game will be released on November 10 and is expected to be one of the best-selling games of the year.

A sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the acclaimed first-person shooter of 2007, Modern Warfare 2 is also set in the present. Earlier games in the Call of Duty franchise are based on conflicts during the Second World War.

At an Xbox Canada media event in Toronto in September, Infinity Ward lead character artist Joel Emslie told the Georgia Straight that the development of Modern Warfare 2 began immediately after its predecessor was released. The new game is set five years after the first Modern Warfare and again deals with a terrorist threat involving Russian ultranationalists.

Scottish actor Kevin McKidd voices Capt. Soap MacTavish in the single-player campaign of Modern Warfare 2. In the first Modern Warfare, gamers controlled Soap, then a sergeant, but now he's the wily veteran passing on his knowledge to the player's character, Sgt. Gary “Roach” Sanderson.

In a demonstration of the campaign mode guided by Emslie, Soap led Roach, controlled by Infinity Ward system administrator Drew McCoy, on an infiltration mission in the middle of a blizzard in Kazakhstan. It began with a harrowing climb up a frozen waterfall, segued into stealth attacks on patrolling soldiers while en route to a terrorist-controlled airfield, exploded into a frenzied firefight, and ended with Soap and Roach careening down a mountainside on snowmobiles.

When asked if the entire game maintains the same breathless pace, Emslie said, “It's not a matter of sustaining the pace. It's a matter of slowing things down.”

It's interesting that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is coming out the day before Remembrance Day. While some might assume that video games trivialize violence and war, the truth is that games like Modern Warfare 2 can actually help us to remember the horrors of warfare.

Halfway through the first Modern Warfare, players were just beginning to relax after a gruelling mission when a nuclear blast occurred. It was a sudden and shocking moment, especially as it led to the death of a character that gamers had been playing. There's something very unsettling about having a character you control die when you don't have any control over the circumstances.

Emslie said that Modern Warfare 2 has similar “jaw-dropping moments”. The objective, he explained, is to “give people the unexpected”.

The big new feature in Modern Warfare 2 is the Spec Ops (special operations) mode, a cooperative game that sends two players, either in split screen or on-line, on missions. Some require the players to get from point A to point B. Others are firefight levels. They all require more tactical play from gamers.

Emslie said that Spec Ops started off as a sandbox for the designers to play in, an opportunity for them to implement ideas that couldn't be worked into the narrative-driven campaign.

In a hands-on session of Spec Ops, I floundered my way through a bombed-out building while being attacked from the front and above. McCoy, my partner for the demo, moved with caution, while I blustered ahead, allowing enemies to get behind us.

We were quickly killed. McCoy simply restarted the mission so we could try again. If only armed conflict in the real world were that simple.