First time I ever played Call of Duty I was blown away (Whats this? A WW2 game where you actually fight WITH your squad?!?!?) The fact that you always had your AI buddies backing you up throughout nearly all the game was great!
I feel like CoD4 did huge justice to the series, there are so many points in the game where you literally go "wow, no way." The only scene that vaguely resembles the first CoD in CoD4 is the last scene with the truck... but thats it. I even thought the reason why they had it was because it was paying a little homage to the first CoD game

As for it being a futuristic version of CoD? Well yeah... of course its futuristc mate, CoD was set in WW2, this is set around late 90's to early 2000 so of course its gunna seem more futuristic. Anyway apart from the last sequence I could find very little similarities in the game to the first one. The story and plot was highly enriching, the characters likeable and great and the combat and vast array of situations and combat roles you take on is hugely varied . Thats why I think it's such a good and refreshing fps game, and mate you shouldn't get to down just because some kids haven't played the first CoD, all that means is that they missed out big time
