Gavin Custard said as soon as he got home from class, he grabbed a virtual .50 Caliber Barret sniper rifle with the hopes of going on an online killing spree. His goal is to kill seven online players in a row without dying so he can call in a helicopter that will rack up his kill score even further.

Custard, Wichita junior, is among the many students from the University of Kansas and the rest of the world that can’t get enough of “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” which was nominated as the 2008 Game of the Year by many video game review boards including Game Daily.

“It’s by far the most realistic first-person shooter game I’ve ever played,” said Custard, who bought the game the day it came out.

“Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” is the first of the Call of Duty series to move from the World War II era to the 21st century, where combat takes place on modern battlefields in Europe and the Middle East.

In “story mode,” gamers switch back and forth from fighting in the Middle East as U.S. Marines to fighting in the old Soviet Union as British Special Air Service units.

However, most of the game’s prestige comes from its online multi-player game play, which according to an Activision press release, currently makes it the No. 1 title sold for Xbox Live.

As gamers play the multi-player version of the game, they can choose everything from the gun they want to shoot to the type of grenade – explosive, stun, flash and smoke – they want to throw.

During online multi-player gameplay, gamers are awarded a radar indicator, air strikes and a helicopter for kill streaks – killing a number of bad guys in a row without dying.

Cameron Johnson, Independence sophomore, said he thought “Call of Duty 4” was the best game since the “Halo” series.

“I’ve played ‘Halo’ for a long time, and what I like about this game is that it’s more about strategizing and teamwork instead of just run-and-gun like on ‘Halo,’” Johnson said.

Players earn points for making kills and completing challenges. As their points go up, they are promoted to higher military ranks, which allows them to unlock new weapons, challenges and perks.

The highest level is 55, but once that level is reached, players have the option of going through prestige mode, which starts them back at level 1 with a badge that shows how many times that player has reached level 55. Players can only go through prestige mode 10 times before they’ve reached the peak of what they can accomplish, which could take weeks.

Zach Flurry, Andover Senior, said he played the game on multi-player for 10 hours every day over winter break when he first got the game.

“When I first got it I sucked, but just seeing yourself get better and better is the best part of the game,” Flurry said. “That’s what makes it so addicting.”

Flurry and two of his friends from the University of Kansas even created their own online gamer clan called “The Cron Clan.”

Paul Houston, former KU student, said after his friend got the game during winter break, he lived on his friend’s couch for two days straight.

“We would stay up and play until five in the morning, go to bed, wake up at noon and play it until five in the morning over and over again for days,” Houston said. “We seriously didn’t have a life for awhile.”

Houston said he and his friends would sometimes stay up so late, they would hear British gamers online through their headsets who were just waking up in England.

Flurry said he has seen the flip side of this when he’s woken up to find himself playing with British gamers who haven’t gone to bed yet.

“They just got back from the bar from drinking or God knows what and I just woke up so I’m laughing my ass off,” he said.

—Edited by Samuel Lamb