Call of Duty

No franchise has shaped the modern blockbuster shooter more than Call of Duty, and few have reinvented themselves so often to stay on top. It began in the trenches and beaches of World War II (the original, Finest Hour, World at War), then detonated the genre with 2007's Modern Warfare, whose cinematic set pieces and present-day paranoia became the template everyone copied.

Since then the series has run on parallel tracks: the grounded Modern Warfare line, the conspiracy-soaked Black Ops timeline, and one-off swings into future combat and outright spectacle. Warzone turned it into a free-to-play battle royale that never really ends. Whatever you make of its annual cadence, this is the closest gaming has to a yearly tentpole, equal parts technical showcase and cultural lightning rod.

The Call of Duty franchise spans 32 games in the CrossBinge catalog.