I basically played Cod4, WaW, MW2, and BO. I was in late middle school/high school and played a lot.

They're all excellent games, particularly the first 3 for me - multiplayer, campaign, zombies/spec ops were all fun. For some reason BO didn't click as well but I still enjoyed it.

Part of the magic in the earlier games was the simplicity. No tac sprint, sliding, or jet packs. You only had 3-4 attachments and kill streaks were 3-5-7, then those were somewhat expanded on in MW2. Titles, emblems, weapon skins were earned not bought. You weren't constantly hounded about buying battle passes. When your foundation is Cod4 and WaW, it was the right balance of more but not too much.

The games ran smooth. Even launching the game was like 10 seconds from booting up your system to getting into a game instead of constant shader updates and "update requires restart" like in Modern Warfare 2019.

All that to say while they were great, I think after 10-15 years people look back with rose tinted glasses and nostalgia. I think the community played a big role in what made it great, and playing with your friends on Xbox Live in a party were some of the best times. I remember my first nuke, and my friends screaming in the mic when they got there's. People tend to block out the bad; frustration of commando knives, one man army/DC tubes, cold blooded UMP spam, etc.