Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Scott Tortorice

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Steam has been having a F2P weekend for CoD:MW3, so out of curiosity I gave it a try. Now I have to say that I am hooked. :) I'm not the biggest CoD fan, but I have played the very first CoD, CoD:MW1 and CoD: Black Ops (the worse of the bunch due to game breaking bugs on the PC version - thanks Treyarch :nada:). With that in mind, it is interesting to see how CoD has evolved over the years.

MW1 had claustrophobicly small maps that were sheer madness; that game was a true "run and gun" as if you stood in place for more than a few seconds, you would inevitably be gunned down by some player that spawned behind you. Add in a never ending crescendo of explosions and gunfire, and you had what always seemed to me to be a lunatic asylum that somehow had gotten its hands on weaponry. :) Black Ops, on the other hands, showed some improvement by including larger maps (not much larger, mind you), and a definitive toning down of airstrikes. BlOps would have been a nice evolution of the series but for the aforementioned PC bugs that ruined the game for me (how would you like to log on one day and find that your level and gear had been taken away by a bug? Happened three times to me alone. :().

And now MW3 is here, and you can see the evolution again. After spending about three hours in MP in MW3, you can definitely see that Battlefield influenced MW3. The maps have been upsized again (but nowhere nearly as large as those in BC2 or BF3, naturally), so there is more room for maneuver, as well as camping. MW3 even features a new conquest mode with sizable maps (again, not BF3 sizable), 18 players and longer timed rounds a la Battlefield. Also, even though there isn't destructible terrain in MW3 as in Battlefield, Infinity Ward has filled every map with destructible bits and pieces, from furniture, to cars, windows, plant pots...just about everything. I was pleasantly surprised to see how this made the maps come alive in a way that no previous CoD did. It is pretty cool to see the destruction mount up after a nasty battle. Lastly, as a way of getting some vehicles in the game, MW3 features a lot more air power that can be called in for airstrikes, etc (my favorite being a three helicopter attack run). And, like in Battlefield, you can also try to shoot them down. Lastly, they added in a lot of WMDs, from EMPs, to MOABs and other nasty stuff, making for an apocalyptic flavoring at times (which is helped by some nice map art direction).

I think one area where MW3 beats Battlefield (Bad Company 2 - can't speak for BF3...yet :)) are the many, many game modes. There really are a ton of them, from covering the usual stalwarts (conquest, death match), to some new ones like "Kill Confirmed" where you need to collect the dog tags of killed opponents. Fun stuff.

Anyway, if you are curious about the new MW3, take a look at the F2P weekend (ends tomorrow at 3pm EDT). With the game being 33% off, I definitely can see myself adding it to my collection.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Ahh...now I know why MW3 just had a free to play weekend and a sale:

[video=youtube;dnrwjncuJzY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnrwjncuJzY[/video]

Count me in. :ar15:

A patch for the PC has also been announced. From Twitter:

We’re releasing a patch for #MW3 on PC when Collection #1 drops which will bring PC up to date.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Still having way too much fun with this game. I really don't get what all the hate is about. Sure, it's a run and gun, but Activision has nevertheless produced a wonderfully addictive game with some really nice touches.

Here is a clip show featuring my first time at the weapon controls of a AC-130 Spectre:

[video=youtube;7JIFornSWcQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JIFornSWcQ[/video]
 

Gen_Electric

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Yeah, me too. I disliked the earlier versions of modern warfare MP, too small maps; respawn camping and it seemed like everyone had artillery or air strikes right away.
Black OPs zombie mode isn't bad and MW2 has a two player co-op I like. But most of the time I'm in MW3, trying different weapon combos and the strike packages.
The different game modes are nice, switching from team deathmatch to kill confirmed or capture etc.; keeps everything fresh. Haven't made it to 80 yet, but the level up isn't as grinding as B:BC2. As far as run and gun, hard core mode slows things a little, with the richochet feature ( friendly fire kills yourself) but most play the same style both modes.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Yeah, me too. I disliked the earlier versions of modern warfare MP, too small maps; respawn camping and it seemed like everyone had artillery or air strikes right away.
Yeah, that echoes my sentiments too. The original MW was a bit messy to say the least, what with the too small maps, spawn issues and the ridiculous amounts of air strikes and such. I didn't really take to it at all (but I loved the SP game. That was great).

Black OPs zombie mode isn't bad and MW2 has a two player co-op I like. But most of the time I'm in MW3, trying different weapon combos and the strike packages.
I didn't return to the CoD franchise until BlOps was released because I really liked the changes that Treyarch showed off in their dev vids. I enjoyed the MP in BlOPs much more than I did MW1, but that darn stat reset bug kicked in and really ticked me off. Amazingly, that bug is still in the game to this day. :( Turns out to have something to do with the netcode Treyarch used, something not fixable (basically, if you get kicked from a session before the game can save your stats, there is a 20% chance that the file will become corrupted, resetting your stats in the process. There is a 50% chance those stats might be recovered, albeit, it never recovered for me. I hope this problem isn't still around in BlOps 2 because it will be a deal breaker for me).

The different game modes are nice, switching from team deathmatch to kill confirmed or capture etc.; keeps everything fresh. Haven't made it to 80 yet, but the level up isn't as grinding as B:BC2. As far as run and gun, hard core mode slows things a little, with the richochet feature ( friendly fire kills yourself) but most play the same style both modes.
Exactly right. I really appreciate the different MP modes after playing the same two modes in Bad Company 2 time and again. Having so many to choose from keeps the game fresh. And yeah, I am really liking Hardcore mode. It makes the game go from a 'run and gun' to a 'creep and gun'. :D Kill confirmed is a lot of fun, too. I just wish there were some level restricted MP modes...or am I missing something? And like you said, the leveling is not such a grind as in BC2. The game keeps you coming back for more with all the little toys it throws at you. That is the secret sauce of CoD: it is the shooter equivalent of a slot machine. I don't think a lot of people appreciate that addictive genius of the game.

So, yeah, CoD:MW3 was definitely worth the $40 I paid on sale. I already racked up about 25 hours in it. Very, very addictive.

And again, I don't get the hate for the game. In fact, I've been reading some editorials on the CoD franchise in the wake of the BlOps 2 announcement and it is mostly snark. It basically breaks down into three critiques:

1) Activision is too money-hungry and shouldn't pump out play to pay DLC.
2) CoD isn't a real shooter, it is just a kids game.
3) Activision just releases the same game over and over again

For #1, Activision is guilty...but so what? They have the #1 game of all time and I wouldn't expect them to handle it differently.

For #2, that is a prejudice that I believe is born out of the original MW1. My opinion would have been basically the same based on that titles gameplay. However, the MW series has definitely refined itself over its past three iterations (MW2, MW3 & BlOps) and while it will never be Arma, it certainly isn't the silly madness of the original. Also, I believe this "kids stuff" is just another manifestation of the PC / Console dialectic since CoD is the premier console shooter, while Battlefield is the premier PC shooter.

For #3, I am still not sure what changes people expect. When you put the question to them, all you get is vague complaints like a lack of DX11 support, some minor matchmaking issues, or the same time period. Interestingly, BlOps 2 seems like it is going to address two of the three issues, and that game is already being attacked for being more of the same. So, again, what changes are people looking for? Short of CoD morphing into a Battlefield or Arma clone, and thereby destroying the CoD brand, I am just not sure what Activision needs to do to make the complainers happy. I think it comes down to a case of the poor little rich girl....

Another myth: CoD is based on luck while Battlefield (or whatever) is based on skill. This is so much BS!:icon_bs: I am finding MW3 to be absolutely brutal in the skill department. Yes, the perks help even out the field, but CoD is very skill heavy. I don't think a lot of people appreciate that CoD has much more of an e-sports aspect than any other shooter I can think of. It has to be all about competitive skill with that as part of the design philosophy.

I didn't watch this when it came out last year because I wasn't interested in MW3, but I can see the truth of it now:

[video=youtube;zuzaxlddWbk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuzaxlddWbk[/video]
 

Gen_Electric

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Good points Scott, I think I played better in BC2 than MW3; and I'm 1000 negative deaths in MW3. :( I also logged in to BlOPs today just to see the stats reset message bug. But, if I enjoy both SP and MP; than the game is good and I don't pay much attention to the hoopla. I'm easily entertained. :p
 

Scott Tortorice

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Good points Scott, I think I played better in BC2 than MW3; and I'm 1000 negative deaths in MW3. :( I also logged in to BlOPs today just to see the stats reset message bug. But, if I enjoy both SP and MP; than the game is good and I don't pay much attention to the hoopla. I'm easily entertained. :p
There's no message about the bug in BlOps, it's just something that's been in the game since day one. If you look around the Steam forums, or the official BlOps forums, you will see occasional posts about it. Treyarch/Activision have never officially acknowledged the bug, but Treyarch did set up a Twitter account where people can request help in getting their stats back. As usual, the community did more to try to solve the problem than the devs but like I wrote above, it seems to be unfixable as it is due to the game's core networking code. :angry:

Here's one thread on it: http://community.callofduty.com/message/104571487#104571487 http://community.callofduty.com/message/104700185#104700185
 

Scott Tortorice

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Here's the latest snarky article about CoD:

Do You Really Need to Buy New Call of Duty Games Each Year?

But with new installments in the franchise hitting store shelves every year, I can’t help but wonder if it’s really such a good idea to buy a new Call of Duty game every year.
Let's have a thought experiment: can anyone point to any other articles cautioning players NOT to by the latest installment of Game X? Any others at all? Any about Halo? Mass Effect? Dragon Age? Final Fantasy? Anybody?

Far be it from me to defend a mega-gaming corporation like Activision, or a fanboi-heavy franchise like CoD, but I feel obligated to point out what is increasingly seeming a concerted effort in the gaming media to drag down a popular franchise for the simple reason that it is popular.

BTW: In answer to the article's question, here is a potential answer: yes, because of this: http://www.callofdutyendowment.org/ Don't know of any other mega franchises doing the same....
 

Gen_Electric

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DLC 1 is out for the PC. $14.99 on Steam. Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3’s first downloadable “Collection” arrives stockpiled with not only four Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps, but two Special Ops Missions—the first time Call of Duty® has ever made Special Ops downloadable online.
 

Scott Tortorice

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DLC 1 is out for the PC. $14.99 on Steam. Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3’s first downloadable “Collection” arrives stockpiled with not only four Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps, but two Special Ops Missions—the first time Call of Duty® has ever made Special Ops downloadable online.
Yeah, I got it on day 1. :D Took about the last three days for the new maps - which I love! - to show up on the rotations, though.

Also, this weekend Activision is running a double XP event! They have also set up a "hardcore new map mosh-pit" server where the new maps are exclusively featured for all hardcore modes.
 
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