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Another November, and another Call of Duty is upon us. Thousands of gamers lined up nationwide to be the first to buy the game, pop it in, and play all night long, racing to be the first to prestige (I was not one of them this year, but not by choice!).
SINGLEPLAYER
Modern Warfare 3 picks up right where Modern Warfare 2 left off. That being the case, it might not be a bad idea to play through that campaign again (or at least the last three or four acts) so you can refresh yourself as to where it all left off over two years ago.
Coming in at just about five hours, MW3's campaign is short, even by COD standards, but it packs a punch. Without any spoilers, there are a lot of explosions, set-pieces, emotional moments, and as much drama as you'd find in a Hollywood blockbuster. Real life, this is not, but it is exciting and compelling, especially as you reach the end. While five hours may be short for some, I'm not particularly upset by it. Any longer, and it may have become sensory overload, considering how tightly packed and well paced it is. If you played and enjoyed Modern Warfare 1 and 2's single player campaigns, you will enjoy this one too.
SPEC OPS
Spec Ops is similar to both the Zombie mode from the Treyarch Call of Duty games (like Black Ops), as well as Horde mode from the Gears of War series. While I didn't put as much time into it as I should have for a comprehensive review, it's a fun mode for people who want to explore the multiplayer maps with a friend and to see how long they can stay alive.
MULTIPLAYER
Ah yes, the reason most people play Call of Duty nowadays. A lot of "haters" will tell you that MW3's multiplayer is exactly the same as that of MW2. In some ways, it is. The engine is the same, graphics are slightly upgraded, and the mechanics and "feel" of the game are relatively the same. If you've logged hundreds of hours into previous games, you'll feel at home here. There are some changes to the general game play. Weapon switching is slower and feels more realistic (there is now a perk that makes it go faster). Grenades seem to have a larger destruction radius. There were multiple times when I got out of the way of a grenade indicator and still died.
The major additions to multiplayer are the addition of point streaks, strike packages, and a new, fun game mode.
Point Streaks
Up until now, the COD series has set itself apart by the use of kill streaks. You were rewarded for racking up a certain number of kills without dying. This led to a lot of questionable play in objective based games like Domination and Demolition, where instead of going for the objectives, certain players just hung back and racked up kill streaks selfishly. It almost felt like you would be punished for going for an objective.
Now in MW3, kill streaks have become point streaks. You earn points by getting kills as always, but also by capturing Domination points, HQ's, planting bombs, getting assists, etc... Now people can play the objective and still be rewarded for it, which is wonderful, and long overdue.
Strike Packages
Up until Black Ops, there was one kill streak list that you had to choose from. MW3 now has three different "packages" to use, "Assault," "Support," and "Specialist." Assault is for offensive minded players, with rewards that punish the other team. Support is for objective-minded players that like to support their team mates. The main difference between these two is that the Assault streaks reset upon death, and the Support streaks do not. If you choose UAV (4 points) Advanced UAV (12 points) and EMP (18 points), your streak will not reset until you've attained your EMP, after you get 18 total points. It is an interesting concept, and helps players who may not be good at racking up point streaks reach higher level rewards.
Specialist is the third, and is completely different. In specialist, you continually unlock perks that you would normally choose as part of your load out, and they will then be unlocked until the next time you die. It's not a mode I have spent much time with, but I feel it is most appropriate for strategic players.
Kill Confirmed
The main new game mode here is called Kill Confirmed. You will find this similar to Team Deathmatch, but each time a player dies, a dog tag will hover above their body. Someone on your team has to capture that dog tag for the kill to count. If the enemy team captures the dog tag, the kill does not count and no points are rewarded. This is a very fun mode, and a good addition to the series.
PROBLEMS
Like most Call of Duty games, MW3 is rife with problems, which explains my four star rating. A couple issues currently (as of 11/9/11)
1. VoIP is broken
Despite myself and the people I play with all having quality headsets, we can rarely, if ever hear each other. I'm not sure what is causing this, but it seems to be a pretty common complaint among the community.
2. The Party System
For some reason, a full party of six cannot seem to find a game. The only way we were able to find games is if we broke up into groups of five. This was very bizarre, and I don't think it's ever been a problem in a COD game. I certainly hope they fix it though, so there can be true 6 v. 6 clan battles.
3. Call of Duty Elite
One of the most hyped, advertised, and talked about feature of Modern Warfare 3 was Call of Duty Elite. It was supposed to be an online hub where you could connect with friends, check stats, complete challenges, watch videos, etc...
It isn't working as of this afternoon. People paid $49.99 for the paid version (less if you got the Hardened edition), and there was a Beta period, so there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't have been up and running on launch day. I only took one star away because it will most likely be fixed soon, or there will be a lot of angry people out there that paid good money for a completely broken service.
Simply put, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as you would expect it. People who love it will continue to love it, and people who hate it will continue to hate it. There's really nothing here that will convert anyone, I don't think. However, they did address and satisfy a lot of complaints through the addition of point streaks and strike packages.
UPDATE: 11/15/11: There was a patch that hit for this game a couple of days ago. I'm not sure what the patch was designed to do, but it seemed to fix a lot of issues related to matchmaking and joining matches with a full party. A full party of six can now find a match without much trouble.
VoIP is slightly improved as well, but it's still a struggle to hear most of your team mates.
Elite is still broken, as well. I can occasionally log on to it, but it is extremely slow and unresponsive. It's not even that taxing of a layout, either. There are no fancy graphics, flash, or other things. It's mostly text based, but there is a lot of text and a lot of information going in and out of it. It still boggles my mind though that they WEREN'T ready for this much volume.
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Everyone knows about this game but I will say that I love the new Survival mode and multi-player game modes.
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