Gaming Call of Duty: MW3

[Road of Bones]

So - completed MW3 single-player campaign last night (yes, I only did it on normal). Initial thoughts are:

• Disappointingly samey weapons dropped by the enemy - anything you like, as long as it's an AK47, generally. I used to enjoy picking up all sorts of exotic stuff to use as my back-up (FAMAS, FAL, ACR, F2000 etc), so to be left nothing but AKs to play with left me feeling short-changed, frankly.
• Good cinematic levels - Paris really felt like Paris, Prague looked nice, Berlin felt about right, London was mostly a warehouse and building site (but the Police Volvo T5s looked great). Favela level now a West-African shanty town, and I quite liked the MW3 version of Black Hawk Down in Somalia (think BHD in a sandstorm).
• Storyline/plot resolution was ridiculous, but deeply satisfying - some nice flashbacks to the first MW too
• Graphics still better than BF3, more polished and less grainy, and some really nice level detailing.
• Dual-sight weapons! Splendid idea - to be able to flip between ACOG and Holo-scopes on one weapon is a quality tweak
• UGV - ludicrously good fun, presumably a killstreak reward in MP?

I messed about with the Spec Ops mode - looks like a good mix of missions and layouts, so I'm looking forward to some fine co-op action there. Have to wait until I've moved into our new house 'til I can properly tackle the multiplayer, as the missus's internet connection would put a glass eye to sleep. I'm glad that they've done away with the shotgun as back-up weapon in MP too.

Overall verdict? A bit like replacing your 5-year old Ford Focus with a brand new one - feels satisfyingly familiar, but with some new buttons to push and added features like parking sensors and active grills.

I enjoyed it a lot more than BF3, but I've always enjoyed the CoD series - sometimes it's fun to park your brain in neutral and just enjoy the explosions, shooting and car chases.

 

[Brogan]

I've decided not to bother getting MW3 and BF3.

I don't really like the SP game on shooters, I find it repetitive and boring.
And unfortunately I don't have the time to dedicate to online play, and when I do manage to get on I get my arse handed to me by 12 year olds hyped up on Red Bull, which makes it less than fun.

I'll just stick to Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas and Crackdown 2.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

My review is based soley on mulitplayer. The game shares many similarities with it's predecessor (MW2) and to me that isn't a bad thing as while that game had many flaws it also had great aspects. To me it looks like they kept the great aspects such as the game engine, graphics and excellent level of customisation.

Without a doubt the main problem with MW2 was balancing issues and they seem to be solved as grenade launchers are much much weaker now, there's no One Man Army perk, no Danger Close perk and no Commando perk. The killstreaks pointstreaks are also a lot less effective (more gun-on-gun action) and the higher ones require a high a larger streak on order to obtain them.

Camping is also a lot less prevelant due to how the maps have been configured. They have made them focused on CQC and provide hardly any 'power positions' where you can sit behind an object and pick people off. However this also means that spawns can be troublesome, the map designs also make it much harder to main a high K/D and W/L ratio which can be mildy frustrating.

While I am aware this game is in it's very early stages I think it will be considered quite good, but not great. The main problem to me is the maps, I love InfinityWard's old map designs and while I like the focus on gun skill in this game it makes defensive play hard and reduces the skill gap in good and bad players.

Overall I'll say 8/10 so far, it could go up it could go down.

 

[Brogan]

The biggest problem for me with MW2 was the repeated spawn-death-spawn-death-spawn-death once the other side had a chopper or plane in the air.

After a few particularly bad games one evening where I was constantly killed without even being able to take a step after spawning, I sold the game the next day.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Hmm you might like this game then Brogan. The air support is weaker, requires a higher pointstreak to obtain it and the map design makes staying alive long enough to get those high streaks less likely.

I have to say with all the hype that DICE made about how good Battlefield 3 was going to be and how pretty it was, they really shot themselves in the foot by publicly targeting the CoD series. The game is only good looking on PC and then to boot they can't even make sure the servers are working on release, what a way to keep your audience before MW3. One thing I did find funny though was last week before the release of MW3, Xbox published how many people were playing what games and Battlefield 3 was in the number 3 slot behind Black Ops and MW2, it couldn't even beat the 2 year old broken game. But this is for another day...

 

[F1Yorkshire]

I've not played it yet, I will eventually succumb to the COD call but I've got the new Assassins creed on the way so that will be my gaming fix for the next few weeks.

As for the AK's been the main weapon dropped by the bad guys isn't that rather true to life. I don't see many West Africans carrying around a Famas or a MP5. I am looking forward to the multiplayer, it's supposed to be more friendly towards the less experienced user, I don't have the time to play 20 hours a day like the average teenager who buys the game!

 

[Brogan]

Hehe, I've just remembered a game a bunch of us used to play a few years ago.

It was called Mike Myers and it involved private MP in CoD.
One person would be Mike Myers and would be equipped with a knife.
Every one else would hide and were only allowed to run, not fight back.
The last man standing was allowed to try and shoot Mike with a shotgun only.

It sounds boring but it was seriously funny at times, with Mike hunting people down and everyone else running like scared chickens.

A variation of it was zombies played in WaW, which involved anyone getting killed switching sides so the zombie hoard got bigger and bigger.
I ended up as last man once on top of one of the water silos in a field and rather than get zombied, as they all started climbing up, I jumped off the top and killed myself

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Haha Brogan I was playing that on MW3 only the other day! Except when the last man is alive both have to knife, no shotguns

Funny bit is watching Mike try and climb the tricky bits of the map!

 

[Road of Bones]

Got into the MP this weekend, while Mrs Bones was at work...

Initial impressions:

• Maps appear to be much less sniper-friendly than before (which is good), but tend towards the close-quarters spray 'n pray (which is not so good)
• Weapon-levelling-up is splendid - not just a case of "kill 25 to get the RDS, 150 to get the ACOG..." but you unlock perks for the weapon itself such as Recoil reduction or Impact (thus freeing up one of your main perk slots for something else). I also like the fact that they've ignored the Black-ops style "buy what weapon attachments you want from the off", forcing you to earn them instead
• Air power still seems excessive to me - had a few matches where the opposing forces seemed to have endless AGMs, Helicopter Strafing runs and Attack Helicopters - it gets wearisome to go into a respawn-die loop.
• Differentiation between Assault and Support killstreaks is very good - I like the fact that Support killstreaks don't reset on dying (as I tend to die quite a lot, frankly!)
• Still too many run 'n gunners and American kids singing in the lobby

Particular highlights for me: getting a longshot headshot payback kill with the L86 LSW on iron sights; my first booby-trapped airdrop crate kill; the Bakaara market and Lockdown maps.

Now I need to play some different game modes instead of TDM...

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Quick tip quicky - if you want to level up fast, use the Recon Drone, it gives you the same experience for spotting an enemy as a kill, and you get assist experience once your team-mates kill the tagged player, it's very easy and fast to spot enemy so makes for fast experience.

 

[Enja]

Don't mean to start a silly fight here but has anyone compared MW3 and BF3 directly? As in, not being a rabid fanboy of one and hating the other?

I haven't played many videogames for a long time but since picking up the PS3 a couple of months ago I've hankered for a good FPS. Don't have any experience of multiplayer but it looks more interesting than single player campaigns these days..

As far as I understand it, in terms of the MP experience ; BF3 is more 'grown up', team based, while MW3 is more frantic and kill-based? Or are there any other good FPS games for the PS3 I could pick up fairly cheaply?

 

[Road of Bones]

I have played both BF3 & MW3 on the PS3 (a trio of 3s!!) - I found the much-vaunted Frostbite-2 game engine for BF3 a bit of a disappointment, frankly - I still think the MW engine has the better polish. The BF3 story is slightly more realistic than MW3 (US goes to war in Iran, terrorists threaten the world with WMDs), and has some satisfying diversions, such as tank-battles and F18 dogfights, but there never seems to be that many enemies to clear out. There's one night-mission with an IR sniper rifle where for the first half you move to a checkpoint and shoot one guy - I'm sorry, but if I pay £40 for a game, I want a bit more than peek round a corner and pop one bloke for a checkpoint!

Single-player campaigns seem to have been sacrificed for multiplayer these days - most SP campaigns seem to turn in around 5-6 hrs. I only played the MP beta for BF3, and found it difficult to see anything to shoot at (but I've always been a CoD-head anyway).

If you're after a decent FPS for not much money, then you could seek out the Battlefield "Bad Company" games, as they have a pretty good-length SP campaign. "Homefront" has a good story, but an insultingly short SP campaign (though the gameplay's quite satisfying, as are the weapons), and I'd heartily recommend all 3 of the "Resistance: Fall of Man" games (well, perhaps not the second one so much...). The last "Medal of Honor" is quite nice too (if also a bit light on SP length). You should be able to pick up a lot of those fairly cheaply...

 

[no-FIAt-please]

If your going to play BF3, then do so on PC. There are quite a few problems with PS3/Xbox 360 such as the game engine was designed for PC, but the game is also a lot slower and therefore more boring on console. This is because the maps are designed for 64 player lobbies (as is possible on PC) but on Xbox 360/PS3 I believe the maximum amount of players allowed in a lobby is only 24.

Both are good game, different games but from a personal viewpoint MW3 is better to me, on console at least.

 

[Slyboogy]

I think this new one doesn't add much really. CoD 4 will always be the best. This new one on multiplayer really is a downgrade from MW2 which was a downgrade from MW.

You somehow can get shot when you hide round a corner, something I don't understand, MW2 it happened occasionally don't remember it all from MW, but in MW3 it happens constantly. The killstreaks have gone too far and are really bad, the explosives are really bad aswell. I fire a rocket launcher into a wall when the enemy is just a few centimetres away and all I get is a hit-marker and I get killed. Somehow people can run round corners and instantly kill you.

You can't camp, you can't snipe, you can't run round like a hooligan and I don't mean with the marathon lightweight stuff, I just mean in general.

I haven't played this campaign nor the campaign for MW2, but I heard it's very short and not that great. You can't just keep briging out Call of Duty games every year, no wonder those guys from Infinity have left, think every CoD game after Call of duty 4: Modern Warfare haven't been that great.

I have Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3 and Batman Arkham Asylum still needed to be opened, too many games right now,!

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Hmm I disagree on some points with you there Sly...

The explosives are weak for a reason, all I'm going to say is One Man Army noobtoobs, they absolutely ruined MW2.

As for sniping it is possible. The mechanics of sniping are excellent and make it easy to do. It's the maps that make it difficult as they are small and are designed to prevent camping. Sniping is possible but requires more ability to 'quickscope' than in previous games.

As for camping why would you want to do it? It's boring and when someone who is camping kills you it's very annoying.

The killstreaks aren't overpowered, a little imaginative yes but then if you wanted realism you're playing the wrong game.

As for "running and gunning" it's certainly possible in this game, in fact this game suits it more than any other game in the series, granted the play style is hard to full off but that's what makes it more fun when you do.

However I will agree with you on the lag. This is caused by theatre-mode (just look at Black Ops), which is nice and all but is ultimately uneeded in an FPS, if you want to record your gameplay then by a PVR.

One thing that irks me when people critcise this game citing that it is similar to MW2 is that people don't critiscise FIFA 12 for being similar to FIFA 11 or Gears of War 2 and GoW 3, MW3 is just one game in the Call of Duty series, of course it's going to similar to MW2...

 

[Slyboogy]

Why quick scope? It's one of the post pointless things ever since MW2, it ruins the game. Yes the explosives are crap an takes out the noobtubing, but i am talking about actual grenades, claymore and launchers which really do nothing when a person is really close to it. As for camping it is boring, but sometimes you have to, when you play a clan it kills the game as you get killed left right and centre.

Why do people criticise MW3 for bein similar to MW2? Simple MW2 was a downgrade from the original. I can't say I have enjoyed a MW3 match online

 

[Road of Bones]

Hooked up with my mate in Warwick via t'internet last nite to play the Spec Ops "Survival" mode - now that's worth the price of admission alone...having not played Horde mode on GoW before, I suddenly see the appeal!

 

[Slyboogy]

Ever played zombies in World at War or Black Ops? I didn't like that much, but in Black Ops it was really good!

 

[gethinceri]

Zombies in Black Ops? Tried it once, shat myself, haven't played it again.