Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Critics or Gamers…Who’s Right?

By Junkie

The best selling franchise has returned yet again with another installment, this time as a follow up to the acclaimed Modern Warfare series.

The reviews have all been completed and the scores are in and, as expected, Modern Warfare 3 hits the higher scores, around 9/10 from most reviewers. But something is not quite right. There has been a huge number of disgruntled gamers and fans of the series, who are not particularly happy with the game Activision has published. So who is right?

Modern Warfare 3 has had a massive marketing campaign, pushing the boundaries for the hype surrounding a video game and rivalling openings for films. Countless numbers of celebrities are performing and making appearances at opening parties and sponsored events, star studded trailers are all over the net and TV, and even a tournament was held that advertised a 1 million dollar giveaway to the winner. Activision have dug deep into their resources and pushed the biggest marketing campaign for a video game and has set the bar high. Already its marketing strategy is being followed by Skyrim, only released days after Modern Warfare 3. Christina Aguilera, David Arquette and Dave Navarro were only a few of the celebrities who attended the opening bash.

Immediately the benefits of the marketing have paid off for Call of Duty, with it making $400m in its first 24 hours of sales. Gamers and fans of the series have been led to have high expectations of the game, but does it deliver? Quite simply, yes and no.

Initial impressions: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

By Salmaan Saleem

Could this game be the end of the series???

Will other COD fans be disappointed by the same product with only new maps?

Every previous game in the COD series has had that new christmas present feel to it, MW3 however lacks that. The subtle sound effects, tweaks to the movement, the HUD notifications system (HNS), the feel of the weapons; they all seem lazily identical to MW2. It feels as though they’ve copied and pasted everything from MW2 but gone through £40 worth of effort  solely making new maps, which is probably a fair price according to their valuation of map packs.

I speak of course about the most important aspect of the game, the reason why Call Of Duty has done so well, the online multipayer. We were told this would be designed to end camping, however the endless folds in the walls and monochrome rendering seem to be at odds with this aspiration.

Although it may seem like a relatively minor aspect, the theme music of Black Ops really whet the appetite; the new tinny music is a poor update.

Previous game franchises, PES springs here to mind, have been punished for failing to keep up with competitors and releasing new games with very little changes to previous editions.

The question for the COD series is whether this newest version is sufficiently different from previous versions for punters to keep coming back for more of the same old gameplay with a few minor changes not worth the hefty price tag.

By the by, I say the above having played every game in the series (gamertag: Moody Buoy).