Modern Warfare 3

[Sly Reflex]

So yeah. It's like the other CoDs. Except they just thought "Fuck this, lets make it even more batshit insane than that 50 cent game!"

It looks like shit, but buttery smooth shit. The shooting feels super nice. Not that you need to shoot, you could just walk through the game and let the other guys deal with it.

It sounds like shit, but then again, everything sounds like shit now Battlefield 3 has raised the bar so high. The 5.1 is average I'd say, which is a shame.

The none destructo environments put me off a little bit.

It has red barrels. One killed me when I shot it. How's that for game design progress?

I don't like CoD's control mode, I'll have to look and see if I can make it a certain Swedish company control their games.

Apart from that, I don't really know what to say. The accents are dumb, and Price's illusion of hard man is shattered because he does insurance adverts or something. I'm sort of enjoying it though. I guess that's all that matters.

What do you think?

[wholehole]

Apart from that, I don't really know what to say. The accents are dumb, and Price's illusion of hard man is shattered because he does insurance adverts or something.

That's what I thought when I heard him doing the VO on the adverts! He was also an Eastenders villain for a bit if memory serves.

Not tempted by this at all. No intention of playing the multiplayer so I don't really see the point for a 4-5 hour single player campaign. I'll probably just borrow it off a mate once he's done with it.

Not even sure why they bother making the campaign any more. i suspect if they announced the next game was multiplayer only, no one would even bat an eyelid.

[Hendo]

And he was in The Bill.

Well, everything's alright with the world. If you actually liked this, Sly, then I'd have to start questioning everything about the meaning of life.

My Hardened box has arrived, I can't remember the last time I bought a special edition, if ever. The notepad is pretty cool if you're into the fiction. I have a code to redeem to get my Elite membership but there's another code on a card labelled "founder", anyone know what this is for? Is it the DLC in advance code?

[Hendo]

Only going to get the briefest of goes before I go to work, so watched this while I had my tea. Exploding dogs!

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[Sly Reflex]

Played some MP with Nag tonight. It's OK I guess. The map design is absolutely as awful as ever. And it split us up at the first opportunity, although it doesn't really matter, as this is probably one of the most throw away games I've ever played. It's nice to see then toned down the accuracy of the chopper gunners from previous games. The kill camera still bothers me, it hardly ever shows what really happened. It's full of fucking camping fucks already, and I hate how you cannot sprint forever. It's meant to be a fucking run and gun game, let me run damn it!

I did managed to get the first blood and final kill of one of the matches. My K/D isn't excellent, but whatever. If I spend time and learn the maps it'll go up eventually. That support class where you don't lose kill streaks is a genius idea.

[retroed]

I fired it up just now, and had a few games of TDM with randoms.

I love it.

I have a code to redeem to get my Elite membership but there's another code on a card labelled "founder", anyone know what this is for? Is it the DLC in advance code?

The Founder code is for those who register the game after Nov 13th (the cut-off for Founder status), so that those who receive the Hardened Edition for Christmas or something can still get Founder status. If you've entered the code on the back of the little booklet, that's all you have to do. It's not explained in the package, I'm going by OneOfSwords tweets. I've downloaded the Call of Duty Elite app on the 360, and am now fully upgraded to Elite status.

[Sly Reflex]

Something I forgot to mention is the general chatter. I love how each map has different forces facing off, and how the dialogue changes depending on what faction you are playing as. Every map in every game should have localised military or militia on it.

I'm not so keen on the "Well done you!" shit popping up every time you take a step. It's like the game is trying to brainwash you with subliminal shit it all flashes up so quickly and in succession.

[retroed]

I dunno, I love being rewarded for doing pretty much anything.

Has anyone else tried the Killstreak Confirmed mode yet? It's superb. A great addition.

[HandsomeDead]

Nice post, Ed.

[retroed]

I don't have time to post much, sorry.

[Sambob]

Who is going to start the sweepstake for how long it takes before Sly is walking around in his COD MW3 tshirt and cap? I will start it off with a month.

I missed getting this yesterday due to a combination of working late and the trainline being a bunch of fucking nazis that could definitely do with a good fucking shoeing. 'Just respect us whilst we do our jobs' sure thing, dont be a cunt and it would be a hell of a lot easier.

Sly's faint praise has actually made me even more excited about the game. Me and Benjermina were having a talk about this odd phenomenon and its perhaps better for a different thread in full, but how I would look for reviews from like minded gamers, who enjoy the same things, but Benjermina would like impartial reviews from somebody not biased towards the game.

Half day today so should get a decent go on it, but from the reviews I think I know what im getting.

[Sly Reflex]

Spent a bit more time with MP. It's as badly designed as ever. Get killed. Spawn under somebodies chopper kill streak. Get killed by it. Spawn directly under it AGAIN. Get killed again. Because of these I had several games where I went 2/13 k/d. Also massive gripes to the kids spending all game laying on the floor, you make this game infuriating to play. Get up, run about and stop being such pricks. The spawn system is about as broke as you can possibly get in a game. I spawned right onto an enemy that had just spawned, and have also had the same done to me. I'm thinking it might be totally random. It's several levels of stupid whatever it is. No dedicated servers is a kick in the balls for anyone not playing on a good connection. Fill someone with lead, then watch their kill cam to see them put 3 rounds into you with the exact same gun. That's bullshit.

Interestingly I've had to uninstall the game from HDD because it keeps saying the disc is unreadable. I think my 360 HDD must be knackered on a few sections or something. I have no idea.

EDIT: That bit in the tank in SP has to be one of the funniest set pieces I've ever played. I couldn't believe how daft it was.

[Bob]

Finished the campaign for this today and thought it was excellent. Not really anything new to see but the set pieces were great and there were just so many explosions. Story was more simplistic this time over MW2 (thankfully, fucking game) and was told much better as well. Not that it was an especially good story or anything, but playing army is always fun. Thought the last section of gameplay was a bit lame and it was a shame to end it like that I thought but it wasn't a big deal after all the splosions and excitement of the rest of the game.

I've had a bit of a play around in spec ops and that is pretty cool as well. Kind of annoying that you are sent right back to the start when you die on survival but it moves at a much faster pace than most horde modes so it's not such a big deal. Only done a couple of the missions, they seem alright. Not really feeling a pressing urge to play them though.

MP is more of the same. Yesterday and today it was great right up until about 6pm or so and then the awful killcam lag and frustration set in. I had some excellent games earlier. Pretty much lag free and when I was outraged at a death I would take a look at the killcam and generally what I thought I did was reflected on the screen, the other dude was just better than me. Then I played later and it was just awful. Couldn't move for being shot in the face and there was all the unloading of clips into people just for them to pop me real quick and leave me all seething and miffed.

Generally though so far MP has been very enjoyable. Maps are decent, Dome especially has been a highlight for me so far since the weapon loadout you choose really changes the way you play. Found a shotgun and machine pistol combo to be especially satisfying on that map. Hit detection seems to have been improved over BLOPS and long range shooting feels a lot more satisfying now, as in, I can actually hit something if it's more than 15 feet away. Haven't had a massive problem with campers yet which was one of the main reasons I traded MW2 in after a couple of days. You do get them of course but it doesn't feel like it's rewarded this time and even when I barely know my way round the maps I can usually sneak up on them since there are multiple routes into each area. Really enjoying upgrading all my weapons as well although I see you Prestige at level 70 now, that seems a bit much.

Biggest criticisms of the MP so far outside of annoying lag would be the fact that I have died several times by being shot in what appeared to be my arm by a sniper rifle and there is this one gun though that I think could do with a bit of tweaking. Not sure what it's called, it's an SMG with a long cylindrical magazine under the barrel. Some guy was using it with a perk that increased hip firing accuracy and he was just storming round the map firing in people's general direction and it looked like the bullets were chasing after folk.

On the whole though, still a lot of fun, just as immensely frustrating and still great for dipping in and out of when you have a spare half hour. Although I'm a bit annoyed than they got rid of my favourite mini game in BLOPS. Spot the Swastika/cock/vagina/GOATSE and report it

[Sambob]

Had three hours of the single player last night and I like it, nothing new but I dont care really. I think 4 was enough of a leap and then 6 enough of an improvement for the same thing but refined to be released again, im happy with that. It just feels more comfortable, almost certainly a case of just what im used to.

Not had a single second on the multi, I normally wait for the single to be finished before I dip into the multi, but id expect lag issues certainly on the first and second day of release. You could argue that it shouldnt happen, but realistically its going to. Campers going to camp, run and gunners going to run and gun, but spawn problems do worry me a bit, Ive never massively noticed a problem with it before in the previous CODs so will have a whirl and see if its been borked, but again I think thats patchable so not too worried by it. Spawning into chopper fire is a pain in the arse, and when you are getting anihilated by a chopper its a pain, but the solution is to cover yourself with SAM turrets or pack some kind of rocket launcher in your set up, people tend to just get pwned but nobody tries to take it down, I normally switch to a chopper killing custom class after being taken down by the same chopper twice.

Cant wait to finish single and then rock with the multi on this, got some double experience time saved up from pre-order and also previous prestige tokens, might play this on weekend and let Skyrim wait for any bugs to be swept for a week and then start with that....

[Hendo]

I normally finish the campaign before I start multiplayer but due to one thing or another, I settled on the multiplayer having only done about 30 seconds of campaign.

Only done Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed so far. TD is as usual, Kill Confirmed is a nice touch.

Sad to hear that they've added One In The Chamber from Black Ops but Private matches only.

[Hendo]

Played a bit more of the campaign, still on Act 1 but feel like a lot has happened. Or a lot of explosions have happened anyway. It really is gaming as made by Michael Bay!

I'm tempted to drop it down from Hardened to Normal difficulty as it's taking me a while to get through some sections and I think I'm happy after 4 of these to just walk through it and experience the campaign as it's intended - the more you die, the more you notice the strings, smoke and mirrors.

Multiplayer-wise, I'm genuinely not sure whether I'm enjoying it or just going through the motions. I think it's because I'm in that early stage of not knowing the maps, once I can swing my way through each map knowing where I'm going, then I can decide whether I'm enjoying it or not.

My first impressions of the maps is that they seem more complex than before, but I suspect that's due to them being new to me.

I've tried Team Deathmatch (no surprises), Kill Confirmed (a nice twist on TD) and also one I can't remember the name of (Team Flag?) where it's essentially Capture The Flag.

I'm missing the Wager matches from Black Ops and the more stripped down modes from CoD4.

However, I've been thinking about this monthly roll-out of content for Elite Premium users, and I hope the way they go with it is that by this time next year, it will be the definitive version of Call of Duty with every classic map in there from the last few games.

[retroed]

I'm proper into the multiplayer in this now, currently at level 31. I'm playing mostly Kill Confirmed, but started regular TDM last night. Battlefield 3 has been traded in, so this will be my sole focus when playing online. I unlocked the Assassin perk last night, which is pretty essential IMO seeing how common UAVs are being thrown up into the air. It went Pro quite quickly, so I am now also immune to Counter-UAV and EMP. It's a pretty sweet perk. Couple that with a supressor, and I'm doing a lot better than I was at the beginning, and am slowly creeping my K/D ratio back up. I love how the guns level up as well, giving you extra abilities such as extra attachments (which I have gone for), deep impact, etc. Also really enjoying using the support class, I like the way the killstreak carries over with it.

Anyway, here's my current loadout in full.

CM901 assault rifle (currently at weapon level 19) with 2 attachments

Red Dot Sight

Silencer

Mil-Dot reticle

Secondary: Javelin (not actually used it yet)

Lethal: Frag

Tactical: Concussion Grenade

Perk 1: Sleight of Hand Pro

Perk 2: Assassin Pro

Perk 3: Steady Aim (was Stalker Pro)

Strike Package: Support (UAV, Airdrop Trap, Advanced UAV)

Death Streak: Revenge (will be Final Stand when I gain a level)

[illdog]

Im sort of itching to play a COD single player campaign again. Anyone played this on Vet and knows how the difficulty stacks up to previous versions?

[Sambob]

If you listen to the internets its the easiest game in the world ever. Back in the realWorld though there are spots were I can imagine this causing ridiculous rage on Veteran difficulty. On normal your AI buddies clean up before you get much of a chance, I literally dropped to cover once and when I popped my head back up all the enemies in that section had been one shot killed by team mates. When I played on hardened though it took a lot more shots to kill enemies, they respawned quicker and my team mates were pretty happy to let the enemy run right up to my cover position and fuck me up from behind before eventually considering shooting them. Most places it would be a good challenge with perhaps a little bit of agrivation, but on some parts I can see one of your birds getting a good smacking.

[retroed]

I'm over halfway through the campaign on Hardened, and it's been OK so far. It's the first CoD game I've played on anything other than Normal, though, so I don't know how it compares to the previous games in the series.