Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Review

The "Modern Warfare 3" tournament at the Jordan Landing Gamestop last night was a huge success! The first place winner took home a free copy of "Modern Warfare 3", and a "Call of Duty ELITE" t-shirt. Second place received a huge Modern Warfare 2 banner that was hanging inside of Gamestop. There were a ton of prizes given out for participating in a "grenade toss" game where people would try and throw a bean bag into a certain area. The Jordan Landing Great Clips came and shaved people’s heads, and accepted donations to send soldiers calling cards. Those who shaved their head received prizes such as "Call of Duty ELITE" t-shirts, "Modern Warfare 3" posters, "Modern Warfare 3” bumper stickers, and other related prizes. Little Cesar's Pizza, Yoshi's Japanese Grill, and Lazer Quest were kind enough to provide prizes that were handed out in a raffle at the end of the night; Little Cesar's Pizza also provided pizza.

We will be co-hosting a "Halo: Combat Evolved" tournament next Monday, November 14, 2011 for the release of "Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary" at this same Gamestop. Prizes will be provided and we would love to see all of you there!

If you loved "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" then you will love "Modern Warfare 3". The gameplay is nearly identical, and provides new and improved features that will leave you wanting more each time you play. The graphics have improved some from the last game, but I must say I was a little disappointed in them. I believe that Infinity Ward could have stepped up their game a lot more. They had two years to work on this game, and all they improved are some gameplay mechanics, textures, shading, and sound. Obviously the graphics do not detract from the game in anyway, I'm simply stating Infinity Ward could have tried harder.
With that said Infinity Ward has provided addicting gameplay mechanics, and because of that the “Modern Warfare” series is one of the top seller's in the world. Running at 60 frames per second, the game runs and feels extremely smooth.

In my opinion the snipers in "Modern Warfare 2" were way too powerful. If you were good enough you could get "no scopes" from across the map without aiming. I don't feel this is the case in "Modern Warfare 3", so far. The sniper seems to be much less accurate when zoomed out. Even with an "ACOG" scope attached to a sniper rifle it takes a brief second for the cross hairs to adjust back to normal after each shot is taken, which decreases accuracy for those trying to get a second shot off too quickly.

One thing that has always bugged me about first person shooters is how accurate Small Machine Guns (SMG's) are at long range. In MW3 I found my self “sniping” someone across the map and only to be killed by their SMG. In “MW3”, small, controlled bursts the SMG can be deathly accurate at long range. SMG's are designed to be extremely lethal at short range, not long ranged weapons. I have yet to find a first person shooter that has an accurate depiction of the SMG.

In "Modern Warfare 2" you could move pretty quickly with the Barrett .50cal sniper rifle. In MW3 they have made things a bit more realistic in regard to that. You move much slower with this particular weapon. In real life the Barrett .50cal is a massive sniper rifle and, when used by a well trained sniper, can hit a target at over a mile away. It is a massive weapon, and is accurately depicted as such in MW3. This also carries over to other classes that have heavy weapons. The bigger the weapon, the slower you will move.

Weapons, grenades, perks, kill streaks, titles, emblems, the ability to have a clan tag, and creation of your own classes, are all unlocked by gaining experience; and experience is gained by playing multiplayer. Completing challenges, getting kills, assists, and ranking up, all earn you experience points. This is the same as MW2. In "Call of Duty: Black Ops" you completed the same tasks, but earned money instead of experience points (XP); meaning players had to buy weapons, attachments, camouflage, perks, kill streaks, death streaks, grenades, tactical options, etc. I didn't like this feature because it left me deciding what I wanted to spend my money on, rather than automatically unlocking an item. In MW3 you automatically unlock certain items once you reach a certain level of "XP". I feel this is a much better way of unlocking items, because the item is there when you want it, and it doesn't leave you feeling like you should spend money on some things and not others. I found that when I played "Black Ops", I didn't play with half of the weapons, because I spent my money on other things. In MW2 I played with every weapon in the game, testing each one's abilities, and finding which ones worked out the best with my style of gameplay. I know that I will be doing the same in MW3. Also instead of having kill streaks as a preset for all of your classes, you can customize each class to have its own set of kill streak bonuses. This is a new feature that you can use to utilize the style of your gameplay.

The sound has improved quite a bit from MW2, and is more realistic. Bryan Tyler composed MW3's score and matches the feel Hans Zimmer brought us in MW2. Something that bothered me in MW2 was how similar all of the machine guns sounded. All of the weapon sounds have been upgraded to be much more realistic. Explosions, a grenade landing on the ground, bullets wizzing past my head, reloading a weapon, footsteps on the ground, the breath of my solider while running, the leaves on a tree blowing in the wind, and even debris hitting the ground after an explosion all have a more realistic sound to them than those found in “MW2”.

I am impressed with the Modern Warfare series as a whole; it is my favorite out of any Call of Duty series. "MW3's" story is extremely exciting and very Hollywood like, the multiplayer is as addictive as ever, the game runs and plays smoothly, weapons have been tweaked, new gameplay mechanics have been added, and overall the game delivers, as the series has in the past. I think it could be a good thing that not much has changed in the “Modern Warfare” series, but I am a little disappointed that Infinity Ward didn't try a little harder to come up with something new and fresh. Maybe they are saving it for the next generation of consoles, but I'm not sure. In conclusion, I am impressed with the game, but bummed that it feels like I am playing MW2 with slightly improved graphics, gameplay mechanics, and new weapons.

I am giving "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" a 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Until next time, keep on gamin' on!