Just like I promised, I got to try MW3 with my brother tonight. I only played for less than an hour, and we only did Kill Confirmed on XBox Live. Like the little trooper that he is, he had already unlocked a lot of the stuff I wanted to try, so I was able to put together a really nice class; SCAR-L with ACOG + shotgun, and a USP 45 with nothing on it. Frag, Stun, Sleight of Hand Pro, Quick Draw Pro, Steady Aim Pro; Specialist strike package with Assassin, Scavenger, and something else I can't remember.
I was glad to see faster weapon switch as Sleight of Hand's pro ability, because that was one of the likable things about BO's perks that MW2 didn't have.
The gameplay felt good. The feel of it was like a mix of MW2 and Black Ops, and I mean that in a good way; it wasn't entirely either one, but it felt reminiscent of both. I didn't have much time to survey the maps, but what I saw was good; good cover, good tactics, etc.
Kill Confirmed was a cool gametype; your run-of-the-mill killcount-oriented gametype, but often the need to collect dogtags made things very interesting. Sometimes you'd have to clear out an open area to reach one of your kill's tags, sometimes you'd kill enemies going for a teammate's tags, and what felt the best was reclaiming your own tags, especially if you got a kill or two while defending them.
Having weapon proficiencies in addition to attachments and camo is very cool, and that makes for a very balanced arsenal. The Strike Packages fixed the past two games' issue in which the individual's gameplay style decided who would get killstreak rewards regularly and who would never get them. The tweaks to the perks were very nice as well. As I predicted, matches are fun regardless of your score, which was a noteworthy rarity in MW2 and unheard of in Black Ops. Top that off with a sensibly low amount of knifing and not a noobtube in sight.
I didn't have time to get a real impression of leveling up and unlocking things, nor did I get to try the campaign or special ops. What I did get to try, I liked. The wide variety of weapons to choose from was cool, and the return of machine pistols is nice. The TMP didn't make a return and that's a bit disappointing as it was one of my favorites, but I did see a machine pistol with a different name that looked just like it, so I'm going to try that the next chance I get. I was glad to see that, unlike in MW2, the underbarrel shotgun was not useless in softcore gametypes.
Things that caught me by surprise:
-There are now other full-auto shotguns besides the AA12
-The Javelin is a low-level launcher
-The SMAW is now available
-One in the Chamber is back, but is for Private Matches only
-There seem to be some things in the Launchers category that don't resemble launchers at all
Things I still need to try:
-Machine pistols
-Other gametypes
-Launchers, especially those weird ones I mentioned
-Campaign
-Special Ops
Final thoughts: to me, it seems the COD series has been about taking a good multiplayer gameplay formula and tweaking it from game to game; basically trial-and-error game design. MW3 learned from the mistakes of MW2 and Black Ops, as well as learning from their high points, leading to a multiplayer arrangement that is the best so far in the series as far as I have played. Infinity Ward did very well with this.
It should be noted, though, that trial-and-error game design is the worst possible type of game design. A good development team should be able to figure out on their own what makes a game good; not release flawed games, wait for player feedback, release another game based on that feedback, and rinse and repeat until they get it right. They're video games, not operating systems.
If MW3 was the last game in the COD franchise, I would be content. From what I've seen, everything good about the past games has returned, and the bad things are gone. It's not my favorite series, but it's solid.
Ghosted wrote:Kronx's reviews don't count. The last game he liked involved his mom's nipples.
I don't think I've seen a single positive comment about a game from him. He probably doesn't even praise his mom's nipples, ungrateful bastard