Hear that rumbling over the horizon? No, that’s not some impending earthquake or the steady march of an army. That’s the sound of millions of Call Of Duty fans hurtling towards their nearest retail outlet to snag a copy of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Every year they make this COD pilgrimage. Every year, thanks to them, Activision’s coffers swell, burst and then overflow.

A review of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 feels a little superfluous in this atmosphere. Still, we suppose that we can justify our existence somewhat having played the game, and being in a position to evaluate all the hype surrounding it. Is the game any good? Oh yes. Is the hype justified? Most certainly.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn’t going to win any prizes for innovation, and it doesn’t deviate too much from the expectations of the faithful. But what it does do, is deliver one of the best, most action-packed FPS experiences available on console or PC, and it augments this with a shedload of content guaranteed to keep the punters playing it well into next year. And it does this, arguably, better than any game of this type released all year.

COD Modern Warfare 3: Play modes

The violent delights of COD: MW3 are split across three modes: Campaign, Spec Ops and Multiplayer. The first is a concentrated blast of chaos. The campaign’ clocks in at around six or so hours, but that’s exactly the right length for this game. The gun-battles are so overwhelming, the pace so unrelenting and the action set-pieces so ridiculously over-the-top, that to extend the length of the single-player mode would leave players cross-eyed by the end of it. We played through it in one sitting and felt utterly drained by the time the credits rolled.

COD Modern Warfare 3: Spec Ops

Spec Ops offers up two separate modes. The first contains sixteen co-op mini-missions, which are based on scenarios from the campaign, that players can tackle locally or online with mates. There’s a great amount of variety here; players will find themselves hijacking a plane, running an obstacle course and hurtling through a nuclear submarine to stop the core melting down. The missions are short, sharp and perfectly formed, and each of them inspires repeated play-throughs, even if you clock them the first time round.

COD Modern Warfare 3: Surivial

The second part of Spec Ops is Survival, the COD take on the Horde Mode from the last two Gears Of War games. In it, players have to survive wave after wave of enemies who sport more armour and better weapons as the wave-count increases. In between waves, players can spend cash they’ve earned for kills on new weapons, equipment such as gun turrets, and even call in the odd air strike. Unlike Horde, there’s no end in sight to the torment; the mode only ends once both players are dead.

COD Modern Warfare 3: Multiplayer

And then, of course, there’s the multiplayer, the main reason for COD’s supremacy in the sales charts for the next 5 months or so. Everything players expect from the series is in place – the perks, the killstreaks, the close quarters, run-and-gun hi-jinx and the quick-scoping – but the developers have added a couple of new tweaks here and there which both novices and veterans will appreciate. For the former, there are a couple of new additions, such as the Support Strike Package.  If you’re one of those players who never gets to use killstreaks because you get killed too often, select the Support Strike Package and have your killstreaks maintained after death. The overall pace of the matches is also a little slower this time round. For veterans there are a boatload of new additions, including weapon profiencies, killstreak customisation, weapon unlockable, tags, titles and, of course new maps and match types.

COD Modern Warfare 3: Verdict

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is set to be the biggest game of this year, regardless of what we have to say about it. But when the hype-machine winds down and all of the reviews and critiques are bagged and tagged, all you’re left with is a game that has to stand on its own merits. In this case, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best games of 2011. Moreover, unlike it's nearest and dearest competition, Battlefield 3, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the complete package.

Whereas Battlefield 3's awe-inspiring multiplayer has to carry a woeful campaign and a tepid co-op mode, all three elements of COD: MW3 are standalone greats and compliment one another wonderfully.

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 availability: Out now

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 price: £39.99 on all formats

After months of waiting, just days before the COD: Modern Warfare 3 release date on Nov 8 2011, our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in multiplayer mode review has been given a makeover with the latest screenshots and videos, plus further details on gameplay. And when it comes to multiplayer modes, there are few gaming franchises that wield more clout than COD.

Any shooter that wants a piece of the online market needs to get past the likes of COD: Modern Warfare 2 and COD: Black Ops if they wish to be taken seriously. There's also Battlefield 3 but we won't let that steal COD's thunder as of yet.

Funnily enough, this also applies to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3; the developers know the online mode of COD: MW3 is one of the reasons pre-orders are through the roof, so it had better be up to the task. Some hands-on time with COD: MW3’s multiplayer at the COD:XL convention in Los Angeles this weekend shows the game is in pretty good shape.

During a keynote speech ahead of the event’s opening, the developers made a lot of positive noises about how the multiplayer is the most balanced they’ve ever produced and how it will satisfy newbies and the devoted alike. Bold words indeed, but the proof is in the playing.

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer: Gameplay

Fans of the franchise will be right at home with the gameplay, as on the surface, the developers haven’t tinkered with it too much. The controls are unchanged, the weapons still give a satisfying kick, many of the killstreaks and their rewards are still in effect, and yes, you can still quick-scope. Play through a few rounds, however, and some pleasing new features are revealed.

First up, two new match modes have been added to the multiplayer; Kill Confirmed and Team Defender. The latter mode is an enjoyable spin on the Capture The Flag match-type in which one team member picks up a flag, and then their teammates have to provide them with cover to increase their score.

Kill Confirmed is a match in which killing opponents is half the battle; downed enemies drop yellow glowing dog tags, and points are only earned if players pick them up.

They can also pick up red glowing dog tags from teammates who have been shot, and prevent the opposing team from scoring off their kills. Perhaps to prevent team infighting, the developers award XP for tag collection to the players who successfully shot someone, regardless of if they were the one who collected the tags.

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer: XP

Speaking of XP, alongside the character leveling which has been a staple over the last three games, players can also level up their weapons of choice.

Every single weapon in the game can be improved, not only through augmentations, but also proficiency perks. If you’re a fan of SMGs, for example, you can reduce the recoil of your gun further with the ‘Kick’ proficiency.

Players can also customise their Killstreaks by choosing from three separate packages. This allows players a little more variation in the way they choose to blast their mates online, and it also means they can pick up points for accomplishing objectives tied to the different Killstreak packages.

First up is the Assault Package, which works pretty much the same way as the Killstreaks in Modern Warfare 2; Assault rewards aggressive play with suitably aggressive items such as Predator Drones and gun ships.

Then there’s the Support Strike Package, which is a little more defensively themed – player are rewarded with items like flack jackets which they can equip themselves or offer to teammates, and remote gun turrets. They’re rewarded XP for helping teammates, and their Killstreak doesn’t re-set if they get shot.

Finally there’s the Specialist Strike Package, which is likely to appeal to the hardest of the hardcore. With this package, players aren’t awarded anything until their eighth consecutive kill – and then every single perk in the game is bestowed upon them until they’re killed.

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer: Killstreaks

As far as the Killstreaks go, there are a couple of interesting new ones we spotted in our time with the game. Aside from the aforementioned flack jacket, the Support Strike Package allows players to deploy a booby-trapped care package; drop this sucker on the battlefield and laugh as an opponent opens what they think are some nice new field items, and instead gets blown to smithereens.

We also spied an Osprey Airdrop – available after 30 kills – which apparently drops five care packages for the player and then lays down covering fire from above while they rush in to pick it up. We didn’t get the chance to try it out – it was locked for our hands-on.

On the perk side, some are new and some have been removed. Point Guard and Assassin are new; the former gives players a kill off every two assists and the latter makes the player invisible to UAV, heartbeat and thermal sensors.

The Deathstreaks are back; Last Stand has been removed, but there’s a new Deathstreak in the form of Revenge, which pinpoints the position of the player’s killer for a brief window of time.

The COD: Modern Warfare 3 maps we stifled through ticked COD’s usual boxes; narrow corridors and streets, multiple entries to buildings, hardly any scope to camp and all of them geared towards engendering fast-paced and frenetic shooter action.

The variety of environments gave tell-tale hints of where the game’s Campaign Mode may take players; one was set on a bombed out rail yard in London, one in shanty-town village, and another in the streets of France. According to the developers the game will ship with 16 in the box, with DLC promised at a later date.

Finally, it’s worth noting COD: MW 3’s integration with Facebook via COD: Elite. For the multiplayer this means players can check stats and amend their load-out types while away from their consoles. They can also be a bit more selective in their match-making. Fancy playing online with COD gamers who support the same football club you do? Now you can thanks to Elite.

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer: Verdict

COD: MW3 looks to be shaping up nicely ahead of its release. The multiplayer promises endless competitive mayhem online and Spec Ops offers players frenetic co-op fun. Now all it needs is a decent campaign. Synchronise your watches, people. When COD: MW3 drops in November it’s going to be huge.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video

Source: T3 Video