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E3 2011: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Impressions)

by: John -
More On: E3 2011 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Developer: Infinity Ward/ Sledgehammer Games
Release Date: 11/8/11
What's polished: The epic scope of the war, the trademark chases
What needs polishing: Graphics don't seem too much more improved over Modern Warfare 2 such as the character models, feeling of same ole same ole crept up a bit

My annual visit to Activision at E3 also includes my annual look at the Call of Duty game for the year. This time around, we know it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. While the surprise was let loose a little early, for me it's still nice to get a close up look at the game.

The demo consisted of two levels with the first part being the introduction to Microsoft's E3 press conference. If you missed it, check it out and you can see what I saw. There seemed to be a little difference though between what I saw at the booth than at the press conference as I seem to remember many more bodies floating during the journey toward the submarine in the tunnel, a sight which threw me back a bit. I have to say the epic scope of the third World War was presented pretty well when the player surfaced and started the assault on the sub as well as when they were making their escape after launching the missiles. It did get me a little pumped.

For the second part of the demo, there was a pretty interesting chase in the subway system of London. It started out assaulting some docks and things go wrong when the truck you are after contains nothing inside. The demonstrator then set about chasing some of the enemies into a subway where she proceeded to hop into a truck and chase down a few subway cars.

Now, I don't know how many (I'm assuming) Russians were in the subway cars, but the person who was at the controls killed a ton of them. I mean, they kept popping up making the scene a little humorous for me thinking how many of these guys were laying low in there. The sequence was very fast paced and there were some tense moments as well as subway walls sometimes obstructed the view of the enemies.

The scene ended with the subway tumbling over and over taking out many of the underground columns reminiscent of the subway scene in Die Hard with a Vengeance only much more chaos ensued here.

I have to say being a player of all the Infinity Ward Call of Duties and Black Ops, the scenes were fun but also had that feeling of, I've done this many times before. Maybe because I have played a ton of Modern Warfare 1 and 2, but I hope that Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have some new things to give veterans of the series some surprises. I definitely do not want another mission where I play through and die as the main character as I think that's been played out in the previous two Modern Warfares.

No information or pictures were given on the multiplayer portion, the part where I spend the most time on so that's a little disappointing. I am hopeful Modern Warfare 3 finishes off the trilogy nicely though given what I thought of the previous single player storyline. This is going to be a big test for the folks at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer to try and produce a solid Call of Duty title with many of the original members gone. Treyarch surprised me with a good effort in Black Ops and I hope I am surprised again with Modern Warfare 3.