MW3

I just finished the single player mode of Modern Warfare 3 (on hardened), so I thought it was high time I wrote up a little review of the game.

The single player experience was, like the previous 2 Modern Warfare titles, more like playing two different games. On some missions you are with a huge group of friendlies, fighting gobs and gobs of Russian and sometimes African or Middle Eastern bad guys. The other type of levels has you doing semi-sneaky infiltration-esque missions with just a few friendlies.

The big group levels are, to put it bluntly, non-game sequences. As has been mentioned elsewhere, there are far too many sequences in these kind of places where you are just simply following orders. When the game wants you to shoot, you shoot, and then wait till a more important person goes ahead, who then gives you orders to follow him. These levels have a lot of spectacle, but aren't much fun, especially since a lot of the time will be spent hiding behind a platform to heal because every bad guy in the game seems to be gunning for you, (tho that makes sense since for the most part none of your companions can die).

But then there are the other levels, usually where you play a SAS team or special Russian agent guy, where you move along, completing tasks, and killing bad guys like an old style FPS. And these levels are fun - real fun - especially towards the end of the game, where there is a nice buildup and a satisfying climax.

Oh, and as for plot and continuity, this has to top any of the other MW games. But this ain't saying a whole lot, since to do this they just had to ensure that the story was at least not blatantly confusing. But I think you will have fun doing it, and I personally like how they wrap up the 3 part series.

Now, we come to the multiplayer experience. I had high hopes, especially since I did have a lot of fun playing Black Ops (when the connections were good). All I have to say is Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer is the biggest polished turd I've ever seen.

OK, it's not as bad as the blatantly unbalanced MW2. But it's close.

And it's because of one reason: Modern Warfare 3 gives you endless customization and tweaking, the ability to unlock tons of new perks to use, and tons of new guns, all with a mind-numbing array of sights and attachments to put on them - all so that you can be killed instantly by a guy who seemed to teleport around a corner.

Now occasionally (just occasionally), when all connections are good it can play well. But this is very rare. Most of the time, I get kills on people that give me the suspicion that I was a blur on their screen. And the same happens when I get killed.

Just watch the killcam replay and you have all the evidence you need: on your screen you see a guy pop around a corner, and you're dead instantly. Then on the replay you see them run around, see you, pull up gun and start shooting, killing you in 7 bullets. So where were those bullets on your screen? Where did that time go? The answer is nowhere. The game has serious server issues, and conceals them by having insta-kills like this.

So am I glad I got to see the conclusion to the story? Yes. Would I recommend this game for someone who wants to have a fun multiplayer experience? No way.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the style of the multiplayer is the problem. It's not. I like run and gun FPS if they're done right. But this isn't. It's a nice looking, easy to control, deep online system, that is just not fun (IMO) because of server issues.