Call of Duty 3 - updated hands-on

PlayStation 3 was in full force, looking just as good as the Xbox 360 version at this point. It's worth noting that the game will only be up to 720p, and 1080 is not even being experimented with. The demo level on PSP was Forest, which was much more open than Island. It's a battle of inches, as we had to scan the area with scopes, hoping to pick off as many baddies as possible. The motion-sensing feature of the PS3 controller came into play on melee attacks, which were mapped to a kind of left-to-right thrust rather than a button.

Speaking of motion sensing, the Wii version was also on display. Immediately evident are the graphical inadequacies of the console - though we were assured it would have the same levels and features. Aiming the gun by pointing the remote at the screen takes a lot of getting used to, and its sensitivity means you can easily spin out of control. The way grenade throwing was done was especially complex, and resulted in a lot of suicides. Just because it was difficult and different doesn't mean it's bad, however, and the shown Crossroads level had plenty of action. An area where we went mano-a-mano with an angry German and had to follow onscreen motion commands to beat him down was especially thrilling. War, after all, isn't supposed to be easy.

Call of Duty 3 isn't reinventing the military FPS wheel; it doesn't have to. The bar raised by Call of Duty 2 still hasn't been met, and the steps CoD 3 is taking are definite improvements. This game will be a juggernaut this fall, regardless of platform.