Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 review

It blows my mind that this game is able to receive these amazing review scores after not doing ANYTHING. Usually "more of the same" is a criticism, yet when Modern Warfare is involved, "more of the same" magically becomes praise. Is it because the COD formula is so good it can last this long? Well then if it is, why don't people still play COD4? It's the same, right? We live in the world where developers can put everything on the line by investing in new and amazing technology, and not one reviewer bats and eyelash, but yet another developer releases a game that has virtually remained the same for four years, and everyone thinks it's incredible. This game is worth $60 you say, yet some expansions offer more content for just $15. "...can you honestly remember or distinguish every level from the last Halo...?" YES! Any self-respecting Halo fan can perform a mental walkthrough of any Halo level! You're saying that moving from one hallway to the other, shooting bland enemies, is better than what Halo has to offer? I would LOVE to hear what David Houghton has to say about MW3. Also I would love to hear someone read this dramatically on Talk Radar, set to the Inception theme, of course.

You can't blame them for not making some radical change in their formula. Why would you make a huge change when people like how it was before? Instead of going along with your grand idea of screwing up what made the last game good, they just improved upon what the fans like already. Makes sense to me.

You can make major changes while not effecting the core values of the game. IE Halo. Killzone. Battlefield. The list goes on.

Not sure how this comment got here.

I think it is sad when people buy things like this just because everybody else does. Just like the ipod if you market it right and get enough people behind you you can sell them same thing over and over again and call it new and revolutionary.

Just finished Single Player. MW2 was a near perfect game for me so unsurprisingly this did not quite reach that high but I would easily give it a 10/10. After a couple hours of multiplayer once I got a little used to the new maps etc I am really falling for it. Very glad I bought it.

GR really needs to implement an up/down vote system for these comment sections...and a community that knows how to write at least semi-intelligent and worthwhile comments. 1 in 10 of you are useful, congrats.

I think it is sad when ever people dismiss popular things as just being bought by sheep. No I couldn't have tried out around 10 phones over the past couple years and determined the iPhone was best for me; I just wanted to be special and get attention. I buy CoD because it is always fun for me. GoW is popular and I don't like the game at all. I don't dismiss people who like it as fools. I just don't play it and move on. Why can't CoD haters do the same?

I just beat the campaign. And for someone who plays ARMA and doesn't really like Call of Duty that much, I really enjoyed the Single player.

Over a year later and I still laughed at this, thank you for that.

The campaign was a neat side project. The multiplayer is the game. Stop bringing the singleplayer into your arguments.

Mainly because they are very similar and they were marketed as you know that other game well we're better. It would be nice to have a little detail on the strengths and weaknesses of each game. I would say BF3 has the better multiplayer and MW3 has the better single player bu that's just speculative since I don't have either. (unemployed atm)

Agreed. Besides, everyone already knows that if they did do a "Is it better than..." it would just end up telling people which would be best depending on preferences. They have been doing that a lot lately.

More of the same...worthy of a 9? Maybe. Worthy of 60 more of my dollars? Not one bit. I'll pass.

I'll stick to Banjo Kazooie...

zepaw is 100% right. while i agree with the sentiment that buying stuff because it's popular is sad, lumping everyone who buys something into that one category is even moreso. is that a pic of master chief? irony...

That doesnt change the fact that a lot people only buy the game for the same reason people buy Madden every year. BECAUSE ITS POPULAR!!! 95% of my co-workers will buy MW3 just because its everyone will. Those same co-workers wont buy another game the entire year!

eh, it's better than gamespot's

For me i felt like the mulitplayer in Black ops had more guns and extras such as face paints, your character changing the way he looked depending on the perk you chose and being able to create your own Emblem although i was poor at it i still liked it. Other than that it's a good multiplayer well worth waiting in the cold on a monday night for.

Many buy it because it is popular just for popularity sake but because it means they can pretty sure their friends will have it and they will be able to play together. Whether I think people will still be playing X game a few months out is an important factor in buying a game. I don't want to toss $60 into a multiplayer game with no community behind it.

You know what? I used to come to gamesradar for its reviews because I felt they were fairly balanced. I actually recommended the site to most of my friends. But this? Giving the 7th CoD title in 7 years- which has done nothing to really advance its genre in the past 4, and is such a rehash that in an error popup, it refers to itself as MW2- a solid review, and on top of that a 9? Are you f*cking kidding me? Meanwhile, BF3- the first real battlefield experience in 6 years, running a fresh and utterly brilliant frostbite engine, with guns and combat that actually feel weighty, whose only real fault I've found lies with the flashlight- got picked at for its campaign (which honestly nobody really cares about) and received an 8? Or Rage- probably the most beautiful game I've ever played, where I constantly find myself stopping to scan the horizon, and take in the awesome scenery that is this wasteland, with memorable character designs and believable animations, on top of a perfect arsenal of weapons that can be selected, in addition to having their ammo picked out, in mere moments- getting criticized for not forcing you to take part in races (let's be honest, you would have whined twice as hard had they forced you to do it instead), or the fact that the authority aren't as interesting as the wildly acrobatic shadow clan (they're heavily armored, what did you honestly expect? Besides, they make up for it with jetpacks, shields, snipers, and grenades), or the texture pop (which is only really an issue if you don't install, and seriously, who doesn't?) receiving an 8 as well? Meanwhile MW3 is sitting around reusing buildings from CoD4, using 2009 era textures, and looking like an all around GIANT GRAY SH*T. You can sit here and say, "well the number system is pretty arbitrary. You shouldn't make such a big deal of it." The problem with that is that people are going to look at the scores and say, "well MW3 is rated more highly than these other games, I guess that's the one I'm getting this season." And you will have been the one to lead those lambs to the slaughter. F*ck you Charlie Barrat. Grow some balls and give this game the review it deserves, not the one Activision paid you for. Feel free to stick this in your next podcast, I'd be eager to hear it read out loud to the tunes of Inception.

I want Call of Duty to get its market share eaten massively. Not because I don't like Call of Duty but because I want it to change. I loved the first one I just want a game that I can look at and play and think "Wow they have really made progress since I last splashed £50 for their game". I don't get that feeling and that's why I won't buy until they change. It might not be the same opinion as the vast majority of diehard fans. Who am I to say they're idiots for buying it? They must still like something about it I guess I just don't agree with them heh. Possibly the reason why so many people can enjoy this game is because the majority of people have friends who have this game. We all know that you can make ANYTHING fun if you're doing it with friends. I don't really know where this comment is going but basically I hope some game comes out of nowhere and blows COD out of the water. If that forces COD to change, I can finally buy it again and the love I once had for the series will come flowing back!