If you love COD, stick to MW2 or Black Ops.

I'm a fan of Activision & been playing since COD2. However, I'm very disappointed in Infinity Ward's latest release. MW3 has turned out to be a poor game IMO. I'm rating this 1/5 for many reasons. (1) 12/16 MP maps are made for 'run & gun' type of players. If you like to snip, camp or take your KDR serious. I would avoid this game! (2) No rooftop battles, lame (MW1+2 had 'em). (3) Only Bakaara, has 1 stationary HMG in a crashed chopper (MW1+2 had many in multiple maps). (4) Why have bipods on LMGs, if you can't use 'em? (Ex: WaW, if you press X. You can place it on a ledge. Giving the player better accuracy & mobility). (5) Old perks polished. New perks are poorly created & are useless. (6) Killstreaks: Assault are spread to far apart. Making them extremely difficult to obtain. Support is fun but gets boring after a while. (7) Can't switch care packages, lame. (8) A few new weapons introduced. MSASS & AS50, very nice. All others just been polished or given a new name; lame. (9) Can't create your own emblem/title. (10) Spec Ops is the same from MW2. (11) Survival is fun but becomes boring quickly after unlocking all achievements. (12) Prestige emblems look poorly made. (13) Grenade launcher attachment (Noobtubing) damage has been reduced. Making an effective kill requires you to hit your target. (14) GMAW's damage has been reduced. Making an effective kill requires you to hit your target. (15) RPG unlocks at L80? (16) XM-25 or XM25, overpowered + you get a clip of 4 rds, total 12. (17) Bouncy Betty & Claymore becomes obsolete when opposing player has Stalker Pro. (18) Single Player Campaign got boring after a few chapters. Liked the new scenery though. (19) If you agree with all the above. Sell your MW3 copy & avoid purchasing Elite. Founder status has an expiration date; lame.

GAME OF THE YEAR

The single player story for Modern Warfare 3 is absolutely stunning. Infinity Ward has kept true to their style of game development by once again making sure you never leave first person view. I enjoy cinematic scenes, but the level of intensity that you get throughout the campaign whilst always being in first person view is great. Modern Warfare 3 is a direct sequel to Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2, and picks up right where Call of Duty 5 left off. Modern Warfare 3 adds a lot more to the campaign than Infinity Ward’s last title, including graphics as well as unique missions that you should definitely experience for yourself. The graphics in Modern Warfare 3 are the best I have seen so far in a Call of Duty game while keeping it smooth with a constant 60 frames per second. The detail of the environments and the character models are beautiful. Some of the scenes throughout the campaign are really breathtaking as they are action packed, and keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. To add to that, there are many surprises and twists throughout the game that no one will see coming, making this story an amazing action packed thriller. Although the campaign is amazing, it was fairly brief, lasting around 6-8 hours depending on the difficulty. And speaking of difficulty, I would add that the game was a lot easier on Veteran than any of the other Call of Duty games.
Now for the good stuff; multiplayer. Multiplayer for Call of Duty 5 is mostly what made it so popular and in Modern Warfare 3 it gets even better. The addition of many killstreaks and having the ability to customize which ones you want ,with a max of 3 available at once, is where this game’s multiplayer action really differs from Call of Duty 5. Even in objective modes like Search and Destroy, you can gain killstreaks throughout the course of many rounds, granted you don’t die at the end of the round. And if you try using you stealth class from Call of Duty 5 or World at War in this game you might not be safe with the addition of Heartbeat sensors as an attachment to certain weapons which detect movement. Of course there is a perk to counter that though. Many perks from Call of Duty 5 have been made into attachments or equipment. There are many additions to the game that will really let you personalize your class to your liking, much more so than the previous Call of Duty games. I saw a lot of people running around with many different class setups instead of seeing everyone with the same 5 as in the other games. You can now unlock titles and emblems for yourself that show up in game. Modern Warfare 3 has added more modes as well.

OVERALL 10
A MUST BUY AND WILL BE ON EVERYONES CHRISTMAS LIST
RATED M (MATURE)

So as good as Uncharted 3?, Predictable yes, but COD has always satisfied

Well of course next year was going to be something new, it is after all a treyarch(or whoever the hell is working on it now out of like 5 studios) year. So that means digging into he past, or if they're really daring, future, for the game. I would like to see it get a low score just to see it, but of course it won't, and I don't agree logically that it should just to get it; but come on, the reason isn't purely hate mongering on what is popular. Sometimes I feel activision owes all the fans, not me, better, and I say they don't deliver since we can use the exact same words and phrases detailing nearly every inch of MW3(cod8) as we could cod4.

Just because it's good doesn't mean people should be paying for the game again and again and again. You can still level in cod4, prestige, pick out perks. That game needed 1 or 2 iterations to get everything right, not 10. Roster updates don't deserve retail price, and that's almost all this is now.

You can't screw it up when you can literally copy/paste 85% of the multi-player and when all they do with the singleplayer is make the reins tighter and add more scripting to it. Activision has seemingly finally found the franchise that people don't mind if it never changes, after many tries, as long as you keep plopping it on their plate, they'll keep eating; it's disgusting for all involved at some point.

Sometimes it's good to see games awarded 7's or 8's out of 10 (assuming the game being reviewed genuinely is a 7 or 8 out of 10 game). With so much publisher pressure around these days it's hard to know what scores are genuine and what scores have been 'influenced' shall we say.

At least when a AAA game receives an 8/10 you know the integrity of the reviewing party is upheld, and hasn't bowed to any demands.

I always hated that about the game and I can't believe they still haven't fixed it in 2011. Still, they've at least made the story comprehensible this time round, although I really wish they'd stop with the character swapping as it simply does not work in a first-person game at all IMO and if it's done for controversy and nothing else then, really, what is the point? It just serves to cheapen the whole experience, I think.

Otherwise, this seems like a good review with a score that is as predictable as the game itself. This'll be the first game I won't be buying though, simply because I found the games started getting boring after the first Modern Warfare with Infinity Ward playing it too safe and not evolving the genre at all (respawning enemies being a good case in point). Great for the fans I guess but I'll look for my first-person shooter thrills elsewhere, thank you very much.

Good review, glad i didnt cancel my order. BF3 is a great online game but it seems CoD has managed to do its version of online well this year too. BF fanboys (that infest this site), on your marks. . . . Get set. . . . . Go! Neg neg neg.

Glad to see some of you already have. Why can't you people accept that CoD is still a good game in its own right? If BF became the unstoppable monster that CoD has become would you all start hating that instead? Seriously get outside for some fresh air.

Very nice game, great campaign/multiplayer, challenging.

I believe that my lack of too much history with the COD games allows me to go into this with a relative lack of bias, a clean slate, if you will. For reference, the only other two that I owned were Black Ops and World at War.
Pros: Fantastic graphics, very fast paced. There seems to be a real sense of emergency at many of the scenes, very emotionally involving. Many people complain about the lack of new weapons from MW2 but having only played that for a few hours, this isn't something that bothers me too much. Varied gameplay is also nice, as the entire game doesn't revolve around storm-the-building type domination tactics-there are many different vehicle parts, specialized packages such as the ARC-130's, etc. Great graphics, great sound design, great gameplay.

Cons: I would say this with every COD game that I have played (just purchased MW2, sure I'm going to have the same issue) that some parts of this game are mindblowingly difficult, and shouldn't be. I started Black Ops on Veteran difficulty so I was somewhat expecting it there, but MW3 I decided to start on Regular. There are parts in this game where the immediate objective seems ridiculously simple, but you might spend an hour trying to get through one room because you keep dying over and over again. There was one level in particular, I forget the name, but you are trying to make a rendezvous with your evac chopper before the sandstorm hits, so you are given roughly two and half minutes to get to your objective. I would say there are roughly thirty enemies in the way of said objective, conveniently placed to play hell with your life, and all armed with guns that will kill you, on Regular difficulty, in about 4-5 shots. I literally had to replay this one individual part about 30 times before I finally got through. The only other thing that I have to say is that the story is a bit difficult to follow. It is one of those games that alternates between different units throughout the levels in the game, so be prepared to keep up with what's happening and to whom.

Overall, though, this is a great game that I have already invested several hours into. I personally don't think that I would have paid the full sixty dollars on release for it, but I managed to get it at a good price on eBay so I am happy.
If you are looking for a good challenge with an intense campaign and even more intense multiplayer, look no further.

Modern Fantasy 3, really unrealistic,worst COD yet,SAVE your Money!!!

I have played every CoD & some BF games so I can tell you I'm not biased.This game a 2 or a 3 star game, not a 1 or a 5.I expected MW3 to be better than Black ops was, & to be even better than MW2 was.It turns out I tried every mode,& it turns out it is possible for a COD to be worse than black ops.
Single Player:
The single player is by far the worst in a call of duty so far,it is not interesting, & the story makes little sense.It starts off with a continuation of the war between the US and Russia in New York.The first level is just you moving around NY killing Russians. There are many stupid scenes in this mission like when I tried to destroy a Hind with the XM25 I found & words popped up saying weapons can't kill vehicles.Later in that mission you get on a mini gun in a black hawk being chased by Hinds,on this mini gun somehow you easily destroy like 4 attack helicopters.Also in the first 2 missions the amount of Russian ships clogging up the harbor made little sense.Later in the game you end up on the Russian president's jet to protect him from makarov, it turns out somehow a bunch of makarov's men were stowawayed on the plane,ends up that makarov finds him & then threatens the presidents daughter if he doesn't continue the war after they somehow survived a plane crash unscathed. This is incredibly unrealistic,no president would want a devastating & costly war just so his daughter could live. Afterwards we go to Africa, in a location very similar to Brazil in MW2. It seems for whatever reason in this game they tried to make it controversial or something because there is a part where you snap a dog's neck and brutal shoot it multiple times,in another scene price brutally interrogates a guy by setting off poisonous gas,then gives him a breathing mask after getting the info and then brutally shoots him,then of course the little girl gas bombing home video,Makarov getting hanged in the end seemed too dramatic and unnecessary. The other stupid part of the game is how it seems like they tried too hard to make it WW3,by going to Africa,England,Germany,France,​Siberia,and the middle east;yet there seemed to be little involvement with other countries apparently involved in the war other than the US,Russia,and the UK.There were several inconsistencies that made it seem more of a modern fantasy, Russians having vehicles from the cold war, heavily armored juggernauts immune to bullets,an unnecessary amount of slow-mo scenes,& several circumstances where it seems like you will die,but by some miracle you live.
Survival Mode
Its a fun addition but was ruined with the addition of suicide bombers & dogs strapped with C4.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer is hardly different from MW2.The engine,graphics,audio,mechanic​s,are pretty much identical. 26 guns are back from the others MWs.They included proficiencies which are pretty much perks for guns which doesn't make sense.They don't physically add anything to the gun which makes no sense when it changes something like the kick or power of a gun.The grenades are pretty much same except the doesn't exist trophy system.They got rid of some bad perks,but added ones like Quick draw for quickscoping,hardline pro which means 2 assist=1 kill.Stupid deathstreaks like juiced,dead man's hand. Kill confirmed makes 0 sense also, that your kills don't count unless u pick up the red & gold floating dog tags.The infected mode has no zombies just people with knifes,and juggernaunt.Overall the game isn't worth the time or $.