IGN
We go behind enemy lines and live to tell about it in this post-op multiplayer synopsis.
Let's cut the crap right off the bat. Call of Duty 2 was an amazing launch game for Xbox 360, and if you're reading this article then you're already familiar with where the series came from, what it did for the launch of 360 just a year ago, and how amazing the franchise has evolved over the years. We don't need to waste your time explaining what the franchise is all about. If you aren't familiar with the world of Call of Duty,
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. before continuing. For everyone else, let's get down to business…
Just 24 hours ago the IGN team stormed the Activision press event in beautiful Lost Angeles California, and while we knew
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. would be making an appearance at the event, we didn't quite know to what extent. Sure the
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. would be playable, but the details were still up in the air. As the obvious flagship title for Activision,
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. was the hot title to play at yesterday's event, as members of the press had a chance to play multiple levels, each spotted with awesome environments, and even get our hands dirty in some amazing multiplayer action. The game was playable for all three next generation systems, each showing off the system in a unique way. After going the whole nine yards on the battlefield, we're entirely convinced that Call of Duty 3 could not only be an amazing single player experience as usual, but also take the crown for online play on the Xbox 360. Think we're crazy? Oh let's do continue…
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Yup. This game looks good.
Single Player Mode:
For anyone not entirely up on their word history, here's a brief overview of the background behind Call of Duty 3. First of all, you won't find yourself storming the beaches of Normandy this time. While that scene is definitely etched into our minds, the average gamer out there has already done that battle over 3,000 times, so Activision got wise to the generic opening and took Call of Duty 3 in a different direction. No beach landings, no boats, and no "Germans on the hill! Look out! .50 Cal!" Thank you Activision. Thank you very, very much.
Instead, Call of Duty 3 centers around one very specific instance in World War II. The game has players following Polish, Canadian, American, and British troops in the battle for Chambois, one of the most successful (and most needed, quite frankly) pincer attacks in WWII. As the player, you'll be commanding each of the armies from mission to mission, switching between each of the groups in a massive swooping maneuver to pinch off the German Panzer forces - the most elite German forces at the time - in an attempt to choke out the Axis blitzkrieg that, until then, was devastating to allied forces. For the very first time, Call of Duty 3 is putting players in multiple view-points from the same main battle, as each group (and mission) will be working to one ultimate goal. This means you'll be commanding the American front, moving then to the Polish armored division, jumping over to the Canadians for the 4th Armored Division and Grenediers, and over to the British to close the gate. It's multiple campaigns, each running simultaneously, serving to complete one overall objective.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. War is hell. Exhibit A shown above.
While the single player mode was available at Activision's event, the emphasis was definitely on multiplayer, so we'll follow suit in this synopsis. As a quick touch on the one player experience, however, it's important to note that both the 360 and PS3 versions of Call of Duty 3 are looking seriously amazing. Night levels blanket opposing soldiers in natural cover, while muzzle flashes and overhead bombing runs light up the sky to give limited vision. Players will be traversing though forest environments as well, with rainfall dotting their backs, adding less line of sight, and far more audio interference when trying to track enemy positions.
The A/V presentation was so important for Activision that each system at the event was outfitted with huge
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. televisions +45'' in size, as well as surround-enabled headphones to give the game the proper audio effects as well. In addition, the PS3 room had three screens outputting at 1080p, which looked simply awesome. As another quick gameplay note, the PS3 version was making basic use of the tilt functionality, having players melee attack by snapping their right hand forward in a elbowing motion. Team representatives said that PS3 tilt functionality would be improved in the final months before release, adding in the ability to lean around cover by simply tilting the controller from right to left, something that the Wii version is also currently making use of.
Multiplayer Madness:
But enough about the single player portion of the game. Only dumb babies and old people play offline games anymore. Sure it's fun for a while, but the
real challenge comes when you hit the
real battlefield online. Well, apparently the boys over at Treyarch share our enthusiasm, because for this version of Call of Duty, the multiplayer modes have been totally overhauled. In fact, the team has been working on the multiplayer experience since the opening weeks of the project, giving specific attention to true online warfare. No more waiting on Xbox live trying to connect to a game, no more four-player snore-fests, and most of all no more half-assed multiplayer modes for us console gamers. We deserve better, and finally it has been delivered.
To breakdown the multiplayer offerings in a nutshell, we simply have to begin by instructing FPS fans to forget everything you know about what a Call of Duty
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. offers. COD3 has a new developer working on it, and it's obvious that there was a serious paradigm shift that came along with it.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. offers up to 24 players online (which we played at the event), and has a far more immersive online feel.
The Game Modes:
In
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. you're going to see a few returning online modes, as well as a fresh take on what multiplayer battle can be. As for a general overview of the
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts., COD3 offers Team Battle, Capture the Flag, Single Flag Capture the Flag, a revised version of Headquarters, and an all-new mode called War. The first modes are pretty self-explanatory, with Team Battle working like any other death match game, and the usual Capture the Flag modes we've seen in countless other games. For the event, players had a chance to try out both Capture the Flag (traditional) and the new War mode, both of which were running with 24 total players on Xbox 360.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. At that point, the driver should be the least of your concerns.
Capture the Flag:
As the quintessential multiplayer mode, Capture the Flag simply
had to make a return. The game is as old-fashioned for gamers as apple pie is for mama's boys, and a game without Capture the Flag is nothing short of a joke. In Call of Duty 3, Capture the Flag works just as you'd expect it to. Players are divided between two teams, each working to capture the enemy's flag and return it to their own base. During the session we played through, the flag had to be at home to score (the only
real way to play Capture the Flag, mind you), and the game was time based in 20 minute rounds rather than a cap limit. While nothing was said about the different options available, we'd expect to see the ability for either a time limit or cap limit, with all the basic options available for the game's host to set up.
In addition, the game takes a few pointers from Halo 2, as the flag-carrier is reduced to a crying hunk of man-meat, shamelessly running un-armed down the battlefield as naked as the day he was born. At any point in the capture, however, the flag can be dropped, arming the carrier with whatever weapon he had when he originally picked it up. The game supported touch-return though, so anyone looking to self-sacrifice in order to get a quick return can run like a madman towards the flag and send it home in a heartbeat. To even the score, the flag carrier can use the flagpole as a weapon for an instant-kill attack; pretty lethal. And of course, anyone holding the flag will show up on team radar, though they run slower while holding it. As for vehicles, flag carriers are not allowed to drive, but they can act as a passenger in an allied vehicle if enough team coordination is used. Some call these token Capture the Flag rules basic. We call it classic.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Don't do it Nazis... they have the high ground!
War:
As for the new gameplay mode, War brings a more frantic play style to the world of Call of Duty, something that the members of Treyarch were very excited to be responsible for. In War, players will again be split into teams, this time working to defend a random point on the map. The mode works similar to Halo 2's King of the Hill mode, with a little hint of Battlefield thrown into the mix as well. Players will spawn in their designated corner of the map and rush to capture a single outpost on the map. When first arriving, the outpost will remain neutral as the team's flag rises up the pole and is captured. Once the point is won, that team works to secure the outpost until it is overrun by the opposing forces. Since all of the combat is focused on one main point on the map, firefights get amazingly hectic, with the advantage switching quickly from team to team due to vehicle combat, strong medic usage, and artillery strikes.
Call of Duty Driving:
Another area that the team over at Treyarch is very proud of is something the team is calling Call of Duty Driving, which is any area of the game that now allows for user-controlled vehicles. This is used in the single player adventure (just like it was in previous COD games), but is now also a huge part of the multiplayer experience, and something that gives the game a much-needed kick in the pants. During multiplayer sessions, players can now operate tanks, motorcycles, and technicals (jeeps with mounted machine guns), each enabled for carrying multiple troops into battle. The tank offers two positions, including the driver (who also works the main turret) as well as an additional hatch gunner. The technical holds a driver, passenger, and mounted gunner, and the motorcycle has room for both a driver and side-car passenger.
When getting into a vehicle, players can switch to any other open position with a simple button press, eliminating the infinitely annoying act of jumping in/out of a vehicle to find just the right boarding position. In addition, each player will have a vehicle icon added to their HUD, showing what positions on the vehicle are occupied, and which are free to switch between. Getting a hang of the vehicles was fast and easy, and while the demoed map didn't have any tank support, motorcycle and jeep combat was essential for winning skirmishes, and it wasn't uncommon having multiple of each in any given firefight.
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Jeep rampages. If there's a better way to spend a work day, we don't know what it is...
As an added note, blowing away drivers and passengers from inside vehicles seemed to be easer than it is in most
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts., and there were multiple times when we were able to pop out of cover and unload on a jeep's driver from close range. When killed, the jeep continued its forward momentum, having defenseless passengers scrambling to climb into the driver's seat before launching off cliffs or sending them bailing out the side of the vehicle and directly into the open road where they were promptly put down. Rather than having vehicles act as the super-strategy in Call of Duty, an expert team will easily be able to take out approaching forces with sniper fire or precision machine gun work. Multiplayer battles are all about balance, and
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. makes vehicles a much-needed piece of any tactical strike, while still keeping the gameplay both fair and realistic.
Character Classes:
In addition to the vehicular combat,
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. also builds its multiplayer experience around multiple character classes, adding even more depth to the gameplay, while also providing the much-needed balance that comes from it. Regardless of axis or allied affiliation, players can select from seven different character classes, including riflemen, light assault, heavy assault, support, anti-armor support, scout, and medic. Taking yet another page from the tried-and-true Battlefield formula, each class has a special ability that can be used in battle regardless of which mode is being played. The rifleman, for example, have a grenade attachment on their machine guns, while light and heavy assault can make use of anti-personnel mines to set up a tighter defense around map hot-spots. Support and anti-armor support can hand out ammo refills to nearby players, and scouts can call artillery strikes anywhere within visual range on the field. Our personal favorite member of the team, the medic, has the ability to revive downed players, making any proficient medic team deadly in games like War where numbers mean everything.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Call of Duty is so much better when you bring your friends.
To keep thing balanced, however (notice how it's a re-occurring theme in multiplayer? That's a good thing.), each class had different weapons and equipment to use, giving each type of unit its own advantages and disadvantages on the field. Medics, for example, are amazing at keeping a strong team together by reviving units, but are armed with only a pistol and shotgun for close encounters. On the flipside, they also are one of the few units to have smoke grenades, making healing runs far more successful undercover.
In the same way, anti-armor support uses rocket launchers as their primary weapon, so while tossing magazines to allies may not be the most exciting task on the field, you'll be in hot demand when German panzer forces roll up in their armor units. Using your character class ability is as simple as hitting R1 on PS3, or RB on 360. The more kills and ability usage you use, the faster you'll be promoted, though specific information on how character promotion works will have to wait until another time.
Final Odds N' Ends:
As it sits right now, Call of Duty 3 definitely has the potential to be
the online
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. for the tail end of this year. Games like GRAW and Battlefield are managing to hold their own, but when looking at the sheer amount of Call of Duty 2 players online currently, and the amount of additions going into Call of Duty 3 this time around it's hard to imagine this game not creating a tremendous fan-following. Treyarch has done a great job in development thus far, and the game is looking very solid. As for a few final thoughts, it's important to note that the game wasn't in its final stages and that the play-through we got was still rather limited. The PS3 version will be seeing more tilt integration into the main game, and we've yet to use the voice chatting for online matches.
The general movement and gunfire has been tweaked minimally from Call of Duty 2, but the amount of blowback on weaponry and the difference in handling from gun-to-gun is much more in-depth, rewarding players even more for actually settling into position and scoping the rifle before firing. From what we've played thus far, Call of Duty 3 is shaping up to be an amazing first-person shooter, and we're excited to get our hands on the final version very, very soon.
Linear Mode
