Thoughts on COD3

Alright I just played the game for a few hours. My initial impression was a little dissapointment. Lets get the weaker parts out of the way first I don' t like the controls, they' re too stiff and not as fluid as it is in COD2. As I expected I would I hate the hand combat in single player but its not that prevelant enough to be a problem. Also the graphics seem a bit muddy compared to its predesessor.

Overall I like it as much as Cod2. Just don' t expect the same feel, these are very different games which is to be expected as they are made by different developers. COD3 single player is a faster pace and a bit more challenging, I' m not far enough to say too much more about single player. So far I think COD2 has a better single player.

As for multiplayer, this is where the two games differ the most. I only played in team battle but the contrast is clear. In COD2 one person can bring a team win, thats seems much less possible in COD3. Its way too chaotic to have one person carry a team, that and the fact that there are more players. Cod3 is less about individual skill and more about how well you can work as a team. COD3' s multiplayer seems to have a lot more depth but some things seem more annoying then anything else. I know I could do without tanks.

For ever good point I have to say about COD3 there' s an equal amount of weak poits compared to COD2. Considering how much I liked COD2...

If you like to just jump in an online match you probably won' t like this one as much, but if you always play with friends then this one has more potential then COD2.

I saw you were playing it earlier and i' d hoped you were having an absolute blast...

I have a couple of questions (my order was posted today so i should have it on Thursday) before m copy arrives...


Is the sensitivity adjustable?

Are the textures, character models & animations and general onscreen effects better than in CoD2?!

Do the weapons feel right?!

Is the framerate a solid 60fps?!

What do you mean by muddy?!

Are the characters hands textured properly?! (odd question i know but i have issues with poorely modelled hands - like those in Raven Softwares games..)

Is the environment destructable?! Or at last things like boxes?!

Yeah, what he said.

Are the characters hands textured properly?! (odd question i know but i have issues with poorely modelled hands - like those in Raven Softwares games.. )

I remember that discussion.

Is the sensitivity adjustable?

Yes, but what I meant when I said the controls are too stiff is that if feels like you' re moving your arms with a Dpad and not an analog stick. With COD2 you swing your arms much more naturally, in COD3 it feels like you' re a robot. You get used to it and the upside is that you weapon ends up being more accurate. Also as a side note COD3 doesn' t seem to have the hit detection problems that COD2 had.

Are the textures, character models & animations and general onscreen effects better than in CoD2?!

Its strange because I can' t say that one is better then the other. Its really a matter of style. Both COD2 and COD3 are inconsistant a bit with textures, some parts of the game looks better then others. The biggest differences graphically is that COD3 has really nice grass.leaves while COD2 has much better smoke. Explosions and smoke on COD3 are 2d and look cartoony. The character models look more realistic in COD3(except skin generally looks better in COD2).

Do the weapons feel right?!

Depends what you mean. Do they feel like they do in COD2 then no. Do they feel like they should then yes. Weapons are much more distinct in COD3, there are a few new ones and some will not return but even the old ones like the Thompson feel more genuine. The weapons are more challenging to use, more kickback with the machine guns and the sniper rifle I tried was a lot harder to master, it moves around more and you can hold you breath only very briefly. I was a sniper in COD2 but I can' t see myself being one in COD3. Mostly because the crosshair for the sniper I was using (not sure if its universal) was terrible, the croosshar is too think and almost blocks your shot! On the flip side rifles are much better in COD3 when they were almost worthless in COD2. Trenchguns aren' t nearly as good as in COD2. Pistols are also much better. Word of the wise, never bring a rocket launcher in a pistol fight.

Anyways you' ll see what I mean, I like the tactile feel of the guns, but I don' t like the position of the guns when you' re not aiming. When you' re not aiming instead of holding the gun close to your body it looks like the guns are being held far, as if you have meter long arms. The weapons seem more balanced then in COD2 and are much funner to use (except for the sniper and shotgun which now suck,they over compensated).

Is the framerate a solid 60fps?!

Hard to say, but the frame rate IS solid, better then COD2, and I haven' t seen any hint of lag in multiplayer yet, but I also haven' t been in a game with over 16 players. So in terms of frame rate and lag, its what you would hope for, and even before you enter a online match, its like BF where you get to see the quality of the servers among other things.

What do you mean by muddy?!

The colours look muddy, theres a lot of dark colors that bleed together. This goes back to what I said earlier about different styles. COD2 has a brighter cleaner crisper look but COD3 has a grittier dirty style (realistic but ugly). I prefer COD2' s style, but thats just my personal preference. My TV isn' t the best HD TV either so it might look better on yours.

Are the characters hands textured properly?! (odd question i know but i have issues with poorely modelled hands - like those in Raven Softwares games.. )

When I was placing explosives on a turret. I have to say some of the best textures in the game is used on the hands. If you' re obsessed with hand textures the first time you place explosives in single player you will have a smile on your face. The first time I placed an explosive I actually looked at my real hand and was disapointed! lol In the regular game the hands look alright texture wise but they could use a few more polys, and they are too big, they' re freakishly big.

Is the environment destructable?! Or at last things like boxes?!

Some things are like boxes and barrels filled with sime kind of explosive content, not a whole lot. The barrels can be cool in multiplayer.
Things that make COD3 different aside from the nerw classes and rank system,vehicles and larger maps. The weapons are more distinctive (I like the change),better weapon balance although I dislike the new snipers (its not that they are hard to use, its that they aren' t fun anymore).

Oh and I was having a blast, I said I like the game as much as COD2, which is my one of my favorite games of this year! I' m being critical of the game because you guys want to know as much as possible. I never really cared about single player but COD2 is better then COD3 in this respect (from my first impressions, I didn' t get very far) It is a different game though, extremely team oriented. Personally this exactely what I want with a few minor annoyances like tanks hand combat and impotent sniper rifles (regualr rifles are actually better in Cod3). Oh and in single player you have an automatic aim with rifles that make one hit kills too easy. However you die just as fast. As I said before the most stiking thing is the pace. In COD2 you had to really drill the fucker with bullets before he' s go down, now its as if everyone has 20% health. Which is largely why the pistols are better and the shotguns are worthless now.

I' m excited to get some clan action, we' re going to have such a huge advantage over all the noobs and casual gamers. We' ve been playing together for a year now and we know eachother on a first name basis in some cases. with my clan I know I' m going to enjoy COD3 more especially with 24 players (which is fucking sick) but playing with strangers COD2 has a slight edge in my books. If you take the time to learn the mechanics of the game and have a good team that does as well with good communication, this game is much better then COD2. More chaos, faster, harder, smarter...total Pwnage. This one will be an aquired taste for a lot of people getting better with age. If you like Battlefield 2, you' ll love COD3. Because COD3 is a mixture of Battlefield 2 and COD2, sometimes it actually feels more like Battlefield then COD2.

Oh one more gripe I have with the game, theres too much junk everywhere. I actually died a few times both in single and multiplayer because I got caught in some obstacle, like between a few boxes or something (you' ll see what I mean). You actaully have to look where you are going...

If you have any more questions, just ask.

Wow! I just finished playing with people who actually know how to play and the game is fucking awsome! Online is much better then COD2, it just has far more depth. Single player is not nearly as fun, its kind of a drag actually, some parts are fun but a lot of parts can be very fustrating, I ran into a few glitches as well. Single player isn' t polished at all. Still, the multiplayer makes COD3 a far better game then COD2, and thats saying a lot bacause i love COD2. Once you learn the mechanics of the game its awsome.

I actually don' t even feel like going to pick up my paid copy of GOW tomorrow, nor do i want to go to bed even. I just want to play COD3.

I read IGN' s review (which i don' t usually do) and they seemed impressed. Like you it' s the online i' m most interested in but it' s always nice to have a strong offline component too and your impressions have worried me slightly. Especially seeing as CoD2 was particularly strong in that area.

I don' t mind the darker tone and less varied locations as having 4 characters fighting in the same campaign, towards the same ultimate goal seems more streamlined than the randomness of CoD2. The tank parts of CoD2 were ok but nothing special so i don' t expect much from the vehicle parts of the 3rd game. The additions to the gameplay mechanics (like how you plant a bomb) are nice enough but have only been included because the PS3 version uses tilt control for those bits.

From what i' ve heard elsewhere the textures are noticeably improved over CoD2' s. Sharper and more detailed and that the foliage is superb. CoD2' s environments were awesome anyway so i' m not really worried about that, it' s more the character models and animations than anything else. CoD2' s character animations seemed slightly stiff and from the trailers CoD3' s seem very similar. The weapon modeling and hands (it' s odd i know but in a FPS having rubbish looking hands is unacceptable and Raven Software have never managed to get it right in id' s games) seems to be great and so i' m now interested in how the AI performs in the offline campaign and how the vehicles play in the online side of things. Is it more like Battlefield and a drag to traverse the levels on foot, or are the levels small enough to get around without being reliant on transport?!

Also, what are the physics like?! And what about the sound?!

I' ve got a question for ' ya too Ghost. Does the Thompson' s rear sight have that bevel that I' ve seen in the early gameplay vids? And that stupid needle-like spire they stuck on the front, did that make the cut. If there' s one thing I don' t like, It' s historically innacurate firearms.[:' (]

I' ll post my first impressions in about an hour or so. I' m going to pick up the game at around four I think.

Ok, the AI is not that different from COD2, they' re not very sophisticated but they won' t do anything completely retarded either. A lot of the AI is scripted as in COD3. The main diffence is that in some parts in COD3 the AI will go without you and sometimes you feel like you' re actually following them and not the other way around.

One thing that bugs me about the single player of the game which it has in common with COD2, but its more present in COD3. Is the never ending waves of enemies. If you stay in one spot at keep killing enemies in a lot of missions you' ll be there for eternity. At certain spots they never stop coming and there is no pause either so its actually completely pointlss to kill them. You just have to go from point a to point b, this is usually outdoors. Some missions are fustrating because of this, you need to get on the other side but a group of enemies keep killing you but as soon as you kill them thay are immediately replaced...retarded.

The animations in the cut scenes are good, the cut scenes are better then COD2 for the most part, except if you see large groups of soldiers (I' m thinking of one particular scene) they look pretty bad, all the same and " stiff" as you say.

Back with the hands, they look alright (by my non obsessive hand disorder standard). Your hands look good but the hands of other look big, the textures and polygons are in the right places but the hands are huge, when looking at someone elses hands. Maybe I' m crazy though...

Vehicles are pretty nice, the tank is over powered which makes it vital to have at least one bazooka guy on your team, I would say two though. A tank can kill a lot of noobs really fast. I haven' t even tried all the vehicles yet to be honest. I didn' t drive the motocycle but I road in the passesnger seat on the side and was shooting people with my Thompson as he drove, good times. I was worried about the vehicles making walking impossible as it is in BF 2142 but its pretty surprising that it works. The thing is the maps are a bit bigger but you have more people in it as well. Most of the time you won' t need a vehicle to go anywhere because there will be someone right in front of you, but if you wanted to sneak around on foot to the opposite side of the map it would still feel closer to COD2 then BF, but its sometimes more fun to grab a buggy or mortorcycle and run people over then walking. The vehicles don' t feel like a neccessity for transport but more like an asset in certain cases. Often fights will get close together as both sides try to work as a team as if you spawned far from the fight you might want to grab a vehicle if you' re hyper and impatient but they' ll be planety of Nazis left to kill if you go on foot. Vehicles are more for offensive strategy then transport, like if you want to punch through enemy lines or simply run people over as I mentioned.

The physics seem a bit more realtime. I can' t even remember but I think COD2 had scripted deaths. COD3 seems to have a mix of scripted and realtime, or limited ragdoll physics. It doesn' look over the top but it looks cool. The physics make the kills more satisfying.

The sound is great, COD2 had great sound as well so its hard to say the COD3 has better sound but just the fact that its different is a good thing. The sound of the weapons is much better, and this contributes to the feeling that the weapons are real and not toys as they felt like in COD2 (they will once you play COD3). One small gripe about the sound in COD3 is tha your own foot steps sound too loud and it somhow sounds like it coming from behind you even if there is no one there. However this could just be my own setup. I got used to it and forgot about it once I got into a good game.


These things are not that important to me though. At first I realized the game had a different feel then COD2 and I didn' t like it as much but after I got used to it as you do with any new game (because this does not feel like call of Duty at all, COD3 is totally different). It really is a blend of COD2 and BF, which works out pretty well. The online is sick! Once you understand the intricacies of the online mechanics and everyone else does as well the matches will get very crazy. Some matches will be hilarious, and result in good stories that can' t happen in COD2.

For example in CTF match one of my allies carrying the flag was being chased with a guy using a rocket launcher, he turned around and wacked him with the flag (instant kill). I have the stategy guide, and it turns out the flag is the most powerful melee weapon. Who knew?

Another instance in a different match, the opposite team rushed us and took our flag after killing half my team. They all rushed back to their base to make the score where I was waiting hidden near their flag pole. Right before they made the score I pulled the pin off a grenade and ran right into the tight group with the flag, killing four people at once including the flag holder. You have to pull the pin from the grenade and throw it (two steps), so you can actually use yourself as a suicide bomber with the grenades. I was laughing my ass off when we got our flag back.


Eddie, I' m sorry I saw your post too late, you probably already have the game by now, I can' t even answer your question without starting up the game again. Also I wouldn' t even be able to identify what you are looking for, whats a bevel? They might show the Thompson the the new videos at GameTrailers.
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2650

Im too lazy to write a story like Agent Ghost there but I pretty much agree. Had me worried for a whiel but now that ive played it im very much relived treyarch didnt botch it up.

My only complaint is last of a lobby system in online. Hopefully that will eventually get added cause hostign a room is quite a hassle somtimes. Tho I like the new vote options.