Monday, November 21, 2011

Being Nitpicky about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3


I recently bought Modern Warfare 3 because I'm a huge fan of the Call of Duty franchise but more specifically, I love the Modern Warfare series.

[For some reason, I don't like the Treyarch versions of CoD.]

If you're looking for a review, here it is:

It's good and I recommend getting it. Some people say it's just like MW2 and I think that's mostly true but MW2 was really good also. New weapons, refreshed maps, a snappier feel, all reasons to join the fight.

Read on to hear my gripes* about the game. (*Spoiler alert, it's really just for fun and these things don't truly bother me. Well... maybe a little.)




Ok now that my official review is out, let me get picky. I haven't been around guns my whole life but I know enough that they could have hired me as a consultant and the game would have been 83% better.

Select Fire on Assault Rifles

They don't let you select fire on the assault rifles. In real life, rifles like the FN SCAR and Remington ACR allow semi auto or full auto fire but in the game they just allow full auto. Having the ability to change in game would allow greater control and accuracy as well as adding realism to the game.

SCAR-L

ACR 6.8


Ballistic Vests

One of the kill streak rewards is the use of ballistic vests. When you acquire one of these vests, your vision gains a slight yellowish tinted vignette. Does this usually happen when you wear a ballistic vest? No. What does happen is that the added weight could slow you down. Why not make the downside of the vest use a slower sprint speed or decreased sprint distance?

Not Wearing a Ballistic Vest
Wearing a Ballistic Vest


Sprinting with a Light Machine Gun

With some of these light machine guns weighing as much as 20 pounds (not including ammo), they still allow you to spring quite a bit. I guess that they still slow you down when compared to the SMG's but I imagine it would be more realistic if they slowed you down further. These are some heavy guns!



Shoulder Firing .50 caliber Sniper Rifle

You'll see a ton of people in multiplayer firing multiple times on body sized targets (other players) while standing or even moving with the Barrett. That's just not accurate. Also, the bipods on these rifles should be functional for times when going prone to take a shot. 




Kel-Tec KSG 

The Kel-Tec KSG was new at SHOT Show this year and as cool as it is, I don't want to use it in Modern Warfare 3. It has 2 tubes that can each hold 7 rounds. The idea is that you can have 7 rounds of buck shot in one tube and 7 rounds of slugs in the other. That allows you to engage targets in close quarters and at a considerable distance through the use of a red dot sight. This could have been a great gun in the game but they don't allow you to change ammunition types.





Hybrid Sight

The hybrid sight offers horrible sight picture all around. In the real world this could be very useful even though it has some downsides (getting caught on entryways when flipped out). Look at the comparison of the various sights in MW3 and take note of the bottom two photos which is the hybrid sight in it's two stages.


(click to embiggen)




Suppressors for Shotguns

Ok, these 'do' exist but I don't think they should be included in the game unless they allow you to use slugs in the shotgun. I am really not an expert in this field but I don't think a suppressor would work with buck shot due to so many projectiles. Like I said, it's something that is possible in the real world but not so much that it's mainstream.



Conclusion

It's just a game and I like to find stuff to be picky about. You really should buy it.  <-- Amazon Affiliate Link

Let me know if you have any gripes about it because I'm sure I'm not alone and there probably some things I've missed.



But wait, there's more...
Short URL: http://goo.gl/n8yKS
Video of my recent gameplay: 







4 comments:

VG said...

Good points all around. Select fire would be great! And yeah, what's up with the yellow tinting when wearing the vest... Unless they're saying that you're wearing eye protection as well.

mikesipodmini said...

Brian, I could agree about the eye protection but there are other times in the game (spec ops and campaign) that you wear eye pro of some sort and it gives a black vignette rather than the yellow of the ballistic vests. Either way, just being nitpicky! Hahah!

Lanky A said...

Hey Mike, great write up. The whole time I'm reading this review, I'm saying to myself, "oh in Battlefield 3 that's how it is". I purchased BF3 bc a bunch of my friends, including DAVE, told me to get it. I wasn't going to get it bc I've been a Call of Duty franchise fan since Modern Warfare. I switched to it from Halo originally because Halo was overrun with children playing the "glitches" to their advantage and the annoying mic chatter. The COD series became this way with MW2. Black Ops was becoming that bad. So I decided to go ahead and get it. I would try it out until MW3 came out. So let me tell you, BF3 has been the best FPS I have ever played. It's not perfect, but it is hands down awesome. Everything you just talked about is different in BF3. You can use functional bi-pods, you can select your type of shot on the shot guns, you can change your rate of fire on most guns, you can change your sights. Too much to describe in a comment. I was disappointed with a lot of things with MW3. Black Ops seemed to "fix" a lot of issues with MW2 and then those improvements seemed to disappear as if Treyarch and Infinity Ward hate each other. Oh well. I didn't buy MW3 and I'm glad I didn't. I just wish my friends that said they were buying BF3 would have.

mikesipodmini said...

Andy, I keep hearing at how good BF3 is but I also don't know hardly anyone that's on it. I'm SUCH a fan of the MW series that it's almost like switching from an iPhone to Android at this point; the transition may be too much to handle! Ok, well maybe it's not exactly like that but I am invested in MW and really enjoy it.

I played the BF3 beta and thought it was better than previous versions. I wish I could have played some of the campaign because I enjoy controlling vehicles in game.

What it comes down to I guess, is a 'feel.' MW3 feels different, snappier in a way than BF3. It's not something I can't overcome within just a few hours of gaming I'm sure, I did it with Halo and MW 'back in the day.'

I haven't given up on Battlefield and I'll be checking it out eventually. Maybe see if it comes to Redbox (always wanted to try that). I'm happy to hear that BF3 is more realistic because that's obviously a pet peeve of mine.

Oh and Dave and I have had a few good games in MW3.... Hahah!