Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (abbreviated as Call of Duty: MW3 or simply MW3) is an upcoming first-person shooter video game, currently being co-developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games with Raven Software assisting in development.[7] It will be the third installment in the Modern Warfare series, and the eighth Call of Duty installment. Sledgehammer Games has announced the game to be the first entry in the Modern Warfare series to have built-in support for color-blind gamers.[8]
Gameplay
Like its predecessors, Modern Warfare 3 is a first-person shooter video game. It will run at least at 60 frames per second.[9] Activisionconfirmed at Gamescom 2011, that Modern Warfare 3 on the PC will have dedicated servers support.[10]
Campaign
The player assumes the role of various characters during the single-player campaign, changing perspectives throughout the progression of the story. Each level is a mission that features a series of objectives that are displayed on the heads up display, which marks the direction and distance towards and from such objectives. Damage to the player is shown by blood shown on the screen. The player's health regenerates as time passes. Tasks vary in their requirements, having the player arrive at a particular checkpoint, eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. The player will be accompanied by troops who cannot be issued orders.
Cooperative
Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have revealed that Modern Warfare 3 will feature a new Survival Mode. Survival Mode features one to two players fighting endless waves of enemies with each wave getting more difficult. Despite being much compared to the World at WarNazi Zombies mode, enemies do not spawn at fixed locations like the zombies do, but instead, at tactical positions based on the current location of the player. The mode will be available on all multiplayer maps in the game and in the mode, players can earn "cash" for items such as weapons, upgrades and ammo.[11][12]
Multiplayer
Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have also recently revealed that they have revamped the entire killstreak reward system. They have stated that while Treyarch had slightly improved the system, it was not enough to make the system feel perfect. Along with revamping the entire killstreak reward system, Modern Warfare 3 will also have a completely revamped ranking and unlocks system. Unlike Call of Duty: Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 will not use a currency system.[13] Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have also revealed that they are removing annoyances that make players rely less on skill and more on perks. To do this, they are removing certain perks that give players a power advantage over others who do not possess the same perk. 'Quick-scoping' has also returned, having been absent in Black Ops.[14] Unlike Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 will not feature dive to prone or "dolphin dive" due to various balancing issues. [15] The teams have also revealed that to fix bugs and glitches, they will not use full updates but instead Treyarch's hot fix system to fix problems much quicker.[16]
Synopsis
Characters
The game will see the return of Task Force 141 Captain John "Soap" MacTavish (voiced by Kevin McKidd), former SAS Captain John Price (voiced by Billy Murray) and Russian informant Nikolai who are on the run after killing the rogue U.S. Army Lieutenant General Shepherd. Russian Ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov (voiced by Roman Varshavsky)[17] will also reprise as the game's primary antagonist.[18] Several new playable characters have been added, including Derek "Frost" Westbrook (voiced by Corey Stoll)[17] and Sandman (voiced by Christopher Meloni)[17], a pair of Delta Force operatives in New York City; Marcus Burns (voiced by Christian Coulson)[17], a Sergeant in the Special Air Service fighting in London; and Yuri, a Russian federal security agent.[18] Wallcroft (voiced by Craig Fairbrass)[19] from Call of Duty 4 will also return in the game.
New non-playable characters that have been confirmed so far include Truck and Grunt (voiced by Troy Baker)[17], who form part of the Delta Force fire team alongside Frost and Sandman.[20] A Delta Force operative named Grinch was also announced (and will be voiced by Tobey Maguire).[17]
Plot
The game will immediately follow the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where the Russian Federation continues its invasion of the United States of America, and has also expanded its offensive to Europe, including England, France and Germany.[18] Campaign stages are also planned for Somalia, Sierra Leone, Moscow and Dubai. Gameplay videos fromE3 2011 in Los Angeles showed Delta Force soldiers helping Navy Seal Teams force a Russian submarine to surface in the East River and boarding it to destroy the other boats in the harbor. Later on, Delta Force soldiers are on a mission to destroy a radar jamming installation on top of the New York Stock Exchange.[18]
Development
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was known to be in development after a legal dispute between Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella and Activision resulted in the pair being fired from the company. Several dozen Infinity Ward employees followed West and Zampella as a result of the ongoing dispute, causing Activision to enlist the services of Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software to assist development of the title.[21]
On May 13, 2011, four teaser trailers were released on the official Call of Duty YouTube page, separately titled "America", "England", "France" and "Germany", indicating the various locales of the game. The same day, video game website Kotaku leaked information about the game, confirming that it would be a direct sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as well details regarding weapons, levels and modes found in the game.[22]
On May 23, 2011, Activision released the first gameplay trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on YouTube ahead of its official premiere during the NBA Western Conference Finals.[23] On May 31, 2011, Activision announced Call of Duty: Elite, a brand new social service for the Call of Duty community to track and compare statistics, create videos and access premium content. The service will be fully integrated into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and will launch to coincide with the game's release.[24] On June 6, 2011, 11:00AM (PDT), the first live gameplay demo of Modern Warfare 3 was presented by Robert Bowling and Glen Schofield at E3 2011. On June 14, 2011, 12:35PM (EST), the first live gameplay demo of the new Survival Mode was played by Jimmy Fallon and Simon Pegg on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.[25] On August 9, 2011, the trailer for the new Survival Mode was released on Youtube.[26]
On August 24, 2011, the PepsiCo-owned brand Mountain Dew officially announced on their Facebook page that they would be promoting the game with their '"Game Fuel"' soda variants, which would be cherry-citrus-flavored (the original Game Fuel that promoted Halo 3 in 2007 and brought back in 2009 to promote World of Warcraft) and Tropical-flavored (a brand-new flavor that was tested by 500 Dew Labs members). The drinks are to be released in October 2011 and will feature codes to give the player double experience points in-game.[27]
To promote the game, Activision will be holding a two day event called Call of Duty: Experience (Call of Duty: XP for short) which will take place in Los Angeles, CA from September 2nd, 2011 to 3rd. It will feature many things including the reveal of the new multiplayer which attendees will be able to play for the first time. In addition, all attendees will receive the Hardened Edition for free as a gift for attending.[28] Contents included within the Hardened Edition include the game disc with "unique art", one year membership to Call of Duty: Elite, "special founder status" on Call of Duty: Elite which includes an exclusive in-game emblem, playercard, weapon camouflage, clan XP boost, and more exclusive benefits, premium collectible steelbook case, exclusive PSN animated timeline theme theme for PS3 only, Exclusive Spec Ops Juggernaut Xbox Live avatar outfit for Xbox 360 only, and a limited edition, collectible field journal, which chronicles "the entire saga with 100+ pages of authentic military sketches, diagrams, and written entries."[29]
