Well, the most anticipated game of the year came out a week ago and I still see no thread for it. Who else has picked it up? What are your thoughts so far? Likes/dislikes? Favorite levels, multiplayer loadouts, killstreaks? Anybody foregoing it in favor of BF3?
I personally picked up my PS3 copy on the evening of launch day and have been playing it quite a bit since then. Multiplayer only; I still haven’t touched the campaign. For the first few days there were terrible connection issues. They put out a patch a few days ago and it seems to have improved since then, but every few games it will claim I have a good connection when everybody is obviously lagging around the map. Don’t know whether it’s the huge volume of players or some bug in the code. I hope it improves because I really like the game other than that.
More specific thoughts on gameplay later. For now I thought I’d just open it up for discussion.
All I know is the commercials, and my only question about those is “Is that really Jonah Hill or did they CGI his head onto someone else’s body a la Captain America?”
He has slimmed down, considerably. If you saw “Moneyball” this summer, he looked similar.
The really unsettling thing, is the current campaign for some babysitter movie he stars in, which has been on the shelf for a year or two, because he is the old Superbad/chubby Jonah in that.
And that is Sam Worthington with him, correct? Pretty fun commercials, even if I will likely never own the game.
Simply put, I like Black Ops better. There is something about Infinity Ward’s approach to making COD games that annoys me. it’s a great game, mind you, but Treyarch make everything so smooth in Black Opsand everything seems so clunky in MW3. Take the red dot sight. In Black Ops you could get an actual red dot. Not so in MW3. The movements aren’t as smooth, it doesn’t feel as immersive. The upgrades feel more restrictive. It’s just the little annoyances. I very much enjoyed the campaign, though. The multiplayer connection sucks. It goes through this endless cycle of trying to get into low-ping games, but I don’t think any exist because it takes about 4 minutes for it to default to any available game, and everybody typically has a good connection in the game. They need to get rid of that and connect people faster.
I can’t say I like it more or less than Battlefield. Again, it’s different. I will say that I despise the controls in BF3 for the XBox. They made them very similar to COD’s layout but put prone/melee (depending on your control choice) on the click-stick. That one simple thing has gotten me killed a hundred times, and you can’t re-map it without a modded controller. The realism of BF3 is a winner, whereas COD games are essentially arcade shooters so they feel different and aren’t really directly comparable.
I like them both, and favor MW3 a tad only because the controls never kill me, only my own suckage. Otherwise they’re both great games.
I picked it up. I haven’t yet finished the single player yet but it is miles better than the BF3 one. Not that anybody picked up either game for the single player. As for the multi-player, I haven’t had any connection issues. My games always connect within 20 seconds and I haven’t had anything but a 4 bar, though I have seen people with crap connections on some rooms. I have seen some lag spikes, but that’s to be expected. I did have a problem the other day with the survivor mode. I wanted to do some solo for a while, but the game would not let me play because it couldn’t connect to the MW3 server.
As to the game, I like some of the changes. I really like the idea of Support kill streaks that do not reset where you die, but I like that you still have the option of assault kill streaks that do reset. Haven’t tried the other kill streak option, but I assume some people like it as well. Another change I like is the weapon experience. If you want to get cool attachments for a new weapon (or god forbid paint it gold…) you have to actually use it, not just dip into your pool of money.
Last thing I want to comment, I really like how the unlocking of pro perks is handled. No more ridiculous requirements for doing specific things in rarely played modes, just just a perk long enough and you’ll unlock the pro version. I’ve unlocked all but 3 so far and that’s because I don’t really use those 3 all that much. The most painful one to get seems to be sitrep, because you just don’t bump into enough enemy equipment.
I’m playing it as multiplayer. It feels like an awkward cross between MW2 & BlackOps. I’ll probably get used to it but so far I have to admit to liking the artwork in MW2 better. I’m sure as I get to play with different weapon unlocks I’ll find the game more charming, however.
The single player is short. Shorter than CoD 4 or MW2, at least that is the impression I got.
Multiplayer is as good as it can be. I really disliked the pay for upgrades system in CoD Blops. However, Blops did have dedicated servers. I know that IW says that the lobby system cuts down on hacks but wow, the hackers were out in full force yesterday. I think some of the tweaks from MW2 really improved the game play. And it will get better once some of the weapons are balanced, the akimbo sub machine guns are overpowered ATM.
I did get BF3 and have played with the Doper group once, but holy cow I suck at it. I am too used to the mechanics of CoD, and I think I play better if I don’t know anyone in the group.
I would have agreed with you 100% a week ago, but I think the default setup on BF3 is winning me over. It the fast paced close combat maps of Black Ops it was necessary to run, lay down, run, lay down, throw a grenade, run, jump, lay down.
BF3’s controls are great for what they need to do, though I’ll grant you switching between the two over the course of the night is confusing.
My one beef with BF3 is these maps were designed with 64 players in mind, only having 12 a side makes them feel kinda empty. When your team has 2 in the jets, 2 in a helicopter, 2 in jeeps, 2 in one tank, 3 camped as snipers and 1 at base waiting for a vehicle squad tactics don’t really happen.
I’m liking it so far, but don’t like it as much as either COD4 or MW2. The single player campaign is balls-to-the-wall, hardcore, huge battle, intense action for pretty much 5 hours straight. The end of the story wasn’t quite as satisfying as I hoped it would be.
The multiplayer is fun, as always. The thing that I hate about it is that each COD game seems to make improvements over the previous one, but the two developers never work together so it feels like one step forward, one step back. I really liked the COD currency thing in BlackOps because it allowed me to work toward things at my own pace - for instance, if I want to snipe a lot at the beginning, I’d just spend my money on claymores. On this one, I’m stuck waiting until some arbitrary late level and they’ll suddenly be unlocked.
Also - when you play Hardcore on a Treyarch COD game, friendly deaths don’t count against your record. Makes sense, you’re not going to avoid teammates. But in the IW COD games, they count as deaths on your record. Kind of a small thing, but annoying nonetheless. And I like the loud metal crash for headshots that Treyarch gives you over the tiny ping that IW gives you
I’m on the 360, so I’ve never been bothered on the dedicated servers issues.
I like it so far, when I’m not having lag/connection issues. A few observations:
New killstreak system – I think once everyone gets used to it, it’ll be a huge improvement over prior games. In every previous COD game, for lousy players to get killstreak rewards, they’d have to camp, scoped in on a door or some such cheap tactic. Now, they can actually run around and join the game and they can still earn rewards. I play with a friend who is terrible at this and in BLOPS probably earned a 3-killstreak about once every five games. He’d have to resort to cheap tactics to get anything better. Now, he’ll be able to use support killstreaks and actually have fun running around. I think this’ll change the dynamic of matches with more players becoming more active. Great solution to the camping-for-killstreaks problem.
Assassin perk – I think it’s a bit overpowered. I don’t have a problem with the perk itself: it’s just a lot better than the other perks available for that slot. In MW2, Cold Blooded was in the same slot as Stopping Power and Danger Close, both extremely powerful choices, which made Cold Blooded a bit tougher a choice. Now, the only thing that really competes with Assassin is Quickdraw. A lot of people don’t yet realize how powerful it is, and hopefully they never will. But if they do, I anticipate UAVs becoming useless. I wish they’d made the advanced UAV able to overcome the perk because right now the AUAV is otherwise a bit weak. I do applaud the decision to split off Blind Eye from Assassin.
Shotguns – I really enjoyed shotgunning in BLOPS, but I think it might be dead in MW3. I’ve tried the KSG 12 (not enough power, pumping takes too long), the SPAS-12 (not enough range, pumping takes too long), and the AA-12 (abysmal range, not enough ammo).
Sniping – I’m loving it. I’m not great at it, but this was my favorite class in MW2, and I hated how BLOPS handled it. But MW3 has brought it back. I rock the AS50 thermal with speed proficiency. I don’t know why anyone would use any other sniper rifle in core modes.
I have no trouble getting an actual red dot. What are you getting instead?
See, this is a bonus in my eyes: some things should be unlocked later so that they’re not so ubiquitous on the battlefield, and claymores are one of them. With the cash-for-unlocks system, everyone had claymores by level 10, and they were freaking everywhere. With a late-level unlock for them, hopefully they’ll be a bit more rare in this game. Same with certain perks, like Assassin. I much prefer to be restricted in my choices if it means a less annoying opposing force.
I hate sniping in any COD game, because quickscoping is not possible in real life, but sure enough you’ll find a gazillion quickscopers mowing people down. The ability to do that turns sniper rifles into powerful single-shot assault rifles. The whole point of sniping is that you find a nest and you do your thing stealthily. Instead you see the guys running around, quick popping the scopes up, firing halfway through, and getting kills. It should take much longer for the scope view to come up.
I suck at these games big time but I’ve always thought the same thing. When you bring up the scope on a sniper rifle there should be a brief period of “focus” time while the eyes adjust and lock on the target. Pulling the scope up and firing off the round in .001 seconds is far from realistic.
With that said sniping has been the same in FPSs going back a decade and if they try and “real it up” now it will anger a huge part of the fan base.
I want the dot and nothing else. no Mil-Dots, no U-dots, nothing but a single red dot. That is apparently not an option for the SCAR-L, which is what I’m using right now.
I’ve said this for a long time; maybe they should make hardcore mode more realistic, and let the kiddies play in regular mode. By that, I mean no quickscoping, no respawning until the round’s over, etc… basically put in a penalty for being killed that would make people play more thoughtfully and less spastically retarded.
There should be some incentive for people to take cover, not stand there like fucking John Wayne and shoot back when someone opens up with a machine gun at them. Not having very lethal weapons (regular mode) means that the preferred tactic is to run around like a retard and shoot full-auto at anything you see; being cautious and taking cover tends to get you killed more often than not
On that note… I’m really annoyed that I have to level up to 19 before I can play hardcore modes; I really hate playing regular mode with all the teen chumps.
Yes it is. When it asks you what shape reticule you want, select “none.” You’ll get a simple red dot. And I agree that this is the best option.
I don’t get this objection. It’s not realistic? Do you also object to regaining health? To respawning? To carrying 300 pounds of gear at a full sprint for ten minutes? If the weapons were realistic, all weapons would require a split second of adjustment/wobble before you lined up the sights. But (beyond graphics) game designers don’t really strive for realism – they strive for good gameplay. Which sometimes coincides with realism, but not always.
I suspect your real objection isn’t that quickscoping is unrealistic, but rather that it’s overpowered. I’d dispute this. For each time you get quickscoped, that guy probably died three times trying and failing to quickscope you. Quickscoping is really hard and takes a ridiculous amount of skill to pull off consistently. Nine times out of ten, guys who quickscope would have better scores using weapons conventionally. So they’re only punishing themselves by trying it. That one time out of ten that a guy has the legitimate skill to rack up a huge score quickscoping, I say more power to him: he’s probably in the top .001 of people you’ll meet in a public lobby.
Well, to be fair, regaining health takes a while, which takes you out of the action, just as it would if it were real. And they have to let you respawn, because dying once and being done would make for a very boring game. Those mechanics I don’t object to, they are far better than the original mechanic of getting health kits. But quickscoping is silly, because it’s not even plausible, let alone possible.
Given the number of people I see doing it I’d say that it is far easier than you perceive it to be. This guy says that quickscoping was killed in Black Ops, which makes me like it even more, especially given the utter impossibility of what he’s doing. Yes, it’s an arcade-type game, but come on.
I’m liking it. Played the single player through and am now chugging through multiplayer. Generally I prestige once and then drift away. I’m also really liking BF3 but it’s a completely different animal. At the moment I’m enjoying the arcade speed of MW3. Domination is my goto game type although Kill Confirm is also great. Haven’t really done much weapon exploring, I’m maxing out the SCAR at the moment and will move up to another once I get the bonus point I’m looking for.
But there’s always a fix to that - using Hacker in BlackOps was invaluable to me (particularly Hacker Pro, where I’d be able to hack the other team’s Claymores and other equipment like care packages) or SitRep in this one. I also have Stalker Pro on, which allows for about a one second delay on enemy explosives. That’s easily enough for me to casually walk through a Claymore. Between those, it’s hard enough to use them so I’d prefer to get them earlier. More often than not, I use them at doors as more of an alarm that someone’s coming than a lethal device anyway.
I very much agree with this. Once I’m allowed in Hardcore mode, I pretty much never play regular mode again unless my aim is so bad that night that I need to go back and get some practice in regular games.
