MW3 - last batch of maps

The last maps have been released for MW3.  Gulch, Parish and Boardwalk.

For those who did not subscribe to Elite, then you also get to play on Decommission and Offshore.

Parish, is a really small and tight map.  Very basic, and only handful of small paths that basically cut through a large ring.  There is no elevation change, no second story building or hallway to get a higher vantage point.  It is a fairly hectic map given its size and you can really catch the other team just off their spawn if you time your run through properly.  Its very easy to get over run in a position because of how fast it is to get from one side to another.

MW3 Chaos Mode

This is the new game mode added to MW3 last week, and I have to say, it is a lot of fun!

New Maps for Call of Duty MW3: Foundation & Sanctuary

So far they are pretty good.  Foundation has is a decent size map with some good vantage points that so far seem to be well balanced.  Sanctuary has a decent flow to it, but just wished there were some more elevation around the map but there is some variety and some long sniper lines.  There are a lot of paths to get to the objectives on Sanctuary.

Foundation reminds me a bit of the COD4 map Pipeline, gound level is relatively open, but there are lots of places for snipers to get onto higher ground and pick people off.  Lots of things to climb up on which is kind of like Quarry from MW2.

Can't wait to see what's coming out in May with 4 maps scheduled for release.

MW3 DLC - Liberation & Piazza

I've only played 6v6 domination on these maps so far, and Piazza is a really good map.  Liberation, not so much. 

Liberation is way too big for 6v6, and the spawns are messed up.  There were times where my teammates and I would respawn direcly under an enemy who was sniping on a bridge.  How does that make sense?  For a map of this size, you would figure the spawn points would be varied a lot more, instead, a few of us would spawn at the exact same point one after another.  There is so much wasted space on this map as well, lots of sections on the map that would probably be used in modes like Headquarters or Drop Zone, but thats about it.

Piazza is an interesting map, lots of paths that cross over and under each other, and lots of corners and short walls to hide bouncing betties and the IMS.  Although I wish there were some roof tops to get ontop of as well, or some buildings to cross through, although that may mess with some of the map flow.  Unlike Liberation, a lot of the map is used during gameplay, very little is not traversed when trying to get from one point to another.  I hope more maps are like this in future releases.

A calendar has just been released on the call of duty site, and it looks interesting.  Although, it does kind of suck to only get 1 or 2 maps each month, it will keep things fresh, but at the same time, for someone who plays a lot, they will get a bit bored quicker since there is less "new" material to rotate through on each release.  At the same time I understand why they had to spread things out, as the developers have to ensure that they do not dilute their product by flooding it with extra game modes that are not played as often.  But I do hope there is room to add more DLC/modes beyond what is on the calendar.

Call of Duty MW3 - 70 days later....

So after 70 days, I'm 7th prestige, level 58, with 1385 wins, and 88 losses.  Kill death ratio of 1.54, 26794 kills and 17454 deaths.

I've put in quite a bit of time into the game, maybe more than I should.  But I've 'powered' through some levels.  Not as quick as some kids who don't have 9-5 jobs.  But its a decent enough pace.  As things settle down, there are quick a few things that need to be fixed and/or added into this game.  Most things were already in the previous title, Black Ops.

MW3 Multiplayer Review - the day has come

So its been almost 3 weeks since I've been playing MW3.  So here's my take on the game so far.  I've only been able to play multiplayer as I have a good group of friends to play with (Elite Clan Clubsi).   In the single player campaign I have only made it to the submarine, which is the second mission in the game.  Anyways, I'll review that part seperately one day when I actually play it.

Having pushed through the levels fairly quickly with double XP time and remembering the old challenge system of MW2, I have devised a system that cycles through as many assault rifles I can to maximize time/XP.  So I'd use a gun to about 500 ish kills, which usually by then I would have reached level 30 on the gun, then move on to the next.  So far the grind hasn't felt that bad, but I suspect it will be harder as I go further up in prestiges.  So even though there are 80 levels to go through, with all the various ways to get XP, its hasn't felt that much of a grind. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Multiplayer Preview - Part 2

In part two of my preview, I'm going to take a look at the perks system in MW3.  Lots of interesting changes have been made to the perks, some new stuff, some old stuff coming back.. and some shuffling.  Lets take a look.

Here's the list taken from another site, my input is in brackets. "+" is the Pro version and its effect.  My comments are in brackets.

TIER ONE PERKS

Blind Eye - Undetectable by air support and sentries. (formerly cold blooded - but note you are not invisible to UAVs)
+ Launchers lock-on quicker. Extra bullet damage versus air support and sentries. (its nice for the support player, but other than that, the good stuff is in already given.)

Scavenger - Resupply from dead enemies. (standard stuff we're used to)
+ Start with increased ammo supply.

Extreme Conditioning - Sprint for longer distances. (formerly marathon - no longer unlimited sprint though)
+ Climb obstacles faster. (that is a nice addition, especially climbing boxes, low walls etc)

Recon - Explosive damage paints the target on the mini-map. (new perk, very interesting, definitely a team player's perk - not sure how long they enemies stays painted though)
+ Bullet damage paints the target on the mini-map.

Sleight of Hand - Faster reloading. (This is standard for COD, but interesting that its now a teir 1 perk)
+ Swap weapons faster.  (This used to be scout pro in Black Ops, and SOH Pro used to be faster ADS instead - definitely a balance mod here)

TIER TWO PERKS

Overkill - Carry two primary weapons. (classic COD4:MW perk making a comeback - used to love running sniper rifle and an AR)
+ Supposedly two attachments for secondary. (but what if you aren't running that profficiency? maybe its not just attachments, but you get to use a profficiency with secondary?)

Assassin - Undetectable by UAV, portable radar, thermal, and heartbeat sensors. (the other key part of cold blooded makes an appearance here)

+ Immune to CUAV and EMP. No red crosshair or name when targeted. (Very.. Very useful, lots of people running counter UAV during the event given the general lack of map knowledge.  Plus I hate not knowing whats going on in the mini-map such as positions of other teammates.)

Blast Shield - Increased explosive resistance. (this used to be a peice of equipment back in MW2, I did not use this too much since you had to enable it back then, but flalk jacket perk in BlackOps was quite useful)
+ Resistance to flash and stun.

Quickdraw - Faster aiming. (The other part to the old sleight of hand perk)
+ Recover from equipment and grenade usage quicker. (Very useful!, so many times I've been caught throwing something in these games.)

Hardline - Killstreaks require 1 less kill. (standard stuff)
+ Every two assists count as a kill towards your killstreak. Deathstreaks require one less death. (interesting additon, definitely makes this perk more useful in Pro form.)

TIER THREE PERKS

Steady Aim - Increased hip fire accuracy.  (standard stuff - interesting move to 3rd perk level though)
+ Weapon is ready faster after sprinting.

Dead Silence - Move quietly. Reduce the effects of Recon. (formerly ninja perk)
+ Supposedly no fall damage. (interesting, formerlly part of the commando pro perk)

Marksman - Identify enemy targets at longer range. (so there's a limit to how far names will show up on screen?)
+ Longer hold breath. (aka iron lungs or scout)

Stalker - Move faster while aiming. (this is new, good for people who like to ADS a lot, more tactical like I presume.)
+ Delay enemy Claymore explosions. (used to be bomb squad / sit rep iirc)

SitRep - Detect enemy explosives and tactical insertions. (unchanged from before)
+ Louder enemy footsteps. (interesting move of this effect to this particular perk, used to be ninja pro, or dead silence pro).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Multiplayer Preview - Part 1

The "New" Stuff

So taking part in the COD XP 2011 tournament, and doing a few gauntlet runs in the event has given me a decent amount of time in multiplayer for MW3.  So here's my take on it.  All the accounts were capped at level 30 at the event, and looks like there will be 80 levels total in multiplayer, thus a lot of weapons weren't available for use.

The biggest thing with MW3 multiplayer is the new strike packages.  Strike packages is something that is class specific, and each package determines what type of killstreaks you'll be earning while using that class.  There are three strike packages to choose from; Assault, Support and Specialist.

Assault Strike Package

The Assault strike package is what we've all grown acustom to since the introduction of killstreaks in the series.  Kill X amount of players without dying, earn Y streak.  Die, the streak resets.  Most of the offensive killstreaks appear in this package.  I did not get to try out this strike package too much as I was the support player in all my matches, so I am unable to confirm if the killstreaks stack or not like it did in MW2, or if they are solely based on kills by the non killstreak rewards manners like in Black Ops.  Word around the web is that they do stack though.

Support Strike Package

The Support strike package is the new twist on killstreaks.  Now instead of being kills based, you get the streaks through points streaks.  Points could be gathered from kills, or capturing/defending/doing objectives.  Most of the rewards in this strike package are exactly what its named for, Support.  This is for the team player who is defending objectives, or always shooting down enemy air support.  Thus, to futher help this player, they made it so the kill/pointstreak does not reset when you die.  It will keep going to the next killstreak in your stack, and will cycle back once you've reached the third killstreak reward.  This is interesting because if you select larger killstreaks, it will be a while before you are able to call in another lower killstreak after your first.  So on a team, you'll probably want one support player with lower killstreaks, and the second with the one bigger one, since intel is everything in this game. 

Specialist Strike Package

The last strike package is the Specialist package, this one is the most interesting one.  This strike package contains no killstreak rewards at all, instead, the more you kill without dying, the more perks you get.  You start off with the regular three perks in your class slot, and (based on screen shots and trailers) you unlock your fourth perk after 2 kills, a fifth perk on 4 kills, and a sixth perk on 6 kills.  Also, I am pretty sure I heard in the keynote that after 8 kills, you get all the perks.  These all go away once you die.  This is really geared for the lone-wolf type player.  I would start off with "blind eye", "assassin", and "stalker" (more on perks later in Part 2 of this blog), set first perk to activate as scavenger, next would be quickdraw, and last would be extreme conditioning.  But there's so many other combinations that would work depending on the map, and your own playstyle.  Definitely an interesting twist on how the game would be played.


A New Game Type: Kill Confirmed

Also annoucned at the event was the new game mode, kill confirmed.  It was one of the game types played in the tournaments and in the gauntlet setups.  To win in this mode, you have to pick up enemy dog tags that are dropped when you kill them, and you have to make sure you pick up more than the other team.  The catch is, the enemy can pick up their teams dog tags to deny you the kill and points.  At the event, we played this mode 4v4, and I don't see this going beyond the 6v6 playlist.  Once the details were explained to us, I already knew that this will be a highly strategic game mode, given the importance of picking up the dog tags.  Kills confirmed or not, still count towards killstreak rewards, but as a team, you need the dog tags to win.

My first go at this game mode would be right in the tournament, and we got picked apart by the other team and couldn't recover.  Our initial game plan was to pair up, but in later attempts in this game mode in the gauntlet, we found that keeping all four team members close together worked better.  I'm sure if its 6v6, you can probably split up in two teams of three, but 4v4, the box formation seemed to work better.  At least for the map we were playing on.  We had one person designated as the dog tag pick up, and one as secondary.  You also can't just run after a dog tag without clearing the area since baiting with a dog tag is a useful tactic.  I think things like tactical insertion would be very useful as well, being able to respawn back near the hotzone instead of somewhere across the map.

.... to be continued.