The PS3 is a gaming venue waiting with jaws wide open for a slew of newgames to be developed to sate its gamers’ appetites. One of the firstreleases at the virtual PS3 food trough is Call of Duty 3. Yes folks,you heard right, one of the greatest World War simulators is back andthis time with the stunning visuals of the Playstation 3, and with it awhole new way to play.
Call of Duty 3 has a lot of your typical shoot ‘em up action andfor veterans of the Call of Duty line this game offers a lot of thesame with a few new twists here and there. Set during the Battle ofNormandy, COD3 lacks on the storyline (but who cares right? It’s WWIIthat’s story enough for most people) but delivers fast and efficientaction with new game play elements. You play as one of several “Rookie”soldiers and fight alongside the French, the Brits, the Americans, andeven the Canadians. Oh Canada.
Once again, we have a game where it’s hard to gauge the overalldifficulty, after all in a game where you simply need to find cover toregain all your health there’s are quite a few ways to cheat death.Played on “Normal” the game is a breeze and you’ll have your fair shareof deaths and miraculous grenade tosses. On “Hard” or the levelsbeyond, good luck getting many kills with grenades as most of yourenemies will takeadvantage of the grenade throw back ability; this throw back ability isa curse more often than not. Usually it’s just easier to find coverfrom the grenade rather than risk picking it up and watching your body,from the wrist-down, explode. While they intend for this feature to bemuch more helpful than it actually is, the novelty of it is still funto play with.
Call of Duty 3 sees the player driving a lot more than in pastgames and at times it can seem quite endless, especially when all youwant is to shoot down the “Gerries”. Though the driving can beannoying, it’s a perfect opportunity to check out the new Wii-esquemotion responsive controller for your PS3: simply hold the controllerupright and it functions as the steering wheel for your Nazi-target onwheels. While the driving is really hard to get used to in themotion-style, once you get the hang of it it’s definitely the mostefficient way to drive. Among the other functions of the motionsensitive controller is the melee attack, rigging a bomb, and climbingover a ledge. Of these three the melee battle is the most amazing andintense. At times you’ll find enemy soldiers running at you and you’llend up locked in a hand to hand struggle – during which, assumingyou’re a survival oriented human and not a lemming, you’ll move theright side of the controller forward while bringing the left side back.This motion allows you to fight for your survival and assuming you doit fast enough, you’ll live to see another day. Rigging a charge toblow up enemy artillery works in the same way in that you simply rotatethe controller to screw in the fuse…and then you run.
As far as new editions in artillery and weaponry, there’s not much.You have you’re same supply of ammunitions and firearms and you usethem until you have no ammo left. Then you find more ammo…and the cyclecontinues. The levels where you control tanks are fun, though they canbe frustrating as some hits kill you instantly and others require asecond to kill you off – andsince you never really know which is which there’s a lot of guessworkinvolved. What seems like a step back when you compare it to othergames out right now is the lack of free roaming, the territories andmaps of this game are noticeably limited in actual area despite theirotherwise flawless rendering. There are many times where you’d like towander off onto another part of the map to gain a better position onyour enemy…but the map isn’t ready for that. I want to attribute it tothe rush the programmers were under to come out with a finishedproduct…but who knows.
If you’re new to the Call of Duty series there are a few thingsyou’ll need to get used to of course. One such area is the positioningof mortars, or even the ever frustrating fact that even though you cansee the shoulder face to face when he turns around a corner to fire atyou, you can’t actually hit him until he’s retreated and all you haveto aim at is his shoulder. Frustrating. But back to the mortars, whichrequire you to rotate either of the two analog sticks to control whatangle it fires at or to move it left or right. Also, with the mortarsystem, it’s not always clear what your targets are and so you have tolay down a general mortar carpet until that little “checkpoint reached”sign pops up.
Now back to the praises…oh the praises. With the PS3 comes a newlevel of graphics, though since this was one of the first games out,they haven’t completely put reigns to the capabilities offered to themby the system. But even so, the graphics of Call of Duty 3 are amazingand can get you lostin the trenches and forgetting it’s all just a game. The sound effectsand soundtrack are well recorded with a great score (at times verywell-suited for the action going on around you). I’d imagine that witha surround sound system the experience might be unforgettable, but alasI was without.
As far as the multi-player experience goes, there are nosignificant changes different from what we saw in the single playerworld. You have your typical modes of Battle (kill or be killed), TeamBattle (kill or be killed…in mass quantities), and either standardCapture the Flag (yay team…steal their flag) or Single CTF (two teams,one flag in center). The two other forms require more time and effortbut are all the more fun because of it. The first is called “War” (howfitting), where two teams battle for control over five flags where eachteam starts with 2 and a neutral one in the middle. The second isHeadquarters where one team controls a base and the other seeks out todestroy it. For every second the base is held points are awarded andwhen a base is destroyed 10 points are received. The game is played to300. Perhaps the greatest advantage of this sequel’s multi-playerchoices is the 24 person capacity….can you say insane battles?
If you’ve got yourself one of those newfangled Playstation 3s, andyou’re looking for a good few hours of single player fun pick up Callof Duty 3, it’s well worth your time, especially if you have a networkof other PS3 fellows to go with it.
"Call of Duty 3 (PS3)" is on sale November 14, 2006 and is rated T. Shooter.
