In a league of its own: MW3

Early November, while the country was tuning in to Rockstar’s songs, and waiting for Spielberg’s directorial endeavour in an animated project, there was another set of fans impatiently waiting for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. A game that has shattered entertainment records with 6.5 million copies sold, generating about $400 million within Europe on launch day itself. It is a milestone in the Call of Duty Series; a benchmark set in first-person shooter genre that perhaps no other game, apart from one of its own, will be able to achieve in a few years to come.

For COD fans this time of the year is always exciting, when Activision brings out the next in line with amazing graphic content and exciting twists in the gameplay. Last year when Call of Duty: Black Ops was released with the lead character voiced by Sam Worthington (Avatar), I remember, the enthusiasm with which youngsters lined up at Music Planet to get a copy of their own; it had grossed $360 million in 24 hours. But according to Activision (the game’s publisher) COD: Modern Warfare 3’s day-one shipments have been the largest for any game ever. Imagine the following. Even in India the craze has been on for all Call of Duty titles ever since the first one was released way back in 2003. After eight titles, COD still manages to pull such incredible sales figures in the first-person shooting genre. Perhaps, next year we’ll see another one of those and it would still not be enough.

Modern Warfare 3 is a sequel to COD: Modern Warfare 2 released in 2009 with Single-player Campaign, Cooperative and Multiplayer modes. Presumably, the gameplay is same where our protagonists are fighting to stop a madman named Vladimir Makarov who just wants to burn the world down. It continues from where we were left - in the prequel, in Afghanistan - escaping to a safe house in India and then to Sierra Leone. The game takes us through England, France, America and Germany while World War III is underway. The game is violent, brutal and fast paced, not suitable for kids; mature gamers only.

The game has been developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, written by Paul Haggis and includes voices by Idris Alba (Rock n Rolla), Timothy Olyphant (Hitman), and Tobey Maguire (Spiderman). System requirements are quite the same as before, as it can be played on Windows XP, Vista or 7 with Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB RAM. Graphic requirements are at 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT and above with DirectX 9.0 and above for sound.

With stunning cinematic direction, adrenaline pumping action and nerve-racking suspense Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is going to be the best first person shooter game of this year. Its non-stop action and smartly developed storyline will keep COD fans entertained for a long time. And, keep them impatiently waiting for another instalment of the much loved Call of Duty series.