Preview: A First Look at Call of Duty 3
Published: Oct 21, 2006 on http://www.bytesector.com
Author: Chris Wood
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Once a year, Microsoft holds a gaming event so big that only the best of the best are invited. On Wednesday, October 18, 2006, X'06 took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and all I can say is WOW! One of the games being showcased by Activision is the long awaited Call of Duty 3, the sequel to Call of Duty 2. Naturally, being an Xbox 360 event, I got to play Call of Duty 3 on an Xbox 360. No holds barred, this game blew me away.
Let me start from the top. First let me say, I am not, I repeat, not a lover of FPS games on the console. I don't like the controls and I must prefer using a mouse over a joystick to control my sights. When I had the controller in my hand, it took about 6 seconds before I was walking around guns blazing. It wasn't the wisest thing to do, but I believe it had a lot to do with the immersive graphics that CoD3 offers. Enough about me though?what about the game?
Gameplay
The gameplay in CoD3 is very much like its predecessors. You play as a soldier in one of four armies. Traditionally, those armies have been the Americans, British, Russians and Germans. Today, you're a part of either the American, British, Polish or Canadian armies fighting battles to push the Germans back after D-Day. I only played CoD3 for 20 minutes, but the time I spent fighting, watching, listening and admiring was enough to sell me on it.
The Heads-Up Display has been redesigned a little to further enhance the visual experience. The only thing on the HUD during normal gameplay is the traditional compass showing friend, foe and objectives. When you pull the trigger, you see your ammo count down, but that disappears soon after you stop firing.
CoD3 is one of the first next-generation games to also introduce seamless gameplay. This means that while you're watching the briefing video (which is shown from your character's point of view), the level is loading in the background. This means less wasted time waiting for the game to load and more time blowing away the enemy. Activision is very proud of the seamless loading as it takes full advantage of next-gen hardware.
Another great gameplay feature is the fully destructible environments. When you shoot at enemy cover, you will destroy it, causing them to seek out alternative arrangements. When you blow something up?it's gone. You won't come back later to find it. One thing I found disappointing is that no matter how many times you shoot through a house wall or wooden boxes, your bullets won't find their way to the enemy. That, I find, takes away from some of the realism. I know it's impossible to hide behind empty wooden crates and not get hit by a bullet in real-life, so why you can't do it in such a realistic game is beyond me.
Graphics
The graphics in CoD3 were simply stunning. I have been waiting for a game that is photo-realistic and CoD3 is one of the first I saw that fulfilled that desire. Wherever you look, it looks real. When you look down, the grass is blowing in the wind. When you take a step forward, the grass is crunched below your foot.
But it doesn't stop there. Activision went even further than just increasing the poly count and making the environment more realistic. They made the models realistic. Upon asking about this, I received an entire story of how they went about making the models photo-realistic. Activision went out and rented authentic WWII uniforms from the Americans, British, Polish and Canadians, put them on mannequins and then took hundreds of photos. They then compiled these photos into a high resolution skin texture that is then applied to the models in game. But they didn't stop with just the uniforms. They then went out and proceeded to rent a Sherman tank along with the weaponry of the time and performed the same procedure. So now when you walk up to a soldier and it's raining, you see what looks like a soiled uniform that's dripping wet. When you walk around a person, it's more than just a general, one for all, bump map?each soldier's uniform fits them differently depending on where they've been and what they've done. The same applies to the tanks.
Sound
Sound is the one thing that I wasn't able to fully experience. There was a lot of noise at the event and two speakers on a 20" LCD TV aren't what you should judge sound on. From what I've heard of it, there seems to be a lot to hear in terms of the action going on around you. You can hear the tank firing to the left while 20 soldiers have a fire fight to your right. What's going on behind? I don't know since I worked with 2 channels and not five, but I'd love to play in a 5.1 channel setup.
Initial Impressions
If this is any indication of what I am to expect throughout the entire game, then I'm hooked. Why I would even think of looking at CoD2 anymore, I don't know. The graphics are stunning and take full advantage of the performance the Xbox 360 can offer, the gameplay is on a whole new level with the destructible environments and photo-realistic models. If I had to point out the one problem with this game, it's that it won't be coming out for PC?at least not right away. Activision is making CoD3 an exclusive to the console for the foreseeable future. Other than that, I recommend looking for it on November 7th when it hits store shelves.