Call of Duty 3 is coming out November 10 for Xbox360.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/10/16/be-called-to-duty-on-nov-10th/

\"Call of Duty fans mark your calendars, Call of Duty 3 has been dated. CVG lists the 360 version for November 10th, well before any other version (the PS3 version is set for March 07). Curiously absent from Activision\'s announcement is the date for the Xbox version. CVG speculates that this could mean the Xbox version has been canceled. It seems doubtful, but COD2 is the 360\'s first million seller. Maybe Activision and Mircrosoft are hoping COD3 will drive sales of the 360. Regardless, 360 owners will be the first to play.

We can\'t help but note that it\'s going to be impossible to sample all the 360 goodness this holiday. Gears of War, Phantasy Star, Splinter Cell, Viva Piñata, R6 Vegas, the list just keeps going. Who\'s planning on squeezing Call of Duty 3 in there?\"

COD2 and GoW are my two holiday must-haves. Gonna try and catch one of the EB Games sales where you can trade in any three games and get a new game. Will give up Oblivion, PGR3, and COD2 for one and buy the other outright.

From the CoD3 FAQ on xbox.com forums...

TEAM-BASED MULTIPLAYER WITH VEHICLES: Intense multiplayer functionality has been built from the ground up. Up to 24 players can battle it out as a variety of player classes, including riflemen, infantry, scouts, and others. Multiple-occupancy vehicles let you coordinate attacks with friends, driving while they fire a mounted machine gun from the turret. The game\'s wide range of vehicles include tanks, jeeps and motorcycles with sidecars. Execute parachute drops, armored assaults or SAS commando raids. Riddle battlefields with tank shells and explosives. Drive tanks to topple barricades and invade enemy emplacements.

Can you modify which weapons can be used in MP or turn-off vehicles?

There are no modifers in multiplayer which allow weapon or vehicle restrictions.

This would interfer with the Class system which is designed to allow a balanced gameplay for all players, if you restrict certain weapons, certain players / classes would have a greater advantage to others.

In addition, there are currently no Vehicle modifers, however not all maps will have vehicles, due to the fact that certain maps were designed for Infantry only, and others were designed for Vehicles and Infantry in mind.

Can you modify the number of players per match?

Yes. You can set the maximum number of players per match, or search for only matches with a certain restriction.

Any map can be set to 2 , 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 players. No matter how large or small the map is.

Certain maps will have a defaulted number of players when they are selected, based on whats recommended for each map. However, this can be changed by the host.

How does the ranking system work in Call of Duty 3, are there stats?

There are two types of ranking in Call of Duty 3:

Match-by-Match ranking.
At the beginning of the match, everyone starts as Privates, and will have their rank displayed above their heads. They will earn points during the match for [kills, capturing flags, returning flags, assisting flag capture, special tasks]. There are loads of tasks that will get you different points. As you gain points, you will \'rank-up\'. Each new level in your rank gives you special abilities, such as a Level 3 Scout [sniper] has more intense artillery air strikes than a Level 1 Scout.

However, this rank resets at the end of the match. Therefore next match everyone starts on a level playing field.

Trueskill Ranking
This is the second type of ranking in Call of Duty 3. The difference here, is that in Call of Duty 3, you will be able to view your Trueskill Ranking. This will be affected by your overall gameplay in Ranked matches. It will be visible in the lobby and in your stats, therefore you will see it next to your name in the lobby. In addition to all other players TrueSkill.

Your Trueskill will be affected by your performance in each ranked match and will raise or drop accordingly. When you go to a Ranked Match, you will be randomly paired with other players in the same Trueskill bracket as yourself.

Yes, there are stats. At the end of each match you\'ll be presented with several pages of stats, including:

Lobby Stats
This will display every players stats, including:

Kills
Deaths
Total [Kills minus Deaths]
Among other details of the match.

Personal Stats
You will also have a page of personal stats, that show detailed information on your performance during the match.

Double-post.  Just found this review from a CoD2 gamer.  Kind of dampened my excitement. 

\" BIGwooly\'s Great BIG CoD3 Review   
Now that I have several hours of CoD3 under my belt and authorization from Activision/Treyarch to talk about the game, I\'m going to post as much as I can. Feel free to ask questions. And yes, this review is hella long . . .

_____ GRAPHICS
The game looks great. The graphics are VERY well done. What you\'ve seen in the trailers is what you get in the game, although MP looked maybe just a bit scaled back (couldn\'t tell for sure).

_____ AUDIO
The sound in the game is phenomenal. I didn\'t even get a chance to play with surround sound and it still made an impression on me. They must have A LOT of channels available.

_____ SINGLE PLAYER
I played one full mission and part of another mission, and it was FUN. The game has only 14 missions if I remember correctly, so you\'re looking at around 12-20 hours of gameplay depending on your skill.

_____ MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer was also mostly fun. The new game mode called \"War\" is a breath of fresh air, but it comes at the expense of S&D being removed. War is basically like territories from Halo 2, except that both teams are going after the same territory all the time (the \"territory\" moves after a team captures it). I\'m a little surprised that S&D was removed, since it was a great gametype.

HQ is still in, although they\'ve changed it from having ONE life while you\'re defending to having a increasing spawn counter. Once the HQ is set up you have to defend it for 90 seconds. If you die, you respawn back in 10 seconds. I you die again you respawn back in 20 seconds . . and so on. I think I prefer the 1 life method over this, but we didn\'t get to play HQ so I can\'t speak from experience.

There is also single flag CTF now, which plays a little different than you might expect. When a team grabs the flag they have to score it at the OTHER TEAM\'s base. It\'s even harder than it sounds, but still fun.

_____ MISC THINGS
Aiming. Let me just get aiming out of the way right now. I hate the aiming in CoD3, which is probably the biggest reason I won\'t be playing a lot of MP in it. I suffer through the single player, but not the MP. What\'s wrong with the aiming?

First of all, when you aim down your sights, everything around where you\'re looking goes out of focus and you can only see clearly right down your barrel. I\'m told that it\'s more realistic, since that\'s the same effect you get in life when you aim. The problem I have with it is that in real life I can still glance around quickly with my eyes and not move my gun. It also doesn\'t work properly all the time. I might be trying to sight in on an enemy, but there\'s a tree or pole halfway between the two of us that is right near my line of sight, and it will focus on THAT instead. This gets extremely frustrating. I had major problems trying to sight in on someone while looking through bushes, fences and rubble. In real life, my eyes automatically know what to focus on. In this game, I have to make the game focus on what I need, which totally sucks in my opinion.

The second thing I don\'t like about the aiming is that it feels much more loose, or sloppy. In CoD2 you could snap your aim over on someone and quickly get shots off. In CoD3 I was constantly missing great firing opportunities because I couldn\'t get the freaking gun to stop where I wanted. It would often slide past the target, and making a correction often just made is slide past on the other side. It\'s not a huge deal I guess, but I really prefer the ability to stop my weapon when I want.

I like the fact that you can cook grenades now before you throw them. You can also pick up and throw back enemy grenades in single player (not multiplayer). The grenade indicator is still there, which bugs me because I think it makes it too easy to get away from grenades. But with the ability to cook grenades it makes that less of an issue for me.

The class system (or \"selecting a kit\" as they call it) is nice simply because you can still pick whatever class you want. There is no way to modify a multiplayer game so that teams can only have a certain number of certain classes, and this is probably a huge mistake on Treyarch\'s part, since most of the people who wanted a class system wanted it because they wanted teams to have specific class makeups. Not gonna happen. So for me, I like it, because I like picking whatever I want, but I know the bitching is coming . . .

The vehicles weren\'t bad. The tank is fun to use, although I think you should be required to have a driver and a separate player on the main gun. As it is now a single player can drive around in a tank and shoot the main gun. To me it was a bit of an unbalance. A second player CAN jump in the tank, but they control a .50, and a tank with 2 people is pretty much unstoppable. The jeeps felt too light to me when I was driving them, but it\'s not a big deal.

When you grab the flag in a CTF game it\'s now like Halo. You have to carry the flag and you can\'t fire while you\'re holding it. I know it\'s supposed to encourage more teamwork but I don\'t like it. One of the things that actually drew me to CoD2 was the fact that when you grabbed the flag you were still a soldier. In CoD3 I feel like I\'m trying to lead a marching band while under fire. Not a fan of carrying flags. A melee with the flag is an instant kill, which is something the developers seemed very proud of. Drednawt actually got me like that once, but most of CoD3 seems to involve combat that is not close combat, so a flag bearer usually just ends up a running target.

Speaking of melee . . Treyarch must have lost their minds. It now takes 2 melees to kill someone. When I pressured a developer for a reason why, he simply said their testing had shown that games turned into huge melee fests, and that\'s not the style they were going for. What?!?! CoD2 allows you to kill with one melee, and I have yet to see a melee fest. What this means is that for all intensive purposes, the melee is now useless. If you\'re close enough to melee someone, you may as well just shoot them. If you don\'t land that 2nd melee you\'re a dead man.

The maps are well-designed but big. It\'s a double-edged sword for me. One of the other things I really liked about CoD2 was that the maps were so well designed. Treyarch told us that the MP maps for CoD3 were designed from scratch, not ported-and-edited from the single player like in CoD2. That\'s fine, and they did a good job from what I could tell, but the maps are pretty big. That\'s great for 12v12, and some of them maybe for 8v8, but I don\'t think they really put much support in for 4v4. In fact, we were told that only 9 maps release with the game. I\'ve played on 5 of them already, and none of them would work real well for 4v4 I don\'t think. When I pressed for if they had smaller maps for 4v4 I was told that [name of map] was a good map even for 2v2. However, I played that map at another event, and I would not say it would be good for 2v2 OR 4v4. They will have DLC maps, but again, I doubt they are looking to support 4v4.

Lag. Hard to say if they\'ve got the code all worked out for 24 players, but we were assured that CoD2 and CoD3 use completely different MP code. CoD3 uses some variable tier something or other so that the host is not sending stuff to everyone. Anyways, they made it sound like it would work just fine. We\'ll see. I didn\'t experience any like while when we played system link or Xbox Live, but then again, we were all in the same location.

The weapons are quite a bit different. The MP44 is not nearly as powerful, and it was actually kind of frustrating to use. The Kar98 has a completely new iron sight (which I hated but some others loved). The Kar98 also took some criticism for taking 2 or even 3 shots to kill someone. The developers said something about make sure you aren\'t shooting people in the arms or shoulders. If that\'s the case, there might be a huge decline in bolt-action users. The SMG\'s seem more powerful now. The MP40 was actually a nice gun, and the Thompson was still great as well. The M1 seems to fire a little slower, and although I used it A LOT I never really felt comfortable with it. The support class gets a nice HMG (like a .30 cal on Allies) that can be mounted on walls and such. If you are in the open and you hit the aim button you automatically go prone. This can suck because very often when you go prone you lose your line of sight to the target and can\'t hit them. When set up properly, though, a support player can lay down some serious hurt.

My favorite new feature in the game is one I miss sorely when I go back to CoD2. The ability to tuck your weapon and run at sprint speed for a 5-6 seconds. It\'s awesome and very realistic. Running with your pistol out isn\'t any faster than with nearly any other gun (didn\'t test it with like a bazooka or HMG). You can\'t fire while running with your weapon tucked, so it leaves you somewhat vulnerable, but you can stop sprinting whenever you want. You can\'t do the sprint in single player, which really kind of sucks, because it\'s an awesome feature. In single player it just brings up your binoculars (which got me killed over and over until a developer explained to me that I couldn\'t sprint in single player, lol).

People who really enjoyed sniping in CoD2 are probably going to get mad at CoD3. It\'s a lot harder. For one, the sight moves all over the place while you\'re aiming. It\'s really hard to get it lined up at all before you hold your breath. Once you hold your breath, if you didn\'t get lined up right, you\'re going to have a hard (impossible?) time catching a running target. Then, when you fire, you have to unscope to load the next round (which is fine, it\'s realistic). Snipers, found in the \"Scout\" kits, also have the ability to call in artillery strikes. You have a meter that slowly fills (roughly 3 minutes according to the developers) and once it\'s full you can call in the strike. Your meter also goes up faster if you score kills, or return flags or \"rank up\" your player. At some point you can go from have 3 shells land to have up to 15 shells landing. Let me tell you, you\'re on the receiving end of a 15 shell artillery strike, it\'s pretty humbling. It feels like the whole world is blowing up.

Medics are another interesting class. I didn\'t ever use a medic because medics carry a shotgun and I don\'t like having just a shotgun. I was, however, revived by medics on many occasions. If you are revived keep in mind that it\'s not a respawn. If you had 1 round left in your M1 when you went down, then that\'s what you\'ll have when you \"revive\". I got smoked a few times before I realized that.

Some classes have mines, which are kinda fun. Mines explode if ANYONE gets too close (in my experience that was about 3-4 feet, even though the developers told me you pretty much had to be right on the mine). If your teammate lays a mine then it will appear with a little flag on it. You won\'t see enemy mines with flags on them. You can\'t shoot mines to destroy them, which is really stupid in my opinion. Apparently you can drop a grenade on them to blow them up. This is stupid, though, because in CTF I would just lay a mine right on the flag, and if someone got over there and didn\'t have any grenades left, they were pretty much screwed. After expressing my dismay on this, a developer did reveal that you could go over a mine if you were prone. I\'m not sure if that makes things better or worse. It makes no sense, obviously, but that\'s how it plays.

The M1 can shoot RPG\'s on some maps. You get two. They are pretty hard to aim, and I had one encounter where I hit a wall about 3-5 feet behind a player and it didn\'t kill them. That was pretty unrealistic in my opinion. It takes 2 RPG\'s to kill a tank, which is more realistic, but really sucks from a gameplay standpoint. By the time you load your 2nd RPG the tank usually kills you. If not, then you\'ll likely miss with your 2nd RPG anyway, and THEN the tank will kill you.

If you have a spare frag grenade you can jump on an enemy tank and your player will automatically hop up on the turret, open the hatch and drop the grenade in. This will destroy the tank and kill the people inside. However, I was only able to accomplish this once. Most of the time there are enough support infantry around that you just get shot off the back of the tank (that is, if the tank doesn\'t just kill you first). And even if you make it on the tank and aren\'t being fired out, the tank commander can just jump out of the tank and shoot you, and you are stuck doing your little grenade animation and are a sitting duck.

There was quite a bit of discussion about the lobby system. There are no weapons or class modifiers, which is going to piss off a lot of people (not me). There is also no ability to boot a player, not even from a private match (this is completely retarded). The answer we were given was that Microsoft wants the TrueSkill system to work, and doesn\'t want players \"deciding\" who they get to play. This makes sense for ranked play, but not for general matches and CERTAINLY not for private matches. So now, when that 12-year-old jumps in your lobby and he\'s screaming at the top of his lungs, you\'re stuck with him. You can\'t boot him.

During the game if you team kill someone they are given the option to \"punish you\" or \"forgive you\". If you get \"punished\" five times you are automatically booted. One problem with this is that a player could switch to the other team after getting four, and then switch back with a clean slate. The developers apparently hadn\'t thought about this, because they didn\'t know if the player would have a clean slate or not. If you set up the game yourself, and had auto-team-balance set, then the players wouldn\'t be able to switch anyways.

Speaking of auto-team-balance, yeaaaa! This is a smart feature to keep idiots from screwing up the teams all game long. It\'s just what it sounds like. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is the ability to set the teams before the match starts, in case you want to team up with your friends.

There is no knife or bayonet in the game. Apparently this would have given the game a \"mature\" rating instead of a \"teen\" rating. Money talks.

There was talk of having a flamethrower in the next installment (if there is one). In order to keep the \"T\" rating, though, you couldn\'t actually show the victims burning or screaming, so it would kind of take some of the fun out of it.

The Gewehr has been removed from MP (and single player?). This made Drednawt unhappy, and we were told it because they didn\'t have a counterpart class for it to go in on the allies. Um, would that be rifleman class, with the M1? The Axis rifleman class has the MP44. Odd.

Some classes have access to \"sticky grenades\". I tried using these quite a bit and never had any luck with them. If you try to hit a moving vehicle like a motorcycle or a jeep it\'s nearly impossible. Hitting a person is just about as impossible. I could seem them being most useful against tanks, but I\'m not sure how many it takes to blow up a tank. If it\'s just one, then that might be alright, but requiring two would be stupid. And I do believe I already mentioned how hard it is to get close to a tank in the first place.

The look of the game is also quite different. The graphics are great, better than CoD2, but the look is less clear. I\'m sure this is more realistic, and it\'s probably just something to get used to.

Finally, mounting. There is no \"mounting\" in CoD3. In other words, if you walk up to a 3-foot wall you won\'t get an arrow icon prompting you to go over the wall. This wouldn\'t be so bad except you can\'t jump over the wall either. I had the same problem with windows. I find it pretty darn annoying that you can\'t get over simple obstacles and have to walk around them.

Well, that\'s about all I can think of at this point. I\'m sure there\'s more, but I\'ll just have to add to this later as I think of it. Again, if you have any questions, I\'ll try and answer what I can, and I\'m sure Dred can help out too.

:ADDITIONS:

I forgot to mention that your TrueSkill ranking will now be visible to all players in the lobby. I have mixed feelings about this. One of the problems with Halo 2 was that everyone could see their rank, which encouraged cheating and trashtalking and boosting and a number of other things. However, for us competitive players, we would like to know where we stand in the game. I just hope this doesn\'t come at the expense of having a good community of players.

Also, in the single player I encounter quite a few areas where it looked like I should be able to go, but the game wouldn\'t allow me. This usually happened when I wanted to flank an enemy position from a different angle. It was somewhat frustrating, because I hate feeling like I have to \"follow the path\", especially when that path leads directly into the enemy. It makes more sense to flank once you know where they are.

I also honestly didn\'t notice any destructable cover in MP. I saw a fair amount of it in single player. But in MP, even when pounding a little wooden shed with a tank, the shed remained standing. Not a huge deal, but I was hoping to see \"soft cover\" playing a sizable role in MP.

Oh, and there\'s no co-op in single player. I could care less about that, but I know a lot of people LOVE co-op.

The music in single player also played a nice role. When the action gets intense and the music kicks it up a notch, it just increases your adrenaline.\"

Midnight, since that works out to $20 a game, I\'ll buy Oblivion from you for $20.

Just watched a CoD3 gameplay video. It didn\'t get me excited about this game.

I\'m not liking the view while looking down the sights. I\'m not looking forward to the newbies driving Jeeps around the maps all day long.

Hmm, this may be an example of realism (sight picture) at a detriment to gameplay. It\'s unfortunate when that happens because realism is something I really enjoy in shooting games.

Did they have any game testers during the development of this game, or was it just rushed?

I watched a gameplay video. What makes the sight-looking any different from CoD2?

The picture gets blurry around the sight. Your peripheral vision is gone.

Holy crap. This game comes out tomorrow.

Features you may not know about:

24 players will be able to play in one game

\"Multiplayer introduces a new mode for the Call of Duty franchise, \'War\'. War is a series of 5 flags on the map. Teams start out with two flags each, and the flag in the middle is contested. Each team must attempt to raise their own flag at each point. Raising all 5 flags wins the game.\"

There is no multiplayer for CoD3 on Wii.

gg, Nintendo

Looking forward to this tomorrow.

That is so Wii-k.

What\'s up with you and word games today? I can only groan so much...

I\'ll be trading Splinter Cell for CoD3 tomorrow.

Call of Duty 3 for $48.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/07/call-of-duty-3-cheaper-to-import/

\"Play-Asia\'s got Call of Duty 3 for $48 (includes shipping -- from Hong Kong). That retailer down the street? Oh, well, they\'ve got it for $59.99. We think the choice is clear. Don\'t you?

[Note: Call of Duty 3 is region-free.]\"

Honestly, I don\'t think I\'ll be taking advantage of this offer after playing Gears.

I\'m getting CoD3 today from EB. I\'ll probably go ahead and pre-order the H3 Legendary bundle also.

I have a personal ebay rule that says I don\'t buy things from outside North America. Hong Kong and the UK are the two places I am especially wary of. The posted deal is probably not a scam, but it\'s worth the extra $10 to me for the peace of mind of buying from a local retailer.

When someone overseas takes your money and doesn\'t deliver a product there is essentially no recourse. Do you think the FBI is going to coordinate with foreign governments to prosecute somebody that stole a few hundred/thousand dollars from a single US citizen? Probably not. I see the UK bike scam on Ebay all the time. It\'s really sad.

Once again, this retailer is probably legit, and it\'s not via Ebay, but I am always wary.

For the Call of Duty Faithful.

Seems they are having problems with the multiplayer just like Duty2.

From joystiq -

It would appear Call of Duty fans are experiencing déjà vu. Back when Call of Duty 2 released for the Xbox 360, the game had serious multiplayer problems; problems that took four months to fix. To the dismay of gamers, Call of Duty 3 has its own set of online problems, despite being made by a different developer than CoD2.

Buzz on the official Xbox.com message boards says that CoD3 players are unable to enter into ranked matches or (in some cases) any at all. Some players are unable to find any games, regardless of what skill level is entered into the system. Others join games and find themselves sitting in lobbies indefinitely. A different group find the multiplayer menu locking up on them. One theory suggests that anyone trying to join a ranked game ends up making a new lobby, which would result in thousands of one player online matches.

Console games are supposed to be simple plug and play affairs. We might expect these Call of Duty 3 multiplayer issues in a PC version, not a 360 version. Because of unified hardware and online components, console games should always ship (mostly) bug-free. We hope Call of Duty 3 is an isolated affair, but after issues with Dead Rising and Saint\'s Row, are we beginning to see an ugly trend in console games? The release now, patch later method is unacceptable on the PC, even more so on a game console.

I\'ve noticed that GoW has this problem too. It\'s very hard to find an online ranked game. Other people that eventually get in a game also mention that it\'s uber hard to get into a game.

2 words:

Party System

Didn\'t H2 solve this problem 2 years ago? Has anyone thought to ask MS how they did it? Since they own Bungie and they have a vested interest in the success of 360 games, I wouldn\'t think it\'s information they\'ll keep from their own developers. Just an idea.

Repeat mistakes this large are unacceptable, especially by the same developer, especially when someone out there knows how to do it right.

CoD3 was actually developed by \"a different developer than CoD2.\"

I hopped into my first MP game tonight. I was really disappointed.

Nubs were practically fighting over the vehicles. My M1 couldn\'t really do much for me then. The map I was in also seemed too large. Given that 24 players can be in one map, I guess you\'ve got to make large maps. Also, I couldn\'t jump over small fences. I had to run forever just to find an opening in the fence. Maybe I\'ll have better luck next time.

I also played some SP. SP seems like it\'s going to be fun. However, Veteran in CoD3 is a lot harder than CoD2. The enemy is very accurate and you\'ve really got to take some good cover.

The opening scene is awesome. There\'s probably 80 charaters on screen shooting.

The grass is really neat. Wind affects it. It looks as real as any grass I\'ve seen in a game.

Same for the smoke. Best looking smoke in a game.

The sighted view is pretty cool. It\'s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Basically, you\'ve got a field of view. When looking at something in the distance, things in the foreground will be slightly blurred. When looking at things up close, the stuff in the distance will be blurred. It\'s a cool effect and it doesn\'t bother me.

On a side note, I read that CoD4 is underway and is going to be made by Infiity Ward. They are leaving the WWII theme behind and CoD4 will be about modern warfare. Hmm. Vehicles + modern combat + 24 players in a map = BF2?

Better than GR:AW?

Put in COD3 this morning. I\'ve played through 2.5 missions (just started the British mission). First impressions:
Good
-------
-Graphics much improved over COD2. As EA pointed out, grass is very well done. Character models are improved significantly, as are weapons models, down to the sights.
-Sight blurring effect is minimal and contributes positively, IMO. I can\'t believe how much we talked this one up.
-Fun new achievements like throwing 5 grenades back, completing a mission with only bolt-action rifles, etc.
-Campaign is gripping. Very enjoyable so far.
-Use of vehicles and directing tank fire early in game.
-New weapons. I\'m really enjoying the German FG42.

Bad
--------
-No achievements for completing campaign on normal or hard. As far as I can tell there is one achievement for completing the campaign on any difficulty and one for veteran. I started out on hard, but after discovering this think I might turn it down to normal to make it easier to get some of the weapon specific achievements. I think I could finish a level with a Sten on normal, but hard is...well...hard. I haven\'t tried veteran. I assume it\'s ugly.
-The M1\'s receiver says \"International Springfield\" on it. This is a bastardization of two different companies that produced the M1: International Harvester and Springfield Armory. Would it have been that legally difficult to put any real name on there instead of a farce?
-I have become hung on map geometry more than once. It\'s not just a figment of my imagination that happens when I\'m being shot at. Once I became hung and wasn\'t shot at for 20-30 seconds. I pressed every button I could to escape, but failed.
-It appears that some enemies can be visible to me, but must perform some scripted event before I can kill them. I put 1.5 magazines into a Nazi\'s head and torso before he ran up the stairs for me to face in a few moments. He stood motionless while I pelted him. Apparently I\'m not supposed to kill him then. If an enemy is visible then he should be vulnerable to fire.

Indifferent
-------------
-All weapons exhibit more recoil. It\'s more difficult to keep sights on target.
-Bolt action rifle isn\'t a guaranteed 1-hit kill anymore. Head or torso is required for 1-shot.
-The same COD2 tactic of \"just keep moving\" is still present. You can\'t kill all the enemies. They will continue to respawn indefinitely. You have to kill them, then take their position. That is the only thing that will prevent them from respawning.
-Your team moves as you move, but you don\'t always have to advance directly into fire to get them to advance directly into fire. Example: I advanced down the left side of a house almost undeterred while my squad advanced on the right side under heavy fire. If the game thinks you have occupied enemy territory then it appears as if your squad will begin killing more effectively.

I have become \"Hung\" severl times as well. One time I had to restart from the last check pont to get free of it. Several times I\'ve had to wait for one of the troops to some scripted action before I got free.

I have seen many enemy spawn right in front of me at close range, that sucks.

I have found invisible walls lining roads and stuff. Why not just put up a fence?

Other than those gripes, I teally like the game. The graphics are cool. The grass/leaf motion are cool and give you good cover to lay down fire from. I enjoy the game play. There are areas where you can kill everyone, there are some areas where that is the objective, and that last guy take 10 minutes to find.

I may have to screw my attempts at thriftiness and just buy this thing.

...I want it.

Rev, ditto the invisible walls. WTF.

...and can anyone tell me what they classify an \"assault rifle?\" I am trying to unlock one of the last weapons-based campaign achievements that requires I use only an \"assault rifle.\" I have tried the submachineguns without luck. Now I am moving on to the Garand/G43. BTW, I believe grenades count, so don\'t throw any grenades.

The definition of an assault rifle is a rifle that has select-fire capability (semi, burst, full auto, etc). Understandably, I am a little confused.

I was wondering the same thing. I was thinking the G43 is probably the best qualified for this title because most of the other weapons that might qualify are sub-machineguns. There was another German weapon that I used early in the game that might qualify as well but I can\'t remember what it was, I do remember that it was available in a scoped version that I really liked.

I\'m really confused on the subject. But I haven\'t tried going for any of the weapons based achievement yet so I\'m not too worried about it. You\'ll figure it out for me.

Didn\'t realize that some games have an achievements page on xbox.com:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/callofduty3xbox360/20061031-callofdutyachievements.htm

* Assault Trooper (15 points): Same as above, only limited to machine or sub-machine guns.

Tip: Pick this achievement up the first time you start a level with a sub-machine gun.

It appears that firing ANYTHING other than your SMG or machinegun kills the achievement. I just played an entire mission using only a Sten and MP40. During the mission I picked up a German grenade and threw it back at them and also fired a mortar (required part of the script). No achievement.

Rev, I think you\'re talking about the FG42. I like it also.

So, what is everyone's position on Call of Duty 3? I bring it up because today a new multiplayer map called Champs was released.

Background about the new map.
"Champs is an exclusive new multiplayer map that brings CLASSIC Call of Duty infantry-based combat to Port Royal des Champs, a war-torn French farm town. The map’s compact design is perfect for small and medium-sized team games in online, split-screen, and System Link play, or crank up the intensity with 24-player mayhem. A country road snakes across the landscape from a private chateau to a heavily battered cathedral. Vast wheat fields, hidden ravines, and blown-out buildings provide endless tactical opportunities for squads or lone soldiers to flank the enemy with stealth. Experience explosive action like never before in this free Bonus Map!"

I've played about 30 minutes of CoD3 MP. I am halfway through the campaign. Once I finish the campaign, I'll trade it in or sell it on eBay. I don't foresee us playing this game online together.

Thoughts?

I've played about 20 minutes of it. I don't forsee us playing it over Gears...ever.

Gears, cod3, it doesnt matter...... these game lobbies are a huge setback from OLDSCHOOL Halo 2. My buddies and I have done everything possible to try to configure our settings to where we MIGHT get a ranked game together, but usually get frustrated and play something else. I dont just blame the game manufacturers for this huge problems, I blame microsoft and feel cheated and betrayed by them.

Much like yourself, I am a big fan of the Halo 2 party system. Microsoft has said that the party system is kosher for 360 games, but they "do not provide the interface for it." That leaves it up to game developers to code it in. Bungie says they've cracked the nut for Halo 3 and there's another game being released soon with a party system, so only the developer is left to blame.

I just read an interview with CliffyB, lead designer, in the latest EGM where he blames MS again for the party system. Thankfully, EGM calls him out on it and asks him to explain it more. He replies:

"There's been enough of an uproar in the community. I've seen relentless amounts of comments on message boards about it. As far as I know, it was now allowed [by Microsoft]. It could just be a left hand not talking to the right hand type of situation, but gamers aren't going to let the damn thing die. If it keeps coming up...you know how we are as far as supporting our community. We commit to our products; we don't let it go."

EGM then asks if there will be team rankings in GoW, and Cliffy says "Those talks are ongoing."

I am not a video game developer. However, I do lead human beings for a living...and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, which leads me to the comments below.

Judging by Cliffy's comments about the "left hand not talking to the right," I'd say this is a classic case of miscommunication and acceptance of institutional wisdom as gospel. Microsoft needs to get their policy straight, disseminate that info to employees, and give developers the straight scoop. If you don't educate your employees they will accept hearsay as fact and pass off rumors as truth. However, it is the developer's responsibility to deliver the game they intend to make (which should align with what gamers want, in a perfect world).

If Epic intended to integrate a ranked party system into Gears and they let a simple "No" from the first CSR at 1-800-4MY-XBOX stop them--that is weak, and it's their fault for lack of leadership. If they really pushed it and took it up the chain then Cliffy would be able to call BS on Microsoft and say "Actually, Julie in Dept X is the supervisor of this feature, and when she asked the department head, Ronnie, he said we could go pack sand." All of a sudden, the heat would be on Ronnie and not Cliffy.

People like to take the easy way out. Microsoft appears to not have been uniform in their enforcement of the party system policy and Epic appears to not have aggressively pursued its inclusion in Gears. Given those two factors, I am sure the easy solution was to omit it. Now, after public outcry, everyone is doing what should have been done a year ago or more, and having "Come to Jesus" meetings and video teleconferences in an effort to reach ground truth and solve the problem.

"There's been enough of an uproar in the community." --Thanks for the input, Cliff, but as long as my $60 buys your product then I'll decide when enough is enough.

"As far as I know, it was not allowed [by Microsoft]." --This coming from the project leader? On a feature that important, if you don't know for sure, then that is a serious lack of leadership. The other option is that you underestimated the importance of the party system to consumers, which was a mistake. We all make mistakes, but you've got to own up to them before they'll go away.

This finger-pointing BS is for the middle school playground.

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