... continued from original thread
If you've been under a rock somewhere and aren't able to figure it out, the "3" at the end of the game name implies that this is the 3rd iteration in a series that has had 2 prior installments. Admittedly, I never played much, if any, of the original Call of Duty game. I did however get Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 as a "release" game. It had received high praise in the reviews and comments that preceeded the release and I looked forward to the game as one that I would enjoy playing. The FPS (First Person Shooter) genre is one that I typically enjoy, assuming that the game is not overly frustrating and doesn't have a game save system that leaves me unable to progress through the game at a reasonable pace (I *hate* games where you have to go far too long between checkpoints or other places where you can save the game and be able to pick back up later from the same spot or one that is close by).
Call of Duty 2 was frustrating in it's initial Xbox 360 release. There were all sorts of problems with the multiplayer system via Xbox Live. Players would find it almost impossible to get a full multiplayer session going, and when they did they'd typically find the sessions wouldn't be stable and would disconnect without notice.
image linked from tech.moneycontrol.com
Call of Duty 2 remains a favorite for me, and among my friends, but at the same time some nagging frustrations with the game existed too. For example, no ability to control vehicles and make use of weapons on them. Frustrating multiplayer configurations -- if you created a custom room you couldn't reduce the number of spaces reserved for friends below a certain amount which normally left the games half-full. There were also the usual issue of players that had learned maps too well and knew spawn points well enough to camp them for cheap kills (which is to be expected over time as players become familiar with the game).
Call of Duty 3 touts improvements in many areas, most especially in the ability to have bigger multiplayer sessions, instead of the older limit of 8 players in the game, now you'll be able to have up to 16 players per session. There's also all new areas (maps) to explore and play in, and even better, now you can control vehicles and the weaponry in them.
image linked from www.gamersdaily.net
Some friends have been a bit shaken and less than completely pleased with COD3. Their initial impressions would seem to say they aren't happy with the game, but if you read a little further you'll see that they are mostly frustrated at the differences between COD3 and COD2. There are several differences, mostly minor, but some that can be incredibly frustrating. The developer for COD3 is not the same one that was used for COD2 and there are several things that were 'right' with COD2 that seemed to not quite be that way in COD3. Once you get past those issues though, and take COD3 as a separate entity that stands on it's own, you realize it's a very good game and a worthy successor to the games before it.
If you have/had no experience with COD2, you'd pick up COD3 and be quite pleased with the game. Even if you do have a fair amount of game time in on COD2, if you aren't completely comfortable with the game and used to everything in the game, you can probably jump into the game and be happy very quickly.
Some things that still need improvement (and very soon please): the multiplayer hosting experience needs to improve. The game doesn't currently include a "lobby" area and hosts are required to change all game related settings in a short 10 second window that is granted before the game starts up. A lobby is a definite must for a game like this, and more time is definitely required for changing the game settings or at least more time is required for an average host (game creator) to be able to configure things to their own specifications.
Overall I rate the game a definite buy. While I've had at least one acquaintance sell the game after just a day of playing, most others that have been playing it are coming around on the experience and are realizing that the game will wind up being a long term favorite.
