Call of Duty 3 Reviews

The Xbox 360 release of Call of Duty 3 isn't perfect, but for a game that was only given a one-year development cycle, Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 could have been far worse.

As far as the PS3 incarnation is concerned, this is simply a case of a game being ported too quickly and not being given enough time to bake. Many problems present in this version do not exist in the 360 version and, while none of these bugs & glitches are game-breaking, they are constant enough to become more than miniscule annoyances and major enough to become problematic.

The biggest issues plaguing the 360 release of Call of Duty 3 was some rather amateurish programming (wonky pathfinding, for instance), mediocre voiceacting, and an inconsistent framerate. Other than that, it was a solid CoD game that surpassed all of my expectations for it after hearing so many negative things about Treyarch's first main entry into the long-running and award-winning FPS series. On the other hand, the PS3 variant of the title suffers from these same flaws and also an innumerable amount of other frustrating glitches and bugs.

The first of these that many will likely notice is that smaller solid objects (like rocks & large stones, debris, etc...) cannot be walked or jumped over and will stop your character dead in his tracks. Instead of "pushing" him aside side as you continue to hold the left stick forward when walking toward these objects, you will instead remain firmly in place. Much of the game feels "sticky" in much the same manner, such as getting stuck on the sides of walls, door frames, and pieces of debris & bits of the environment that litter the path in front of you. It makes for painstaking moments where, in order to survive firefights, you must avoid these areas at all costs. More times than not, your character will attach himself to one of these spots and remain a permanent fixture in the environment, thus earning you a reset.

Other annoyances come in the form of uneven sound, missing music cues, and popping speakers. Yes, this is yet another PS3 game that causes your TV/surround sound speakers to either hiss or pop. The Xbox 360 version didn't feature the most particularly enthusiastic bunch of voiceactors, but at least they had enough sonic ambience encompassing them to draw the player in during the game's numerous cut-scenes. The PS3 version is missing many musical cues, as mentioned, or the volume on them is so low by default that it is impossible to make out some of the (admittedly compelling) background compositions. Another rampant problem is one that may deter quite a few. If certain sound effects are too successive - such as holding the MP40 trigger down too long - the desired sound effects (such as the sound of bullets erupting from the barrel) will eventually begin to cut in and out of audibility.

What's worse, many have even reported lock-ups. I haven't experienced any thus far, but there have been reports of some gamers receiving a lock-up on the Chambois mission every single time they go to load it up. AI is decidedly weaker over that of the Xbox 360 version as well. Enemy NPC’s merely popping-and-shooting is not an uncomming find, nor is it to see three or more Axis soldiers running towards you in a single-file line. CoD 3 becomes a very easy game thanks to this kind of uncharacteristically sloppy AI. And remember that pathfinding problem I mentioned earlier? It's even worse here. I've noticed on many occasions an Allied soldier run right into the back of a stopped tank and continue to run in place as if said tank was still moving. Allied and Axis soldiers will even run around in circles trying to trigger "hot spots" or hitch up on walls as well.

So why am I still awarding this a 7 out of 10? Simply because it’s essentially the same game you get on the 360, albeit noticeably less polished. The fun factor is still there, the graphics are still mildly impressive (even for a game dating back to Fall 2006), and it is still a decent CoD game despite the poor reviews and lack of technical fix-ups. The added Sixaxis support - put to use during various mini-games - is phenomenal, if underdeveloped, and the washed-out visuals fit nicely into the game's down-trodden approach. I'm also a big fan of what Treyarch attempted to do with this game. Before CoD 3 there were only two other main Call of Duty games and each of those were barbarically simple.

In each of the previous Call of Duty’s you played through three campaigns as either an American, British, or Russian soldier with absolutely no storyline in which to bind the campaigns together. These two entries in the series were more like "best of" collections of playable historical battles than the CoD games we have recently received. Treyarch's first venture into the series spawned the now-trademark branching storylines, four different campaigns (American, British, Canadian, and Polish), and new features that became staples of the franchise (the ability to toss back enemy grenades and a multiplayer component with a ranking system and perks). Sure, a one-year development schedule isn't much and the PS3 suffers heavily from piss-poor porting and QA, but it's still the same game that the 360 got minus the superior quality.

If you own both a 360 and a PS3, I recommend picking up the 360 version if only for better playability. If a PlayStation 3 is all you own, this particular version still comes recommended due to higher quality visuals (even if the draw distance is lessened) and Sixaxis support. CoD 3 is not at all the travesty many Call of Duty fans have made it out to be, but the PS3 version is still inferior to the 360's iteration in many respects. Nonetheless it has received three-and-a-half stars from me because this has always been a fun game and will remain so, but the 360 version is definitely the way to go if the option is available to you. And for those interested, you can pick up the Platinum Hits version of the game for Microsoft's console for $29.99 with the Gold Edition bonus disc tacked on for free. It’s too bad us PS3’ers don’t get the same kind of treatment.

BAD: The story is all over the place, I'm not even really sure what my name is. My character keeps getting stuck on smaller objects that I can't even see, the field of view is small, even on an HD TV. Stupid little things like tires and rubble have mass and you cannot step over them. Quite annoying because then you are DEAD. Ha ha... Also annoying are the missions where dozens of enemy just line up one at a time in the same exact same map spot so you can snipe one every 4 seconds. A little AI please?
GOOD: Some of the missions are pretty intense and require a bit of strategy to complete. Driving is pretty cool.