Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the 8th title under the Call Of Duty name to be released, following the epic success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009 and Call of Duty: Black Ops in 2010, Activision have been rolling out the named brand every year since 2007.
It would be released using the in-game engine IW 3.0 this is the same in-game engine that was used in Call of Duty 2 back in 2005, but has been modified slightly over the past few years.
While praising at 2011's E3 that the game would run consistently at 60 frame rates per second, it does nicely, but in terms of graphics it is seriously behind. No Call of Duty has looked as impressive as Modern Warfare 2 using the heaviest modified engine, the game is purely lacking vista's, texture details and realistic animation.
While the maximum resolution for this game is 1920x1080p without modified fixes, the game is far from pushing the boundaries of the modern genre. Sticking to its modern game play style, my question is this.................
.................. Why does it continue to sell millions of copies and break records, if not providing its audiences with anything fresh and new to the series?
Battlefield 3 joined following a 7 year absence. while further names under the Battlefield brand have been released like 1943 and Bad Company, it was a massively awaited announcement that hardcore fans had been waiting for.
Unlike the Call Of Duty Series, Battlefield 3 was released with a brand new in game engine called Frostbite 2.0, while fully compatible with today's DirectX 11 supported graphics cards, this had only recently been released to developers and with this result has the ability to provide amazing graphics, animation and audio quality.
While Battlefield 3 does run on high end graphics at 60 frame rates per second, it also has the ability to support 5760x1080p 3 times the resolution of Modern Warfare 3 and still runs at a consistent 40 frame rates per second.
Battlefield 3 fully supports 7.1 surround sound while Modern Warfare 3 only supports 5.1.
While Battlefield 3 sold only 10 million copies within the 1st week of release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sold 6.5 million within its first day of sales and the average price of Battlefield 3 was £30, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was £50 almost double the price!
I write this article now following Steams second free weekend of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and I have had the opportunity to log around 6hrs of game play as I wasn't willing to pay for the over priced game and although this is on 10% of my current logged time on Battlefield 3 I am already bored with the game play and shear duplication of guns, maps and modes that were available in both its predecessors.
So why is the general public willing to pay these extortionate prices, for a game that technically hasn't been updated for 7 years, hasn't had a game play update for around 3-5 years? while Battlefield 3 is effectively giving you more game for your money and people are still saying that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a better game all round? Has Call of Duty become fashion? is it the game that everyone needs to play to stay current and up to date? Are people not willing to step out of their comfort zones and effectively play a more tactical game that requires more than running around pulling the trigger?
With the latest Call of Duty (9) being announced in less than a week, are we going to see record per-orders and sale breaking records again for the 4th year in a row?
While I don't think I will ever be able to understand peoples need to buy the same game again every year, I would appreciate your comments and discussions below.
