Call of Duty 3 on Xbox 360 – The DVDfever Review

With this title being on the Xbox 360, you can expect fantastic sharp graphics and with exceptional smoke and lighting effects. However, certain graphics close-up, such as wooden barn doors are not detailed at all. I remember seeing this kind of thing on standard PC graphics cards before the 3Dfx chipset came out and took over the world, so to still see this lack of detail appearing on scenary on next-gen consoles around ten years on really isn’t good enough. The action moves along great but, on the whole, the images lose half a point because of the above.

That said, there are many joys to witness such as the realistic water effects and the game does look brilliant if you don’t try and study things too hard, so those moments where detail is lacking is not something that will hinder the experience and, on balance Call of Duty 3 looks almost like movie-quality, with lovely subtle effects such as when you take aim with your sight, it goes slightly out-of-focus before coming back into focus, just as it would in real life.

Clever in-game cinematics take you from the last thing you saw in a level, moving you round into position to the start of the next thing, but then levels don’t start conventionally. The opening one, following the training, sees you loading up your men onto a truck and heading for the start… only you don’t get there, you’re blown off course and just have to make your way to your first destination. Okay, so this is all planned in the script for the game as it would have to be, but it makes for a nice alternative to the average shooter.

There are, however, occasional glitches, such as when one of my troop was standing in front of the entrance to a barn, covered only by a fence, while on the other side was a Nazi blasting away with his machine gun – missing my comrade! Erm… very strange, and something you’d only expect on The A-Team. On a later level, a dress window dummy got caught in a window pane as if a grenade had forced it into that position and it continued forever to throttle around in sort-of mid-air like a spinning top.

Also, on one early level, two of my team were still stuck in a cellar because they couldn’t figure out how to climb up the steps that were still left. It was easier to get myself killed and then when the checkpoint reloaded, since I’d already climbed to the upstairs of the house, I was back up there with my men standing by and taking up their positions. At the end of that level, the picture started to go into a cut-scene but nothing went further. After a while I moved one of the analog sticks round to see I was now actually controlling the scene… but no, this wasn’t meant to be as once I’d moved forward very slightly the cut-scene that was meant to have been triggered suddenly kicked in. Such things give the impression that certain aspects of this title have been rushed and that Quality Control didn’t do as thorough a job as they might.

Despite the problems with the enemy AI, you do really feel like you’re involved in a war given how your colleagues usually react to the baddies around you.

---

It’s all very intense stuff when in the heat of combat as you find yourself shooting ‘randomly’ on occasions in the hope of hitting a Nazi amongst all the confusion, which can only be what war was like.

Random enjoyments within the various levels include spotting the targets for your tank to shoot at, plus a later tank-on-rails section which was a great blast – literally – as you’re the one doing the firing. There’s also the regular ability to pick up and return live German grenades – not easy at all and you have to be quick, so it’s much easier to just run, although it’s more satisfying to return Jerry’s property back to him :)

Running low on firepower is also something to be concerned with, so if you want extra ammo, walk over to where a dead soldier was last holding his rifle, but if you don’t have their type of weapon then it’ll prompt you to swap what you’re currently holding for theirs. This is quite handy if you’ve just killed a few Germans and they’ve all got the same type as you can really stock up.

Several Xbox Live game modes are available, although I generally stick to the single player campaign of titles like this because I get killed within about five seconds, and that’s when I’m doing well! It’s worth a stop as well to the Xbox Live Marketplace for free downloads of “Spike TV Game Head” footage of 16 players going head-to-head against each other.

Many Xbox 360 titles also have achievement points available and, at the time of writing, I’ve picked up the Purple Heart (5 points) for perserverence despite grevious injuries, the Hot Potato (25) for picking up and returning 5 live grenades, the American Infantryman (20) for completing two missions as an American soldier and, of course, the Basic Training section in Saint Lo.

Visit my DVDfeverGames Youtube channel.

Important info:

• Publisher: Activision
• Price: £49.99
• Players: Offline – 1-4, Online – 2-24
• HDTV options: 720p/1080i/1080p

Director: Keith Arem
Producers: Jason Blundell, Daniel Bunting and Tom Hays
Writing credits: Richard Farrelly (story) and Marc Guggenheim
Music: Joel Goldsmith

GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT	9 10 7 8
OVERALL	8