The date is 8th November 2011, gamers are flocking the streets to get their hands on a copy of one of the most anticipated games. Tears of sadness for those who do not manage to get their copy, anger for those who slipped while running towards the shelves and tears of joy while doing the guido fist pump for those who managed. Well for myself I will be at home waiting for the hard working postman to deliver my copy through the mail.

But why all this anticipation, what will Modern Warfare 3 offer that we, the Call of Duty fans have not seen yet?

The following is going to be my first impression of the game, specifically based specifically on what I’ve seen so far. My sources are mainly CodXp, You Tube and information on the web from gamers who have had their envied “hands-on”.

When I saw videos from CodXp posted by Machinima (when Optic Gaming where playing) the first thing that really struck me was how familiar the graphics looked. This made me search for more footage of the game and you do not need to be an expert to realize that Cod MW3 looks exactly like MW2. I personally think that this was a really good move, because if you have something that is accepted by the community and people are used to it, there is no need to try to change it. I do believe that improvements should be made to the graphics of the game in general  but there is no need to remove the feel that gamers are used to.

So what did Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games change to give something to make gamers look forward to?

The answer is pretty simple: customization. Gamers like to have the possibility to alter their setup when playing, this make the game playable for a really long time.  It also gives the gamer something to work for, unlock and achieve. One thing that games often experience is the fact that they start playing and after a couple of weeks (for some gamers its days) there is nothing to look forward to and so the game becomes monotonous in a very short time. The information I read up to now looks like Modern Warfare 3 will give gamers the ability to keep running different setups for quite a long time.

So what kind of setups are we talking about?

What Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer games did was to change the way people get the famous “kill streak”. In Modern Warfare 2 players used to play to get to the Harrier kill streak. The reason is that if you play cautiously (which involved some beloved camping) you can “easily” get to the nuke because kill streaks were stack-able. Along came Black Ops and people had to work their fingers and thumbs to kill players because kill streaks in Black Ops were not stack-able.

Modern Warfare 3 will introduce the “Strike Chain” which is based on point streaks instead of kill streaks. So those players who play the objective in objective game types now will get rewarded. Even those who find it hard to finish a kill (like myself) and finish with a high amount of assists will be rewarded points for getting two assists if they use Hardline Pro.  As you can see this will give players more ways to get these points, helping players play the objective and in the end making it an enjoyable experience for all the team.

What will you earn when you get points?

Players can choose between three strike packages Assault, Support and Specialist.

• Assault: Like the current kill streaks, it will reward players with more ways to increase their kills.
• Support: Will reward players with equipment to support themselves and their team mates. This is the only strike package that does not reset when you die.
• Specialist: Will reward players with perks (after the eight consecutive kill the player will be rewarded with perks)

What about weapons?

Conclusion?