Modern Warfare 3, will launch on 8th November 2011

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While still unannounced, sources who have seen the game in action tell Kotaku that the next Call of Duty will be a Modern Warfare 3 that pushes the bar on what people have come to expect from the series. And it hits this fall.

The yet-to-be announced sequel is under development by Infinity Ward, though a swath of those developers left the company in a civil-litigation uprising last year. The team is being assisted by newly minted Activision studio Sledgehammer Games, we're told. We've also heard that Raven Software may be involved.

The Call of Duty series has long alternated between two sets of stories and timelines. The games made by Treyarch have typically been set during the events of World War II, though last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops moved the setting to the Cold War of the 1960s. Starting with 2007's Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward's Call of Duties all took place in a modern day setting.

In the original Modern Warfare, a civil war breaks out in the Russia of 2011. The story continues in Modern Warfare 2, which has a terrorist attack in Russia erroneously linked to the United States. That leads Russian forces to invade the U.S. Some of the missions even feature rolling ground combat in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Virginia and in the capital itself.
Modern Warfare 3 to Feature Bigger Story, More Destruction This FallImage of Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)

Key to the near ending of Modern Warfare 2, was the detonation of a nuclear missile in the upper atmosphere above the Mid-Atlantic, something that creates an electromagnetic pulse that destroyed all electronic equipment on both sides of the raging war in D.C. Such an event would cripple the area in the short term, essentially removing the ability to use most technology in the region as the country tries to rebuild or bring in support from other parts of the country. It also seems that it could make the story a hard one to follow in a modern day shooter.

But our sources tell us Modern Warfare 3 will continue along that storyline, delivering a "world in crisis" feel to the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. However, it looks like it won't be another take on Red Dawn, a post-U.S. invasion storyline already explored by Homefront. While it's unclear where specifically the game will be set, Modern Warfare 3 will have a urban setting, much like the U.S. missions in Modern Warfare 2, with military vehicles, including tanks, rolling through suburban streets.

The story may also include prominent characters from Modern Warfare 2, like Captain John "Soap" MacTavish and Captain John Price. Modern Warfare 2 ended with Price, Soap and a Russian informant codenamed Nikolai on the run as international fugitives following their killing of Lieutenant General Shepherd.

The biggest shift for the game appears to be in its breadth. We're told that Modern Warfare 3 will take place on a much larger, epic scale. It appears the game will explore the lead up to a blossoming set of engagements that could pull in other countries, creating a potential World War III scenario. The game will also feature large, urban destructible environments.
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Image of upcoming Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)

The focus on larger maps and destructible environments brings to mind competitor Electronic Arts' Battlefield series which made a name for itself with those two keystones. Battlefield 3 is also set for a 2011 fall release, meaning the two games could in theory be vying directly with one another for gamers' attention. Battlefield 3, as shown by EA in previous events this year, will take place in a modern setting and feature large maps and destructible environments.

We expect to hear more about the Call of Duty series and Modern Warfare 3 this summer during the annual E3 trade show.

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"Where You’ll Go, How You’ll Kill, and Who Will Die in Modern Warfare 3

Brian Crecente — We've been gentle so far in our revealing of what we know about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. We've tip-toed through the minefield of spoilers, and tried to reveal only facts anyone would want to know. That ends here.

What follows is a detailed summary of what we understand are the events of Modern Warfare 3 described to us by those in possession of dozens of images from the game, as well as voice over recordings. While we haven't seen the game in action ourselves, we believe that the imagery and this plot description is accurate. That doesn't mean things can't change before release. Levels could be altered or completely cut before the game gets into your hands.

While we're still keeping some major, pivotal moments close to our chest—let's just say we know some things we wish we didn't know—we're about to lay the whole story out for you from beginning to end. Don't read on if you want to experience the narrative of Activision's bombshell shooter free from spoilers.

There are spoilers here. You've been warned.

Modern Warfare 3 opens as Modern Warfare 2 closed: The United States under siege by Russian forces, ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov on the loose, Captain John "Soap" MacTavish and Captain John Price wounded and on the run with the Russian informant known as Nikolai.

Fleeing to a safehouse in Dharmasala, India, the three are attacked by Makarov's men. In this firefight players take on the role of Yuri, a loyalist who works for Nikolai. Their safehouse compromised, the group flee the area in a helicopter.

The game then cuts to Manhattan where Russia is launching an attack on the city from a fleet of ships parked in the Hudson River. (It appears the famous U.S.S. Intrepid may be destroyed.) The U.S. calls in Delta Force to repel the attack. You take on the role of Frost, a Delta Force operative under the command of Sandman. Your goal is to take out a jamming tower on top of the New York Stock Exchange to open the area for a U.S. counterattack.

Following the mission, Delta flies out of the city on a Blackhawk, gunning down enemy choppers as they make their way to the harbor where they have to infiltrate and take down a Russian sub which is coordinating the attack.
The Campaign Settings of MW3

Dharmasala, India
New York, New York
A plane transporting the president of Russia
A town in Sierra Leone
London, England
Mogadishu, Somalia
Hamburg, Germany
Paris, France
Prague, Czech Republic
A castle in the Czech mountains
Berlin, Germany
The Kremlin in Moscow, Russia
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Washington. D.C.

As the New York missions wrap up the game jumps forward in time half a year, thrusting players into the role of a Russian agent tasked with protecting the president of Russia as he flies to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. The plane is attacked by hijackers mid-air who attempt to kidnap the president and his daughter. The daughter manages to escape. The president of Russia in hand, Makarov vows to prevent a peace treaty by getting the launch codes out of the president and launching an attack against the U.S.

The game then returns us to Price, Soap and Yuri, now in Africa in a search for Makarov. They meet with a local South African arms dealer who tells them about a shipment of chemical weapons that Makarov is trying to buy. The group make their way to Sierra Leone to secure the weapons from African militia.

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Next, players take on the role of an SAS operative who is tasked with stopping a delivery of weapons of mass destruction at a London dockyard. A gun battle ensues, and the agents are chased through the London subway. The mission culminates with a series of unmarked trucks exploding in front of the house of Parliament, releasing a deadly chemical agent.

Several other European cities and military bases are hit by similar terrorist attacks backed by Russia, and the death toll rises to the tens of thousands. The series of chemical attacks opens the door for a Russian military blitz strikes across the continent.

Price discovers that the South African arms dealer who tipped them off about the chemical weapons deceived them and travels to Somalia to find the man and interrogate him. Through the arms dealer, Price discovers that Makarov's right hand man, Volk, is hiding out in Paris.

The game's attention next shifts to Hamburg, Germany where players take on the role of a U.S. tank gunner fighting to push back a Russian advance backed by armored divisions.

Where You'll Go, How You'll Kill, and Who Will Die in Modern Warfare 3As Hamburg falls, the game shifts us back to the story of Price and his crew. Now in Paris, players control Delta Force operative Frost who, with the help of the French special forces, leads an assault on Volk's location in the underground catacombs of the city. Next, players take to the sky supporting Frost's ground movements as a gunner in an AC-130.

After capturing and interrogating Volk, Frost learns that Makarov has a meeting in a Prague hotel. Players control Yuri as he and Soap slip into the Russian-controlled city and set-up an ambush for Makarov in a church bell tower. Makarov somehow catches wind of the trap and escapes. Soap, Yuri and Price then have to fight their way out of the city.

Yuri leads the team to one of Makarov's headquarters in the Czech mountains and the group infiltrates the location, looking for clues. They discover that the ultranationlist has the president and is trying to get the codes out of him. Makarov has also discovered the location of the Russian president's daughter. The group move out to Berlin to try and prevent her kidnapping. Playing as Frost, gamers must find the daughter and protect her, while making their way through war-torn Berlin. The daughter, however, is captured and flown away.

Frost next makes his way to the Kremlin where a task force of operatives attack and free the hostages, but Makarov manages to escape again.

The game's final mission occurs in Dubai, where Yuri, Price and Sandman launch an assault on a heavily guarded hotel, eventually finding Makarov and, yes, finally killing him.

It also appears that the game may also include a post-credits level that features the burning of Washington, D. C.

The stage seems set for a passing of the torch: from player-controlled members of Task Force 141 to the new characters from Delta Force."

[[SCUM] Speedy]

It's going to be shit. I'd put money on it

[[SCUM] McPhil]

that weapons images are pretty good. That's a lot of detail.

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no dedicated servers ,no buy.

[[SCUM] Speedy]

that weapons images are pretty good. That's a lot of detail.

Not really m8, not in the grand scheme of things. They were doing textures like that back in America's Army.

[[SCUM] McPhil]

no dedicated servers ,no buy.

are they not using dedicated server again?

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no dedicated servers ,no buy.

are they not using dedicated server again?

Dunno, nothing has been announced but i think it wil be using IWNET seeing as though this ones done by "Infinity Ward".

[[SCUM] McPhil]

no dedicated servers ,no buy.

are they not using dedicated server again?

Dunno, nothing has been announced but i think it wil be using IWNET seeing as though this ones done by "Infinity Ward".

At least that would make playing BF3 all the more easier...

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[[SCUM]-Tommee Gunn]

getting closer to film quality now :)

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It's a fair guess that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will follow in the footsteps of last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops, shattering sales records and bringing even more people to video games.

But it's typically not the single player campaign, detailed here, that draws in those record-breaking numbers. While many, including myself, enjoy the Call of Duty campaigns, it's the multiplayer that has managed to shift the Call of Duty franchise from a video game to something more akin to a sport.

People play pick-up games of Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2, even Modern Warfare, like they play games of baseball, soccer or shoot some hoops. Like it or not, consider it innovative or rehashed gameplay, the Call of Duty franchise has in many ways transcended what it is to be a video game.

So here's your first, unofficial look at what we can expect from the bread and butter, the heart of Modern Warfare 3 when it hits this fall. Do keep in mind that while the details of the game's single player campaign, seemingly verified with the official release of a trailer and matching levels, are likely mostly locked in stone, what is delivered with multiplayer could easily shift. First, multiplayer is often tweaked after the game hits, it also receives a number of downloadable content packs post launch. With the advent of Elite, that's even more likely.

That being said, here's what our sources are telling us we can expect from multiplayer.

The game's multiplayer will be divided into cooperative Special Ops maps and traditional multiplayer maps. There will be no zombie modes in this game, not a surprise since zombies were introduced to the Call of Duty franchise by Treyarch and have, so far, popped up only in the Treyarch-developed games.

Special Ops will include both a survival, horde-like mode and a mission mode, with a total of a dozen maps and missions to choose from between the two.

As we've previously reported, there are 20 maps being worked on for Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer.

It is unclear how many multiplayer and Spec Ops maps and missions will come with the game and how many will be sold at a later date as add-on downloadable content.

Key to the multiplayer experience, is the ability for players to level up their characters and unlock perks to modify the effectiveness of their equipment, character and enemy equipment. The multiplayer matches also include killstreaks, which are special one-time rewards that are unlocked after a player kills other players a set number of times without dying.

As could be expected, developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have been working to tweak both killstreaks and perks for Modern Warfare 3.

The biggest new addition to the game that we've heard of so far is the creation of Team Perks. These are perks that a team, can work toward to earn. It is unclear whether this will be tied to clans or some other team system, but their inclusion could help push the game into a more team driven title, something the premium Elite service is likely to tie into.

While we don't know the total number of team perks coming to Modern Warfare 3, we have been told four of them:

Stopping Power: Increased bullet damage.
Blast Shield: Unclear
Health Regen: Regenerate health over time.
Stun Protection: Prevent stunning from flash grenades.

New perks coming to Modern Warfare 3 include:

Blind Eye: This makes you immune to computer-controlled and player-controlled killstreaks. The pro version makes your launchers lock on faster and gives you extra bullet damage to vehicles.
Assassin: This makes you immune to UAV, thermal, and heartbeat sensors. The pro version also makes you immune to CUAV, EMP and no longer shows your name in red or the crosshair in red when you're targeted.
Point Guard: Every two assists count as a kill towards your killstreak.
Dead Silence: You make no noise.
Recon: Gives you a special kind of radar to spot enemies, most likely. We're not sure on this one.

We're not clear on how many or which previous perks will be coming to the game, but it sounds like the ones that do return will do some from Modern Warfare 2, not Black Ops.

There will also be a bevy of new killstreaks to play with in multiplayer. Here's the rundown on the latest thinking:

EMP Grenade: Temporarily takes out all area electronics.
Littlebird: A tiny remote-controlled helicopter.
Precision Airstrike: Calls in an airstrike on a targeted area.
Stealth bomber: Calls in a B2 Spirit to carpet bomb along a line designated by the player.
Remote Turret: A remote controlled turret.
Directional UAV: A UAV that can be directed into areas to scan for enemies.
Remote Mortar: Direct a mortar team using a zoomable camera view of the map to call in strikes.
Airdrop Trap: A booby-trapped airdrop.
Ammo Resupply: An ammo reloading airdrop.
Escort Airdrop: A protected airdrop.
Specialist Strike Package: This one remains a mystery to us.

While it's likely that some of the killstreaks will drop out or be added in, we've been told that the team has decided to remove the controversial Tactical Nuke killstreak from the game.

Other tweaks being looked at by the team include making sure things like exploding barrels don't count toward a player's killstreak tally.

We've also learned, unfortunately, that this latest Call of Duty still won't support dedicated servers, instead relying on the hosted servers found in previous iterations of the game. Dedicated servers were removed from the franchise starting with Modern Warfare 2. (Modern Warfare 3 appears to be using DemonWare for player authentication, just like with Call of Duty: Black Ops.)


sorry...no buy for me...more cash for BF3 and an upgrade.

[[SCUM] Reaper]

Agreed..... severs full of tards wont be getting this either come on BF3

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XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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Dedicated servers for Mod Warfare 3 PC

Activision has said that it will support dedicated servers in the PC version of Modern Warfare 3 despite ongoing concerns about how they can be used to cheat online.

Developer Infinity Ward famously ditched dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2, claiming that it wanted to guarantee service quality for its whole customer base – a move that caused consternation throughout its PC community.

"The big announcement today is that we're supporting dedicated servers for PC, which is really cool," Noah Heller, who works at Beachhead Studios on Call of Duty stats service Elite, told Eurogamer at gamescom 2011.

"And of course we're working really hard right now on the customised version of Elite for the PC [versions of Call of Duty games], because it's an open platform and has some challenges."

Speaking of Elite, Heller also said that in addition to website, tablet and mobile versions of the service, which is currently in beta, Activision would be launching a "console app".

"We're also doing a console app," he said. "So right there on PS3 and 360 you can jump out of the game into the app and communicate with your clan or do whatever you need to do before running back into the game."



Good news or just meh !

Reading between the lines, Activision saw the BF3 Demo from yesterday and shat their pants...this is too try and get the pc gamers back to their side i reckon.

It did make me think hmmm, but it'd have to try a lot harder than that to get me to pick it over BF3.