I thought that I should do a review about this game as everyone seems to have an opinion on it, from those who play it on a regular basis, who spend every waking minute intent on 'prestiging' or 'levelling up' weapons to those who watch from the sidelines with disdain...

For those who many not know what Call of Duty is about (or COD as known by regular players), but it is a first-person shoot-em-up game, with lots of violence, blood and guts and is set in a wartime setting. I think the sub title "Modern Warfare" is a massive give away, hence the 18 rating! This one in the COD franchise is set in a fictional war involving France, Germany, USA and the UK, and in both single player story mode and online multiplayer you can visit all these countries.

- Single player Story Mode -

So much emphasis is placed on COD's online multiplayer mode that many people forget or do not even realise this is supposed to have a background story. Much of this involves you being a soldier following your team leader as you and several other comrades sneak/battle through various war-torn settings. In between various checkpoints, cut scenes will appear explaining the story and they make it pretty clear what to do and what direction you need to go in order to reach your checkpoints. This goes on for roughly 5 hours (the time my boyfriend and I completed it on Normal mode) and can get a bit tedious after a while. But if you like a good story and like doing espionage-like activities (imagine Metal Gear Solid in first person) then you might like this...I'm not going to mention any storyline details though, I don't want to spoil it for those who want to buy it!

- Online Multiplayer Mode -

Here's where the fun REALLY begins. This is the main reason most people play Call of Duty games on a regular basis. Multiplayer mode allows you to act as an anonymous soldier, and you are assigned to a team of roughly 4-6 people who are also 'soldiers' online. Your group are then allocated an opposing team of a similar number (all soldiers played by online people too!) and the aim is to battle it out, killing your enemy's soldiers as many times as possible but without getting killed yourself. Dying in this game happens to everyone who plays this, but after a while you get used to the controls, running whilst simultaneously looking around etc and it does become great fun, believe it or not! Your team can go round a series of maps around the world, which correlate with the single player story mode (you can vote as a team which map or setting you want to play beforehand, a nice option which didn't feature on previous COD games). Also this simple head to head team battle is tweaked and made more interesting by the addition of several game modes (such as Capture the Flag, self-explanatory really but still involves shooting your enemy). The most popular though is the basic Team Deathmatch mode which I also play frequently, where the first team to 7500 points wins (each death is 100 points).

One of the annoying things about multiplayer mode though is that some people can communicate through your tv set with their bluetooth headpiece, you'll hear them talking a lot, and also going "Oh @*?!" when they die. Yes, some people online can be very rude so watch out for some bad language! I don't have a bluetooth headset so I can swear profusely in the comfort of my own home. The multiplayer mode can become tedious if you a) keep getting killed b) learnt the maps by heart c) find the gameplay/players too easy d) are constantly grouped with online players who cheat. The latter can be quite annoying but all you have to do is quit the round and go into another lobby and start a new game with new fresh players. What I do like about this mode is the large range of weapons (submachine guns, handguns, pistols, hand grenades, grenade launchers etc) and the graphics have improved dramatically as well. The attention to detail is amazing - there's one map called "Underground" based on London's underground stations, and in there you can find a parody of the London tube map! However since I come from London I can tell straightaway that they have 'Americanized' the maps a lot, ie. the zebra crossings, signs in the tube stations so not all the details are accurate.

- Special Ops -

The final mode you can play in this game is Special Ops, where you are given espionage missions to complete, much similar to the ones in the story mode, but this time you are against the clock. There are 3 medals to collect (gold silver and bronze) depending on how fast you complete said mission, and this will accumulate and add to your PSN trophy achievements (you get a gold trophy if you complete all of them). i would recommend playing this mode if you've only got about 20/30 minutes to kill as you can complete this quite quickly. Practice does make perfect of course, so you'll be tempted to replay some missions in order to beat your previous time.

- Price -

I bought this at exactly midnight on the very first day it came out - I queued up along with about 200 other gaming nerds (I was the only girl there, I believe) and not one person there was bothered about paying 40 quid for this game, everyone was far too excited to play it. Of course it has been out since November 2011 and has gone done quite a bit, last time I checked in GAME they were selling it for about 24 pounds but you can definitely get this cheaper online at Amazon and Ebay. People on Gumtree often sell this copy too as they know it is still in high demand despite being out for a while now.

- Summary -

Overall, MW3 is a vast improvement on its predecessor Black Ops (this was deemed a flop in comparison as it was made by an entirely different company with a different engine/graphics). The graphics, attention to detail, the storyline and maps are great advantages to this game (maybe I'm slightly biased as it includes my native London!) but Infinity Ward do not really offer anything new to the table since their 2 year gap inbetween MW2 and this. Don't get me wrong, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but after a while the game does get rather repetitive in all three modes and soon you may be looking for another game to tickle your fancy. But in the meantime, unleash some stress and annoy some people halfway round the world by killing them on MW3 and you'll be a very happy gamer.