Interesting new features, but totally ruined by an extremely poor online multiplayer experience.
MW3 does introduce some interesting features, specifically the different strike packages and point streaks (instead of streaks based on kills only). The 3 different strike packages also add a lot of variety to gameplay, by inducing different styles of play. I think it that regard, MW3 is refreshingly good.
I would totally do without the dampened explosive damage and the quickscoping. But hey, this is just subjective and wouldn't even be issues if it were the only negative points I had to live with.
Where MW3 totally disappoints is with the online experience. The game has been rendered unplayable for the most part.
The lag issues are horrendous. Either you're 1 second behind everybody else and become target practice for them, or you camp in a corner and wait (where's the fun in that?), so that you can avoid face-to-face confrontations that you know you will lose, whatever gun or skills you have.
Sometimes, it's the other way around: a ton of bullets hit you, but you somehow find the time to turn around and start shooting and end up killing everybody. You just *know* you're winning because the others are lagging.
As for the matchmaking, it keeps making you join games that are almost finished - often just in time to show the scoreboard!!! How hard would that be to prevent such things?
And of course, you decide to stay in that lobby, waiting for the next game to start, but then everybody starts to leave, except the one player who did an incredible 56-2 kd ratio on that last game. Anyways, the lobby ends up lingering for minutes before the remaining players leave.
I also purchased the CoD Elite membership, so I could access the new maps and DLC quicker (The web site in itself is an horror to use, but that's a whole other story). But whenever DLC is enabled in the lobbies, I end up with REALLY bad connections, because of the much reduced player pool (not many people seem to have bought Elite membership or the DLC content). So I just disable DLC content. What an investment that turned out to be!
All in all, I do not think technology is at fault here. MW3 has introduced even more complex features, such as the weapon proficiencies, perks and attachments causing the hosting XBox to have to constantly compute all these interactions. Throw in a little internet instability and the game becomes what it is.
We all know that dedicated servers would alleviate much of the online issues, making the game much more enjoyable.
But hey, it would cut too much profit for Activision, having to pay for the bandwidth and server clusters.