Multiple errors upon launch, same OMG moments of despair.
......if it weren't for the very impressive Spec Ops and fun campaign this would be trash. It's just not for me anymore. Here are my observations on the negatives, then positives.
Cons
1. The first time I died in MP was from a guy halo jumping in and out of cover, with a silenced MP5, from medium range. Just jumping around free firing. You ever see someone actually jump around like an idiot and shoot, and hit, something?
2. People can STILL lay down in the middle of a two person gun battle and not die!?!? Do this. Stand in your living room pretending to hold a rifle and shooting. Now try to go prone and keep a nice aim on whatever it was you were 'shooting'. Didn't think so. Oh yeah. You're being shot at too.
3. Quick Scoping. Still?
4. The spawn system is so horribly broken right now. How do you hype a game like this and not have one of the most b!tched about issues resolved? It's WORSE than BO. Don't believe me? Play some demo and get back to me.
5. Matchmaking is none existent. I can't count how many times I'm the only person under, at least, level 40 in a lobby(i'm 26). I should not have to play against a team of 30-50 level people. Every lobby I've been dumped in to like this is so lopsided.
6. QA sure missed the part where you can get spawn trapped on a couple of the demo maps(i don't know the names yet but one is with the underground 'bunker' bombsite and that big sphere next to it). Twice now i've started a second round and all I get is predator after predator, Ac-130, and you name it, all aimed at one spot. And because SPAWNING is broken you can't get out of it until the enemy runs out of the right arsenal.
7. And this is my biggest complaint. They way oversold this game. It has been out for 4 days and look at how many people are already close to maxing out. The game has no 'pop' for me. I picked it up 7pm CST the day it came out and by the time I got home, got on line and played, it felt like the game had already been out for weeks. Everyone was already running around with all the unlocked weapons. I couldn't even keep up with all the different perks people had that they were killing me with. I couldn't understand all the beeps and noises all the new gear makes. It was all confusing from the start. Nothing to ramp me in. Nothing to ease the use of a new game. I think they failed with that final BO weekend of getting bonus stuff for MW3 if you prestiged.
8. I went to return the game today only to notice that it's already cracked in the center ring.
Pros.
So after all that whining.....what's good?
1. Spec Ops. Tell yeewwwwwhhhhaaatt. Man they nailed this thing! This game mode is like my zombies and all things survival, rolled in to one. I couldn't be more please with the multiple scenarios of survival and mission modes. The unlock system is very satisfying and it is what I play most. I love the waves upon waves of dudes I get to kill. And you get a nice sense of challenge ramp up to. The enemies get tougher and they carry better guns.
2. The campaign is very rewarding. I think there is too much of a gap between the regular and hardened modes though. Otherwise it is a very rewarding storyline since I did get to play MW2's campaign. I like that this takes right off from there.
3. Bullet markers. At least when you think you should be getting a bullet marker.....you do. I don't agree with how they're powering the guns but I at least feel like the hit markers are where they should be.
But that's about it. This game has convinced me to end my CoD of playing. I bought BF3 to test the waters and I can tell you that I have none of these same complaints with that game. You cannot do the stupid, comic-book-action-figure stuff that MW3 affords you.
The CoD series should stop pretending its realism. Nothing about jumping around like an idiot and laying down in the middle of a gun fight, running around a close-fire street battle with a sniper rifle, and knifing me in then knee from 5 feet away and killing me, says realism to me.
UPDATE -- 11-28-11
To date, I still cannot post anything on the official mw3 forum. I can log in to my account but there is no way I can actually post anything to the forums. I have been trying to reach activision, or anyone, to help me with this problem but I have heard nothing after 10 days.
Also. It is clear that Dome will be removed from the Demo maps. It will be the first 'Havana' of mw3. The spawn points are still so broken in this game that I can think of nothing but BOps.
The angled corners of nearly every map are getting very old. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is so......obtuse. Your kill corners and angles are not soft, or medium for that matter, and it introduces you to the worst effect of ANY lag. Most times you feel as if you are getting one shot killed A LOT. Well over half my deaths, not in a major free for all, consist of coming around a corner, any corner, and I'm shot dead.
Douche bag campers are rampant as usual. I'm still getting killed by a UMP45 silenced.....from across the room....versus my G36c. Tired of it. Concussions continue to be useless.