Of the three very disappointing games I have had the misfortune of purchasing for my 360 (Lost Planet, Shadowrun, and Call of Duty 3), Call of Duty 3 takes the cake not because it was the worst of the three, but because it was built up the most and therefore was the greatest letdown. I absolutely love Call of Duty 2. It was my first game for the 360 and it held my attention from launch to the release of RS:V, so it's no surprise that I eagerly anticipated the release of Call of Duty 3.

Needless to say, the game was a HUGE letdown. The graphics were about the only redeeming facet of the game. The single player campaign was extremely frustrating. Being a veteran of the . . . well . . . "veteran" game mode in CoD2, I immediately dove right in to CoD3 on veteran. I was shocked by the poor difficulty balance. In CoD2, veteran was extremely hard, but it never felt impossibly or "cheap": I never felt like the game was cheating me. CoD3 was completely different. It started out surprisingly easy, and through about the first mission or two I enjoyed it immensely until I came to a hill on the 2nd or 3rd mission (I don't remember which now, it's been a long time). This particular hill was meant to be stormed, but because of machine gun nests that meant approaching from the right side of the hill. This didn't seem too bad until I realized 2 things:

1) the germans on the machine guns obviously had some kind of anti-smoke grenade goggles on, and

2) their bullets penetrated 10-12 feet of earth accurately when you lay behind a hill.

I became so disgusted with the cheapness of the difficulty that after trying this hill well over 20 times (and getting really pissed when Treyarch mocked me with a "purple heart" achievement) that I stopped playing the single player campaign then and there and have since not returned.

This game would have made my list of "most disappointing games" based on the single player alone, but it hit the top of the list after I tried the utterly broken multiplayer. The matches were very fun with vehicles and larger maps (though what Treyarch did to the Kar98 made me cry with anger after I tried it out; needless to say they killed the weapons balances), that is, when you could actually get into a match.

Here's how getting into a match in CoD3 works: you bring up the list of servers, choose one with good connection and plenty of spots left, you select it, and then you wait. After 15 seconds of waiting, you are informed that the "server is full", "there is a connection error", or that the server simply does not exist (basically, the game totally bull****s you). Slightly puzzled, you refresh the server list with the intention of choosing another game only to see that exact server still showing the same number of players and the same good connection. Frustrated, you try it again 2 or three more times trying to get into the game before you give up and go to choose another server. Needless to say, after 20 minutes of this BS you give up and play something else.

I waited for CoD3 eagerly for 8-10 months, or however long it was from initial announcements to release, and even after all that it took me about 3 hours to realize that I didn't want to play that crap ever again. Even at a $30 loss, I took it back within the next day because I couldn't stand to own it a second longer.

CoD3 is by far the most disappoiting game I have ever played. Thanks Treyarch, you a-holes. (on a completely unrelated note, I absolutely love CoD4 and any other game IW makes, and I am currently eagerly awaiting CoD6 (not 5 because it will not be made by IW))