Call of Duty 3
Treyarch picks up where Infinity Ward left off and can't quite duplicate the magic.
Published: November 28, 2006
There will no doubt be people out there trying to compare the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. Don't. The PS3 version is nowhere near as solid at the 360; the framerate is worse, the lighting isn't as solid, and the online play is gimped with no progression for time spent playing. That doesn't mean the PS3 version looks bad, per se, just not as nice. And if we're doing comparisons, it probably doesn't hurt to throw in the PS2 version, which sports an even spottier framerate (though it's still not bad) and the obvious lighting and texture downgrades that one expects.
The textures as a whole aren't entirely convincing, but then bombed-out villages are inherently organic and a repeated wall or angular mound of "rocks" is something that looks fairly bad no matter how hi-res you go. Still, moving things out to the countryside helps on both systems, and COD3 PS2 is indeed a little nudge up from Big Red One, which was admittedly fairly solid in its own right. In fact, the PS2 version as a whole is surprisingly solid, especially considering it's finally (nearly) the same as the next-gen and PC versions (with some concessions made to the level design for what I can only assume was memory reasons).
Aurally, both the PS2 and PS3 versions hold up quite well. Yes, the characters you'll fight along with are clichés (complete with your standard "we got companyyyyyy!" dialogue), but plenty of them have chatter, and of course you'll hear actual foreign languages (gasp!) as appropriate. Tapping the talents of composer Joel Goldsmith (son of legend Jerry Goldsmith) was, I thought, a rather odd move considering previous games have used the talents of Graeme Revell and Michael Giacchino, but perhaps they just opted out of doing another game.
Regardless, the soundtrack is really quite fantastic. It mostly stays strong during the more tense moments, though; some of the quieter, more somber tracks don't really stir the heartstrings quite as much as Giacchino's work, but it does the trick. On the PS2 that audio is stuck in Pro Logic II, but even without being proper surround sound, you'll still hear some nice back channel usage from time to time. You'll hear it all the freakin' time on the PS3, but then that's what jumping up to Dolby Digital will do for ya.
Okay, fine, so I'm not completely done with World War II shooters yet. I like that Treyarch went with trying to put you in the middle of a war movie; sure, there are plenty of clichéd bits, and I think I've developed a sixth sense for scripted door kicks at this point, but Call of Duty 3 proves that there's still room to grow the presentation of the franchise -- if not the basic gameplay. Now that Infinity Ward is heading up what will probably be next year's game (gotta feed that AVTI sequel monkey, man), and now that they're finally moving it out of the 40s, there's a good chance we'll see the lessons learned here being put to use in something a little more modern.
That's a good thing, for as much as I dug all that scripting, and the game did move beyond the usual dug-in, burned-out, rubble-filled cities of previous games, it all still feels a little too familiar. Solid, yes, but familiar. I mean no disrespect for the men that died protecting freedom, but considering I was born a good 30 years after the war ended, familiarity with this setting probably isn't a good thing.
