By Adam “Welshy” Drake

Call of Duty...Call of Duty...Where to begin. As with a lot of franchises, the name means different things to different people. To some it is where it all began, the game that started them off, the game that they first played online, the game they first made maps for. For others it's the game they play all night every night, the game that they love. However for an ever increasing amount of people it's “Sigh” that game again. It's no secret that Call of Duty is everywhere, it is fair to say that Activision knows how to sell a game but has it all become too much?, Has this once great franchise finally run out of ammunition?

At this years Eurogamer Expo, Earls court, London, I was able to get a hands on preview with Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 3. For whatever reason, Activision only decided to bring the survival mode to this years expo, this seems particularly odd, seeing as EA showcased both the Singleplayer and Multiplayer portions of Battlefield 3. Whatever the reason it did feel a little like a lack of effort on Activision's part. Before I spend all day ranting about the fall of franchise etc...let's get into the preview of survival mode.

By now you're probably wondering what survival mode plays like, the answer is zombies, World at War/Black ops zombies...Without the zombies. The general idea is to survive round after round, wave after wave of bad guys with your co-op buddies. What we played was a two player split screen version of this mode. Along the way you'll be able to purchase new weapons and ammo, using the cash you earn by killing enemies. As the rounds go on each wave becomes increasingly harder, you begin by fighting basic infantry and move on to spec ops, dogs and so I'm told juggernauts.

Interestingly what does differ from zombies is the enemy spawn locations, without a hint of irony it seems that enemies all always spawning on top of you, either directly in front, behind or to side. As a result there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide and this does actually present a challenge. Also seeing as the “zombies” in this mode shoot back, you are unable to use the good old fashioned “keep away” tactics that we all used for Zombies. Overall I can arguably see this being the most played section of Modern Warfare 3, As it feels like it will probably be the most addictive.

Having not played MW2 for more than a few minutes, I found it difficult to see much of a difference between CoD4, MW2 and MW3. To me they all feel and look the same. The engine is really starting to show it's age now. While some improvements have been made, it is still fairly obvious that this is the same engine. Being only able to play it on what seems to have become the “only” platform in activisions eyes, the Xbox 360, it's again difficult to get a gauge on what's improved, if anything. I'm sure that people who played MW2 will be able to point out aspects of the new versions that have changed. Having just played the PC version of Battlefield 3, mere moments before really didn't help it's case. Of course visuals aren't everything, however it does seem that Call of duty is falling behind the rest.

The complete lack of any singleplayer or competitive multiplayer access at the expo baffles me, as do many of the choices Activsion makes these days. Whether it be that they discovered EA was bringing PS3 and PC versions of BF3 and they wanted to be different or that, which is what I suspect, Call of Duty is an Xbox game now. Sure they will be releasing PC and PS3 versions but they will be ports.

When I sat down to write this article I was prepared to write a damning review about the game, the franchise and how much it's disappointed me over the last two years. However as I thought about it, It occurred to me that what we played at the expo wasn't bad, In fact it was fun. It played well and ran great, despite being on the Xbox. Will I be buying this, No, will I be recommending this game to anyone that doesn't have an Xbox, No.

Frankly, in my opinion, the days of Call of Duty are coming to an end, there is a new king in town and it starts with a B and ends in a “Holy Crap, did you see that?”