Modern Warfare 3: Is it absolute garbage or are the trolls out in force?

by Steve Ragan - Nov 8 2011, 16:33

At midnight release parties, gamers lined up to purchase Infinity Ward’s latest shooter, Modern Warfare 3, hailed by critics as a future record-breaking success. Yet, while official reviews have earned the game a Metacritic score in the 90s, players have dubbed it garbage and smacked it with a score of 2.9.

Most of the negative user reviews make comparisons to Battlefield 3, which in their opinion crushes Modern Warfare 3 on several levels. Others take to calling it a recycled Modern Warfare 2 (MW v 2.5), noting that the newest title in the Call of Duty series feels like an expensive map pack.

“This is the BEST map pack for MW2 so far. It's a little over priced though; they're usually like $15. There is a glitch however- usually my profile carries over from one map pack to the other, but this time my stats reset,” one Metacritic comment says.

Some review were less indirect, including one that flat out called the “absolute garbage.”

“The campaign just felt absolutely forced and was completely forgettable by the end of it. Spec Ops is trash because zombies in WaW and Black Ops was just so much better... Everything about this game is re-used from Modern Warfare 2. This game doesn't feel fresh at all. All of the guns and skins are re-used... the menus as well... even some of the buildings and vehicles. The sounds of the guns are still bad, and some are the same as MW2...Sorry if the truth hurts. This game is just a bad DLC to a game that came out two years ago,” commented a user by the name of Cosmic Death.

Thesisko chimed in by tagging Infinity Ward’s efforts a “soulless cash-in.”

“Modern Warfare 3 represents everything that is wrong with modern gaming. I have no doubt that it will be showered with 9+ scores, but in reality this is merely a phoned-in recycle of a 4 year old game.”

These are just some of the more colorful comments. Other comment authors seemed to take a personal interest in ripping the game to shreds, as well as those who enjoy it. However, despite the disappointment, critics have hailed the game a success.

So are the comments legit? Some reviewers mention the campaign being over in a matter of hours, claiming to have played it on higher difficulty levels, and completed it just after the midnight release. Those reviews were called out as false.

The reviews making comparisons to Battlefield 3 were tagged as fan boy comments. Other postings refer to 4Chan’s Video Game board, /v/, as the cause for the low scores due to a successful raid.

Still, Metacritic has had to deal with false reviews in the past, and like Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 had a round of bad reviews on the user side as well when it was released. When this happend, Metacritic scrubbed the false reviews, and used a ban hammer on the offending accounts, for all the good that it does.

Here at Tech Herald HQ, I went to the midnight release, got the game, and even played Free-for-All for a bit before bed. The game was ok, but I’m not a hardcore gamer.

I got it for my kids, who love it. The teen in the house spent time playing it at the release party, as he and his friends debated the similarities to Modern Warfare 2. The 11-year-old played in the mini-tournament during the release, and noted that it was easier for him to get past the first round because it reminded him of Modern Warfare 2. Yet, both kids are happy with the game, it’s what they expected.

“Now that all the midnight trolls are off the forums... This game expanded upon a very successful predecessor. For everyone saying its the same as MW2, what do you think a sequel is? Most sequels are like the previous game. BF3 is like BF2 except they stray away from bad company to an elite team to compete with CoD...,” commented Aclosed_door.

“The call of duty series is for [faster paced] action where battlefield is for more strategic spaced out action. The gameplay is completely different [and it is solely] personal preference which style you prefer. For me I like to mix it up and think both games are outstanding.”

So tell us, what do you think? Are the trolls out in force on Metacritic or is Modern Warfare 3 a big disappointment?

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