Any XBox Live players here?

If so, what's your gamertag?

I don't play often, or when I do it's usually late at night. But it would be cool to hook up with some black and gold brothers/sisters on occasion.

My tag is Steelray25.

 

I play when I get a chance. It's usually at night, too.

Gt is schneidts

 

I'll send a friend request to you guys next time I log on. I forgot to do it last night. I logged on for old time's sake and to play a little CoD just to try to reacquaint my reflexes.

2 years off from playing FPSs, and boy did it show. I got smoked so much I just had to laugh and go with it.

 

Saw you on-line last night, TTF.

I was going to try to jump into your match, but then my wife called, and by the time I got off the phone, you were off.

Oh well, some other time. Frankly, as bad as I've been getting destroyed lately, I'm almost second guessing buying another shooter.

Who am I kidding? I'll get it anyway.

 

I saw you too, Ray. I figured after I had a couple warm up matches in me I'd come find ya, but man was I surprised at how bad I was after not playing for so long. Besides just getting embarrassed by what sounded like a 10 yr old, I was really tired so figured I'd call it a night. Next time though.

Do you ever do demolition, or do you stick to team deathmatch?

 

I stick mostly to Mercenary TDM.

Mercenary because you don't as often run into organized teams. And the sides get shuffled every match. If they have a mercenary objective playlist, I'll play it. But I've had my fill of 18-20 y/o "bros" all organized and destroying guys who've been on a team as recently as 5 minutes ago.

That, and since I don't often play objective games (unless dragged into them by friends), I usually have no idea what the flip is going on. "He's at the <insert odd term>" Huh? Where?

I know if I played them more often, I'd get better. But I'm not good enough to play in any kind of good clan. The good news is, MW3 is rumored to have many more merc lists. I hope it's true. You get a ton more xp in objective games.

 

Oh yes, Mercenary...thanks for adding that. When I do TDM, it's gotta be mercenary. Can't stand that clan stuff, it's just not fun for a casual loner like myself. Fun for them I'm sure, but for the fish in the barrel...not so much.

I'm pretty excited for MW3. I wonder how different the online play will be.

 

Casual loner sounds about right for me too.

Supposedly, the on-line is going to be better than MW2. More playlists, some aggravating perks removed, shotguns going back to primary, etc.

But we'll see. MW2 was supposed to be an even better version of CoD4... it failed. Mostly due to lack of beta testing. Too many glitches. Too easily exploited. Some weapons being WAY too powerful (I'm looking at you, dual G8s).

MW3 is being billed as "fixed" MW2 plus new goodies. I don't buy into the hype, but then, as annoying as some things were in MW2, I liked it. I'm not good enough to blame my failings on a "faulty game."

ETA: I'll get MW3 tomorrow night. And I'll play it through on campaign before trying on-line. Then Skyrim comes out on Friday. It's going to take me FOREVER to get to 80. I don't think I'm likely to try to prestige this time around.

 

Did you choose prestige for MW2? I probably won't be getting MW3 for a while, so you'll hafta let me know how it is.

 

A couple times, yeah. Then I got pulled back into that aforementioned evil slave master and hadn't payed it in almost 2 years prior to the other night. So I never went to 10. didn't on CoD4 either. I only started playing it late, so one prestige, and then I said, "meh."

 

First review of MW3 I've seen. The reviewer makes it seem better than I expected. I'll find out for myself soon enough.

http://www.allaboutthegames.co.uk/featu ... e_id=12203:

 

Interesting about the 'support' kill streak package. The team Ballistic Vests reward is what I'm used to in Medal of Honor. I like the integration of team handouts like that. All in all it looks pretty sweet...I look forwards to the new killstreaks.

 

The graphics are a definite step up from MW2. I didn't expect them to be. But definitely much sharper.

Controls are tight, fluid and slick. (nothing new there. That's been a hallmark of MW, and CoD in general)

I only played 2 matches of on-line, the rest was all campaign. So most of the "toys" I played with were in the campaign (which I haven't finished yet). The new Hybrid sight is NICE. The revamped ACOG is sweet. Iron sights are, well, you have seen most of them already.

I'm not sure what all I can even unlock for multiplayer. I can't even play 2/3 of the match setups yet because you have to level up to access them. I looked for MTDM.. and all there was was "Mercenary." Which could be either TDM or Kill Confirmed. Both matches ended up being KC. I'm not sure if you can queue for one or the other later after levelling, or if it's always going to be that way for Mercenary. I will say this though: Kill Confirmed is FUN. It will be even better when I have some clue as to where I am.

If you liked the UMP in MW2, you'll LOVE it in MW3. If you hated it, you're really going to hate it. I was hip firing guys to death from mid-range. I almost see no reason to aim with it. Ok, one reason: saving ammo.

Sadly, the heartbeat sensor is still around, and there are already jagoffs leaning on it heavily. Can't wait to unlock a perk to counter that. Noob tubes hit like pillows now. If it doesn't land at your feet, you can probably survive it. You'll be near death, but you can survive it.

I'll finish the campaign tonight, then start on-line in earnest. I just wanted to get a small taste tonight.

 

Thanks for the great review, Ray. You're definitely increasing my anticipation for the game.

Yeah, it kinda sucks until you unlock that perk. The ACOG sounds cool, but what is this new hybrid site you speak of? I could take or leave the UMP before, so we'll see I guess. One complaint I read yesterday was that the maps online didn't provide a lot of long rage battle opportunities (I like me some sniping). Would you say that was true from your first impression?

 

The hybrid sight is a 2 sight system. You have a red dot sight, and by taping the D-pad, you flip up a modified ACOG. Not a true ACOG, but more of a 2 or 3x zoom red dot.

I only played 2 maps, so I can't speak for all of them yet. One was fairly tight with most of the fighting centering inside a warehouse (slightly larger, and different scenery, but it had a distinctive "Rundown" feel to it). The other was a larger map, with lots of side streets and a few 2 story buildings with windows. That map had a few spots with longer sight lines where sniping could be possible for a sniper with quicker reflexes. A good sniper could lock down an entire street. (I'm not a good sniper. Not that good anyway). This map, I'm not sure one weapon type is stronger than any other. It's pretty balanced.

After a night or 2 of playing all the maps, I'll tell you my real impressions. I don't dare pull out a sniper rifle until I know a map well.

Oh, and we have a good bolt-action sniper as soon as you can make your own classes again. If you liked the M40, this one is similar in feel (if not in looks). Of course, all the kiddies are running around with Barrets. Which is funny. Because FINALLY, the Barret actually slows you down! It always irked me that people were sprinting all over the place with a close to 35 pound weapon. The bolt actions give you good speed. If you want a cannon, it's going to cost you.

And in case you didn't know, since I talked about Kill Confirmed. KC is a play type where your team ONLY scores points if you recover your enemies' dog tags (which drop after they die). If you recover your own teammates tags, they don't get any points for the kill. I had my first kill streak after watching 2 teammates go down, then ambushing guys coming in to pick up the tags. Of course, then I got greedy, ran to get theirs, and got whacked myself.

 

Holy Crap...FedEx just pulled up and my wonderful, evil, and devilishly sweet wife surprised me with MW3 from Amazon. I don't think I even said I wanted it. Looks like I'm playing tonight.

 

Hehehe. Have fun. I have to go to work in an hour.

I probably play too late for you during the week, but let's hook up this weekend if you can stomach playing after midnight.

 

Ha, finally. Used to drive me nuts seeing kids sprinting around with a huge barret on their back...faster than me with a revolver/knife combo. The dog tag rewards sounds cool. I can already see how that'll make for some easier killstreaks.

Oh I don't know, it depends on the day but 11-12:30 or 1:00 is in my time range, unless I'm really into it.

 

Finished the campaign. Awesome! Captain Price is the man! He's a bad motha (shut yo mouth)... I'm just talkin' about Capt. Price.

I'm going to spoil the end for you...

Kinda

[spoiler:293qwsdz]Captain Price smokes a cigar.[/spoiler:293qwsdz]

I was well satisfied with the campaign, short as it may be. It had some nice call backs to the first 2 games.

Now on to Live, so the teenagers can rip me to shreds.

 

So, I played through the first level of the campaign last night, and a couple maps online. Gotta say, I'm diggin' it. The new hybrid sites are pretty sweet. The online play seems like a mix of MW2 and Black Ops to me. I like it. I played an urban map as a sniper for a couple rounds and while there were many sniping locations, I wouldn't want to use the Barret for a long time. Boy, you weren't kidding about that slowing you down. That, and I forgot that you can't be an effective sniper out of the box. It'll be quite a while before I try that again. I was too skirred to read your spoiler...

 

Hehe. The spoiler is innocuous. It's true, but a joke and gives nothing away.

Sniper rifles also get hybrid sights (you can switch to red dot). At least they do in the campaign. That.. could be a problem in multi-player. Too many kids running around trying for 720 no-scopes as it is.

I never played Black Ops. One criticism I have with MW3 is the spawn system is HORRIBLE. I mean, it was bad in CoD4 and MW2, but it has reached an all-time low. I spawned, took 2 steps, and had 3 enemies spawn right behind me. And spawn camping is already happening. It shouldn't be that easy.

I've still seen only 4-5 maps though.

 

Nice.
Well, I hope the respawning isn't like that for all maps. Otherwise, an update is in order soon.

 

Played some more last night on-line. The teenagers were destroying me all night.

But the HBS users... they just make me want to do this:

 

Now, last night, it started to click. I went positive in every match but one. I'm never going to be a beast in this game, but I can live with that. All I ask is to be my version of competitive, and last night I was. Maybe I just got thrown in with a bunch of bad players, but I'll take it.

Come on guys, it can't just be TTF and me. Who else is out there?