To give a real quick disclaimer, I've been a 10th/15th prestige in every CoD since the original MW with KD's above 2.5 and WL's above 4.0. After entering my third prestige on MW3 I felt a glaring need to post some extremely obvious issues I've noticed and steps IW and future CoD devs can take towards restoring the prestige of the Call of Duty franchise.
The first and most obvious issue that we all encounter is the extreme use of Assassin/Blind Eye in MW3. While ghost was a problem in Black Ops, you could easily slap on a SR-71 and resolve the issue for a period of time without the worry of enemy forces shooting it down. To say the least, at least there was some sort of a counter measure to ghost in Black Ops. When it comes to MW3, there is nothing you can do to counter the effects of the Assassin/Blind Eye combo and at times it can become extremely frustrating, especially since 90% of the time those players also have silenced AR's with heartbeat sensors. I believe the solution to this problem is reverting back to the oh so popular formula of Call of Duty 4 by having Stopping Power and Cold Blooded in the same perk slot. In MW3, whether you like to admit it or not, everybody has Stopping Power. I've seen the weapon stats that are flooding the internet and most AR's do the same damage as the ones from cod4 used to do with Stopping Power. Allowing players to have the kill ability of stopping power along with the cover of assassin/blind eye presents a real problem in the overall multiplayer philosophy of this game. If you go back to Call of Duty 4, you will very quickly see that you have one of two options. Either use stopping power and be at a disadvantage in terms of air support and UAVs but have the advantage in terms of bullet strength, or use cold blooded and be at a disadvantage in terms of bullet strength but have the ability to play with stealth. As previously mentioned this is a distinct fundamental difference in terms of the overall multiplayer philosophy, but I feel the old saying "if its not broke dont fix it" applies extremely well here.
The second obvious issue that arises extremely often is the impact of lag compensation. While I won't spend much time on this, as I am in no way shape or form a computer programmer or game developer, I simply can just feel the game is broken whereas in previous CoD titles situational outcomes were much more predictable. For instance, if you had a 3 bar in CoD4 you knew you were going to be at a slight disadvantage when you encountered a gun battle with the host. It was really that plain and simple. I very rarely noticed this issue in the game some people liked to refer to as "lag ops," but in MW3 it seems very prevelant. There are so many times where I will get first two bullets on an opponent just to have them return fire and kill me in extremely quick fashion. I have never in my time playing any Call of Duty title even started to think about this issue. In past titles there were always the incidents where you would try and run for cover only to be gunned down when in your screen you were clearly 5 feet out of their line of sight, but on their screen in the killcam you were still sprinting trying to reach cover. While that issue was certainly annoying and unfixable, at least there was an excuse for it. Another occasion in which I see this issue arise is if I am patiently waiting for somebody to round a corner. There have been hundreds of times already in MW3 where me and my opponent know that we are on opposite sides of a wall, waiting for the other player to make their move. This is the first CoD in which being the aggressor is favored. In at least 75% of those encounters you can see on the killcam the aggressor in that situation rounding the corner, having time to dial the opponent in on their sights, and defeat them before they even have time to return fire. Again, I don't know what could be done on IWs end to resolve this issue as I am in no way a developer, I'm just pointing out that the old way clearly wasn't all that broken in terms of what we try and cope with today in MW3.
Real quickly, matchmaking is clearly broken and I really do not prefer to be locked in local search. I have always enjoyed playing with people from other countries in spite of the glaring lag issues that brings forth. There have already been many times in this game where my group of 4-6 has sat 10-20 minutes trying to find opponents. in spite of the host having a static IP with all ports forwarded. Again, while I am not a computer programmer and can in no way offer suggestions as to how to fix the problem, I would just like to point out that it is clearly broken and being locked in local search retracts from some of the accessability CoD titles have always offered.
As it is 4 a.m. here on the eastern seaboard in the United States I am about to wrap this up, but please leave comments and let me know if there are any glaring issues that I may have looked over that you are annoyed by and run into on a regular basis. If interested in what else I have to say as I progress through MW3s MP, feel free to follow me on twitter @ShaneClugh.
Lastly, I am kind of disappointed in the point streaks offered in this game. While I like the idea of strike packaged A LOT, I dislike how long it takes to get something like an Osprey Gunner. I appreciated the normal 11 kill Chopper Gunner and the amount of effort/skill it took to achieve it. I felt 11 kills for that killstreak reward was right on the money, so again, if it wasn't broke why fix it? Thanks again
