The last thing I expected to be reminded of while playing the new survival mode for Modern Warfare 3 was a tower defense game. The co-op mode, which I'm told is endless, pits you against increasingly more challenging enemies that come at you in waves. As you kill enemies you earn money, which can be put toward buying new guns, refreshing your ammo, or, in true Call of Duty fashion, calling in an air strike. It's sort of like the horde mode from Gears of War meets Desktop Tower Defense.

The first wave was simple enough. A few of what looked to be mercenaries armed with shotguns flooded the map, coming in from a few different sides. With two players it was relatively easy to take them down, even though we were armed with little more than small handguns. But as the number of enemies on screen decreases, the amount of money you have in the bank increases. You can then head to an armory in between rounds to buy better gear.

The armory consists of little more than a laptop in a dilapidated building, but from it you can purchase new weapons and ammo. One of the more useful upgrades we managed to buy early on was a sentry gun that automatically mowed down any enemies that had the misfortune of walking past it. Of course, you can visit the armory any time in the game, not just in between rounds, but it's a little more difficult to buy stuff when someone is shooting you.


Modern Warfare 3 survival mode
Upgrading is a necessity, as the difficulty ratchets up rather quickly. I only played through five rounds, but during that time I saw mercenaries give way to full-fledged soldiers, who were eventually joined by vicious dogs and helicopters. In the last round I played, some of the soldiers had strapped themselves with explosives, making them especially deadly.

What's most interesting about the mode, though, is the way in which enemies spawn on the map. They don't come in from a fixed location. Instead, where they spawn depends on where you and your partner are located. So if you decide to hole up in a warehouse, enemies will start coming in through the entrances. If you're in a more open area, expect to find yourself surrounded. I could generally guess where the enemies would come flooding in, but I could never be certain, making the initial moments of each wave especially tense. It also made the placement of something like a sentry gun crucial to survival.

The Call of Duty franchise has become one that's all about spectacle, with each new game bigger and louder than the last. So it'll be interesting to see if the survival mode follows along these lines. It didn't take long before I had to take down a pair of helicopters, so what lies in wait in the later stages?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on November 8.

Tuesday....

I pre-ordered and Gamestop wants me to come in tonight and wait in line with a bunch of 10 year olds til it releases at Midnight... I'll just pick it up tomorrow after work.

Yeah same here. I'm too old for that stuff.

I went to the midnight launch of Black Ops for my first FPS midnight release. I must admit, from a people watching aspect, it was worth going. I think the best part was watching a gaggle of 10-16 year old kids making fools of themselves for quite some time. Meanwhile the Best Buy employees were discussing whether or not to tell them right away that they wouldn't be sold the game without a parent being present, or make them wait until midnight. They decided to wait until midnight to tell them. The tears and screaming were met with applause from those of us who were annoyed by them for the last hour and a half while we waited.

Dammit I didn't think to preorder, now who knows when I can get it.

Less than 4 hours...

The damage models seem to be considerably higher than previous CoD games.

Love it so far. The graphics are amazing this time around. I didn't think they could get that much better.

I'm liking multiplayer a lot more. I die so much so the new support system really makes me feel more apart(though through my 9 levels so far, I've actually not died as much as I though I would...ran into some guy who is level 56 already).

I'm liking multiplayer a lot more. I die so much so the new support system really makes me feel more apart(though through my 9 levels so far, I've actually not died as much as I though I would...ran into some guy who is level 56 already).

Mt. Dew/Doritos are running a promotion where if you turn in a code from one of their products you get 15 minutes of double experience time. According to the leaderboard for this promotion the number one person has 516 hrs and 45 minutes of double XP time (2067 product codes), number two has 501 hours (2004 product codes). I have 10.5 hours (42 product codes).

Something about this just befouls the entire computer gaming experience to me.

Something about this just befouls the entire computer gaming experience to me.