14 DAY TRIAL // A set of recent leaks about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, including significant plot details about the single player campaign and quite a bit of information on the game modes and maps for the multiplayer side, has made it pretty clear what fans of the first-person shooter series can expect on the rumored launch date of November 8.
The big question now for developer of the game, Infinity Ward, and for the publisher Activision Blizzard is: can the game live up to expectations and become a hit as Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops?
Given the amount of copies those two games have been selling, it's hard to say that Call of Duty is beginning to look like a tired formula, but let's not forget that Guitar Hero, another Activision Blizzard property, was also selling by the boat load before the entire music genre came crashing down and left the franchise without a planned launch for the coming year.
It seems that the developer and publisher are aiming to continue to expand the scope of the franchise to keep players returning.
The Modern Warfare 3 rumors suggest a bigger single-player campaign that visits more cities and allows the player to experience more battlefield roles than before and the addition of Survival to the cooperative multiplayer.
These additions should keep long-term fans interested in Modern Warfare 3, but the problem that Call of Duty needs to face at some point in the future is that its core mechanic, the actual shooting, is beginning to show its age.
When the first Modern Warfare married the quick, easy-to-learn and execute shooting sections with faux military lingo and a vast story that leads to a huge number of firefights it was pretty revolutionary.
Now it all feels a bit stale and will feel even more so after this autumn's launch, meaning that it's about time for Infinity Ward to put their innovation cap back on and deliver something new and solid for the inevitable Modern Warfare 4.