I've had the good fortune of experiencing all three of the home console versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It's the benefit of having multiple tech-minded friends over for a short midnight launch party. The retail US price for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions are $59.99 while the Wii version is priced at $49.99. Like last year's Black Ops, all three versions are available on the same day.
Now, I'm not a professional reviewer but, thankfully, I have the same qualifications, spelling, and grammatical capacity as most reviewers in the field: none. So, with that, I'll give you my take on one of the year's biggest multi-platform games.
I'm only going to cover the single-player experience of the first three game levels. Yes, I know the perceived viewpoint from most reviewers is to dismiss the single player campaign as simple filler and write about the online multi-player experience. But I'm don't particularly enjoy online gaming in a player-vs-player setting. And, quite frankly, well over half of customers that purchase Modern Warfare 3 will never play the online portion of the game. The actual percentages vary from platform to platform, of course, but it's a staggering number of people. To dismiss the majority of the playerbase's only experience is a bit perplexing and I don't know why we tow the publisher's and developer's line that the true experience should only regard the multiplayer portion.
Since this is mainly a comparison article, I'm not really going to review the content itself. If you'd like my impression of whether or not the game is fun, I'll have to save that for another day when I can finish the campaign and give it a fair review.
Graphically, both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Modern Warfare 3 are very close featuring higher texture and polygon quality upscaled to mid/high-HD resolutions while the Wii version runs in low-HD. As always, I hesitate to call the Xbox and PS3 versions "High Definition" because they are, technically, not high definition games. Their native resolutions are sub-HD but they are upscaled by the system's hardware. It would be like calling an upscaled-DVD "high definition".
The Xbox version runs at the highest native resolution, followed closely by the PS3, and then the Wii. This follows the same pattern we saw from last year's Black Ops. Because of this, the Xbox version appears the cleanest and also benefits from higher gamma levels. The PS3 version appears slightly softer and the dark colors are just a bit more dark. The Wii version's default gamma is the darkest so I would suggest adjusting your television settings. The Xbox and PS3 versions run at 60 fps with the occasional screen resolution changes while the Wii version runs at 30 fps with some dropped frames. If you're wondering which is the "best" image between all three then the Xbox version comes out slighlty ahead of the other versions.
The game's audio is presented in Dolby 5.1 for the Xbox, up to 7.1 PCM for the PS3, and Dolby ProLic IIx for the Wii. All three versions sound quite fantastic and the rear channels are aggressively used throughout the game. Here, the "best" sound quality goes to the PS3 since it supports higher fidelity.
And now on to the most important part of this comparison: the control. All three versions share the same game script and feature the same levels. Yes, even the Wii version. Call of Duty is known for it's large set pieces and scripted checkpoint events so you won't be disappointed if you have been following the series from year to year. Due to the nature of the systems, the Xbox version features slightly faster response from it's controller with the PS3 version lagging a few nano-seconds behind. The dead zone is just a little larger in the PS3 version so that explains why it feels a little different. The Wii version, of course, uses a completely different control scheme and will be very comfortable to those that played Black Ops on the Wii, although you do have the option to use a Classic Controller. The PS3 version does not have Move compatibility which is a real shame considering how it enhanced both Killzone 3 and Resistance 3. The Xbox version does not feature any Kinect functionality, either. In the end, because of the pointer and motion functionality, the Wii features the "best" control.
Now, I know there are a number of whinecore gamers out there that are going to shout from their couches about my opinion regarding control. But, once you've gotten used to the pointer and motion controls it's very hard to go back to the cro-magnon days of analog sticks. The responsiveness is only bested by a keyboard and mouse interface but that isn't possible on any console version.
So, that's my brief synopsis of my experience with all three home console versions of Modern Warfare 3. Graphically, the Xbox 360 leads. The PS3 leads in audio. And, the Wii leads in control. I'd recommend a purchase of any version, quite frankly. It's quite a fun ride so far but I haven't finished the game so my opinion might change drastically in the next few days.
