CALL OF DUTY 3 REVIEW PC

It's entirely possible to fail almost instantly here, but even once you're reunited the difficulty remains high. You and your partner are separated at the start as one player is being held at gunpoint with other hostages and the other is on the way to save them. Set in and around the temple and streets from the Persona Non Grata campaign level, it offers a ferociously tough challenge right from the beginning, even on regular difficulty. Negotiator, the second Spec Ops mission, is much more interesting. It's a short and sweet mission, one you'll turn to for simple thrills rather than any deeper challenge, but as a way of playing to Modern Warfare's strengths - and reintroducing snowmobiles - it gets the job done in muscular style. Breach the mine, and it's a quick jaunt inside to trigger a self-destruct sequence, then fight your way back out to the waiting helicopter for extraction. Stay ahead of the pack, shoot as many as you can, and you'll reach the mine entrance where a brief stand-off takes place. It's also possible to fail this section without really knowing why, as the game bases your success on some fairly woolly criteria. There are ramps to jump over and concrete pipes to thunder through, so this is all about blockbuster bombast rather than any real strategy. One player steers and occasionally pops off shots over the handlebars the other rides at the back, shooting at your pursuers. Black Ice opens with a typical bit of CoD vajazzle as you hurtle through an icy mine approach on a snowmobile. Let's start with the Spec Ops missions, both of which repurpose locations from the single-player campaign for co-operative play. Snowmobiles - they're the dropships of the 21st century, dontcha know. It may not sound that much more stuffed than the usual map pack, especially with a 1200 Microsoft Points price tag attached, but there's considerable value for money on offer here. 'The biggest content pack for any Call of Duty game ever,' boasts the dashboard advert, so what exactly constitutes such a generous feast? Four multiplayer maps and two new Spec Ops missions, is the answer.

CALL OF DUTY 3 REVIEW PC

Yet despite its desperately unassuming title, Modern Warfare 3's first widely available map pack - now open to all Xbox Live gamers, after being quietly slipped to Elite subscribers earlier, and coming to PS3 and PC soon - still gets the pulse racing.

The players expect - nay, demand - a little more sizzle in their presentation, something to get their blood pumping, something that sounds like it belongs on Ross Kemp's Ultimate Force. Content Collection 1 is what it's called on an internal spreadsheet for the accountants. Collection 1? What sort of name is that? Come on, Call of Duty, you can do better than this.

Call of duty 3 review