ON November 8 the streets of London, Paris and New York are set to erupt in pitched battles, as gunfire from some of the world's most sophisticated weapons lights up the sky.
That’s the date Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 hits the shelves, with the developers moving the fight from desert towns to the places fans know and live in.

It’s a move Infinity Ward’s creative strategist Robert Bowling hopes will help sell even more than the 11 million copies bought last time, with the promise of even bigger levels and greater scale of action.
"The war has now escalated to the point that you’re very familiar with the places in which you’re fighting," Bowling said. “We’re going to the heart of major cities that you know."

"We want to be very authentic in the military tactics that you’re using, but we also want to put you in those unreal, blockbuster moments - fighting through the Underground in London, or seeing a Russian sub come up in New York harbour - those big moments that you would never see or expect."

The game’s story itself is a payoff to the conflict started in the first Modern Warfare – a fictional Russian invasion that is military on military – with the realism coming in the tactics and weapons used.

"We’ll go out and we’ll fire them (the guns),” Bowling said. “We’ll feel how heavy they are, we’ll feel how you hold it, how you reload it, because all of that matters when you’re animating the view models, when you’re modelling the weapon."

He said it was also essential to talk to military advisors as well as crunch the statistics.

"The active duty guys are great for all the personality stuff," he said. "They might say something like: 'This is how it comes standard issue, but we take this part off because it’s heavy and you don’t need it. We wrap a sock around here because sand gets in this part'".

Bowling believes the success of the series comes from its accessibility.

"Anyone can pick it up and play, whether you’re good or bad, you can have a fun time. But it’s also deep enough that once you start getting good at it, there’s so much to learn and master."

click to enlarge ©