Infinity Ward has established itself as arguably one of the best developers of intense, multiplayer battles and, when news quickly spread of the Infinity Ward and Activison breakup, fans soon became worried about their beloved Call of Duty franchise. Make no mistake, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 uses the same graphics engine and ideas that originated from the original creators of the series, but the "newly formed" Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have done a fine job continuing the franchise and building upon its established name.

While the heart of Call of Duty is truly in its multiplayer offering, the single player experience this time around is still jampacked with all of the action and intense excitement fans have come to expect. It all feels a bit familiar, but set piece moments and near death experiences still manage to keep some aspects of the single player campaign fresh. We would not be surprised, however, to find many players leaving the campaign halfway through to jump into Call of Duty's addictive multiplayer landscape of grenade kills, headshots, and the endless arrays of unlockables.

Multiplayer is the bread and butter of Call of Duty and still offers extremely fast matchmaking. Put the disc in, find a match, and you will find yourself in a game in a matter of seconds. You will still be able to level up and unlock the various weapons, perks, and killstreaks as you progress. Not only this, but weapons now level up and as your weapon level increases, weapon proficiencies like less kick, more accuracy downrange, and multiple attachments become available. It also doesn't hurt that the game offers an astounding sixteen new maps, all of which have been designed around every style of play. Gone are dedicated sniper maps. Instead, you will find yourself in maps that should appeal to all styles of play including run in gunning, tactical assault, snipers, and everything in between.

The real change has been with the way the game handles killstreaks. Instead of killstreak rewards being categorized into one list, they are separated into different lists known as "Strike Packages." These strike packages include assault, support, and specialist. The assault strike package is nearly identical to previous Call of Duty games: rack up as many kills in a row before dying to unlock killstreak rewards like UAV, Attack Helicopter, and more. The support strike package is different: even after dying, killstreak rewards still accumulate throughout the game. This gives players more opportunity and flexibility to take advantage of killstreak rewards since dying has no affect on their killstreak count. The specialist strike pacakage, on the other hand, is entirely different than the assault and support packages. Instead of earning killstreak items, players will earn perks. For every two enemies killed, a new perk is unlocked and after eight enemy kills in a row, every perk becomes available. While this may seem unbalanced at first glance, we have had no issues with the specialist strike package simply because it is extremely difficult to earn eight kills in a row in the first place. The specialist package is definitely for the hardcore.

A new mode has also been introduced to the multiplayer called "Kill Confirmed." Players must collect dog tags from downed enemies in order to secure points for their team. Additionally, players will be able to pickup dog tags from their downed team mates to prevent enemy forces from earning points. This adds an interesting twist to the multiplayer since simply killing an enemy no longer earns points. You must now take extra precautiouns to secure your enemies dog tags after you have killed them. This will encourage more team work since players tend to naturally group around these dog tags to secure points.

As you progress throughout the multiplayer mode and continue the fight in the single player campaign, you will notice that the game still looks and sounds great. Running at a solid 60 frames per second, everything from explosions to rocket propelled grenades all have a polished look to them. The graphics engine powering Call of Duty has served as a solid foundation for the series for years and still continues to awe its audience. The sound in the game still holds its own, even though it doesn't come close to games like Battlefield 3. We have, however, noticed upgrades to the sound with more reverberation to gunfire and some nice, bassy touches to each individual weapon.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 still sets itself in modern times, but does an excellent job at keeping the franchise fresh and offers plenty of challenges with many different ways to earn new weapons, perks, killstreaks, and more. And this is what makes Call of Duty so addicting: it always has something to offer at the table, begging you to come back for more.