Anybody with even a cursory knowledge of the current generation of gaming will know of the phenomenal success of the Call of Duty series. The series, which had initially provided competition to the Medal of Honor series for the definitely not made-up award for "Most Accurate Depiction of War in the FPS Genre", exploded into the gaming stratosphere with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The game is still held up as one of the best examples of a first-person shooter done right and is recommended gaming for anybody with a 360.
The series has since gone from strength to strength, with development duties being split between a number of studios to allow for yearly entries into the series. Each one has sold in the millions and gamers are currently awaiting Modern Warfare 3, which is believed to be hitting a games store near you on November 8th.
Imagine this, only with more helicopters and a panicking gamer.
The game is so popular that an early build of the Spec Ops mode that will be included with the title has received a "phenomenal" response according to Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling. He spoke to Major League Gaming during E3, telling reporters "We've got a hands-on with Spec Ops. It has been phenomenal, the response to that. We're bringing in all our favourite features from multiplayer like matchmaking, progressive ranking, killstreaks, gear, allowing you to customise your things and people have been loving it."
The Spec Ops mode, which has also put in appearances in previous versions of the game, usually allows players to take part in some mission-based gameplay on the single player maps, outside of the campaign mode. However there will be a new twist to the concept in Modern Warfare 3, where the Spec Ops mode will feature an additional Survival mode.
The concept is that players will have to fight waves of enemies on a number of the game's multiplayer maps in an effort to survive the assault for as long as possible. Enemies will be able to attack as they do in the main campaign, with some even piloting helicopter gunships to try and gun the player down.
It all sounds very appealing and it will be interesting to see if Infinity Ward can top their previous efforts come November.
