Call of Duty 3 (PS3)

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Sadly, the frame rate chugs far more than in the 360 version.

As great as the combat is, the game isn't without a few annoyances. The first is stupid AI squad mates. When you enter a building they'll often bundle in behind you, which is fine, but it's not so great when you try to retreat from a maniacal machine gunner, only to find the way to cover is blocked by said squad mates. With the screen flashing red, your escape route blocked, and panic rising, it's a sure-fire recipe for stress, and lots of it. What's worse is that at various points my character and AI characters became stuck on scenery, forcing me to restart from the previous checkpoint.

Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360 was a fine looking game, running at an almost constant 60 fps, but it was still a port of a PC game. Call of Duty 3 takes the visuals up a notch, filling the screen with more explosions, smoke, and destruction than I've seen in any other game. It's not all fancy effects either, with some truly beautiful architecture and the best forest environment to grace a video game. Some of the character animation is a little clunky, and the frame rate certainly isn't smooth (it's considerably more sluggish than the Xbox 360 game), but this is one of the most impressive looking games available for the PS3.

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I've already mentioned the incredible audio, but it's worth emphasising how much this adds to the atmosphere in the game. Some of the weapons aren't quite as booming as they are in Call of Duty 2, but the overall level of audio is just as good, with thunderous explosions, constant chatter from your squad mates and enemy soldiers, and some impressive voice work from a fairly large supporting cast. On the presentation front the in-engine cutscenes are the biggest letdown, not because they're poor, but because they seem to take an age to start, with everyone standing around waiting for something to happen.

Call of Duty 3 also has one of the best online offerings for the PlayStation 3. Up to 24 players can play online, although the ability to play online while playing in split-screen has sadly been removed - this was a great feature in the Xbox 360 version, so its absence is disappointing.

Online play is excellent although the PS3 version lacks some of the 360's features.

You get nine large maps to play on, with game modes covering all the favourites: Deathmatch (named Battle), Team Deathmatch (named Team Battle), Capture the Flag (plus a single flag variant), Headquarters (defend a base mode), and War (battling for control over spawn points). It's pretty standard stuff, but added to this are drivable vehicles (jeeps, bikes and tanks) and a class-based character system.

It's brilliantly balanced, with each class having its own strengths and weaknesses, giving everyone a real purpose while on the battlefield. Lag has also been pleasantly absent in the games I've played, but the lack of ranked matches means the game probably won't hold as much long-term appeal as the Xbox 360 version.

It would be easy to pick holes in Call of Duty 3 but, bar a few unfortunate technical problems, they really don't matter. It might be a predominantly linear path shooter, but who cares? When the atmosphere and level of action on offer is this great, the fact that I can't wander off to see what's behind a tree half a mile to the East really doesn't bother me. I can certainly live without poor WWII first-person shooters, but when they're as much fun to play as Call of Duty 3, I'd happily play them year after year.

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