While other games released this week managed to balance a lengthy and substantial 
singleplayer with some excellent online multiplayer, Infinity Ward and Activision again chose to throw together a singleplayer inclusion that can be finished in a single night (as I did). Luckily there’s co-op and competitive multiplayer or this review would have gone a lot differently.
When Activison sent over the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3 for review, I thought, "wow that’s a big box." When I unwrapped it, the fact of the matter is that the box is mostly empty and is just an illusion so that you feel like you’re really getting a lot of something for the cash you’re laying out.
You are getting something though, aside from the apparently non-recyclable box and plastic tray, you also get a year of Call of Duty Elite, a small special ops notebook and of course the game. Plus a cheap plastic Elite founder card, which really should have been made of metal to be honest. I mean, this is Call of Duty, this is the launch of their all-new online cash cow, the least they could have done was popped for metal Founder cards. The Steelcase that holds the game is metal, so why not the all important founder card for the new online service which, while stating it will offer 
a lot for free, requires a $50 a year subscription, on top of your Xbox LIVE subscription. Whew, it’s getting too expensive to be a gamer these days!
When I went to check out Call of Duty Elite on several occasions, the servers were so swamped that it couldn’t log me in and just gave a lame apology. This was already a week after the game had launched. Apparently, Activision didn’t bother to boost the server capacity enough. If I had paid, instead of having it sent for review by Activision, I would be quite upset. When you pay for a year, and a week goes by that you can’t access it, that’s 2% of your money wasted. They had better be giving away free time until they get that all fixed because it’s inexcusable if you ask me. They brag about how popular the game is but then can’t manage to build enough servers to handle the players that they were already expecting. Anyone see the flawed logic in all of that?
Modern Warfare 3 Single Player
The single player game in Modern Warfare 3 was short, about 5.5 hours and I was done. It was good though as I got sucked into it and played through the whole thing in a single night. At the end, I was mostly satisfied with the way the story wrapped up, the quality of the levels and the fact that I got to run around a mostly accurate representation of Prague and shoot stuff (I lived in that city for almost 6 years). That really went a long way with me.
What didn’t go a long way with me was the fact that the singleplayer was so short that I did finish it in under 6 hours. Honestly, that’s extremely short no matter how you look at it. As I mentioned at the top of the review, another game from this week came out with a massive single player and awesome multiplayer for the same price, so what’s the deal Activision? When you offer us a singleplayer, give us something of substance that is worthy of the Call of Duty franchise, which this was close to, but just not enough of it.
One thing that bothered me was the game’s incessant nagging to keep moving forward. If you are going to put some collection mechanic in the game, don’t constantly bother the player to move forward. It’s stupid and irritating.
