Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been officially unveiled and here’s you first look at it.

Unlike past Treyarch-developed CoD games, it looks like Black Ops 2 will take place in the future in the year 2025 as mechs, quadrotor attack drones and hover jets are shown in the trailer. Additionally, there’s a glimpse of Los Angeles and horse-riding as well, and the trailer is narrated by an elderly man named Frank Woods who is presumably the main character from Black Ops 1.

Black Ops 2 will be released on Nov. 13 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. As a person who was getting a bit jaded with the CoD series, I have to say that this trailer made me wet myself and definitely has me psyched for Black Ops 2.

While everyone’s having fun at PAX East except for me [insert sad face], I decided to kill some time tonight by playing the very fun Gotham City Imposters, and lo and behold, I managed to spot a player that was level 1,000 (which I’m assuming is the max level in the game).

GCI came out around two months ago, and while that’s like 9,999 years for hardcore gamers, it’s still always staggeringly impressive that there are people out there have that much time and dedication on their hands. If you’re wondering what it takes to get to level 1,000 in GCI, it’s basically equivalent to prestiging 10 times in Call of Duty, and this is the first time that I’ve seen a level 1,000 GCI player. Heck, I didn’t even know there was 1,000 freakin’ levels in GCI until now!

Wait, don’t leave!

As horribly bad and stupid as this concept sounds — and boy does it sound like a “We’ve ran out of ideas for a Batman game” kind of game — GCI is actually not as bad as you think; it’s actually quite the opposite.

Developed by Monolith Productions for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC, GCI is a downloadable six versus six multiplayer game that pits the “Bats” (good guys) and the “Jokerz” (bad guys) against each other in what can be described as a comical Batman-themed Call of Duty.

Like CoD, there’s a leveling-up system as well as a variety of customization options, unlockables, rewards, special abilities, and weapons and equipment. Because you’re not playing as famous superheroes and villains like Batman or The Joker, this means weapons and gadgets that some established Batman characters wouldn’t normally utilize are at your disposal. For starters, there are military weapons like assault rifles, submachine guns and sniper rifles, as well as weapon attachments like Penetrator Ammo (which can penetrate Body Armor, as well as thin walls/objects), Muzzle Break (which increases weapon accuracy even when moving and firing) and Body Odor Sniffer (which reveals enemy positions via wavy yellow lines).

Some of the more delightfully over-the-top items include a Grappling Hook (which can be used to pull yourself up to high places, even at great distances), Glider (which lets you glide around in the air and perform Dive Bomb attacks), Trap-in-the-box (which is a proximity-based Jack-in-the-box mine that explodes in a wide area), Rollerskates (which makes you move faster), Boomerang (which can hit and stun multiple targets), Spring Boots (which lets you bounce high and perform Stomp Attacks), and the Motivator (which is a megaphone that heals teammates and grants resistance damage buff with “words of encouragement”).

Overall, the weapons and gadgets/items are fun to use and the more over-the-top items help make GCI a blast to play, though, there should be more over-the-top weapons like the Deep Freezer (which is a gun in the game that freezes enemies; unfortunately, though, it sucks) and Bombardier (which is a slingshot that uses small bottles of nitro explosives as ammo).

The gameplay itself is similar to CoD, but it’s also like Halo in terms of how it takes more time and ammo to kill someone (whereas in CoD, it only takes like three shots to kill). Also, the aiming is looser than CoD and it can get a bit confusing discerning foe from friend, but you quickly learn to adjust.

When playing, you’ll earn points/experience points for things like killing enemies, getting headshot kills, performing multi-kills, and even just dealing damage without killing anyone. You’ll also earn XP, among other things, for completing in-game challenges like killing X number of enemies with X weapon. Additionally, you’ll acquire coins to unlock costume items, and you’ll earn awards for accomplishing feats like getting the fewest deaths, killing enemies while roller-skating, and hitting multiple enemies with a single boomerang.

There’s a surprising amount of customization options and unlockables in GCI. You can unlock weapon colors (e.g, a Riddler-theme with green coloring and question marks) and CoD-style player identifiers like picture cards (e.g., a skeleton wearing a top hat, a red two-headed squirrel holding a cupcake), emblems (e.g., a heart with an arrow through it, a blue cartoony cat head), and text-based catchphrases  (e.g., “Go sit in your hole!”, “Do these tights make me look fat?”).

As for the characters themselves, you can customize your cowl/hair, face paint, superhero logo, cape, torso, hands, legs, and feet. Some of the sillier costume items include a cardboard mask, tights, purple leopard underwear, kilt, bunny slippers, spiky hair/Mohawk, and clown make-up with hearts/cat whiskers. You can even change your face type (e.g, bearded, snarling) and character voices (e.g., sassy, crass) as well.

Interestingly, your character’s appearance will change depending on what body type you choose (more on that below), and you can use Microsoft Points to purchase costume items, player cards, temporary buffs (e.g., double XP), and small cosmetic-only companion characters who follow you around (e.g., cartoony Catwoman, Harley Quinn). In general, the prices roughly range from 40 to 240 MSPs, but things like costume items can be unlocked by playing the game naturally.

The rewards and customization options helps make GCI a more rewarding and addictive experience. When you reach certain character levels, you’ll acquire unlock tokens to unlock pretty much everything in the game, from weapons to special abilities. The kicker here is that you’ll only obtain unlock tokens for a specific category of things, so if you want to unlock a weapon, you’ll need to earn an unlock token specifically for weapons. This may seem surprisingly harsh, but thankfully, it’s relatively easy to level up, assuming you can score a decent amount of points in a match.

Apparently, there are over 100 character levels in the game and for every 100 levels you’ll earn a  “Promotion,” which, from the sound of it, is basically CoD’s “Prestige” mode. According to the game’s description, Promotion resets your “loadout items” and certain accolades, but you’ll earn more XP.

When creating your character/loadout, you’ll be able to select various special abilities, which fall under three categories: “Fun Facts,” “Rampage” and “Psych Profile.” Fun Facts is essentially CoD “Perks” where you choose enhancements that provide things like more health and faster healing, extra bullet damage, and less damage and side-effects from Boomerangs, Dive Bombs and Stomp Attacks.

Meanwhile, Rampage lets you activate temporary buffs like double damage and faster speed depending on if you score a certain number of points without dying or die a certain number of times in a row during a single match. Overall, it’s great that Rampage abilities give you that extra oomph, but it should be noted that the Rampage system might to be broken, since most of the time I wasn’t able to acquire score-based abilities when exceeding the score requirement and equipping the respective Rampage ability. Also, it would have been nice if there were more variety in the abilities instead of each one repeating and requiring different methods to obtain.

Finally, there’s “Psych Profile” passive abilities, which reward you bonuses or penalties depending on what actions you perform during a match. For instance, the “Codependent” Psych ability will let you earn more XP if you perform “team actions,” while “solo actions” will penalize you. The Psych abilities in general are neat additions, however, the risk might be too severe than the reward, so the abilities are not as enticing as they should be.

Interestingly, you also have the ability to choose different body types, which affect gameplay. So, for instance, choosing a smaller, skinnier physique means you are faster than normal and harder to hit but have reduced health and melee attacks. On the other hand, selecting a bigger, burlier build means you have increased health and stronger melee attacks, but are slower and easier to hit.

All of these things combined — the weapons, attachments, gadgets/items, special abilities, and body types – allow for wonderfully various play styles, which feels more predominant than CoD. It’s fun playing with different loadouts, and playing the game itself is an arcade-y, points-popping good time, whether you’re playing as a lone wolf like in CoD or are a team player like in Battlefield 3. Also, you’re never too far away from the action — which seems suffiecient despite the game’s 12 player limit — thanks to the not-too-small, not-too-large maps.

There are a total of five maps including Crime Alley (which is a small section of a city), Ace Chemical (which has a chemical plant setting), Amusement Mile (which is an amusement park), Docks (self-explanatory), and Gotham Power (which has a power plant setting). All of them include indoor and outdoor areas, as well as environmental objects (i.e., ramps, vents and trampolines) that can be used to your advantage defensively or offensively. For instance, trampolines can be used to bounce to rooftops to make a quick getaway, or can be used as a sort of shoot-and-cover technique as you constantly jump-and-shoot, say, a rooftop full of enemies that may be too numerous and deadly to deal with toe-to-toe. If you have Rollerskates equipped, you can use ramps to blast away at high speed or use ramps to chase after a player/objective. Meanwhile, you can use the Glider to take advantage of air-blowing vents to fly away or perform Dive Bomb attacks on unsuspecting players below.

The environmental objects, as well as gadgets like the Glider and Grappling Hook, refreshingly add verticality to GCI’s gameplay that makes playing more interesting and strategic. The objects themselves are well-placed and are a big part of gameplay, as are the health and ammo-restoring boxes conveniently scattered around levels. Your health and secondary items (e.g., grenades, hatchets, deployable motion sensor) even regenerate over time, and the quick respawns appreciatively help keep you in the action. Occasionally, “Prize Packages” will randomly drop down in a level that grants you temporary buffs like extra speed or armor, assuming you’re the one who opened the package.

When playing you’ll be facing off against an enemy team in either three game modes: Team Deathmatch, Fumigation and Psych Warfare. Team Deathmatch is your typical kill-for-points affair, while Fumigation is basically a capture-and-defend mode where both teams have to activate and defend “Gasblaster” machines long enough to win. When the Bats team successfully hold down enough Gasblasters for a certain amount of time, a swarm of death-dealing bats will be summoned and kill the opposing team, while the Jokerz will release a deadly gas if they capture enough Gasblasters themselves.

Meanwhile, Psych Warfare is a retrieve-and-capture mode that’s a lot more team-oriented than the other modes. Here, the goal is to grab a battery and attach it to the enemy team’s brainwashing machine. Once the machine is activated and defended long enough from attackers, your team will score a point, and the team with the most points at the end of the match wins. The twist, though, is that if your team fails to detach a battery from their own machine in time, your entire team will suffer a temporary psychedelic effect that prevents weapon usage. What’s funny is that a voice will say demoralizing things to you as this is happening.

The Psych Warfare and Fumigation modes are nice, amusing twists to the standard capture-and-defend and capture-and-retrieve modes seen in other FPSs. Unfortunately, though, there’s no Free-For-All mode, which is disappointing since it would have been a blast having 12 players battle each other.

Despite the absence of Free-for-All, there’s another mode called Challenges, which involves completing several solo challenges in time to earn medals. There are three difficulty settings, and some challenges include collecting orbs solely with gadgets or collecting orbs and shooting dummy targets with both gadgets and weapons. Your skills and abilities will be tested, and if you mess up a challenge you can quickly restart a level and try again. Being able to quickly retry a challenge was important since you won’t feel the need to quit as easily. Plus, not only do the single-player challenges let you earn a little extra XP, but they help familiarize yourself with the layout of the game’s multiplayer maps as well.

Depending on what “home turf” you’re playing on, you’ll be randomly invited to join one of the game’s five gangs to increase your “Reputation Points” and, thus, earn rewards. What rewards or benefits you gain exactly is unclear (this was even the case when I was able to increase my Reputation from zero to three, which took a long time). Besides being able to see where your gang ranks via an in-game map/statistics page, the gang feature doesn’t really seem to add anything special (yet), nor does it detract anything; it’s simply just there.

First-person shooters are hugely popular these days and the Call of Duty series is currently the king of FPSs. Other shooters try to copy the CoD formula, but they have never been able to dethrone the king.

Previous CoDs including Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops have each earned a whopping $1 billion in sales, and with both titles touted as the biggest entertainment launches in history, the next CoD, Modern Warfare 3, has much to live up to. This is especially true with whole MW 3 vs. Battlefield 3 war that raged the last few months, as well as the Infinity Ward departures in 2010 that saw the IW founders/CoD creators fired, resulting in some staffers quitting.

So with that last bit in mind, Sledgehammer Games helped IW develop MW 3, which is a direct sequel to MW 2. In the threequel, Russia invades the U.S. and Europe resulting in World War III, and the main antagonist this time around is Russian terrorist Vladimir Makarov (you may remember him from MW 2’s infamous airport level). Like in previous CoDs, you’ll jump in the shoes of different soldiers all around the world like “Frost” from U.S. Army’s Delta Force, “Yuri” from Task Force 141 and “Burns” from U.K.’s S.A.S.. Price and Soap, the main characters from MW 1 and 2, are also back, and like the aforementioned games, there’s a bunch of set pieces packed in as well.

From the get-go, MW 3’s six or so hour single-player campaign puts you right into the action. After a few brief cutscenes and some flashbacks of the events leading up to MW 3, the game wastes little time in letting you gun down enemies. As you fight alongside A.I. teammates, who will almost always accompany you and whom you usually have to follow, you’ll play through various levels set in different parts of the world. You’ll shoot your way through 17 levels that range from a London subway, an African village, and hazardous gas-filled streets of Paris to Germany’s ruined streets and buildings, a bunker in wintery Russia, and a fortress in nighttime Czech Republic.

The variety of levels and environments are great, even if they’re linear like in previous CoDs. While there’s really only one route to take in each level, this is partly compensated with fun gameplay variety and action-packed set pieces (more on that below). So not only are there on-foot shooting levels, but there are also various gameplay sequences that let you use certain weapons and vehicles. For example, in certain sections you get to be the gunner of a chopper, tank and AC-130 aircraft; drive a raft and an underwater vehicle; call in A-10 gun run support; and remotely operate a turret-equipped UAV and unmanned ground vehicle. There’s also some stealth gameplay like a sniper level, as well as one awesome moment that let’s you basically become a “Juggernaut” as you wear heavy bullet-absorbing armor and wield a light machine gun.

All of those gameplay moments are fantastic and keep the game fun and interesting. There’s never really a dull moment since the game changes things up at a nice rate. On top of that, the overall experience is supplemented with solid, familiar controls, smooth 60 frames per second gameplay, and thrilling set pieces that you’ve come to expect from the CoD series.

From beginning to end, MW 3 is filled with that familiar high-octane action complete with explosions, bravado, gunfire, and bombast. It’s like a Michael Bay action movie, and there’s a lot of explosive set pieces thrown in for good measure including slo-mo door breaching, buildings/monuments exploding, and vehicle chase sequences. Yes, for CoD series’ veterans, you’ve already seen these before, and, thus, the awful familiarity keeps the set pieces from being truly out of this world, despite them being spectacular in nature; nevertheless, though, they’re still great eye candy and new CoD players should find them amazing. Even as someone who’s played previous CoDs, there are still a few set pieces that manage to wow and surprise. One that really stands out is an airplane level that has you shooting enemies in zero G. There’s also another moment where you have to shoot two guys in a car in slo-mo while you ram them with your vehicle. And driving a military raft on NYC’s Hudson River with jets flying above and missiles raining down causing warships to explode all around you is pretty awesome as well.

In terms of the game’s weapons, MW 3 has plenty including assault rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades. With an abundant supply of guns and ammo lying around from enemy corpses, the weapons, overall, feel satisfying to shoot. Thankfully, unlike some shooters, you usually won’t be shooting enemies far away like little ants, and any pesky foe that is at a distance or hiding behind cover can be taken out more easily thanks to a mechanic that lets you instantly and precisely aim at enemies by quickly tapping the aim trigger on the controller. This is a great feature that eases the frustration of shooting hard-to-aim enemies and every shooter should include this kind of aim-assist.

Meanwhile, the game’s story is similar to previous CoDs as it’s somewhat split into multiple paths when switching between different military teams throughout the game. For example, the U.S. Army’s Delta Force is focused on fighting the invading Russian terrorists, while Task Force 141 is primarily focused on finding and killing Makarov. At the end of the day, though, your goal is to still kill Russian terrorists regardless of what team you’re playing for, and, overall, the story seems less convoluted than MW 2’s; however, it’s still a bit hard to keep up with the story with all the heavy talking that’s done during the CG cutscenes.

During in-game moments, your NPC teammates are also a tad bit hard to hear since their voices are slightly lower than normal, even when the game’s volume is maxed out (the background noise didn’t seem to be the issue). The biggest problem with game, though, is that both the visuals and gameplay are pretty much exactly like MW 2’s. There are no noticeable graphical improvements, whatsoever, and the gameplay is just like every single non-WWII CoD game. It’s a big disappointment for sure, and the game’s copy-and-paste feeling may cause more harm than good, but, ultimately, MW 3 does become more likeable and enjoyable the more you play since the gameplay is still that same, fun action-packed experience.

There are, however, two problems that can’t be overlooked. Like from previous CoDs, the first issue is that there are seemingly unlimited enemy respawns (at least in some areas), while the second issue is the fact that your NPC teammates won’t advance forward until you advance first (i.e., you seemingly have to cross an invisible line in order for your squad to move up). On top of that, these two problems are interconnected and it seems that the enemies stop respawning once your teammates advance forward to a certain point, which, again, ultimately means you have to advance first. For a game that puts such a strong emphasis on following your teammates, it’s contradictory having to advanced forward all by yourself. What’s more, sometimes there isn’t a good opportunity to move up since enemies keep respawning.

Additionally, most of the game’s aforementioned stealth sections are cheap, contrived and way too easy. Like previous CoDs, there are parts in the game where you have to sneak around enemies, but what this really entails is simply following your teammates around who tell you what to do and when to move; most of the time you don’t even have to be aware of your surroundings to make it through part of a level undetected. While the stealth gameplay in MW 1 was the same and not a problem (since it was the first MW experience), this has quickly become predictably too artificial in subsequent CoDs, including MW 3.

Excluding the stealth missions, having to follow your teammates around instead of leading them isn’t a big issue as it might seem since the scripted, cinematic nature of the game feels cool. Plus, it helps that your teammates seem helpful and feel kick-ass to be around with.

As for MW 3’s versus multiplayer, it’s the same great, fast-paced and rewarding experience from past CoDs, except with a few additions and tweaks. First and foremost, “killstreaks” have been replaced by “pointstreaks” which let you earn killstreak rewards without actually killing anyone. So completing objectives like capturing territory/flags will count towards your killstreak reward, in addition to, of course, just good old fashion killing. Additionally, depending on which “Strike Package” you choose, your killstreak count won’t reset upon death.

The aforementioned Strike Packages groups killstreak rewards into three categories: “Assault,” “Support” and “Specialist.” Selecting Assault will give you destructive-based killstreak rewards just like in previous CoDs. Some are familiar like the Predator Missile (controllable missile), Attack Helicopter (attack helicopter that flies overhead and shoots down enemies), and AC-130 (be the gunner of turret/missile-equipped AC-130 aircraft), while news ones include Strafe Run (a row of five attack helicopters that fly across a given area shooting down enemies), Reaper (shoot laser-guided missiles via a Reaper UAV), Assault Drone (remote-controllable turret/missile-equipped ground-based drone), Juggernaut (wearable heavy bullet-absorbing armor), and Osprey Gunner (be the gunner of an Osprey aircraft while delivering care packages). Dying with the Assault package equipped will reset your killstreak count.

Meanwhile, the Support package contains more defensive-based killstreak rewards that are meant to help out your teammates. Some include Counter UAV (scrambles enemy mini-map), Advanced UAV (displays both enemy location and direction on mini-map), Ballistic Vest (deployable heavy armor that you and your teammates can pick up and wear), and Recon Drone (small, flyable remote-controllable helicopter that marks and identifies enemies). While these may sound lamer compared to what you get in the Assault package, there are thankfully more offensive-based rewards like Remote Sentry (remote-controllable turret), Stealth Bomber (stealth bomber aircraft that rains down bombs along designated path), EMP (disables all enemy electronics as well as any aircraft in the sky), and Escort Airdrop (Osprey gunship that delivers care packages while shooting enemies nearby). And, to top it off, not only can you rack up your pointstreak count by, say, capturing territory/flags, but your killstreak count won’t reset upon death. This is a fantastic, much-welcome change to the CoD series that gets rid of the utter frustration of the inability to get a killstreak reward because of the constant dying like in previous CoDs. It also helps more causal players, who may not be good at getting kills, experience killstreak rewards. The only caveat is that you’ll end up getting the aforementioned top-tiered destructive-based rewards near the end of a match since they require more kills/points than the Assault package; because of this, you may not even get a reward.

Finally, there’s the Specialist package, which is very interesting since it rewards you with additional “Perks” instead of air support or equipment. Perks, like in previous CoDs, are enhancements/special abilities that can be equipped to your character. Some, which offer even more abilities in their upgraded “Pro” versions, include Sleight of Hand (faster reloading; Pro version: faster weapon-swapping), Blind Eye (undectable by air support and sentries; Pro version: faster rocket launcher lock-ons and extra bullet damage against air support and sentries), Marksman (identify enemies at longer range; Pro versions: hold breath longer for steadier aim when firing scoped guns), and Hardline (decreases amount of kills you need to earn killstreak rewards by one; Pro version: every two assists count as one kill).

While you can have up to three perks by default, the Specialist package allows you to have even more perks for every two kills you get without dying. So getting six kills in a row will result in three additional perks, while getting eight straight kills will net you all, if not, almost all perks. Additionally, destroying enemy aircraft will count towards your killstreak count, which is a really nice, helpful touch, but you’ll lose all of your extra perks if you die.

Speaking of dying, “Deathstreak” perks also return which activates when you die a certain number of times in a row. Dying five times, for example, will let you temporarily see the position of the last enemy that killed you, while dying six times will let you blow yourself up with C4 when incapacitated, which hopefully kills the person that shot you down. Like the Support package, deathstreaks make MW 3’s multiplayer experience less frustrating, and are a nice way of helping out less skillful players.

In terms of MW 3’s multiplayer modes, some of the familiar ones include Free-For-All (players kill each other for points), Team Deathmatch (two teams kill each other for points), Domination (capture and hold territories), Sabotage (plant bomb in enemy’s base to win), Headquarters Pro (capture and hold base to win), Mercenary (various game types randomly selected with no parties allowed), and Search and Destroy (defend/destroy objectives with no respawning and online chat).

New game modes are also included such as Kill Confirmed and Team Defender: the former is basically deathmatch except you have to collect enemy dog tags in order for kills to actually count, while the latter requires you to hold the flag the longest to score points. These game types, as well as the “Advanced” and “Community” ones, are great, natural inclusions. Some of said Advanced game modes, which add in-game modifiers and are ideally for more experienced players, include Barebones (disables killstreaks), and Hardcore Team Deathmatch and Hardcore Domination (enables extra bullet damage and friendly fire). Meanwhile, one Community game mode seen so far is “Drop Zone” which involves players holding a drop zone in order to score points and care packages.

Most game modes allow up to eight to 12 players in a single match, with “Ground War” supporting up to 18 players for more big-scale battles. There are 16 maps in MW 3 and the size of most feel just right. They’re not too big and not too small, and you won’t have to run very long to get to the action. With that in mind, thankfully, there aren’t many places to camp (i.e., hide and kill people in a “safe” spot) for very long before you’re found, especially with the instant respawns and handy “kill cams” (upon death you get to see a short replay video of where an enemy killed you through his/her eyes). That doesn’t mean you won’t die, though, whether it be from campers or enemies that are prone. The latter can be annoying since it’s hard to see players lying down, especially in the shadows or at a distance.

Like in any multiplayer game, MW 3’s multiplayer can be brutal at times, but what will keep you playing is the bevy amount of customization options and unlockables. When creating a character, you can choose from a variety of primary and secondary weapons including assault rifles, submachine guns, light-machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, riot shield, handguns, machine pistols (can dual-wield), and rocket/grenade launchers. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages (for example, submachine guns are better for close-quarter combat than long-ranged combat), and weapons can be leveled-up the more you use them. At certain levels, various weapon enhancements and attachments can be unlocked like reduced recoil, increased range, red dot sight, rapid fire (increase fire rate), silencer (gunfire prevents you from appearing on mini-map), extended mags (increased ammo capacity), and thermal scope (enemies appear as white heat signatures through a scope). You can even change weapon color and reticules ala Black Ops.

In addition to an assortment of weapons and add-ons, MW 3 also has various types of equipment and explosives, both old and new, including semtex (sticky throwable explosive), throwing knife, bouncing betty (land mine that shoots up in the air and explodes), concussion grenade (slows and disorientates enemies), scrambler (disables enemy radar based on proximity), EMP grenade (disables enemy electronics), and “trophy system” (turret-based device that shoots down enemy projectiles like grenades).

The variety of weapons and equipment are great, but what makes the multiplayer really shine is the player progression system. It’s very rewarding leveling-up and gaining experience points as you earn new ranks, weapons, attachments, perks, accolades, emblems, and player titles (or ”Callsigns”). You can also accomplish in-game “Challenges” that include things like killing “X” number of enemies with “X” weapon to earn experience points. The highest level you can reach in the game is 80, and, like in past CoDs, you can enter “Prestige” mode multiple times once you hit the level cap. When this is done, you have the option to reset your character back to level one, which will make you unlock everything all over again. Aside from doing this just for bragging rights, this time around you’ll earn “prestige tokens” that unlock rewards like double experience points for your character/weapons, extra custom class slot, and more titles and emblems.

MW 3’s versus multiplayer offers a very rewarding and addictive experience with high replay value. Even as someone who was planning to stop playing after accomplishing personal goals, I ended up coming back for more, regardless. One of the only minor gripes is that nearly everything from the start is locked out including, but not limited to, game modes and even the ability to create a character. It’s understandable to lock out certain things like weapons early on, but it was off-putting to see how many things I couldn’t access until I reached a certain level. At least, though, it’s pretty quick to unlock said things, and, thankfully, there are pretty solid pre-selected character loadouts that are available from the start, so it somewhat negates the feeling of being held out on.

Aside from MW 3’s versus multiplayer, there are also “Special Operation” co-op modes including “Missions” and “Survival.” In Missions, you can tackle various mini-missions either by yourself or online/split-screen with another player. There are a total of 16 missions and they range from rescuing embassy staff being held for ransom to capturing the Russian president while playing as a terrorist on a hijacked plane. Other missions include clearing out a Russian submarine and defusing a bomb, and collecting samples of nerve agent gas in Juggernaut suits while equipped with light machine guns.

The coolest missions, though, are the ones that put a real emphasis on co-op instead of simply having two players running and gunning side-by-side. For example, one mission starts off with you and your partner in the same chopper shooting down enemies in a town below. But then, at some point, one of you has to go on foot through the enemy-infested town, while the other player provides gunfire support from a chopper above. There’s also another similar mission where one player has to work their way through a level while the other player shoots enemies through the eyes of turret-equipped surveillance cameras.

As you can imagine, these levels, and more, are much more fun when played with another player since they feel designed for two people. For instance, in co-op teammates can revive each other when incapacitated, but in solo play there’s no revive option or even an incapacitation mechanic. If you do manage to die, you’ll have to restart an entire mission all over again since there are no checkpoints (even if there’s two people and just one of you dies, you’ll have to redo an entire mission anyway). This can seem harsh and stupid, but thankfully missions are pretty short and you can memorize enemy patterns to help get through a level more easily (for example, “X” number of enemies will always appear in “X” location).

The missions, overall, are great additions to the single-player campaign and versus multiplayer. They provide a good mix-up of gameplay, and it’s great how completing missions lets you level up, earn ranks, and unlock weapons and gear for “Survival” mode.

Survival mode is new to MW 3, which pits you against waves of enemies like bomb squads, attack dogs, attack choppers, and Juggernauts. The goal is to survive as long as possible and up to two players can play either locally or online. To help you survive the onslaught, weapons, equipment, perks and killstreaks rewards can be purchased with money that you earn from killing enemies. Some of the things you can buy once you’ve unlocked them via your character level include guns, grenades, weapon sights/scopes, bullet-absorbing body armor, sentry gun, self-revive ability, predator missile air strike, extreme conditioning perk (sprint longer distances), and coolest of all, Delta Squad and Delta Shield Squad air support in which weapon-equipped NPCs drop in via choppers to lend a helping hand. It’s these inclusions that make Survival mode, which has been done to death before in other games, more interesting.

Overall, MW 3 is a fun, great and polished game with solid gameplay and a good amount of content. The single-player provides a top-notch action movie experience, while the multiplayer offers addictive, rewarding gameplay that will keep you coming back for more. The biggest problem with MW 3, though, is that it’s too similar to previous CoDs. From the graphics to the gameplay, it’s disappointing how little has changed and the “been there, done that” feeling definitely drags the game down. But, ultimately, it’s not enough of a reason to skip the game, and with the little additions and tweaks done here and there, MW 3 is still worth picking up and playing. Let’s just hope, though, that the next CoD really changes things up.

Videos of improbable (and spectacular) throwing-knife kills in Call of Duty games are more common these days like car/hair removal commercials starring Jennifer Lopez.

But unlike those annoying commercials (ENOUGH already!), they’re still pretty awesome to watch, and this one from Modern Warfare 3 is a must-watch. What makes this knife kill stand out from typical ones that involve ricocheting off the ground/wall/rooftop is that this knife kill involves ricocheting off of a helicopter multiple times before finally dropping on a player below.

See for yourself, and remember to always look up.

Once in a Lifetime Throwing Knife Kill – Modern Warfare 3 [YouTube, via Kotaku]

Here’s a colorful look at Syndicate’s four-player co-op in action showing off a mission titled “New England.” According to the video’s YouTube description, there will be nine different co-op missions in the game.

Syndicate Co-op Gameplay Video (HD) – “New England” [YouTube, via VG 24/7]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may only be out in two days, but for those that can’t wait for the release of Activision’s next installment of its blockbuster military shooter, here’s a look at how you’ll apparently be diving into the single-player action for MW 3.

For those that don’t mind spoilers, enjoy. For the rest, though, just close your eyes and hold your breath until Tuesday (i.e., just two more days!).

(SPOILER)Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Singleplayer Playthrough Part 1 HD [YouTube, via CVG]

Although the quality of this video isn’t the best one you can check out this leaked gameplay of  Postal 3 that looks promising. In case you didn’t know Postal is a series of third person shooter games developed by Running With Scissors out of Arizona and  as of now there isn’t much information on a  release date of the game, but most likely in 2011. Postal 3 will be available on PS3, XBOX 360, Windows PC, and Linux so keep checking with us as we will have more updates. For now check the video below.