Call of Duty 3 Impressions for the Wii
Hey, that rhymes.
I picked up Call of Duty 3 for the Wii the other week for $50 and last night I spent my first couple of hours playing it. I'll say now, Call of Duty 3 is one these games where you have to say, "just because you can doesn't mean you should."
At first the FPS controls felt pretty awkward. This is perhaps because I've been playing Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. But after all the complaints I've read about FPS's on the Wii, I was surprised to see the sensitivity between aiming and turning could be scaled to suit anyones preferences. At first I bumped the sensitivity down so I could aim more easily without turning, but as I progressed through the game I periodically upped the sensitivity and now I'm near the max. So it didn't take long to get used to. I can tell I'm going to hate going back to play RE4 again where aiming doesn't turn your camera.
You can also press A on the Wiimote to look down the sight of the gun. This makes the Wiimote more accurate and tightens the spread of bullets. You soon press A before firing off every shot. The only time you won't is during those surprise encounters where accuracy isn't as important as shooting quickly.
Having never played a Call of Duty game before, I'm having a blast. But unfortunately it's not all great thanks to the implementation of gestures. To change weapons you swing the nun-chuck to the left or right. This doesn't work bad, but at one point I had to plant some explosives which involved some unnecessary gesture work. Push the Wiimote forward to insert the charge. Swish the nun-chuck in a circle motion to screw it in. Pull the nun-chuck back to pull the pin on the charge. It's just stupid and clumsy and I found myself yanking the controllers in all directions to get the game to respond to my movement.
Steering vehicles is also poorly implemented. You are mean to hold the Wiimote and nun-chuck in each hand vertically and pretend you are hold each side of a steering wheel. You then turn them around an imaginary axis to steer. Again, it felt clumsy and eventually I gave up on the method and instead ignored the nun-chuck and just held the Wiimote vertically and tilted it from side to side like a joystick which seemed to work fine.
I think this game also reveals how poorly the Wiimote is designed for games that need to use more than 2 buttons. Left and right on D-pad are used to throw grenades but I can't reach them properly with my thumb whilst maintaining my aim so I have to use my other hand to press the buttons. Same when you change to Binoculars which is assigned to 2. It's impossible to reach with the same hand without loosing your aim.
Visually I don't think the game looks too bad. But at the point in the game I'm at now the slowdown is so bad I've died about 5 times in the exact same spot because I simply cannot aim. My aim sticks and jumps about as I try to correct it, almost like there's an issue with the Wii sensor bar. And it does it at the exact same spot every time. Fortunately I found another path through the level where the game doesn't slow down but it's far more dangerous.
Despite my criticisms and the obvious issues with the game, I highly recommend it as a $50 purchase. It's a lot of fun. But with the clumsy controls and frame rate issue I don't think it's polished enough to pay full retail price for.
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Comments
2. Billy says…
I'm glad it's not just the copy I'm playing that has this terrible slow-down issue. When things get really heated (battle-wise) it's almost as though the Wii just can't cope with the workload. As the reviewer says, your character begins to swing and turn, and pitch and freeze - making it impossible to aim or control where you're going. Infuritaing!
Posted on Tue 25 Dec, 2007
3. Phil says…
i found the same problem in my copy with the aiming sticking in the same place in the game each time! thank god it isnt just my copy!
Posted on Tue 19 Aug, 2008
4. Russ says…
how do you beat the board, where you have use the motar to clear the way for the allies? on my copy, i clear the roadblock and nothing happens i just keep blasting away and still nothing?
Posted on Sun 22 Feb, 2009
5. Gavin says…
I played Call of Duty 3 on Wii. I was doing fine, getting over the fact that it ignores your controls in the midst of heated battle (which is annoying as often the last movement registered is forward and next thing you are running into a group of Nazis and die). Eventually, while driving the jeep it completely got stuck. I mean this game was first released at the end of 2006. My Wii was bought a year later so would/should have been adequate memory-wise. Like any basic software release it should have been tested properly, which clearly it wasn't and I think this is an absolute disgrace! Infuriated during one of the many increasingly lengthening freezes I ejected the disc and threw it in the thrash. I am going to complain to the makers (though I expect little satisfaction).
Posted on Sat 1 Aug, 2009
6. Matt says…
Same here with all of the above problems. I also had a problem in the early stages when you are on the tank spotting targets with binoculars and wyhen i was meant to get off the army tank i could not get off the binocular scope
CRAP
Posted on Tue 29 Sep, 2009
7. Henkka says…
Same problem. So far in entering two particular spots in the game make my controllers freeze so bad that the game is unplayable. And the part where you use the gun mounted on a jeep was twitching so bad that I passed it with pure luck on the 15th try since I couldn't aim the damned thing at one frame per second or worse. Controlling the MG42s at the bridges was similar blur but at least it shoots so many bullets that you could just spray and pray and it killed all enemies.
Tried Wii update but no help and now googling I found that this apparently is a 'feature' we're stuck with and not a fixed problem even though the game's been out for years. What a shame, the game was otherwise rather nice even with the outdated graphix and respawning (!!!) nazis and the general "what just happened and what am I supposed to do" -feeling present at all times - actually that might be realism, that's what it must have been like in the real WW2...
Also the Hama Controller & Controller Pro are useless with this game since most shots you want to aim holding A and you run out of hands to use so I played with regular remote&nunchuck.
Posted on Thu 29 Oct, 2009
8. Anonymous says…
Same here with all of the above problems. I also had a problem in the early stages when you are on the tank spotting targets with binoculars and wyhen i was meant to get off the army tank i could not get off the binocular scope free online games
Posted on Tue 12 Jan, 2010
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1. Craig says…
You have to get Call of Duty 1/2 for the PC. They are absolutely awesome and probably just about my fav FPS shooters on the PC, and there are plenty to pick from there!!!
Was watching previews of 4 the other day. It looks unreal as well, its now set in modern combat, rather than WW2.
Posted on Fri 27 Jul, 2007