Itís either good or bad.
Itís pretty or ugly.
Itís fun, or itís boring.
Iím not gonna lie to you.
Sometimes, this job is that easy.
Constructing a critique of a video gameóor any form of media, for that matteróis often
a process somewhat akin to picking black from white.
Things are either positive or negative, right?
But once in a while, theyíre not.
Sometimes, the argument is a nuanced one.
And no offense to the millions who play it, but Call Of Duty doesnít really do nuance.
Thatís what makes this so interesting.
I mean, with Call Of Duty, you either pull the trigger or you donít.
In its defense, thereís no room for nuance...and yet this analysis demands it.
In fact, consider itís also a Wii gameónotorious for being dependent on nuanceóand you see
this Modern Warfare 3 is anything but black and white.
And constructing its critique?
Anything but easy.
Modern Warfare 3 made a ridiculous amount of money when it launched back in November
of 2011.
Or at least, the primary versions did...and during this generation, ìprimary versionsî
basically meant the HD versions.
The Wii version, as became the unfortunate trend, was a relative afterthought.
The era of developers giving sincere efforts to do a unique product on Wii ended long before
this one was made.
What that means is Modern Warfare 3 on Wii essentially tries to be a watered down version
of the HD game.
It has the same campaign and a lot of same modes, and in a sense, thatís an admirable
approach to bringing an HD blockbuster to the Wii.
But itís also a terribly unrealistic approach, let alone one of inherently limited potential.
You could do this perfectly, and it still wouldnít be perfect on Wii.
Thatís basically what Treyarch has done.
Part of the appeal of the Modern Warfare games is their spectacle, much of which depends
on powerful hardware.
The crazy set pieces, the impressive graphics, the intense action sequences...none of itís
going to be as powerful on Wii, even when itís done really well on Wii.
What all that means is this style just doesnít translate to this system.
As a result, Modern Warfare 3 is hampered by a dated look and lots of performance issues.
Of course, the Wii paradigm has always been gameplay over graphics, and even in 2011,
that narrative prevailed.
Modern Warfare 3 plays very well with the Wii Remote.
Playing shooters with the Wii Remote has always been a strength of the system.
The problem is that the amount of good shooters on the system has always been one of its weaknesses.
So much for black and white, huh?
In fact, arguing for the benefits of this control scheme for shooters has always been
an argument for potential rather than results...sadly, thatís also the case for Modern Warfare 3.
When I jumped online with this game, I sawówithin just one matchóall of the Wiiís strengths
and shortcomings...thrown together almost poetically by Modern Warfare 3.
Aiming is a breeze with a pointer, a flick of the nunchuk makes something as simple
as reloading feel good...oh, and thereís not a single moment of lag.
Just ask the nine people Iím playing with.
Good or bad?
Pretty or ugly?
How about both?