Call of Duty 2 is a fairly intense game that's one of the Xbox 360's best titles, but it's also a pretty standard FPS that lacks revolutionary features. It's good, no question, but aside from its visuals it's no different than the previous Call of Duty games that have come before it. But its successor, the aptly titled Call of Duty 3, will probably be the first break-out game of the series, primarily because it makes better use of the more powerful hardware and includes some new gameplay features.

The previous game is good because it's a by-the-numbers FPS that lets you mow down waves of Nazis that are too stupid to assess their current situation. They just toss grenades, duck every once and a while, and blindly charge, most times to their dooms. But COD 3 supposedly contains plenty of new window dressings that should separate it from its competition. This time, instead of just running into the bullets, the enemy will work as a team and feature dynamic AI, which basically means that they can make their own decisions depending on how the battle's going, though I haven't been able to put them to the test. Furthermore, things are just a lot more intense this time around. Planes crash into buildings, things catch on fire, dust and debris are kicked up, cloth reacts like...well...cloth, certain buildings can be obliterated, grass will sway with the breeze when it's not being trampled underfoot, and the there's also soft cover, meaning that things that you choose to hide behind can be destroyed, thus leaving you open to attack. Finally, there's the Battle Action system, a feature that's essentially a bunch of mini games designed to break up the possible monotony of gunning down the same looking Nazis that have been populating videogames the past ten years. So instead of just running through the same exact sequences again and again, you'll be presented with a particularly nasty scenario and asked to mash buttons to get out of it. Case in point, if a Nazi jumps you and grabs hold of your character, you'll have to rapidly press the L and R triggers to shake him off, and then tap Y to give him the business.

All of this stuff looks great on paper, but Call of Duty 3 is still another FPS set in WWII, particularly the Normandy Breakout campaign, the mission to liberate Paris from the Nazi regime, which began on June 6, 1944 and ended August 25, 1944. You're going to experience what these actual battles were like across a 14 mission campaign, and you'll get to play as American, Polish, British, and Canadian forces. It should be a new experience in the sense that there's a lot more happening on screen, yet at the same time, things are probably going to look very familiar despite the slight bump in graphics from COD 2. However, if World War II is your thing, then consider yourself lucky.

Multiplayer is another component that features some significant improvements, chief among them the ability to play with up to 23 other people. But aside from the numbers increase, developer Treyarch has added some Battlefield elements to its game, those being the inclusion of several vehicles (a tank and motorcycle, among others), some of which allow for multiple people to catch a ride, and character classes that feature unique abilities.

Thus far, COD 3 looks good, but I can't help but yawn at the subject matter. I'm sure that the actual gameplay will be quite visceral, and I certainly enjoy seeing things get torn apart, but the last thing I want is the feeling like I've done this all before, and I think that's going to set in rather quickly. Unless the visuals have been significantly improved, and judging by the screenshots they haven't been, this game might tread into familiar territory, and if that is indeed the case, then I'm not sure that I'll be able to muster the willpower to save Paris from the ties that bind. Activision will release Call of Duty 3 this November, and GameDaily will have updated coverage in the near future.