Call of Duty 3 (Xbox360)

It's hard to deny the appeal of a World War II game. You have the historical backdrop with all of its massive battles; Nazis, the ideal evildoers whom you can kill with reckless abandon, are your enemy; and, being a world war, there're plenty of diverse locations to see. With such a convincing trifecta, It's no wonder we have so many of them and why they sell so well.

Now we have Call of Duty 3, the latest World War II game from Activision to grace us with its Nazi-smashing goodness.

Germans To The East!

Call of Duty 2 was a cinematic flash grenade to the senses and was one of the best releases titles on the Xbox 360 last year, so does Call of Duty 3 really have to improve much on this formula? The answer is while the game polishes many of the minor problems that nagged its predecessor as well as expand on what it did so well, COD3 also comes with a few new problems of its own.

As though World War II games weren't already like watching a war movie, COD3 takes it up a notch and focuses distinctly on France right after D-day during the 6 brutal weeks that led to the liberation of Paris. You'll bounce between American, British, Canadian, and Polish troops, but your progress is all tied to overarching goals -- freeing the "frenchies". Call of Duty 2 was noted for not tying together a very coherent story, but COD3 definitely shows an improvement with the concentration of this important location and period during the war. Even the loading screens, masked by custcenes of strategic and historic overviews of the war effort, help make COD3 an expressive and top-notch affair.

Move! Move! Move!

The same can be said, really, for almost every element of Call of Duty 3's presentation. The graphics are still to-notch, especially with the many light sources, particle effects, and increased number of characters onscreen, all while maintaining a smooth framerate. Sound is bombastic and powerful, as any World War II game should be, and if you have surround sound, this is one game that will really take full advantage of it. Voice-acting, too, is convincing and generally very well done, though some of the lines heard during combat are repeated almost ad nauseum. The only other distraction to such an immersive environment is the apparent lack of lip-synching to much of what is said during cutscenes and in gameplay. It's obviously not a serious offense, but when you see detailed explosions going off and thick, volumetric smoke wrapping around you, it's hard to suddenly see your comrades speaking to you with puppet-mouths. Overall though, the production values are noticeably high.

Speaking of your comrades, they're an able bunch of fellows who get the job done, but they almost seem too willing at times to let you take on the whole of Germany's armed forces by yourself. Which is tough, since they all seem to have catlike reflexes and a sniper's ability to hit you from 500 yards away, even if they're manning a machine gun turret. This isn't bitterness talking from being killed too many times by trigger-happy Nazis, but rather a forewarning that you'd better know when to hide behind some cover from time to time.