'Battlefield 3' who had solid video game talent like Gideon Emery and Travis Wittingham involved, but the campaign itself was a poor man's 'Call Of Duty' from the interrogation plot framing device to the 'shocking' headline-grabbing moment of Paris being nuked in an attempt to capture some of that sweet media outrage that 'Modern Warfare 2' received with it's 'No Russian' set-piece. The voice cast for 'Modern Warfare 3' was fairly solid, with names like Idris Elba, William Fichtner (that guy from 'Prison Break' and the guy from 'Armageddon' who delivers the 'space dementia' line) and Timothy Olyphant lending their voices to the campaign, In hindsight, it is strange seeing two big FPS games with lavish marketing budgets advertise the single-player element when the multiplayer was the bread and butter of these experiences, but from a marketing standpoint, it was probably a lot easier to take pre-existing assets from the scripted single-player campaign than the unscripted chaos of multiplayer. That built-in audience and captive interest in how the single-player interest was going to unfold was a major advantage for 'Modern Warfare 3' heading into the autumn showdown.įor all their qualities, the 'Battlefield' games were no Billy Wilder film when it came to scripting. The ending of 2's single-player campaign was a cliffhanger, and fans had to wait 2 years to find out what happened next. 'Modern Warfare 2' was a cultural sensation, and to this day is mentioned in the same breath as 'Halo 3' or 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' whenever games of the 2000's are invoked.

'Call Of Duty' had the advantage as it were, heading into the showdown full of confidence coming off the back of the era-defining FPS 'Black Ops' and with MW3 serving as a direct sequel to 'Modern Warfare 2'. Like any good media campaign, the war was fought on many fronts. Heading into the winter of 2011, all eyes were on the showdown between 'Battlefield 3' and 'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'.Ģ011 was a bumper year for gaming, with the likes of 'Batman: Arkham City', 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution', 'Portal 2', 'Gears Of War 3', 'Dark Souls' and 'Skyrim' all hitting shelves, but the clash of the FPS titans dominated most of the media coverage this time 10 years ago.

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