Call of Duty 3

Call of Duty 3 brought the series into the final months of World War II – the player goes through the liberation of France, the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, and other key operations from the perspective of an American, Canadian, British, and Polish soldier. Studio Treyarch, which since then has held the role of the series' second main developer alongside Infinity Ward, built the game on a familiar recipe: scripted, cinematically directed battles where the player is led through a narrow corridor of action. The campaign also offered, for the first time in the series, hand-to-hand combat controlled by quick button sequences and simple commands to squadmates, who could be signaled by gesture to advance or take cover, which was meant to give the battles greater dynamism and cinematic feel. Over the course of the campaign the player alternates in the role of a soldier from four different Allied armies, which was meant to underline the multinational character of the campaign in Western Europe, and besides infantry action there are occasional sections involving vehicle operation.

The Wii version was among the console's launch titles and was mainly a showcase of how a war shooter can be controlled by motion – aiming is handled by a pointer from the Wii Remote aimed at the screen, throwing a grenade or reloading a weapon is done with a flick of the controller, and hand-to-hand combat is resolved through physical gestures imitating a bayonet stab or a rifle-butt strike instead of quick button sequences. The graphics correspond more to an older console generation than to the next-gen versions for PS3 and Xbox 360, but the motion controls give the gameplay a new, at the time novel, dimension and set this version apart from all the other editions.

Call of Duty 3 is also the only main entry in the series that never came out on PC – Activision decided at the time to leave that platform limited to the previous game. The Wii version thus remains the only one where the battlefield experience can be had through motion controls instead of a classic gamepad, and for many players it represented their first encounter with a war shooter outside the traditional controller.

Why play it: For the unique opportunity to experience a war battlefield through motion controls on the Wii, ideal for players who wanted their first encounter with a shooter outside the classic gamepad.