The beta was one of the best experiences I've had in a long time. It was ideal, they gave us the bulk of what the gameplay was going to be like, and it looks like they've taken the feedback and produced some great tweaks and a heavy offering of things to do in multiplayer. Sites everywhere are giving it acclaim, even with the very short campaign. Quite ironic, that the main knocks to games like Shadowrun were a "short multiplayer", low number of maps etc. The tiny taste of perks and achievements from the beta were nothing compared to what the full game has, yet still manages to stay well-balanced. Aside from a couple of very annoying perks like Last Stand and Martydom (Matador as Nexy calls it), every ability serves to cater to playstyles, as opposed to counter each other. They never seem to overpower anyone, or limit the opposing team. Matchmaking scoring is RPG-like. This game is nothing like an RPG, but seeing +5 for every kill I make, and having it count towards an overall ranking is a big plus. Not to mention, the text lets you know when you've kiled someone, or got an assist for someone else's kill. There is still the text in the lower part of the screen that logs kills, and lets you know what weapons people are using, but having the text pop up mid-screen helps to alleviate the annoyance of not knowing if you killed someone, that has become more prominent as games become more graphically indulgent. The weapons seem to be well balanced. From the beta, the M4 Carbine was the weapon of choice, with the AK seeming underpowered and the m16 seeming like a starting weapon you want to get rid of quickly. Now, the AK is my favorite weapon, and the m16 seems to be most people's weapon of choice. Right now I am trying to max out every assault gun, and I couldn't wait to get rid of the m4. There's several classes of weapons, but much like R6, the assault rifles tend to be versatile enough to be all you need. Sniping has some merits for the less aggressive player, especially after unlocking the .50 cal. Noscopes are non-existent at all but injection range, but the blains remain. The huge problem I see with the game, is that none of the perks or create-a-class are available offline. This will cause the same problems R6 had. The game worked fine on LAN, but could be so much more if Infinity Ward answers cries to patch the game. I don't expect the feature to be unlocked, but with competitive gaming's ever increasing influence on the gaming industry, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. So why are so many people calling this game better than Halo 3? Because its solid. You don't find yourself calling BS on random deaths nearly as often, the game is consistent. There also aren't any lame weapons in the game. The maps are almost all solid. The matchmaking playlists are also nearly all great. The netcode is among the best I've seen in a host-based game. The BIG flaw I could potentially see with this game however, is repetition. I don't see a lot of room for the game to evolve. There is not a lot of game-changing variables that people will experiment with, like with a game like Halo. To an extent, you have some depth in your weapon and perk choice, but most of the strategy in the game will be based on holding areas. There just is not the breadth of things that can happen in a match that Halo has. There are not as many "HOLY ****" moments, so the spectator value of the game can be limited. I don't know many people who enjoyed watching R6, but luckily this game is not nearly as slow. The lack of spectator mode and demo recording is also a major bummer, especially since this game already features "KillCam" and the CoD series always enjoyed those features. Like I said before, the game is solid. I'm playing it now, and until H3 becomes a more competitive game, CoD 4 will fill in the spot where TF2 left me hanging.