Footage released to date suggests that the underpinnings of the engine share a lot in common with previous COD titles. In pre-release videos we've seen the same 600p resolution, and the peculiarities of the shadow implementation all but confirm that the Xbox 360 version has been used for media assets thus far. However, what has surprised us is that the developer's claims of running at a "locked 60FPS" aren't so far from the truth.
While not quite delivering a 'locked 60FPS', there's little doubt that Modern Warfare 3 looked and performed very nicely.
The Call of Duty games have traditionally relied on what we prefer to call a perceptual 60FPS: to the human eye, it's as smooth as smooth can be on console, and while there are performance drops, they are not really picked up unless you have the keenest of senses, or unless the engine is handling some seriously taxing action. The problem is that as the games have become more technologically complex, so the frame-rate has dropped - a state of affairs that continued on into Treyarch's Black Ops.
In recent weeks, not only have the developers talked about a locked 60FPS for console, Infinity Ward's Rob Bowling has even tweeted that the game "never drops below" that target frame-rate. Based on what we saw at Microsoft's conference, the game is very smooth, maintaining performance admirably, and it - only the water effects and big explosions seem to trouble the engine for the most part. The developers appear to have modelled waves in full 3D rather than faking it with a 2D alternative, adding to the quality of the effects work there.
Overall image quality, despite the sub-HD resolution, remains very impressive. The final section, showing the far-off blasted cityscape should have presented a lot of pure polygons edges that we thought might alias badly, but they looked good - perhaps down to what looks like a new depth of field implementation that was used generously throughout the presentation. Also worthy of mention is the quality of the interior lighting, showcased in the submarine infiltration section: we were reminded of some of the excellent work done in this regard by Black Ops.
The Modern Warfare 3 reveal was a great way to kick off Microsoft's E3 showing, and shows COD doing what COD does best: excellent visuals and impressive, albeit tightly scripted, set-pieces. The 60FPS frame-rate and smooth, realistic character animation were highlights too.
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