TSA’s Top 100 of 2011 – #34 Modern Warfare 3

There was always going to be some interest in relation to where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 would ultimately land on this list of Top 100 Games of 2011. Unquestionably one of next year’s landmark titles, now that Generals West and Zampella have broken free of the never-ending loony bin (and taken most of the patients with them), the jury’s still out regarding just how good the next Modern Warfare may or may not be.

That said, there’s no doubt Infinity Ward still attracts the cream of the crop (five thousand people applied to the studio after the much publicised Activision-related implosion) and you can bet your last dollar the much-maligned publisher will not only pour money into the project as is the standard practice for their flagship series, but are eagerly looking forward to proving a certain point. That being Modern Warfare is an Activision property, not an Infinity Ward property. Cut off the head of the snake, even gut half its body, and Modern Warfare will just smile right back at you before promptly destroying the competition without barely breaking a sweat.

With Call of Duty now firmly a perennial franchise – with tertiary studio Sledgehammer working on another, different CoD game – the likelihood of the annual media blitz surrounding a new Call of Duty launch roughly eleven months from now is almost guaranteed.

What we’ll get in Modern Warfare 3 is something of an unknown factor. It’s almost like when a band reforms without its enigmatic lead signer. Whether Modern Warfare 3 resurrects itself as more Faith No More than INXS remains to be seen.

Such unwariness has obviously lingered in the backs of our collective hive-mind when we were scoring the titles for this feature. We definitely still want another Infinity Ward Modern Warfare, and despite the legions of naysayers who will predictably react to its placement on this list with negativity about both the series as a whole or the validity of this entry even being a bone fide Infinity Ward title at all, you have to at least admit that this is going to get real juicy the closer we get to launch.