1. MP7 Sub Machine Gun. This gun is an absolute beast and by a long way my favourite. I used the token because it’s a level 74 weapon, and because the way MW3 plays a sub machine un is a good choice for my playstyle. It’s similar to the PP90 you see lots of people running around with but beats it by having a larger clip and (more importantly) a much quicker reload than the PP90. As standard it’s got a generous 40 round clip. My favourite setup for this weapon is a supressor and extended mags (takes you to a 60 round clip – enough to mow down three opponents without reloading easily). It does not appear to have any recoil whatsoever, and it’s not bad at longe range either. Because it’s a sub machine gun you run faster, and it pulls up quicker than an assault rifle.

2. Scavenger. I never liked Scavenger much in BLOPS, but in MW3 it’s fantastic. 2nd only to Sleight of Hand in Tier 1. It’s a level 39 unlock and I just can’t wait that long. Sleight of hand is unlocked right away at level one.

3. Portable Radar. This one unlocks at level 74. I love it because it has two features the BLOPS motion sensor didn’t. Number one, you can throw it (instead of just setting it down on the ground). This means you can toss it high up on obstacles where enemy players can’t reach it. Number two,  it doesn’t only help you – your entire team get’s the benefit of it . I only run the Specialist Strike Package so I’m not calling in any UAVs. The Portable Radar is there as long as I stay alive and running Specialist is all about staying alive. I’m sacrificing my tactical grenades, but since Scavenger doesn’t replenish them I think the trade off is good. If anyone think this means I’m a camper forget it – I’m not.

I have to say this is without doubt the best Call of Duty yet. In particular the Kill Confirmed game mode & Specialist Package really add something to the game – by greatly reducing camping. I’ve seen lots of YouTubers complaining the game is too soft on weaker players. What I take that to mean is they are having difficulty getting games like they did in BLOPS running the 8-9-11 Killstreaks (Blackbird, Chopper Gunner & Dogs) so they could post 75 Kill games. I don’t miss that – most times I saw that in Black Ops it was some 15th Prestiger who’d basically camp their start flag in Domination off the bat to get their Kill Streaks. It just made the game frustrating for me as a below average player. The Specialist Packge is simply awesome. I never liked calling in killstreaks anyway, so now I get to run and gun full time without feeling like I’m playing with a disadvantge. Maybe I’ll call in my MOABs though.

Since most people always like to hear complaints about Call of Duty for some reason, as a footnote here are the aspects of MW3 I don’t like:

Scoreboards: Number of captures not displayed for Domination. This is insance – they should be there as tye are the objective – not kills.

Elite: BLOPS gave us all the stats we could want in game. MW3 seems to think I will pay more money for stats. I won’t.

Spawns: They really are crazy, but for every time an enemy spawns with me in their sight and kills me, I get one back. It doesn’t bother me too much. they’ve said it’ll improve in January.

Lag: I’ve heard people complain, but I used the option to switch off theatre mode and I don’t have any problems. I’ll be brutally frank here – when I read that the lag in Black Ops was attributable to theatre mode, an option for the small percentage of players who are also YouTubers my blood boiled. These people should just put up with running their PVR’s all the time if the alternative is a reduced enjoyment for everyone.

My favoutrite class setup:

• MP7 – dual attachments – supressor & extended mags.
• Skorpions – akimbo (thanks xcal)
• Frag Grenade
• Portable Radar
• Tier 1: Scavenger
• Tier 2: Hardline
• Tier3 : Steady Aim
• Specialist Package: Sleight of Hand, Stalker, Assasin

Note: if there was an option to have no death streak I would take it. I use Juiced as it seems the least lame.

I now have just the one spare Prestige Token – I’ll end up with 10 if I prestige all the way. I’ll spend 5 on extra custom classes, and 5 on double XP (when it’s double XP weekend – apparently that’ll mean quad XP).

I love it, but can’t help thinking it could be greater still if:

Ghost: needs weakening. If you don’t think it’s overpowered, check out how many players use it.

Lobbys: Can’t some level of skill based matchmaking come into it – based on KD?

Quitters: If a host quits, block them from joining a new lobby for 30 minutes. If a non-host quits, block them for 5 minutes. People should be encouraged to complete their games and it seems match bonus isn’t doing it (you’re not going to get much if you lose after all).

Knife: Two button action – switch then use. It’s not realistic to switch instantly from firing a weapon to stabbing and it’s annoying as hell.

Campers: How about some camper free game modes. Just have the game execute players who don’t move for long periods.

Noob tubes: nuff said.

Kill streaks: Can’t we have these in our classes? When I run into an entire team wearing Ghost, my spy plane loses it’s appeal.

Spawning: Not in someones’ sights please!

Options: In classes? Sometimes I switch and let someone else play on my account – it’s a big hassle to sign out, sign in & restart the game after all

Mute: Can I please just mute everyone by default. I’d prefer to specify who I want to hear, not who I don’t because most of the people playing are 8.

Ta.

Since I can’t bring myself to comment on the (frankly) worthless news articles out there, here’s what I think to some of the common stuff I’m reading

1 “It’s Sony’s fault” or “Sony should’ve known better”

Rubbish really. Sony probably thought to themselves “we’re running a gaming network” and mot a bank. I wouldn’t expect this kind of attack either.

2 “The Playstation Network will/won’t be restored on X date”

I’m getting horribly fed up of all the total speculation on news sites regarding when exactly PSN services will resume. What is clear is no-one know, so news sources posting conjecture as fact is just a waste of everyones time.

3 “[Expletive deleted] you Sony, I’m buying an XBox”

For heavens sake, go ahead. While I’m on this, why on earth do so many sites allow profanity in comments? Or put that another way, why are standards so low on what are meant to be quality sites? And lastly…..

4 “Please login or register to leave a comment”

This is starting to drive me nuts. Take a look at your calendar, it’s 2011. I am NOT going through a big sign up process during which I provide your website with all my personal data. Let me sign in with Twitter, FaceBook or OpenID. I want to leave a comment, not begin some lifelong relationship with your website. So does everyone else.

I really would love to know when services wil be resumed as I’m itching to play, but I can wait. Presumably the problem is they have to marry all the old data (trophys, statistics, purchases etc etc) into the new one. Having said that, it can’t be THAT hard surely?

1. Finish the first couple of rounds FAST. None of this repairing as many windows as you can or counting how many bullets you put in each Zombie. The first 5 rounds are boring, so get them over with ASAP.

2. Open the TOP door as soon as possible – probably the end of round 1. Other players seem to want to keep it closed and I can’t for the life of me see why. Get it open early, grab the MP5K and get on with racking up the kills.

3. Get JuggerNog before opening the box or buying any weapons other than the MP5K. If I need to open all the doors to get to it because the other players won’t, I’ll do it. Be warned, and if you do play with me, take advantage – let me open the doors

4.  Keep the door BENEATH JuggerNog closed. It means the monkeys only attack from one direction.

5. Usually after JuggerNog I’ll run to the other side, buy the AK-74u.

6. I’ll then grab claymores which I’ll put around the JuggerNog machine to protect it. If I’m not near JuggerNog, I have a tendancy to put claymores down where the Zombies won’t set them off – sort of hiding them like a squirrel with nuts so I can pick them up later when I need them.

7. Rack up some kills, and rebuy ammo for the MP5K & AK-74u when needed.

8. NOW it’s time to open the box. You definately want the Ray Gun. In previous Zombie maps it wasn’t as important, but in Ascension it’s the tool of choice for those annoying monkeys. My ideal arsenal is, in order of importance:

• JuggerNog
• Ray Gun
• Claymores
• RPK
• Gersch Device

Side note: I don’t open the box if I have less than 4500 points. If for some reason I go down (it doesn’t happen often!) I’ll want to buy JuggerNog and an MP5K. Taking chances at the box past level 10 when you have no JuggerNog is dumb, and yes, it’s what most players seem to do.

I’ll Pack-A-Punch the RPK if I need the ammo. I’ll only Pack-A-Punch the Ray Gun in extreme circumstances as it doesn’t make a great deal of difference.

In a hectic multiplayer game. I don’t like to hang out with the other players in a group as I tend to trip over them. I’ll move on out into the map and take the Zombies head on. If a player goes down, whether I’m near him or not I’ll use my Gersch Devices to distract the Zombies so anyone near him has a chance to get him up.

Solo mode: One slight modification here. Keep the doors to Speed Cola & Stamina-Up closed. If you get these as random perks after a monkey round, you’ll get to keep them as the monkeys can’t attack the machines with the doors closed. Basically, doing this means no Pack-A-Punch, and might mean you can’t reach the box. That’s no biggy, just wait for a Fire Sale. Having permanent Speed Cola & Stamina Up is worth more than a Pack-A-Punched weapon. This makes it easier to get to round 20. Past round 20 you may as well open up those areas or you’ll get bored to death.

So far I’m up to round 35 on co-op. One of the problems with this game is…it takes a LONG time if you get a good game. Plan for an hour and a half to get past round 25. Plan on spending a great deal of time if you get past 30. I plan to take it to 40 with a friend of mine just because I know I can, but doubt I’ll go beyond that. I read getting to level 90 can take 24 hours – no way I’m doing that. YouTube video’s coming soon.

Oh, and my favourire character is Richtofen.

Turns out the PS3 (the old fat one, not the new slim) had a “Millenium Bug” style fault. It thought/thinks that 2010 is a leap year, so the consoles date & time for 1st March 2010 actually set to 29th Febuary 2010. So far so boring, but that caused a major problem. Once the PS3 was switched on and went online it did what it apparently always does and checkes it’s own clock against the clock on the PlayStation Network. Now since 29th Febuary 2010 doesn’t actually exist, the PS3 throws a panic and sets it’s date back a few years. The result of that…the connection to the Playstation Network fails. And some games will not operate as the DRM checks go potty when they realise you’re trying to play a game that hasn’t even been written yet. Presumably Sony don’t want you playing games from the future eh?

The official Sony blog were awash wish outraged gamers who couldn’t use their PS3′s, but Sony did say the problem “should” correct itself once the PS3′s internal clock had rolled over to 1st March 2010 (ie a date that exists). It did for me – just past midnight the PS3 started up perfectly and connected to the PSN, and there didn’t appear to be any damage (like lost game saves).

I couldn’t believe how angry some people were about this. Sure. it’s not exactly something you would expect, but sometimes these kinds of things do happen. I’m certainly not angry about it – the PS3 is such an awesome piece of hardware. If you think the grass is greener on the other side, just see how many results you get for “Broken XBox” on a Google search – their hardware is nowhere near as robust.

The other thing I thought was great was how Google responded to this. Just by Googling “Playstation Network” the top result was a news entry letting me know what had happened. I was watching TV and neither SKY nor the BBC seemed to be reporting it, but were doing the usual reporting about the same news items they’d been talking about all day long.

As a side note, don’t know what “Q3″ and “pb” are? Just go. Google something and leave. Finding out will not help you.

Fairly obviously (I hope) this is how you fix it if you have the UK version. If not, use your own local country.