Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Engine Defended by Developer

One of the most hotly anticpated games of 2011 is, undeniably, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The next entry in this yearly Activision franchise has obviously been the topic of discussion for nearly two years; which basically amounts to the moment players beat Modern Warfare 2.

As such, a level of consideration has gone into the game’s delivery, nuts & bolts and its competition. With DICE‘s graphical beast, Battlefield 3, looming large on the horizon, a lot of gamers have calledModern Warfare 3‘s engine into question. Most suggest that the property looks like all of the entries before it and, in fact, the engine itself feels exceptionally dated.

One of the developers has responded, in-depth, to that line of questioning. The quote comes from an interview between CVG and Sledgehammer Games General Manager Glen Schofield. CVG asked him to respond to the critical buzz surrounding the engine behind Modern Warfare 3, and Schofield offered up a ton. We’ve got the bulk:

“…I’ve worked on a lot of engines over my lifetime and spent a lot of time putting graphics in to them and this thing is Porsche. And what I mean by that is that it is stream-lined, everything in it is perfectly freaking clean. You can tell it’s been worked on for years. It’s easy to upgrade.

…Modern Warfare 3′s levels now are so much bigger than the old ones because they go more vertically, they have a bigger footprint and on top of that, higher fidelity, more textures and a lot more detail.

If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference. Look at all the character models, look at all the gun models, look at the reflections, look at the water. There is so much that we’ve added, so when someone says ‘cut and paste’, I don’t even want to talk to them because they don’t know. They just don’t know. They have no idea…”

Schofield wrapped with this:

I’ve said this before – I’m not shipping an engine, I’m shipping a game. So that’s why I’m going to talk about the game. You can talk about your engine all you want. It’s not fun.”

Where do you stand with this discussion? Do you think the game looks even better than its predecessors, or do you feel like the cut-and-paste criticisms are fair?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will launch on November 8th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PCplatforms. We’re willing to bet that it will see incredible sales when it drops, regardless of the criticism being lobbed its way.