Back in August, my XBox Live subscription card ran out. Somehow – and I really have no clue how this happened – I’ve survived for nearly three months without any online multiplayer. No Black Ops. No sniper rifles. No temper tantrums. Back in my video game heyday, that would’ve never happened. It’s my drug. I get restless without it, my mind starts wandering and sometimes I just can’t function. I made it through detox these last few months, but I’m sorry to say that starting tonight, I’m getting back into the game. The original Modern Warfare was legendary. The sequel held up the name nicely. Now Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is dropping tonight at midnight (or earlier than that if you find some honor-confiscated store), and our friends at COD had the hype swinging violently this weekend, courtesy of Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard.

I’ve never been this fired up for a first-person shooter release before, and that’s not because I think it’s going to blow away all of the series’ previous versions. As I said above, it’s because I’ve been out of the loop for a minute – lost in the woods and haven’t kept my weapons on me. I won’t even care if I get noob tubed or hit for a kill/death ratio of 5/14 in my first game. It’ll just feel good to put a couple of assault rifle bullets into some other gamer’s chest. And perhaps even more enticing is the return of Spec Ops, which nearly ruined my life the last time they had it in the game. My boy and I tried to beat every mission of this mode on the highest difficult, and alas, after getting rundown by the juggernauts for the 248th consecutive time, we gave up. Whatever happens this time, now that we can call in Chuck Norris-like juggernauts ourselves at 14 kills in a row, and with the old M16 back, I’ll be feeling good.

Gamers should be excited for this release and the chance to compare this one with it’s biggest competition, Battlefield 3. Once I have both games in my possession, and spend enough time with them to figure out their secrets, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

How do you think this game will hold up to previous Modern Warfares?

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