It's not that the Call of Duty package is bad, nor does every new game need complete reinvention, but if you actually look at the gameplay, it's not hard to see why people are upset with this being a full-priced game.
The text, font, font size and style, and location of text are exactly the same.
The minimap style, art, and location are exactly the same.
The gamemode and score graphics, and locations of the graphics, are exactly the same.
The ammo and grenade counter placement and style is exactly the same. Only is the size of the font for the ammo number actually changed.
The killspam log placement, style, spacing, font, size, and graphics are exactly the same.
The incoming grenade indicator is (still) exactly the same.
The capture objective indicators' size, style, and graphic are exactly the same.
The bonus information (from special kills, objective captures, or special abilities) graphic, style, placement, and text are exactly the same.
The player's tag (that pops up at the bottom and top right of the screen) style, size, font, graphics, and placement are exactly the same.
See, now in most game sequels, even ones that are quite close to their ancestors, the art is redone for everything, including HUD and GUI elements. Sure, common themes tend to remain, but that is what ties the games together. They are similar, and convey similar information, but they are different. From everything that has been shown thus far about this game, however, not even that much work or creativity has been put into the game, despite its budget and loyal following. This level of art and design reuse is purely for the sake of saving money on a game that has a ridiculously oversized budget to start with.
None of this is to say the game itself is or will be bad. And obviously, a lot is subject to change as this is not the final product. But what Infinity Ward and Treyarch have shown under the direction of Activision recently is purely a matter of adding a handful of new gadgets to the existing experience, crafting a new campaign, and then printing copies of this "new" game. Others who have said that MW2 and Black Ops were expansion packs were also right to a degree, but at least those added enough features, not just gadgets, to actually add to the game experience. So far, MW3 seems to be a copy and paste job, unfortunately.
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