The past year has seen a hell of a lot of smack-talk in the realm of modern-day war shooters. It's been Battlefield 3 versus Modern Warfare 3 all year, with the tantalising prospect of a very public grudge match between publishers always simmering in the background.

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That never quite eventuated, however. While EA came out swinging at its competitor , signalling its intention of eclipsing Modern Warfare 3 with Battlefield 3 at (seemingly) every available opportunity, Activision has taken the opposite approach and has mostly stayed mum throughout the entire thing. Why is that, you ask? Confidence, most likely. Activision doesn't need to talk smack, because at the end of the day, its game is going to speak for itself.Here are five reasons Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is looking like it will live up to expectations when it releases on November 8.Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops mode was ridiculously addictive, especially when playing online with a friend, so it's very good news that the popular mode is coming back after its absence from Call of Duty: Black Ops.Spec Ops, which consisted of a number of self-contained missions that steadily increased in difficulty, now has a new Survival mode, which faces you against wave after wave of enemies to fight off, Horde-style. Money is earned while playing, which you can then spend on armour, weapons, airstrikes and more. Applying this kind of gameplay to Call of Duty's signature fast-paced shooting action is incredibly good fun. Oh, and did we mention exploding attack dogs? There are exploding attack dogs! How freakin' awesome is that? Check them out in the video below.

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Kill Confirmed is one of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's new multiplayer modes. It's a lot like the standard team deathmatch that we've all grown to know and love, except that you get large bonus points by picking up the dog tags of the enemies you've just decimated. Sounds like it's not that different to normal deathmatch right? Actually, Kill Confirmed adds quite a nice twist to familiar gameplay. For starters, it rewards players who like to get in close for their kills, meaning that camping out and sniping folk won't get you anywhere. Also, there's a team element, as your team can grab your tag when you're killed to deny the other team the points. You're not just out for blood - you're also fighting to defend your team.

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Beta users have already been using the new Call of Duty Elite service for Call of Duty: Black Ops and it's safe to say that it's going to be extremely popular once it's open to the public at the launch of Modern Warfare 3. The service gives players a social community to engage with other players all over the world. Here players are able to check in-depth statistics, post about their conquests, share custom games with friends, create clans and study warfare strategies.Premium members receive added bonuses such as the ability to enter and compete in tournaments for real prizes, and receive analysis and tips from pro players. The core of the Elite experience will be offered as a free service (like Bungie.net), though Premium memberships require an annual fee, which isn't too bad considering that premium members will have full access to the bonuses mentioned above, as well as monthly DLC.

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This+looks+bad-ass.

This+looks+even+better.

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Modern Warfare 3 is still running on Infinity Ward's trusty IW Engine - now in its fifth iteration, and it's been further refined and enhanced; a decision we believe is going to pay off.Why? Because while no one could possibly argue that DICE's Battlefield 3 - which debuted the company's new Frostbite 2 engine - doesn't look fantastic on PC, on consoles it leaves a lot to be desired. Slowdown, a maximum of 30 frames per second, clipping, glitches, rough edges and a separate texture install (for Xbox 360) meant that Battlefield 3 barely looked better than Battlefield: Bad Company 2, let alone anywhere near as good as the PC version. What do you expect when you're building an engine that's designed to showcase how excellent the PC version can look? That's great for PC owners, but that engine just far exceeds the limits of what current consoles can offer.Modern Warfare 3 on the other hand, is going to look great across the board. By sticking with its current engine and adding a whole bunch of bells and whistles, we can be safe in the knowledge that the game will run at an incredibly silky-smooth 60 frames per second, and will look as good (or better) than its already fantastic looking predecessors.In a recent interview with CVG , General Manager of Sledgehammer Games Glen Shofield had many good things to say about the engine. "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." He then said "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" and "If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference."While this is definitely not going to be the last Modern Warfare game we'll see any time soon, the main plotline that we've been following since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will finally see a conclusion, and an extremely epic one at that.Everything we've seen so far has been leading up to what is basically World War III. The United States has been invaded, and now the war has spread throughout European cities such as London and Paris. While we don't know exactly what's going to happen, what we do know is that we're going to see global destruction on the kind of epic scale that would make Team America blush. Also, expect to see the dastardly Makarov finally get his just deserts.

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So there you have it! Five solid reasons why Modern Warfare 3 is going to satisfy your shooter cravings. That's just the tip of the iceberg, of course, so bring on launch day!