Modern Warfare 3's newly revealed game mode, Face Off, looks like a lot of fun. The "head-to-head, no excuses, no distractions, no whining" gameplay comes with a bunch of "custom made" maps made specifically for the mode, which means they'd have to be small and tight to make the 1v1 or 2v2 matches quick and action-packed.
However, I'm especially cautious about the mode, because it brings with it some pretty obvious concerns surrounding "boosting", the act of exploiting the game's XP system to quickly improve your statistics and increase your reputation among the Call of Duty fraternity.
The act isn't quite is prevalent as it was in Modern Warfare 2, but the fact that this mode brings with it small, confined maps with a limited number of players raises obvious concerns about players essentially cheating to improve their own statistics and XP ranking.
The prospect is that four players can join together, start a match and peacefully engage in your simple case of boosting, improving their XP and completed challenges extensively in the process.
The only way this could be avoided is if the mode is completely separate from the multiplayer component, acting as a Spec Ops-like mode where XP and unlocks are separate from other competitive areas of the game. However, that seems unlikely, and the game most certainly looks set to join the multiplayer mode as a new addition to the component.
While the mode looks like a hell of a lot of fun, there are obvious concerns about what this can bring to the experience. Boosting might not actually compromise another person's ability to compete in the game, but it provides a platform for players to level up in a fashion that casual gamers might not know about, which could certainly compromise the game's fairly balanced community.
However, I am personally still looking forward to checking it out, as I'm sure any dedicated Call of Duty player is, but I do hope the development team is looking at ways to limit boosting. The mode poses an interesting dilemma for the community, right at a time when in-game boosting seemed to be a thing of the past.
What do you think of the new mode? Do you think it will cause a rise in XP boosting?
By Gaetano Prestia - Bio