CoD3's graphics are more cartoony and unrealistic compared to CoD2's. The lighting also is last gen compared to CoD2; lighting is dull and there is no harsh real sun light like there is in CoD2. CoD3 feels like i'm playing a higher res CoD2: big red one.

Some of the controls are better then CoD2 (you can melee while moving), and CoD3 is still fun, but the graphics are a let down. Damn, why do i trust pro reviews?

Here's to to the next go around with Infinity Ward's CoD4.

Update:

The game just all around sucks compared to CoD2.

Sorry for being so blunt, but that is the truth from someone who loves CoD2, and would have liked to have known this before i waste $60+....ebay here i come!

I find the graphics better IMO

UPDATE:

I made my decision a little to hasty. SP is actually really good, and looks fantastic. But the MP, on the other hand, and what i based my initial impression on sucks and look much worse then the SP.

If you get a laggy game yea it looks terrible.

I love CoD3, I loved CoD2 and I think 3 is even better. The graphics look a lot better all the way around IMO. I haven't found any multiplayer maps that don't look better than CoD2.

On call of duty 2 when you had four players on the same box there was no noticeable hit to the graphics department. On call of duty 3 they tone it down so much it looks like a ps2 game. Also even in single player online things do not look as good.

In the campaign things look more smeared to me just not quite as crisp as cod2 did. Grenade cook and melee while moving are improvements but the hit the left and right trigger melee scene is so lame. They could have totally left it out.

If they had done an update to cod2 that allowed guests on live and more people playing on those big maps I would never have bought call of duty 3.

IMHO a let down overall for me.

from what i have seen of CoD3 (all single player) it looks leagues better then CoD2 and it should.

however when it comes to multiplayer, its nothing new to tone down the graphics to help latency. i cant comment on the graphics themselves since i havent seen them yet, but this could be the case.

To me the graphics in single player took a hit to allow for so many things going on at once. It just doesn't look quite as crisp to me, maybe it is just the color palette they used on cod3 that I don't like as much.

As far as split screen there was little to no hit on cod2 and that is why I am so pissed about cod3 looking like total crap in multi player. I just don't get why they couldn't have done a better job.

To me there should have been nothing but improvements in call of duty three and I am sorry I just don't see it. I guess I just like the direction infinity ward was going and don't like the style of the new team on cod3.

I really cant see how people don't think this game has righteous graphics both MP and SP, For only a year difference Cod2 and Cod3 are totally opposites when it come to graphics, 3 is about 10 times as details, the gun models are so much better, the environments are better, the multiplayer maps are huge, Its just awesome all around. It took a while to get used to the adjusted reload times but I think it was much needed from cod 2. I love this game.

I must just have a different tolerance but it doesn't seem to dark to me, but thats just me.

P.s. I love the vehicles

they slowed down the M1.... =(

The weapons are more balanced than they were in Cod2 everything thing is slowed more, reloading takes longer too.

people are already stat padding, completly pissed me of a ruined my game tonite... fucking shit mother fucker

The graphics on COD3 in split screen multipayer are horrible, when i have four guests on line it looks like all the textures are gone and the gunmodels are just blobs of color.

Also in COD2 this was not the case, while you couldn't go online and play with gusts four player spit screen looked far superior overall.

The main reason I got this game was to have guests on live and now that that is ruined it just took someing away from the game for me anyway.

i haven't played the sp much .but the mp is awsome compared to cod 2.....i have only played single on mp, but it doesn't have any of the problems cod2 did..... i haven't lagged even once yet....and the vehicles are awsome too

Boot up COD2 in 720p and use another 360 to boot up COD3 in 720p, i did and side by side, COD2 is better graphic wise, not too mention story and bug wise

also, is it me or does COD3 feel like BF2 MC online rip off

i have done the same thing and i believe that CoD3 looks much better. as for the MP and the drop in detail with split screen, what do you people expect when there is 3X the people on the map with added vehicles and such. have you guys forgotten that developing a console game is all a balancing act? yes the 360 could be pushed harder to minimize any drop in detail, but for a new game that was released less then a year later i am impressed.

You guys are nuts, COD3 is awesome. Sure, its a different game from COD2, but isn't that what you'd want? I personally didn't just want another COD2 with different levels, that would have been boring. I'm a fan of the stat tracking too, in something like ~80 Ranked Matches I have 2000+ kills. Top 200 in the rifleman class!

As for the graphics, I think they're fantastic. Many of you are blindly comparing the graphics without taking into account all the additions to the maps. Maps are far bigger than they ever were, the environments are much more packed with debris/structures/etc, the textures alone far outnumber anything seen in COD2. Pretty easy to make teeny maps like Carentan or Burgundy in COD2 look fantastic when they require so little. There are no MP maps in COD3 where you can run from one base to the other as quickly as you could in nearly all the maps in COD2. The only ones I can think of in COD3 are like Eder Dam, where you can run across the bridge (but probably get smoked in the process).

I have a 51" HDTV so I've had no problems supporting 4 people. Sure, you're at a disadvantage, but I wouldn't say it looks bad at all considering the circumstances.

As for those bitching about it being a ripoff of BF:MC, have you ever played COD2: Big Red One for the original Xbox? Same game designer, similar game-style. Have some evidence before you make such quick assumptions. Having played COD2: Big Red One for quite some time previously, I made the transition to COD3 very quickly. I love COD3, I can never go back to COD2. I tried a couple weeks ago just for kicks and I couldn't re-adjust. COD3 I find is much more tactical and slower-paced.

The glitches that exist will get ironed out, you're all acting like COD2 didn't have similar problems when it first came out. Those that exist on COD3 are nowhere near as problematic as those that existed when COD2 first became big on XBL. I guess my only real beef is that the American weapons are so much better than the German weapons. Being American is a HUGE advantage in MP; this is especially annoying in Battle (ranked matches) because you STILL have to auto-select and might get stuck being a German.

Also does anyone notice that the explosions/smoke are not as smooth. Almost as if the explosion/fire/smoke animations are skipping a couple frames.

Yeah, CoD 3 is definatly lacking. I had so many glitching problems, it looks like they just rushed it out to get a release rather than test it. But it is kind of addicting, the story and gameplay wasent as good as CoD 2, but i think thats because of different developers. Hopefully Infinty Ward will make the next CoD, because if they do, then hopefully its anything like CoD 2, and it'll rock.