You don't often hear the words "innovative" and "Call of Duty" in the same sentence lately, but Sledgehammer Games assures CVG that there are a ton of innovations included in the latest Modern Warfare.
in terms of mechanics, Glen Schofield, general manager and co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, detailed the following:
"And we've absolutely got new mechanics. We've got the XM25, which is a grenade launcher that's just being used right now. It's got a laser target. Let's say somebody's hiding behind a rock, you laser the rock, aim a metre above it and it blows everything up below. We're using a nine-bang instead of a flash-bang. That came right from Delta. They said 'We're not using flash bangs. We haven't been using flash bangs for years. We're using nine bangs.' We've got the dual scope, so you can switch between an EOtech and a red dot sight really quickly. It's so convenient."
I'm not convinced any of that is actually innovative (but then again, I haven't seen it in practice), but many will appreaciate that level of detail when it comes to the mechanics, I'm sure.
As for sound, Schofield describes the new, improved audio engine.
"You're hearing whizzes, bangs, which way they're coming from, how far they are. The sound is all around you, we really, really upgraded that."
Naturally, there are some innovative elements that Schofield can't talk about just yet–and they're probably elements that would better convince me of MW3's new innovations.