Packed with 15 levels set in locations around the world, from Manhattan to the catacombs of Paris, Modern Warfare 3's near-future campaign looks to be an experience that will top anything seen before in a Call of Duty game.

Multiplayer, too, seems to be shaping up to be an experience packed with new maps, experiences and ways to game.

Sources tell Kotaku that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will have as many as 20 multiplayer maps, though it's unclear if some will be cut before release or perhaps sold later as expansion packs. The game will also include a powerful mix of mission-based and survival Special Ops modes. While the mission-based levels will be designed like the ones made popular in Modern Warfare 2, we're told, the survival maps will have players fighting until they're overcome by increasingly difficult waves of enemies.

While we haven't seen the game in action ourselves, we believe that the imagery is accurate. That doesn't mean things can't change before release.

We've contacted Activision for comment and will update the story when and if they provide reaction.

Multiplayer Maps

• Alpha
• Alps
• Bootleg
• Bravo
• Brooklyn
• Carbon
• Coast
• Dome
• Exchange
• Hardhat
• Interchange
• Lambeth
• Meteora
• Mogadishu
• Paris
• Plaza 2
• Radar
• Seatown
• Underground
• Village

Spec Ops Modes

Survival

• Carbon
• Dome
• Radar
• Seatown
• Village

Mission

• Civilian Rescue
• Flood the Market
• Invisible Threat
• Little Bro's
• Out of Africa
• No Fly Zone
• Wing Man

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Where You'll Go, How You'll Kill, and Who Will Die in Modern Warfare 3

We've been gentle so far in our revealing of what we know about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. We've tip-toed through the minefield of spoilers, and tried to reveal only facts anyone would want to know. More »

The Modern Warfare 3 Files: Exclusive First Details on the Biggest Game of 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is coming Nov. 8, 2011, Kotaku has learned, delivering with it mammoth battles that engulf a dozen cities around the world including New York, Paris and London.
Multiple sources have shared details of the game's story, art, sounds and game modes with Kotaku, noting... More »

We've been gentle so far in our revealing of what we know about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. We've tip-toed through the minefield of spoilers, and tried to reveal only facts anyone would want to know. That ends here.

What follows is a detailed summary of what we understand are the events of Modern Warfare 3 described to us by those in possession of dozens of images from the game, as well as voice over recordings. While we haven't seen the game in action ourselves, we believe that the imagery and this plot description is accurate. That doesn't mean things can't change before release. Levels could be altered or completely cut before the game gets into your hands.

While we're still keeping some major, pivotal moments close to our chest—let's just say we know some things we wish we didn't know—we're about to lay the whole story out for you from beginning to end. Don't read on if you want to experience the narrative of Activision's bombshell shooter free from spoilers.

There are spoilers here. You've been warned.

Modern Warfare 3 opens as Modern Warfare 2 closed: The United States under siege by Russian forces, ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov on the loose, Captain John "Soap" MacTavish and Captain John Price wounded and on the run with the Russian informant known as Nikolai.

Fleeing to a safehouse in Dharmasala, India, the three are attacked by Makarov's men. In this firefight players take on the role of Yuri, a loyalist who works for Nikolai. Their safehouse compromised, the group flee the area in a helicopter.

The game then cuts to Manhattan where Russia is launching an attack on the city from a fleet of ships parked in the Hudson River. (It appears the famous U.S.S. Intrepid may be destroyed.) The U.S. calls in Delta Force to repel the attack. You take on the role of Frost, a Delta Force operative under the command of Sandman. Your goal is to take out a jamming tower on top of the New York Stock Exchange to open the area for a U.S. counterattack.

Following the mission, Delta flies out of the city on a Blackhawk, gunning down enemy choppers as they make their way to the harbor where they have to infiltrate and take down a Russian sub which is coordinating the attack.

As the New York missions wrap up the game jumps forward in time half a year, thrusting players into the role of a Russian agent tasked with protecting the president of Russia as he flies to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. The plane is attacked by hijackers mid-air who attempt to kidnap the president and his daughter. The daughter manages to escape. The president of Russia in hand, Makarov vows to prevent a peace treaty by getting the launch codes out of the president and launching an attack against the U.S.

The game then returns us to Price, Soap and Yuri, now in Africa in a search for Makarov. They meet with a local South African arms dealer who tells them about a shipment of chemical weapons that Makarov is trying to buy. The group make their way to Sierra Leone to secure the weapons from African militia.

Next, players take on the role of an SAS operative who is tasked with stopping a delivery of weapons of mass destruction at a London dockyard. A gun battle ensues, and the agents are chased through the London subway. The mission culminates with a series of unmarked trucks exploding in front of the house of Parliament, releasing a deadly chemical agent.

Several other European cities and military bases are hit by similar terrorist attacks backed by Russia, and the death toll rises to the tens of thousands. The series of chemical attacks opens the door for a Russian military blitz strikes across the continent.

Price discovers that the South African arms dealer who tipped them off about the chemical weapons deceived them and travels to Somalia to find the man and interrogate him. Through the arms dealer, Price discovers that Makarov's right hand man, Volk, is hiding out in Paris.

The game's attention next shifts to Hamburg, Germany where players take on the role of a U.S. tank gunner fighting to push back a Russian advance backed by armored divisions.

As Hamburg falls, the game shifts us back to the story of Price and his crew. Now in Paris, players control Delta Force operative Frost who, with the help of the French special forces, leads an assault on Volk's location in the underground catacombs of the city. Next, players take to the sky supporting Frost's ground movements as a gunner in an AC-130.

After capturing and interrogating Volk, Frost learns that Makarov has a meeting in a Prague hotel. Players control Yuri as he and Soap slip into the Russian-controlled city and set-up an ambush for Makarov in a church bell tower. Makarov somehow catches wind of the trap and escapes. Soap, Yuri and Price then have to fight their way out of the city.

Yuri leads the team to one of Makarov's headquarters in the Czech mountains and the group infiltrates the location, looking for clues. They discover that the ultranationlist has the president and is trying to get the codes out of him. Makarov has also discovered the location of the Russian president's daughter. The group move out to Berlin to try and prevent her kidnapping. Playing as Frost, gamers must find the daughter and protect her, while making their way through war-torn Berlin. The daughter, however, is captured and flown away.

Frost next makes his way to the Kremlin where a task force of operatives attack and free the hostages, but Makarov manages to escape again.

The game's final mission occurs in Dubai, where Yuri, Price and Sandman launch an assault on a heavily guarded hotel, eventually finding Makarov and, yes, finally killing him.

It also appears that the game may also include a post-credits level that features the burning of Washington, D. C.

The stage seems set for a passing of the torch: from player-controlled members of Task Force 141 to the new characters from Delta Force.

We've contacted Activision for comment and will update the story when and if they provide reaction.

*Note, the audio in the video above comes from what we're told was something created for the game's presentation at the upcoming E3 show in L.A. next month.

Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Features Battles in Brooklyn, Clash in Mogadishu

Packed with 15 levels set in locations around the world, from Manhattan to the catacombs of Paris, Modern Warfare 3's near-future campaign looks to be an experience that will top anything seen before in a Call of Duty game. More »

The Modern Warfare 3 Files: Exclusive First Details on the Biggest Game of 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is coming Nov. 8, 2011, Kotaku has learned, delivering with it mammoth battles that engulf a dozen cities around the world including New York, Paris and London.
Multiple sources have shared details of the game's story, art, sounds and game modes with Kotaku, noting... More »

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is coming Nov. 8, 2011, Kotaku has learned, delivering with it mammoth battles that engulf a dozen cities around the world including New York, Paris and London.

Multiple sources have shared details of the game's story, art, sounds and game modes with Kotaku, noting that the game will reshape the landscape of the Call of Duty franchise, bringing an impressive number of eclectic settings, deep multiplayer gaming and a story that ties up nearly all loose ends from previous titles, including the final moments of key figures in the series' history.

While we haven't seen the game in action ourselves, we've gone to great lengths to nail down as much as possible the veracity of our sources. We believe that the imagery and chief details are accurate. That doesn't mean things can't change before release, but this appears to be a full run down of where Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software is on Modern Warfare 3 as they add the final polishing touches.

The game opens moments after the cliffhanger ending of Modern Warfare 2 with the U.S. struggling to stave off a surprise Russian attack. The single-player campaign will ping-pong players around the world as they take on the multiple throwaway roles as a Russian Federal Protective Services agent, SAS Operative, tank gunner, and AC-130 gunner as well as key characters from previous installments and new recurring characters. The game will feature about 15 missions, kicking off with the invasion of Manhattan by a Russian force and wrapping up with a final encounter in Dubai.

The plot, as described, seems to be keeping with developer Infinity Ward's habit of delivering complex, short sequences punctuated by lots of gunfire and scene changes. The game also has players take control of several vehicles, returning gamers to the AC-130 gunship as a gunner and plopping them down in a tank as part of a U.S. Armored Division.

The single-player campaign, which appears to wrap up most of the unanswered questions and character fates of the first two Modern Warfare titles, also introduces new characters who appear to be destined for future Modern Warfare games, especially two Delta Force operatives codenamed "Frost" and "Sandman".

Multiplayer in the game returns with a chunky list of playable maps as well as two types of Spec Ops modes: "Survival" and "Mission".

Activision, the series' publisher, still hasn't officially unveiled any details about the game, though executives have said that a new Call of Duty game was coming this year. Last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, sold more than 7 million copies in the first 24 hours and within six weeks reached $1 billion in sales.

We've contacted Activision for comment and will update the story when and if they provide reaction.

Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Features Battles in Brooklyn, Clash in Mogadishu

Packed with 15 levels set in locations around the world, from Manhattan to the catacombs of Paris, Modern Warfare 3's near-future campaign looks to be an experience that will top anything seen before in a Call of Duty game. More »

Where You'll Go, How You'll Kill, and Who Will Die in Modern Warfare 3

We've been gentle so far in our revealing of what we know about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. We've tip-toed through the minefield of spoilers, and tried to reveal only facts anyone would want to know. More »

SEAL Team Six, 'Black Tuesday' And Other Modern Warfare 3 Hot Buttons

A brief audio clip that we believe is a piece of the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 refers to SEAL Team Six, the unit widely assumed to have killed Osama Bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan earlier this month. More »

Have you ever played a Final Fantasy or a Dragon Age? Actually, have you ever had to slog through a bad role-playing game, one in which the characters just go on and on about their problems and the evil that's going to destroy the world?

Imagine an RPG without that. Strip out the story. Hell, strip out the characters, most of the graphics and jam it into my iPhone.

That's what the people who made Dungeon Raid did, and I'd like to thank them for it. (Thank you, Fireflame Games)

Dungeon Raid , a $2.99 game for iPhone, iPad and iTouch, will be mistaken by some people as a Bejeweled clone, probably because you do indeed play this game by matching adjacent and similar icons. It might be castigated as some sort of Puzzle Quest rip-off, because that game already did rip from Bejeweled, inject a story into the action and wind up with a popular role-playing game as a result. What Puzzle Quest got right is that Bejeweled is fun and that matching gems can be a simple, strategic way to conduct a fight against bad guys. They also understood that Bejeweled can be more fun if every match of gems kills some evildoer and possibly levels you up. That's the gameplay: similar to how it is in Dungeon Raid, a Puzzle Quest player matches some icons to strike, some to do spells and some to collect loot. But the makers of Puzzle Quest assumed I wanted a story around all of that. I didn't. The Dungeon Raid people somehow figured this out.

All Dungeon Raid is is a lot of combat and glorious leveling up. Icons fill your screen, waiting to be matched out of existence with swipes of your finger. Skulls are the bad guys and will attack you, damaging your shields and diminishing your health. Matching as many shields as you can builds your defense; matching red potions heals. Through methods that are not extremely complex you can match a lot of icons in a row, gaining piles of experience points and upgrading your equipment. Plus, you can add spells... all in the course of a single life.

As a round of Bejeweled or a round of Tetris ends, so too does a progression though Dungeon Raid. You die, you start over. But as you play, by killing special enemies, you can unlock new classes, new perks and new races, which allow you to experiment with many different configurations. It's like they made a deep role-playing game with hours of playability and almost zero hours of story (there is a single page of story that appears when the game starts; I've never read it).

For giving me the role-playing game with the shortest cut-scenes (0 seconds, max), the least protagonist-whining (none), the fewest plot twists (zilch) and heaps of experience points to gain, Dungeon Raid is our Gaming App of the Day.

Dungeon Raid [iTunes]

TODAY, TOMORROW? | SAN RAFAEL, CA: This week, Toyota said the high yen is hurting its ability to make cars in Japan. (Photo: Justin Sullivan | Getty)

Nerd Gold for Your Shelves At the recent Treasure Festa figure event in Japan, collectibles were on show and for sale. Some were one-off, while others are upcoming production models. All were awesome.

Dead Wii Is Funny. Dead Lady Is Not. In Japan, pin-up model Aki Higashihara's blog is notorious. It's called the "Death Blog", after manga Death Note. In the popular comic, writing people's names in the "Death Note" notebook leads to their demise. On the Japanese internet, the same is said about Higashihara's blog.

The Guns, Vehicles and Even Bigger Guns of Section 8: Prejudice Online shooter Section 8: Prejudice had a very low-key release a few weeks ago, which may be down to the fact the original game wasn't exactly a big hit. Still, the release of the sequel gives us a chance to ogle more guns from the future!

Beautiful Star Wars Ships, and a Huge Gundam Head And joining the spaceships from Star Wars and a Gundam MS-06 Zaku II helmet are mechs from Sega's Cyber Troopers Virtual-On.

Deus Ex Website Hacked, Customer Information Stolen According to a report on KrebsOnSecurity, the public websites for upcoming sci-fi title Deus Ex: Human Revolution and that of its publisher, Eidos, have been hacked, and a ton of information and code stolen.

The Dreamcast isn't dead. It's resting. The Sega console keeps getting new games thanks to homebrew developers like Redspotgames and NG:DEV.TEAM who continue to support the Dreamcast, years after Sega gave up.

According to these devs, the best part about developing Dreamcast titles is that you don't have to worry about getting a license for games and the game development tools are still fairly modern.

"The first time we asked for a license for a new game was in 2003, but Sega of Europe had no interest in new titles, and we could not release [games] officially," Redspotgames boss Max Scharl told website Gamasutra. "We tried a couple of times to do the same in Japan, but Sega of Japan does not give licenses out to non-Japanese developers or publishers—even though we have tried several times and even gave them a visit."

But Redspotgames continued to support Dreamcast after Sega no longer did. In 2007, Germany's Redspotgames released its first DC game, shoot 'em up Last Hope. Sega withdrew from the console business in 2001 and finally stopped supporting (and fixing) Dreamcasts in Japan in 2006.

Check out the rest of the Gamasutra piece for a long at what might not seem like the most profitable way to make games, but sure is the most passionate.

Keeping the Dream Alive: The Men Behind Dreamcast Homebrew [Gamasutra]

Releasing on May 17, Christmas-themed nightmare shmup Deathsmiles IIX is U.S. bound. The upgraded version of the arcade favorite features new stages and will hit Xbox 360's Games on Demand for US$29.99. According to the game's publisher, the game isn't localized into English and player's can't use Microsoft Points (credit card only).

Senritsu no Stratos is an upcoming PSP game that looks familiar. Developed by Nude Maker and published by Konami, the game is being designed by Hifumi Kono, who did Infinite Space for Sega.

The debut trailer kind of looks like famed anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The easiest Bowser cosplay? This backpack. That's it. Dubbed the "Reptillian Mad Pax Backpack", this leather and mesh backpack is priced at US$59.99. It also comes in pink.

REPTILIAN MAD PAX BACKPACK [Perpetual Kid via Gigazine]

Online shooter Section 8: Prejudice had a very low-key release a few weeks ago, which may be down to the fact the original game wasn't exactly a big hit. Still, the release of the sequel gives us a chance to ogle more guns from the future!

This concept art for the Prejudice was penned by Manuel Gomez, and features some of the game's vehicles (like dropships and hover bikes), weapons (shotguns from the future) and even bigger weapons, like the anti-aircraft guns that wreak such havoc on the games.

Some people like their futuristic weaponry sleek, and minimal. Others like it rough, and realistic. This, though, is more comic book style, bulging with exaggerations that would be absolutely useless in a practical sense, but which help clearly mark this game as being about "war machines in space".

You can check out Gomez's personal site at the link below.

Pencil Lad [Manuel Gomez]