There's a fine line between tasteful representation and plain cashing in, especially when the line is drawn from source material of such epic, real life accounts as the likes of World War II. Yet, truth be told, World War II has become its own market and no area of that market can be considered to be 'cashing in' like the videogame portion.

Now, don't get me wrong, I see the positives behind utilising videogames as an educational tool for the reality of WWII. Through our medium the youth of today can be driven through some of the most impactful moments of history, relived through an affable point of contact in interfaces such as controllers and mouse and keyboard combinations.

There have been a few games, however, that have seemingly attempted to gain access to the WWII genre with nothing more than making money as their core reasoning - often these games are therefore devoid of any real life. But among such rabble, there are also games that go to great lengths to not only capture the realism of the Great War, but the emotional onslaught, also. On top of this list is Activision's Call of Duty franchise.

On Xbox 360, Call of Duty 2 came out guns-a-blazin' (sorry), and quickly became one of the system's first "must have" games due to its solid single-player campaign and infectious Xbox Live multiplayer offering. Naturally, as is the case with any successful games like this, the sequel is something thought to be worth waiting for and in the case of Call of Duty 3, it's at least true in the multiplayer portion.

As a single-player game, CoD3 is really quite disappointing (though not due to any form of 'cashing in'). The presentation is stunning, the visuals mind-blowing, the score is moving and emotional and the action is thick, fast and frenetic - all the right elements to make a great game so far. But where it falls short is in the gameplay department, or its lack thereof.

To begin with, AI is atrocious. Your Nazi enemies are nothing more than ducks in a barrel, while your chums seem to be confused as to what ammo to load, I'm sure they're using blanks 90% of the time. Funny thing is, your ability to rock in and deliver a payload of Allied smackdown is far and away the most unbalanced element of the game. While your friends around you are standing, firing and hitting nothing, it's entirely possible for you to gung-ho any particular area you want. What's more is you can just hide behind cover for ages and your allies won't make any headway - the game is waiting for your superman like powers to progress, which means, for the most part, any allied soldiers around you are there more for show. Aesthetic, I believe is the word I'm looking for.

The next major problem the game has is in the gameplay scripting. It's bad enough you have allied soldiers around you who do nothing (removing any chance for a tactical element of play), but the game guides you so quickly through the motions, you're never really even given a moment to check out your surroundings. Invisible walls and an equally invisible, guiding hand seem to push you through what is arguably one of the most linear games ever crafted. I've played 2D side-scrolling adventures with more room for exploration and multiple paths than this.

With all that being said, it's no secret the game is stunning to look at (on Xbox 360 that is). While it's no Gears of War (will anything ever be that pretty), Call of Duty 3 is easily one of the most visually attractive pieces of eye-candy on Xbox 360; everything from blades of grass, splashes of rain, dust, debris - you name it, this game has it. There's so much going on around you also, it can often become overwhelming. If its one thing developer Treyarch did right, it's to capture the intense action of battle to its absolute fullest.

So the single-player campaign is something of a mixed affair with great visuals, ringing sound-effects, an excellent score and a sense of chaos never before experienced coupled with ridiculous AI, linear level design and a sense of being overly rushed through the game. Multiplayer, however, has continued its tradition of great gameplay, and this time around with up to 24 players online slogging it out any one time over Xbox Live, the experience is at its absolute peak.

The multiplayer stuff comes in the form of Battlefield-derivative ideas such as soldier classes, huge maps and a variety of vehicles available to you. Moreover, the balance between maps, vehicles and classes is spot-on. You'll never once feel like you're being cheated or outclassed, as it were. Also, with so much going on I barely noticed a single bit of lag, and those minor moments that did pop up were so small and inconsequential, I feel nit-picky for even bringing them up.

If you like multiplayer games across Xbox Live, this is a game you can't afford to ignore. The price tag is worth it for multiplayer alone, with the single-player feeling somewhat added as a bonus as opposed to the other way around. But if you're only into the single-player thing, this really is a game you should be picking up at your local video store. The whole thing offers an experience worth seeing to believe, but beyond that the dumb AI and overly scripted gameplay will only warrant a quick play through instead of some reasonable lastability.