Modern Warfare 3 delights, confounds, and confuses

So before I get down to some obligatory complaining, let me make it clear that I like Modern Warfare 3, especially as a multiplayer game. The changes to competitive matches feel great. I love the co-operative survival ops, which is a unique Modern Warfare take on the horde mode you know from Gears of War and Halo. And I couldn’t be happier that private matches let you play with everything unlocked. This is going to allow for a lot of crazy game types based around odd rule sets and equipment limits in the same vein as toybox shooters like Halo, Perfect Dark, and Goldeneye.

So why didn’t Activision apply this mode to split-screen games on the Xbox 360? For some odd reason, you have to level up each account the same way you do in pubic games. But split-screen games are the epitome of private matches. What a lousy way to hobble what could have been a tremendous four-player split-screen shooter.

Furthermore, it looks like there’s no way to browse other people’s private matches on Xbox Live, or even support for moving parties from ranked matches into private matches. Am I limited to whatever gatherings I can scrape together on my friends list? And how does it work on the PC? Does the PC version at least get a server browser option for private matches? Activision has included a great feature in Modern Warfare 3, but they also seem to have buried it.

Furthermore, I am completely confused by all the online stuff Activision is doing. As near as I can tell, the service that tracks stats, offers social groups, and documents the game is called “Elite”. It’s free. But then there’s “Premium”, which is necessary if you want to start a clan. At $50 a year, the Premium service also pre-buys any DLC and qualifies you to enter Activision’s contests to win Jeeps and vacations and whatnot. On top of that, there’s something called “Founder”, which I think is basically a year of “Premium” bundled with the “Limited Edition”. What a lot of indecipherable verbal spaghetti. Gears of War played it pretty straightforward by just selling a Season’s Pass.