Video: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Gets 3rd Person Online Mode

Yesterday this video started making the rounds showing what appeared to be a 3rd person perspective option in a leaked PS3 copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The video, unfortunately, is of extremely poor quality because it was recorded from a live stream of gameplay. Try and pretend that the lag isn't there, and that the picture isn't fuzzy, and you'll get the idea. But turning Modern Warfare 2 into a 3rd-person shooter? That can't be right.

Except that it is. Official word has come down from Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling that there will be new 3rd person gametypes for online multiplayer. As Bowling explained:

"3rd Person is a new playlist mode in Multiplayer. So you can play your favorite playlists [or] game types, like Team Deathmatch just standard, or in Hardcore mode ([with] limited HUD and increased bullet damage) or in the new 3rd Person mode, which means you and everyone in the game is in 3rd person."

"When you're in a 3rd Person playlist you can't toggle in and out, you're always in 3rd person, you can't toggle 3rd person view on or off in a standard game type either, people in 3rd person can't play with people in 1st person, they're entirely different game modes. This is just another way to play the game."

So just to clarify, 3rd person will be a completely separate gametype in online multiplayer. That means no 3rd person in single player, and no people playing in 1st person against people in 3rd person. Why does this matter? Well, for one there's the fact that a 3rd person view allows you to look around walls without poking your head out from cover, which could give 3rd person players an advantage in a mixed game.

I'm pretty neutral on the 3rd person addition. It's nice to have the option, but I imagine that there will be significantly fewer players in the 3rd person playlists so finding a match will be a chore. But so long as it doesn't interfere with the 1st person experience, then I say the more options the better.

What do you think? Are you going to hop into the 3rd person mode, or is that a direction that the series should stay clear of?

Modern Warfare 2's Third Person Mode Is No Rumor [Kotaku]