Call of Duty 3 delivers the intensity of World War II combat closer than ever. In this next-generation game, you'll experience the Normandy brought to life with advanced graphics, a new physics engine, a procedural environment and detailed ensemble animations
I don't know what it is about the game, but it is my favorite COD hands down. Something about the recoil of the weapons being more realistic than any of the other games make it stand above the rest of the games for me. Nothing like getting a long range kill with an MP44 or a B.A.R. by managing your pulls of the trigger to squeeze off rounds over 100 meters away. The fact that it has vehicles, really makes it stand out as well.
I know a lot of people knock this game for being too similar to COD 2, but in reality only the WW2 setting and the fact it is a FPS are all that is similar. It used a custom game engine as well, The last COD game to do so as COD 4 and up were built on the same engine as COD 2. It has nice effects like great depth of field, Parallax mapping, God Rays, 3D laser scanned weapons, uniforms and HD recording of the actual weapon sounds. The MG 42 mounted on the back of the German truck is one of the best sounding guns in any game.
I think younger people don't understand or like this game becasue they are comparing it to other games in the series, and the fact it has a completly different game engine to any of the other COD games.