Call of Duty 3 is the latest in Activision's acclaimed series of WWII based first person shooters. PGC recently had a chance to get some hands-on time with the Wii version at Activision's headquarters. In addition to American and British forces, players will also experience the war from Canadian and Polish perspectives for the first time in the series. The battles take place in chronological order, so you'll switch among the different armies several times as you progress through the game.

You control the game using the analog stick on the nunchuk to walk and the remote's pointer to aim your weapon. You can aim down the site of your gun for more accuracy by holding the A button, and you fire with the B trigger. The C button is used to jump. Tapping the Z trigger lets you crouch, and holding Z allows you to go prone. To toss a grenade, you press either left or right on the cross pad to select a grenade (left is for frag grenades and right is for smoke grenades) and then make a throwing motion with the nunchuk. Sliding the nunchuk quickly left or right switches guns, and sliding it upward reloads your gun. You can also lean left or right by twisting the remote, and thrusting the remote forward lets you perform a melee attack, which is pretty sweet.

As with other shooters on Wii, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to adjust to aiming with the Wii's pointer. It can be tricky to hold steady at first. However, you can go into the options menu and make gradual adjustments to the pointer's sensitivity to suit your liking. There are actually separate settings for horizontal and vertical sensitivity, so if you want to whip around fast but don't want to end up looking at your shoes, you could set the horizontal sensitivity high and vertical sensitivity low. It may just take some experimentation to find a setting that works for you. It's a bit easier to aim while sitting instead of standing, too.

The grenade throwing motion may take practice as well. I blew myself up several times before I got the timing right, but finally got the hang of it. In addition to the throwing mechanic, there is another subtle feature with grenades. If a live grenade is on the ground nearby, an icon will appear on the screen, indicating where it is so you can move away from it. Or if you're really bold, you can grab it and toss it back toward the enemy.

There was only one level available for us to play, but it is farther along in the game, and often has you dealing with enemies coming from all sides. It seems as if the first battle in this level may have been the toughest, as you have to clear a courtyard surrounded by three buildings filled with enemy Germans. There's not much room for cover, and it's easy to move too far forward too fast.

About a third of the way through the level, an enemy soldier with a knife corners you inside a house. Your character will grab his wrists, and a series of icons will pop up, prompting you to pump the controllers in different directions to wrestle this guy off of you. If you fail, you'll see the knife sink into your body, and will have to try again. If you succeed, you'll push him back and exchange a few blows, before he kicks you backwards – right out the window and into the street. He then comes at you with the knife again, and you'll have to wrestle him off one more time. As a reward, you'll get to watch your character pull a pin from a grenade clipped to the enemy's chest and shove him back through the window before it explodes.

While they weren't demonstrated for us, the developers did describe some other uses for the Wii controller in the game. You'll crank the controller to aim an 88 mm gun or you'll hold the remote and nunchuk like a steering wheel to drive vehicles. Developers also hinted that setting explosive charges would not be as simple as pressing a button, but that you'd have to get in and "do the dirty work".

Overall, the Wii version of Call of Duty 3 seems to be shaping up to be on an even level with its predecessors. However, since the Wii version lacks a multiplayer mode, players who own more than one console may have to decide which features they would prefer. Also, it's worth noting that while it may not be quite as shiny as the Xbox 360 or PS3 builds, the game doesn't look nearly as bad as some of the screenshots make it appear.