Console exclusive Call of Duty 3 receives an unofficial PC port

After 20 years of console exclusivity, Call of Duty 3 has arrived on PC

If you want to play all Call of Duty games on PC, I’ve got bad news: you can’t. Well, at least not officially. Before Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (the original), the series had separate histories on PC and consoles. That means the earliest Call of Duty console games aren’t available on PC, including Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty: Big Red One, and Call of Duty 3. Yes, PC gamers have Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4, but no Call of Duty 3.

Thanks to a static compilation project, gamers have created an unofficial PC version of Call of Duty 3. This new version is based on the Xbox 360 version and translates its original PowerPC code to native x86-64 PC code. This means that owners of Call of Duty 3’s Xbox 360 version can now play the game on PC using an image of their game disc and the CoD3Recomp project.

Thanks to this project, PC gamers can play Call of Duty 3’s 15-mission campaign. Better still, PC gamers can now run the game at 4K, FXAA/MSAA, framerates above 60 FPS, and FOV options between 65 and 100 degrees. While the project isn’t complete (the current version is 0.4.0), the game is playable.

It may be unofficial, but Call of Duty 3 now has a native PC version

While the project still has bugs, it has righted a historical injustice by bringing Call of Duty 3 to PC. In time, we may see similar recompilation projects for Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. That said, both games are considered playable on PC through emulation with PCSX2.

Right now, the CoD3Recomp project supports Xbox 360 disc images for the USA and European versions of Call of Duty 3. Other versions are unsupported.

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