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'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' arrives October 25th with cross-play
The next Call of Duty game is called Modern Warfare. Yes, just like the 2007 game. Yes, it's kind of confusing. Now that's out of the way -- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is scheduled to hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 25th, complete with cross-play capabilities. Plus, it won't have the series' traditional, paid Season Pass for post-launch maps, gear and events. Instead, developer Infinity Ward plans on shipping more free content than they have with past Call of Duty installments.
The next Call of Duty campaign is an emotional hellscape
Jaws, not Saw. That's one of the guiding mantras for the developers building Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this year's installment of the legendary first-person-shooter franchise. Modern Warfare comes out on October 25th and it's at once an homage to the series' history and a completely new vision for Call of Duty, with the single-player campaign thrusting classic characters like Captain John Price into overwrought situations that are ripped from current, real-world headlines.
Call of Duty's three year cycle gives creative 'freedom to fail'
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg mentioned during our recent Gamescom interview that Call of Duty's current studio cycle will keep the franchise in a lifestyle to which the audience has become accustomed. Although Call of Duty may be an annual franchise, it had been a tennis match between two studios, but earlier this year it was revealed the franchise was now on a three-studio cycle. "That extra year of development time, particularly with the new consoles and the more powerful hardware, has really paid off thus far to iterate, innovate and try new things," said Hirshberg. "To find out which things didn't work and have the freedom to fail in the creative process, so what goes on the disc is the best ideas."
Call of Duty case mod has spinning gatling gun, energy drink fridge (hands-on)
We've had our fill of Ultrabooks and tablets at CeBIT, so now it's finally time to move on to the crazy stuff. This over-the-top case mod was awaiting unsuspecting attendees at the far back end of the China pavilion, of all places, and only caught our eye (or ear, rather) thanks to its squeaky gatling gun. It seems that this case first made an appearance at the Taipei Game Show last month, and has now landed on German shores, making a miraculous pass through EU customs to settle here, hidden amongst a hodgepodge of accessories on the outskirts of Hannover. This Thermaltake Level 10 GT chassis was modded by Brian Carter, and is highlighted by a six-barrel rotating gatling gun. There's a bazooka up top where the handle would be, a .50 caliber cartridge on the side and a combination energy drink / hand sanitizer compartment just below. Yes, hand sanitizer. The rotating (and rather noisy) gatling gun makes our hands-on video a must-watch if you're looking to get the full mod experience, so jump past the break and check it out.
CoD: Modern Warfare, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time and more added to PS3 Greatest Hits
Sony has added seven more titles to its North American "Greatest Hits" collection, each with a suggested price of $30. We knew about a couple of these already, but check out the official list after the break.
Pachter: EA, DICE and Respawn will impact future Call of Duty sales
Do you imagine that every morning, when Michael Pachter wakes up, he dons a black robe, a pointy hat, drops a bunch of stuff into a bubbling cauldron and just predicts? Yeah, we do too. What a life, right? His latest portent involves Respawn Entertainment, the new shop of former Infinity Ward-ers Jason West and Vince Zampella, and it goes a little something like this: the Call of Duty franchise will see lowered sales, thanks to more competition in what we like to call 'the near-superhuman military dudes blowing junk up' market. "I think that it is likely that future games will sell fewer units in the past, primarily due to increased competition from Respawn, DICE and EA games that will likely be in the same or similar genres," Pachter said. He also anticipates that many gamers will recognize that West and Zampella are off the franchise, but that "the majority of consumers will either not know or will not care enough to shun future games." The lack of Infinity Ward's branding certainly didn't stop World at War from moving a bajillion units.
Infinity Ward holdouts to receive extra helping of bonuses, says Activision's Amrich
Activision's newly hired community man Dan Amrich took to a Facebook forum recently to spell out the bonus situation for the remaining employees at troubled Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward. Develop spotted Amrich's information-laden responses, which echo and expand on claims made by Activision in its suit against former IW heads Vince Zampella and Jason West (we've clipped the pieces of the lawsuit pertaining to the bonuses and dropped them after the break for you). Specifically, Amrich says that employees who have left IW will not be receiving a cut of West and Zampella's now forfeited bonuses -- bonuses for Modern Warfare 2 were never paid, apparently. "Vince and Jason had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets," Amrich explains. "Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it's still going to the people who work at IW. But you have to work at IW to get it, see? I don't want to see talented people screwed out of a paycheck any more than you do."
Modern Warfare 2 'care package' patch submitted to Microsoft certification
Considering the Xbox 360 received the lion's share of Modern Warfare 2 purchases, it comes as a bit of a shock to us that the already released on PS3 and PC "care package patch" is just now being submitted to Microsoft for certification. That said, developer Infinity Ward's community man Robert Bowling tweeted as much to Game Informer's Andrew Reiner approximately 24 hours ago when Reiner asked about a possible release for the much anticipated fixes. As Bowling has pointed out before (and details in this forum post on the subject), the patch is set to remedy the following (you might need a pillow for all of this pure, unbridled excitement: Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized. Fix for "infinite care package" exploit. Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry. Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s. Fixes to prevent various XP hacks. And no, there's no date given for when it's coming out. So stop asking. (Seriously.) %Gallery-77537%[Via Game Informer]
Metareview: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex
When the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was announced for the Wii, we kinda had to do a double-take on the whole thing. Would one of the current generation's most popular games be done justice on the Wii? Well, according to what few reviews have made their way online, yes ... and no! Nintendo Dpad (85/100): "Overall, the game is just what you would expect from an HD game like Call of Duty 4 being ported to Wii. Everything is there, from the great multiplayer and single player modes, to Wii specific controls that really trump those found on other consoles. The only real bad part is that the graphics needed a major step down for the port, and we would have liked WiiSpeak support for those who prefer that, though it is not necessary." ONM UK (80/100): "Given the extra two years Treyarch had to squeeze every last drop of polish from the Wii, this is underwhelming visually. It looks okay for a Wii game - that's the dreaded caveat - but it's not even up there with Metroid Prime: Corruption. Having said that, Modern Warfare is still an excellent shooter packed with options and it should be a big player online so we can welcome it to the Wii family." IGN (70/100): "Unfortunately, Reflex Edition on Wii just doesn't cut it as a Call of Duty branded game or as a top-tier Wii first-person shooter. The framerate is jumpy, the pointer tracking needs some serious polish, and while most of the elements of COD4 are included, none of them are given enough fine-tuning to truly excel." %Gallery-70451%
Wii's Call of Duty 4 now dubbed 'Modern Warfare: Reflex'
Activision: Yeah, we think we're going to call the Wii game just "Modern Warfare," so people know it's the same game you guys made a couple of years ago. Infinity Ward: ... Huh. Do you realize that we have an inexhaustible amount of cash, a scary amount of weaponry knowledge, a nigh limitless supply of night vision goggles and, as of November 11th, all the free time in the world? Acti: ... You know, we talked it over -- IW: What, just right now? Acti: Yeah, yeah, just right now, just this second. And we decided we should call it Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, just so there's no confusion. IW: Well, if you're sure. Fin. [Via CVG]
Wii's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare screens can't be helped
So, we've got the first screenshots of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Wii, collected in a gallery for your enjoyment below. And to think, we were worried that they wouldn't be able to approach the look of Modern Warfare on the 360 and PS3! Can you imagine? All jokes aside ... have a look at the dead guy in the foreground of the above shot. Does something look a little odd to you? Perhaps a closer look is in order. And those clouds? Didn't we see them in our Betamax copy of Apocalypse Now. Sure, old flat gun here looks like he's in a real screenshot, but if you think about it, that's even more terrifying. %Gallery-70451%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Wii coming Nov. 10 [update]
Just as Modern Warfare 2 is hitting PS3 and Xbox 360 this November 10, Wii will finally be getting something a little less modern in the form of a port of the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, according to Kotaku. The site doesn't divulge the source of its information, but claims the game is being brought to Nintendo's console by Treyarch, developer of Call of Duty: World at War. An official announcement is said to be coming tomorrow; we've contacted Activision for confirmation. Update: Activision has confirmed that the Treyarch-ported "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" will launch on Wii on November 10th.
Modern Warfare 2's Prestige Edition includes fully functioning night vision goggles
Now this is how you do a special edition. Activision and Infinity Ward look to be going all out for its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 "Prestige Edition," with not only the usual accoutrements like a special casing and an art book, but also what is described by Community Manager Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling as a "fully functioning NVGs -- night vision goggles." No idea how well they work, but it's got alternating modes and MW2 branding. That's pretty awesome, but we gotta imagine it's gonna demand a pretty penny -- this is definitely more than that $80 "collector's edition" for $80 GameStop is currently listing. You won't be able to get your actual hands on the game until November at the earliest, so in the meantime, hit up the read link to get a glimpse of the "official" unboxing.Update: Joystiq's reporting it's gonna cost $149.99 for the prestige bundle.[Thanks, Joey]
