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Ubisoft sale, free dino hunts and Riley time headline Steam weekend
Steam is making a strong case for a mini-staycation this weekend. Festivities kick off today with the Ubisoft Publisher Sale, which lasts until February 24 and offers discounts of up to 75% across just about every Ubisoft game on Steam. Daily deals, additional discounts on select games, will further add to the temptation to spend. Don't want to spend any cash? Steam thought of that. Both Orion: Dino Horde, a multiplayer shooter that pits man against dinosaur, and Call of Duty: Ghosts, a game that pits Riley the dog against helicopters, are free to play this weekend. Should you wish to buy after you try, Orion is available for $1 and Ghosts is reduced to $30. Finally, Bohemia Interactive's military sandbox game Arma 3 is 40% off this weekend and available for $36. The game features a variety of single-player and multiplayer operations, and allows active personnel to edit certain gameplay scenarios and employ custom mods. [Image: Activision]
Call of Duty now takes three years to make, three studios keep it annual
Activision has announced a new three-year development cycle for upcoming Call of Duty games, starting with this year's release. This move, which will still see individual Call of Duty games coming out annually, cements Sledgehammer Games as one of Activision's primary Call of Duty developers alongside Infinity Ward and Treyarch, which are respectively responsible for Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Each studio's game will take three years to develop, staggered for release on an annualized schedule. "This will give our designers more time to envision and innovate for each title. Simultaneously, it will give our content creators more focus on DLC and micro-DLC which, as you know, have become large and high-margin opportunities and significant engagement drivers," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said during an annual earnings call today. "Finally, we'll give our teams more time to polish, helping ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our fans – each and every time." Hirshberg went on to say that Activision "needed a third studio capable of delivering the level of excellence required for the West's biggest interactive entertainment franchise" and that Sledgehammer Games fits the bill. "They demonstrated their skill on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and on their past highly-rated games." This year's Call of Duty game has yet to be officially announced. Sledgehammer's last game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, launched in late 2011 and was well-received by critics. [Image: Activision]
Call of Duty: Ghosts' Onslaught DLC hits PlayStation, PC February 27
Call of Duty: Ghosts' Onslaught DLC will launch on February 27 for PC, PS4 and PS3. The DLC pack first arrived on Xbox One and Xbox 360 late last month. As the first map pack for the game, Onslaught brings four new maps in addition to a dual-purpose assault and sniper rifle known as "Maverick." The DLC also includes the first episode in Extinction, a four-part episodic story. Onslaught costs $15 as a stand-alone addition to Ghosts, and is also included in the game's $50 season pass. [Image: Infinity Ward]
Call of Duty: Ghosts title update docks alongside Onslaught DLC
In addition to the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts' latest Onslaught DLC, Infinity Ward brought forth a patch for the game. While the DLC is currently only available for Xbox One and Xbox 360 players, the title update applies to all platforms, hitting Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC today before coming to PS3 and PS4 owners tomorrow. The update adds eSports rules to the Clan vs. Clan playlist as well as a Hunted FFA and Gun Game playlists, the latter replacing Heavy Duty, which was just added in December. Infinity Ward's patch also adds a social feed to look at when you're not shooting people and some new menu music to listen to when you're not thinking about death and destruction. The Extinction game mode also earns five new Prestige ranks in the update. Platform-specific changes are a bit more sparse, as PS4 players can enjoy a more optimized remote play experience on Vita. Additionally, Xbox One owners should have fewer issues using the Kinect's voice recognition options, and players on both Xbox platforms should now have no functionality issues when a split-screen guest signs out. The full list of changes in the game's update can be found on Infinity Ward's forums.
Tour the new maps in Call of Duty: Ghosts 'Onslaught' DLC
Onslaught, the first map pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts, launches exclusively on Xbox 360 and Xbox One tomorrow. In preparation of the launch, Microsoft has put together a pair of in-depth walkthrough videos covering the four new maps and the Maverick, a dual-purpose assault rifle and sniper rifle. Call of Duty: Ghosts launched late last year on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii U and PC. Onslaught, along with subsequent DLC packs, will be available as timed exclusives on Xbox before they're released to other platforms. Onslaught includes four new multiplayer maps, the ability to turn into Michael Myers (of Halloween fame) in the "Fog" map, the aforementioned Maverick gun and the first supplemental episode in wave-based battle mode Extinction, which follows an alien outbreak at a remote research facility in the Alaskan wilderness.
Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught ad tries to make 'CODnapping' happen
This live-action ad for Call of Duty: Ghosts' Onslaught DLC features good-natured things like kidnapping, questionable priorities and family abandonment. The DLC includes four new maps and the ability to play as Michael Meyers of Halloween fame, and will launch January 28 on Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Beat and shoot-em-up in former Titanfall, God of War devs' To The Death
Indie developers Scary Mostro and Section Studios launched their Kickstarter campaign for To The Death today. The game combines beat-em-up and arcade shooter elements together, as players control one of two warriors that are dashing towards one another, hacking away at everything in their path. As To The Death's story goes, the warriors killed each other and are now stuck in The Crawl, a purgatory-like world between life and death. The two studios are led by developers with a deep history in the industry, with To The Death's game design and engineering coming from Scary Mostro's Todd Alderman and Francesco Gigliotti. Both Alderman and Gigliotti are credited as lead designer and engineer respectively at Infinity Ward on the Call of Duty series, and later worked on Titanfall for Respawn Entertainment. Likewise, To The Death's art direction comes from Section Studios Creative Director Cecil Kim, visual development lead for God of War 3. To The Death is in development for PC, Mac and Linux with early access tentatively planned for August. Scary Mostro and Section Studios are seeking $400,000 by February 19 to fund its development.
Call of Duty: Ghosts update improves Xbox 360 Broadcaster stability
Players who have suffered a game crash bug while broadcasting in Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360 should find the game is now more amenable after a new update. Broadcaster mode is Infinity Ward's take on the CODCast mode found in Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, allowing players to set up private matches and offer dynamic viewing angles for better spectating and shoutcasting. In addition to resolving the game crash bug in Broadcaster mode, this update adds a kill feed display to Broadcaster mode, restricts certain perks while playing in competitive matches and disables the third-person spectator camera in private matches.
Call of Duty: Ghosts launches an Onslaught of screens
Call of Duty has come a long way since its WW2 days. Michael Myers? Giant spider things? The Onslaught DLC for Ghosts is a bit different from the CoD of seven years back. Infinity Ward spilled the beans on the game's first DLC this week: Onslaught features four new maps, a new weapon in the form of the Maverick dual-purpose assault-rifle/sniper-rifle, and the first chapter of a four-part Extinction campaign. The screenshot with the creepy trailer and campfire comes from the Fog map, and if you complete a certain field order in Fog, you get to become Michael Myers. What that means is you don the mask and axe, and other players (with sense) run away from you, all while the Halloween music plays. Sounds neat to us. Onslaught hasn't got a long way to go before it hits Xbox One and Xbox 360 marketplaces on January 28 - no news yet on an ETA for other platforms.
Onslaught drop date confirmed for Call of Duty: Ghosts [update: trailer!]
Update: A new trailer confirms a lot of the details below, including how players can transform into Michael Myers on the new Fog map - other players will want to get a-running when that happens. It also details the first chapter, Nightfall, of the four-part Extinction campaign. As for the launch date, it's confirmed that it only applies to the Xbox One and Xbox 360. It's official: Call of Duty Ghosts gets its first DLC, Onslaught, on January 28, True to series form, the due date first cropped up on a GameStop display, but Infinity Ward provided official confirmation last night. There's no confirmation the date only applies to the game's Xbox versions, as the display noted, but that would be in line with Activision's timed exclusivity announcement at E3. As for what's in the DLC, that big spidery thing is coming to Extinction, for one. There's also an air of Extinction to Infinity Ward's newly teased video, with what sounds very much like the Halloween music in the background - maybe something to do with the Mike Myers custom game? We know there's a four-part Extinction campaign spread across the four announced DLC packs, and the GameStop display noted - surprise surprise - the first part is in Onslaught. If the display is accurate, you can also expect four maps called Fog, Bayview, Containment, and Ingition, as well as a Maverick AR & Sniper rifle thrown in for good measure. As for the price, there's no new intel on that for the time being.
The Call of Duty Championship comes back to California in March
The top Call of Duty teams in the world will gather in Los Angeles on March 28 to battle in this year's Call of Duty Championship. The tournament, sponsored by Xbox, has a $1 million prize pool and is centered around this year's game, Call of Duty: Ghosts. The top teams will be chosen from qualifier rounds in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The preliminary rounds begin this month – a full list is available over on MLG – with a total of 32 teams being chosen to go on to LA for the finals after the qualifiers. The road to the finals will be broadcast on both Xbox Live and MLG.tv, as will the finals themselves. Last year's winner, Fariko Impact, walked away with $400,000.
Call of Duty: Ghosts update adds new 'Heavy Duty' mode
Call of Duty: Ghosts has issued a new update across all platforms. The update, which adds a new Heavy Duty game mode, is available right now on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 and PC. Heavy Duty is a new multiplayer playlist where each soldier spawns with additional health. On top of the new mode, this update adds additional weapon loadout options for Infected mode and your Squad will now earn extra squad points during their first five levels of progression. This update also invalidates an invisibility exploit that was plaguing the Call of Duty: Ghosts online experience as well as instances where players could trigger unlimited perks when playing. There are also a multitude of platform-specific fixes addressed in this update, all of which you can read about in the full update notes over on the Call of Duty forums.
Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer is a season pass sample platter
Activision has passed along some intel on the four DLC packs guaranteed by the Call of Duty: Ghosts season pass: Onslaught, Devastation, Invasion and Nemesis. Hey, that spells Odin! Can we get a Thor skin?
Call of Duty: Ghosts skin swaps out Riley for a big bad wolf
In Call of Duty: Ghosts, there is a killstreak where you can summon Riley, the guard dog featured in the campaign, to take out rival players. Activision has introduced a new premium skin on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, replacing Riley with a white wolf for $1.99. Did we mention that Jon Snow's white direwolf is named Ghost? Gosh, what a coincidence!
Call of Duty: Ghosts scares off Lego Marvel Super Heroes in UK charts
Even the combined power of Lego Marvel Super Heroes failed to bust Ghosts, after the latest Call of Duty made it two weeks in a row as the UK's best-seller. Activision released the Xbox One version of Ghosts ahead of the console's launch this week, and it reached 10th in the individual formats charts. Combined with the already charting PS4 version, that's a lot of Brits already ready for some next-gen CoD. While Lego Marvel Super Heroes couldn't soar right to the top, Chart Track says its first week performance is the second best for a Lego game ever. The Lego game that bettered it? Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. There are two other debutantes in the UK top 40, with PS3 platformer Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus coming in 21st and standalone expansion XCOM: Enemy Unknown a little lower in 25th. Otherwise, as far as the UK charts is concerned it's the calm before the storm. The Xbox One kicks off the next-gen pandemonium on November 22, then the following week it's the PlayStation 4 on November 29.
Day-one patch bumps CoD: Ghosts campaign to 1080p on PS4
Retail copies of Call of Duty: Ghosts will require a patch on PlayStation 4 in order to fix resolution problems that stem from a "configuration issue" in the game's single player campaign. Players that dive into the game's single-player missions without the update would encounter a campaign mode that is upscaled from 720p as opposed to the game's expected 1080p resolution. "Call of Duty: Ghosts runs natively at 1080p on the PlayStation 4. There was a configuration issue in the retail version on single player mode only," Activision told Joystiq in a statement. "This has been addressed with a day one software update. People will be able to download the day one update when PlayStation 4 launches in their territory and play at native 1080p." Infinity Ward Executive Producer Mark Rubin said in late October that the game runs at a native resolution of 1080p (1920x1080) on PS4 and that the developer "optimized each console to hit 60 FPS and the game looks great on both."
Call of Duty: Ghosts tops this week's UK charts
There are no frights in the UK's Halloween charts, where Call of Duty: Ghosts is of course the new number one. That said, there is one surprising presence in its retail showing: Behind a 62 percent share of the sales on Xbox 360 and 34 percent on PS3, the PS4 comes in as the game's third best-selling platform at 3 percent - beating the Wii U. Activision released the game's PS4 version ahead of the console's UK launch on November 29, and you'd have to say it's performed well for something that can't even be played yet. It's not all sunshine and lollipops for Activision, as retail sources told MCV that Ghosts' UK launch sales are 50 percent down on last year's Black Ops 2. if MCV's figures are accurate, they're likely to do with the impending next-gen launches. We'll see just how much they account for when the Xbox One and PS4 arrive later this month. As for what's going on beneath Ghosts, former no. 1 Assassin's Creed 4 tumbles to third, while Battlefield 4 holds steady in second. Meanwhile, the relatively early arrival of Professor Layton fails to enchant the top ten, with concluding chapter Azran Legacy debuting in 13th.
Call of Duty: Ghosts scene very similar to Modern Warfare 2's ending
Internet sleuths have found Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 share some strikingly similar sequences. Did Infinity Ward reproduce or re-purpose animations and assets from Modern Warfare 2 for Ghosts? It's hard to argue against this side-by-side comparison video. We've reached out to Activision for comment and will update this post when we hear back.
Activision: Call of Duty: Ghosts has shipped $1 billion worth into retail
The video game industry is now a battle of billion dollar launches, with Activision announcing this morning that Call of Duty: Ghosts has shipped a billion dollars worth of the game into retail. The semi-awkward victory lap comes on the day Activision is set to announce its second quarter results. "Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick as part of the announcement – a very, very accurate assessment. "And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it's launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular." The billion dollar mark was likely chosen to contrast the game's accomplishment with that of Grand Theft Auto 5, which sold $1 billion to consumers in three days, where as Call of Duty shipped a billion dollars worth of game to retail stores. Call of Duty: Ghosts was the "most pre-ordered" game at GameStop this year.
Metareview: Call of Duty - Ghosts
It's seriously lacking in Swayze, but Call of Duty: Ghosts still notches three and a half stars in our review. According to Xav, the latest entry in Activision's flagship shooter series "is a solid installment, but it lacks creativity and innovation." If you'd literally like to hear more of his thoughts on Ghosts, be sure to check out his video review, too. You might be surprised to learn that our review of the new Call of Duty isn't the only one out there. Yes, the Meta-verse is brimming with Ghosts-ly opinions, including full marks from one outlet. Here's a brief sampling of what the rest of the world had to say.
