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Call of Duty: Ghosts gets rickety skyscraper as pre-order bonus
It's preemptive business as usual with Call of Duty: Ghosts, which now boasts a pre-order incentive in the form of a multiplayer map. Dubbed "Free Fall," the freebie environment is meant to reflect the dynamic events that characterize and alter the environments in this iteration of Call of Duty's multiplayer suite. Taking place in the halls of a skyscraper on the verge of collapse, Free Fall represents "just one of the many new approaches we're putting into Ghosts' multiplayer across the board," says Executive Producer Mark Rubin. "There's so much more that we look forward to sharing in the weeks to come." The weeks to come – between now and the game's PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 launch on November 5 – will likely be spent cleaning up the wide-scale urban damage left after Activision's skyscraper motion-capture session.%Gallery-192851%
Call of Duty: Ghosts built with 'cinema quality' art assets
We had the opportunity to chat with Call of Duty: Ghosts Executive Producer Mark Rubin during E3, but instead of asking how many guns the latest installment has, we decided to focus on tech and art. Rubin explains how the next-gen console architectures being so close to PCs will likely help all developers, from the mega studios, like Infinity Ward, to basement developers like Sally Perkins (you'll hear about her in five years). He also goes on to explain how Infinity Ward has reworked its art flow to benefit all platforms.%Gallery-190819%
Call of Duty: Ghosts exorcises several gameplay videos
Get the behind-closed-doors E3 experience with these gameplay videos for Call of Duty: Ghosts. We say that, because if you go to check out the game at the show, these videos are what you're going to see. And you get to do it without the cacophony of show floor noise and with the luxury of doing it in your pajamas to boot. Lucky! Above is the underwater gameplay of "Into the Deep." If you've got any drowning issues, it's probably best to skip that one. After the break we've got next-gen dog attack technology in "No Man's Land," along with the 28-minute Call of Duty: Ghosts presentation from Sunday night. The only video exclusive to E3 at this time is "Federation Day," which finds a squad of soldiers infiltrating a building by rappelling down it and then attempting to escape as the skyscraper collapses, but that should be available sometime after the mega convention concludes. %Gallery-190819%
Call of Duty: Ghosts trailers come in by land, sea
Activision has deployed a pair of Call of Duty: Ghosts trailers, each highlighting a different mission from Infinity Ward's latest – one a romp through a sullen forest, the other an underwater jaunt. Who knew guns worked underwater?
Call of Duty: Ghosts' new engine still iterative, not built from scratch
When Infinity Ward talks about Call of Duty: Ghosts' new engine, the term "new" carries an implied asterisk, at least according to animation lead Zach Volker. "When we're talking about a new engine, we're talking about upgrading significant systems within in that engine – we're not talking about throwing it all away and saying we're starting from the ground up," Volker told Official PlayStation Magazine UK. Creating a brand-new, from-scratch engine on Infinity Ward's production timeline would require "an army of 200 engineers" according to Volker, so the distinction of "new" is made by how significantly upgraded the latest version of the engine is, as compared to the last. "We say okay, what are the things that are significant," Volker said, "that are encompassing of the engine or its visual quality? Are those being upgraded in a significant way? Alright then, I think that warrants that we've got a new engine on our hands."
Call of Duty: Ghosts has Kinect voice commands on Xbox One
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has confirmed that the Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Ghosts will have some form of Kinect voice commands. Speaking to VentureBeat, Hirshberg said, "I made a passing comment that you're going to see voice integration, voice commands via Kinect, which is something that we haven't done in the past with Call of Duty." He added that the improvements made to Kinect for Xbox One "really excite" the publisher. Hirshberg also reassured fans that Kinect support won't be careless. "We've always made sure that we don't just use new technology for novelty's sake, he said. "We always make sure that it makes the gameplay better. In this case, we think it will." He didn't elaborate on what the voice commands might be, but we imagine they will be something along the lines of, "Come here! Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy? Yes, you are. Yes, you are!"
Call of Duty: Ghosts confirmed for PS4
In formality news, developer Infinity Ward took to Twitter to confirm Call of Duty: Ghosts for the PS4, in addition to the PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. In related news, the death of announcements featuring the phrase "next-generation platforms" is blissfully upon us. At the Xbox One event, Activision revealed it's continuing its exclusivity agreement with Microsoft on Call of Duty DLC. So, the one missing link regards Ghosts remains the Wii U, which Activision is staying quiet about.
Comparing next-gen Call of Duty dogs in Ghosts to MW3 dogs
With the next generation of the Call of Duty engine, Activision studios will be able to produce curved objects with realism never before seen in the series. In layman's terms, that means the dogs will look really good - just look at Ghost Dog compared to MW3 Dog. Woof!
Inhabit one soldier (and his dog) in Call of Duty: Ghosts
The next-generation engine debuted in Call of Duty: Ghosts will not only power the franchise's signature 60 frames-per-second gameplay, but a more coherent experience overall. According to Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin, Ghosts will stick with the same protagonist and squad of soldiers throughout the game. "If you look at Call of Duty in general, you're on the high-tech, super-powered forces. You're America, you're strong, you're Britain, Germany," Rubin told Joystiq at a recent press event in Los Angeles. "It just felt like, what if we could reverse those roles a bit, what if we had America as the underdog and not the superpower? What if we had some other countries as the big superpower and we're fighting against this more technologically superior force. And so that is really where we got: now we've got this technologically superior super force, they devastate the western world, the US, with a weapon of mass destruction of some kind - I'm not going to go into that, it will come later, and what we did is we had that event start the game, but the story picks up ten to fifteen years later and you as a soldier grew up in this new changed world." That soldier will be a focal point for the game, Rubin said, and won't contribute to the fractured, multi-perspective narratives for which the series has drawn ire in the past. "It's not like before where you have these multiple sides and trot around. You're pretty much the same person throughout." You'll also be accompanied by a Navy SEAL dog (not to be confused with a Moreau-style seal-dog), which can sniff out dangers and aid the team in several ways as a companion AI of sorts. As you might expect from a production of Ghosts' caliber, Infinity Ward did full motion capture on a retired SEAL dog.
Call of Duty: Ghosts written by 'Syriana' and 'Traffic' scribe Stephen Gaghan
The latest Call of Duty, dubbed Ghosts, has drafted Syriana and Traffic writer Stephen Gaghan to provide its fiction. Games don't get more Hollywood than Call of Duty, and Activision has shown little hesitance in acquiring composers and writers from the silver screen to aid in its ever bigger and brasher efforts. Gaghan's work on Traffic, a dour crime drama, and political thriller Syriana made him a standout candidate for Ghosts. The game follows the remainder of the US military in a world scarred by a weapon of mass destruction. According to developer Infinity Ward, Gaghan didn't swoop in and drop off a script – he requested an office, and worked from one amidst the game's single-player team all throughout the game's production. That's a sterling gesture, but I asked Call of Duty: Ghosts executive producer Mark Rubin to explain why Gaghan was deemed suitable to write for players, not viewers. "Basically, we looked at his work – he's a great writer, no doubt about it and that's fine, there are probably lots of great writers out there," Rubin said. "So what we did is we actually got the chance to talk to him a long time before we decided to go forward with it. And we realized he was getting it. We've had writers before, and they know how to write, but they don't understand the game aspect of it. "And I feel like with Gaghan, he really understood what we were trying to do. He asked more questions than try to sell himself, and that was, I think, a really big selling point. He was asking how things work and how we do things, and was really interested in how we craft the story, not from a writing standpoint but from the visuals and gameplay. He was really asking more questions. Although he was a gamer – he knew it from that side – he didn't know it from the dev side. He really was asking a lot of questions about the dev side, he really wanted to know more. I think that interest in what we were doing is really what drove us to him."
Call of Duty: Ghosts announced; next-gen powered by new engine
Confirming rumors, Activision has revealed the next game in its billion-dollar shooter franchise, titled Call of Duty: Ghosts. The military-based FPS will arrive on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 5, and on "next-generation platforms" on an unspecified date. No Wii U version was announced. A press release reveals the next-gen version of Ghosts will sport an all-new engine "from the developer that started it all, Infinity Ward." The series has been using the same engine, with numerous annual modifications, since 2005. Saying it would have been "safe" for Infinity Ward to develop a fourth entry in the Modern Warfare series, Mark Rubin, executive producer of developer Infinity Ward, noted his team saw the next generation of consoles as the "perfect opportunity" to start a new chapter for the franchise. "So we're building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players," he added. Activision will debut the next-gen version of Call of Duty: Ghosts – and revealing its new engine to the world – during Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 'Next Generation' event on May 21. Ghosts features an "all-new gameplay experience built on an entirely new story, setting and cast of characters," the press release further detailed. An onslaught of additional info and explosion-filled marketing is expected closer to E3 2013. Update: The website theghostsarereal.com – designed to look like an official Activision site – lists Wii U as a platform for the next Call of Duty title. Activision tells Joystiq the website is not owned or operated by the publisher. No Wii U version has been announced.%Gallery-187305%
Report: Spanish retailer lists Call of Duty: Ghosts for Wii U and PC
While both UK retailer Tesco and Target pegged an as-yet-unheard-of entry in the Call of Duty series for November 5 on Xbox 360 and PS3, a listing for the same game recently popped up on Spanish retailer Xtralife. In this case, Xtralife's listing includes PC and Wii U versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts, along with a November 11 release date.Since we still can't prove that this game is anything more than an apparition, we've contacted Activision for comment.
Call of Duty: Ghosts listed at multiple retailers for PS3, Xbox 360
Call of Duty: Ghosts emerges from the darkness thanks to Target and UK retailer Tesco, with the former advertising a release date of November 5. Meanwhile, a Tesco listing notes a release date of December 30 - early November is the traditional Call of Duty ETA. The box art posted on Tesco (see below the break for a snippet) features Infinity Ward's logo.We know (as if we didn't before) that Activision has another edition of its shooter series slated for this year. "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation," company CFO Dennis Durkin said during Activision's February earnings call, "And we expect the new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher."We've reached out to Activision for comment.
Jason West leaves Respawn Entertainment [Update: Zampella confirms]
Jason West, co-founder of Respawn Entertainment (and co-founder of Infinity Ward, which he and Vince Zampella left amid a series of suits, countersuits, balloon payments, settlements, and just general craziness) has left Respawn, according to Kotaku's sources, citing "family issues."A source tells the site that West has not been involved with Respawn's first game, published by EA, which will likely make an appearance at E3 this summer. The source asserts that West has actually been gone since the settlement of the Activision/Infinity Ward lawsuit last year.Update: On the official Respawn site, fellow co-founder and Infinity Ward-alum Vince Zampella has confirmed the news of West's departure. Jason has left Respawn to take care of some family issues. We have worked together on some amazing accomplishments over the years, starting with an early Segasoft project that never shipped. It is sad to see things come to an end, but there are times when change is best for growth, both personally and professionally. I wish Jason the best and send my best wishes to his family. Respawn continues to amaze me, the team here is resilient and talented. E3 will be therapeutic for us, as we finally get to start showing our work again. I know the team was excited about the response we got from just admitting we were going to attend.
New Call of Duty slated for 2013
As we've come to expect, Activision has announced that a new entry in the Call of Duty franchise will be released this year. The news comes via Activision's latest earnings call, during which CFO Dennis Durkin said, "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation, and we expect the new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher."Durkin didn't offer further details, such as available platforms or expected release dates. Presumably, it will land on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. It's also widely expected that both Sony and Microsoft will launch new consoles this year, so it's possible we might see the first next-gen iteration of Activision's gargantuan franchise. As for the release date, we're going to go out on a limb and guess November.The most recent entry in the series, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (pictured), helped push Activision's profits last year, making 2012 the most successful year in the company's history.
Infinity Ward animator talks first-person flourishes
Chance Glasgo, a first-person animator at Infinity Ward, did a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread last weekend, taking on questions about the complicated weapon animations seen in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. You should read through the whole thread if you're interested, but PC Gamer has kindly grabbed some of the most fascinating insights.Glasgo says that "most serial numbers on guns in CoD have significance" of some kind, whether it's just a reference to his workout gym of choice, or a hint to something in the game's larger mythology.He also explains that while gun aficionados will often tell him he's made some sort of technical mistake in rendering realistic weapons, the choice to do things differently is simply creative. For example, you're never supposed to point a real gun anywhere but forward even while reloading it, but following that rule would make some of these just so ... boring.
Modern Warfare 2 map taken down after controversy over Islamic imagery
The "Favela" map has been temporarily removed from Modern Warfare 2 following the discovery of, and complaints about, items found in the map that are potentially offensive to Muslim gamers.The protest video above details the offensive item: a frame containing a quote from the Prophet Mohammed, hanging above a toilet – "a disrespectful place" as YouTube user "KhaleDQ84EveR" puts it. In response to the discovery of this image, Activision is planning to remove the image from both Modern Warfare 2 and 3 via separate title updates, the publisher told Kotaku.In the meantime, the map is down.
Modern Warfare 3's last content collection arriving on PS3 and PC October 10
The last content bundle for Modern Warfare 3 is finally headed out to PlayStation and the PC on October 10, according to Infinity Ward's Twitter account. The content collection (which arrived on Xbox 360 back in the beginning of September) includes five different maps, called Decommission, Off Shore, Gulch, Boardwalk, and Parish. Call of Duty Elite subscribers will be able to grab the last three levels a day early, on October 9.This is, of course, the last scheduled content pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, seeing as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is due out just about a month later. At that point, presumably, those Elite subscriptions will renew, and the cycle of of constant DLC for the biggest shooter series in the world will start up all over again.
Modern Warfare 3's final two DLC packs fully reconnoitered
The year of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 post-launch content is coming to a close, but it's going out with a bang (gun pun fully intended). The Chaos Pack – previously half-detailed – brings three Face Off maps and four Spec-Ops missions, as well as a new mode, dubbed "Special Ops Chaos Mode." It's a wave-based survival mode, albeit with a Spec-Ops twist. The whole shebang launches for Xbox 360 on August 9, with PS3 and PC versions launching later on.In September, MW3 players on 360 get the "Final Assault" pack, which adds five multiplayer maps ("Gulch," "Offshore," "Boardwalk," "Decommission," and "Parish"), two of which are already available on 360. Again, this content arrives on PS3 and PC at a later (unknown) date. As Activision community blog One of Swords points out, Call of Duty's Elite season ends with more content than it originally promised, which seems pretty boss if you ask us. But don't go getting your precedents miscalibrated, as this may not be the case in future years.
Report: Activision may have paid 'tens of millions' to West, Zampella
When ex-Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vince Zampella settled their lawsuit with Activision, it was sudden, shocking, and most of all, secret. Activision paid out an undisclosed sum to West and Zampella just before a full trial was set to begin, and while it is expected the exact amount may never be made public, experts can still make an educated guess.Financial analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen and Company posits that the settlement was worth "tens of millions," Gamespot reports. Considering Activision paid out $42 million to the Infinity Ward Employee Group as part of a separate lawsuit, and West and Zampella were seeking $1 billion when the case reached its bitter peak, this ballpark figure checks out.Activision will report earnings on Thursday, August 2, and Creutz says he expects investors will ignore the impact of the settlement on Activision's bottom line.
