About two weeks ago, I received an email from the new Community Manager for
Treyarch. He had invited several members of the Call of Duty community to come out to LA and visit Treyarch for an early sneak peak at the next game in the Call of Duty series.
While we have all heard rumors regarding where and when the next Call of Duty game was taking place. These where still just rumors, so I jumped at the chance to get to hear from the guys who where actually working on the game and get an early preview of the next Call of Duty game.
It was almost a year ago when we where all out at Infinity Ward, the original developers of the Call of Duty franchise, taking an early look at Modern Warfare. Yes, the game that took the PC and console by storm.
While it has been an exciting year for the Call of Duty franchise we where looking forward to getting back to the roots of the franchise back to the war to end all wars, WWII
It's been a great year for Call of Duty 4 and IW has done some amazing things like supporting the game with small, frequent patches, releasing some amazing extra maps and blow everyone else out of the water so it was exciting to see what Treyarch can bring to the franchise this time around.
Treyarch, founded in 1996 and merged with Grey Matter Interactive in 2005 is owned by Activsion the publisher of the Call of Duty series. Activsion also owns Infinity Ward.
Treyarch was the developers behind Call of Duty 3, the console only version of the game. Grey Matter was responsible for Call of Duty: United Offense which was very successful PC version, which many of you say was the best version of the series.
While some of the console players may be concerned with the past CoD game from Treyarch. It should be noted that they had about 8 months to release CoD 3. This time around they have been working on CoD:WW for close to two years. Some say they may have even been rushed to get CoD3 out the door. Treyarch will be quick to say they are not going to make that mistake again.
I want to first explain that this preview is more of a sneak peak. Just like last year's early preview of CoD:MW, we where not able to actually play the game. However we where shown actual in-game footage by Treyarch's developers in real time, while answering many of our questions.
Also because our day was fast paced, we really did not get any time to take notes during this preview. All my notes where written from memory at the airport after leaving Treyarch that night. I was also home for only a day before leaving for work the following week. I was very short on time to prepare this piece. I will be following up soon after with any corrections and will post accordingly.
Let's get started:
For the first time sense the franchise started, this Call of Duty game will not be numbered. Instead, it will simply be know as:
Call of Duty:World at War. Treyarch tells us the correct abbreviation is
CoD:WW
We are headed back to WWII but this time the game will cover the Pacific theater, which will be a first for the CoD franchise. Not only does CoD:WW cover the Pacific it also takes us into the boots of the Russians moving towards Berlin via the Western front
CoD:WW is built upon the current CoD tech engine that powers the very popular and successful CoD:MW game. However Treyarch has had an opportunity to do some polishing and a bit of their own custom coding for their version of Call of Duty.
I'm going to cover more or less the tech/features behind this CoD:WW then the maps we were shown at the preview. To be honest, you should have already read about the maps and seen the trailer via the larger print and general media sites. I want to cover the details for the hard core fans.
Game Rating:There was no 13 year olds fighting in the Pacific so why would they try and give this game a T rating. It's nice to know they are looking at an M rating this time. Yes for the first time in the CoD series we are getting the blood, sweat and bad language we have been longing for in a macho WWII FPS game.
I will say I was shocked at some of the footage in the opening scene. The one where we saw a US prisoner, having a lit cigarette put out in his eye, and then having his throat cut, spraying blood all over the walls.
Also several times I heard the F word in game when the enemy surprised the Marines. While CoD:WW is nothing like GTA, I would call if more like Saving Private Ryan. They use the blood and gore where you would expect it. It's not over done to try and impress the older players/customers.
With that said, there will be a parental control option for those who would like to tone things down a bit.
Sound:Again the CoD series does an excellent job at capturing the sounds of the weapons you will be handling. However this time Treyarch has put a little more effort into how you hear these sounds in game.
All sounds in game are location based, meaning that a weapon being fired by an enemy in SP or MP will react to it's environment. Tossing a grenade into a bunker will sound completely different when standing outside then how it sounds when in the same room, or when on the same side of a cement wall. They have taken the long hard road at getting this right and to be honest, you have to hear it with your own ears to appreciate what they have done.
Sound alone will take MP to the next level. Not only are the weapons and combat location based but the music is also location based. Gone is the map/level sound track and it's impressive. The guys at Treyarch say invest in a good 5.1 sound system to take full advantage of all their hard work.
Lighting:Now we all know CoD:MW has some amazing lighting effects and filters. However Treyarch has done a little more to enhance your immersion into the game.
Moving from outdoors to indoors will affect your vision. Your vision will take a few seconds to adjust to the change in environment. For example, running into a dimly lit bunker will have you at a disadvantage for 1 or 2 seconds before you will be able to see clearly. This is a very cool and interesting effect that TBH should have been done by other developers long before now.
Looking up at the sun will temporarily blind you for a few seconds. Again, this brings a whole new ambiance level to MP alone. Using flares in MP will be like the modern day flash bangs. You can use them to your advantage to gain the upper hand. It's simple yet effective and very nicely done in CoD:WW
Water:Hell, you're in the Pacific....
So you may have tried to play Crysis on your mid range PC only to be let down. I will say, the water effect in COD:WW looks amazing and almost as good as Crysis. Not only does the water look good, you can now swim under it but you will only have a limited time while holding your breath. Again this brings a whole new level to MP.
Objects float or sink depending on their characteristics as well as a fully rendered ocean bottom. You will also see bullets steak by under water just like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan.
Fire:Where there's water there has to be fire. Yes, it's been a while since we had a flame thrower in game. Now not only do we have a flame thrower but the fire burns brush and wooden buildings just like in the real world.
You can throw down a wall of flames and depending on the direction of the wind it will travel and burn everything in it's path. The enemy reacts to fire just like you would in real life.
It seems as though they have spent some serious time getting this right. While they are still working on MP balancing it does look and work well in SP. I was amazed at how the vegetation burned and the fire spread to a building we where shown.
Not only do you have a flame thrower you will also get Molotov Cocktails to do some damage with. Fire is stopped in it's tracks by water. Water effects fire just like you would expect it to and it's a nice balance between the two.
We were told the flame thrower will be in SP, MP and Co Op. We will cover Co Op in just a bit.
Physics:As mentioned above, fire and water will look amazing and will react with each other. The other cool physics features will be bullet penetration just like COD:MW but this time you can destroy certain structures. We were shown a bamboo hut over the water just off the beach with a small wooden plank leading to it's only entrance.
They showed us how you could escape an attack by shooting out the wooden planks that make up the walls, thus creating a hole to escape from. They also showed us burning a wall with the flame thrower.
Now while we where not shown any heavy concrete destruction it's unknown if you can do the same to brick and concrete walls.
Co Op:Co Op is where you and up to 3 other players can take on a single player level, which is another first for the CoD series. Depending on the number of players you have in game will determine how smart the enemy AI will be. We are told they will be very very smart if you have a full 4 human players playing against the AI.
Co Op will be coming to both the PC and console; however because of the way you would join up or start a SP game, there is no so called dedicated co op server for the PC. This side of the game will act as a listening server.
Split screen console only, you will need a PC for each of the players in Co Op under the PC platform.
Console/PC FPSWhile most of the game play action was shown on the console (because of the media room and ease of use via a projector) we experienced a constant 55+ frames per second if not a solid 60 and they are still polishing it.
Another thing we are told, is the game will take advantage of all those extra cores if you have them and will scale very nicely. One thing to note, we where not given actual system specs. However everyone hinted to the fact that if you can play COD:MW on your PC you can play CoD:WW just fine.
I inquired about scaling with SLI. They are still looking into that. If you're building a rig, they say go for the dual or quad core PC over SLI
DX9 is still good enough for the CoD series and it looks beautiful. So no need to upgrade to Vista and DX10.
Multiplayer:You will get the flamethrower & vehicles in MP. There will be maps for infantry and maps for vehicles. We were told they will have a good selection of maps.
You will be able to switch game types in your map rotations, just like CoD4:MW, you will see location and time based achievements. You will be able to build your classes just like MW, but they will also be incorporating a new squad based feature that I need to follow up on.
PC server side:- Windows, Linux and Anti-Cheat
- All your current COD:MW server features
- I asked about improving HTTP redirect or shall we say fixing, they are looking into it.
- More then likely it will be the same server side setup. Upload the whole DVD just like COD4:MW
Maps and mods:OK, this is one area that they kept wanting to talk about. They are big into being able to mod this game once it's released.
They will be working on tools, guides, sample scripts and even video tutorials. They may not make the ship date but they should be released soon afterwards.
Conclusion:
While things can change and promises be broken, I have the same impressions I had when I saw IW's Modern warfare last year.
Not only am I impressed by what I saw regarding the game, I'm impressed by a development team who showed a passion for the game they are developing.
I don't know what Activision does or how they motivate their in house developers but other publishers should take note.
Treyarch reminds me of the IW guys last year. Look how great that turned out to be. I will say I am ready to head back to WWII and step into a different theater.
I said it last year with IW, if Treyarch can deliver 1/2 of what they promise or have shown us, it will be one hell of a game.
As of right now, Call of Duty World at War is scheduled for a fall '08 release.
We are told we will be getting some in game screenshots within the next couple days. I will try and answer any questions you may have.
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