I wonder if that’s how Infinity Ward thought of themselves back then – in the months and years after founders Vince Zampella and Jason West were fired, taking a chunk of the studio with them to form Respawn Entertainment. Perhaps a fantasy about overcoming the impossible was exactly what a skeleton crew needed to hold their nerve and follow up the original Modern Warfare trilogy.

In truth, though, the fear was palpable in Call of Duty: Ghosts (opens in new tab). Without Sledgehammer Games on hand to assist with the campaign, as the studio did for Modern Warfare 3, Infinity Ward seemed unwilling to commit to new ideas in the divisive 2013 release, or to a story that said anything other than ‘soldiers are cool’.

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Mark Rubin, executive producer at the time, described it as the hardest game he’d ever made by far. “I think most people are going to be so exhausted they just want to put this behind them and move on to the next one,” he told Eurogamer (opens in new tab) at the time.

What a difference a generation can make. Jacob Minkoff, campaign gameplay director of the new Modern Warfare (opens in new tab), has described its making as the easiest period of his career. “This studio, everybody knows, has gone through some troubles,” he told Game Informer (opens in new tab). “And it takes some time to build up a team again, to have those bonds forged in blood.”

The result is a game that, for all its flaws, has conviction. The unease isn’t among the dev team but in the subject matter: the muddy morals of western powers spilling Middle Eastern blood in proxy wars; the ambiguity that sees freedom fighters redefined as terrorists overnight. Modern Warfare is the work of a team all pushing in the same direction, confident enough to be brave.

Return to form

It speaks volumes that developers from Respawn returned to Infinity Ward for this project. The corporate culture they ran from has changed for the better; Call of Duty games are now made in three years, not two. It would seem the gutting of Infinity Ward taught publishers a lesson: great studios need to be nurtured with respect and a soft touch, since rebuilding them is a purgatory no amount of money can accelerate. 

It’s ironic that Ghosts marked the nadir of Call of Duty’s stagnation, since it arrived at a time when the series was obsessed with pushing forward. Having moved from World War 2 to the modern day, its developers asked: where’s the next threat coming from?

The question meant that, theoretically, Call of Duty would keep evolving. And that Activision could dodge the controversy that came with the original Modern Warfare trilogy’s depictions of atrocities in airports and on city streets. Far safer, surely, to portray wars rooted in fiction.

It didn’t quite pan out that way. Ghosts proved no less offensive than any Call of Duty that came before it, imagining all of South America ganging up on an underdog US. It was a risible reversal of reality, given that North America spent the Cold War exerting its influence over the continent. What’s more, some fans became increasingly antsy about Call of Duty’s desertion of reality, which rubbed uncomfortably against the series’ long-held promise of authenticity.

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The fact that Call of Duty is seeing out this generation with a reboot campaign – arguably the second in a row, after Sledgehammer brought the series home to WW2 (opens in new tab) – can be seen as a capitulation. Not only are fans unreceptive to speculative stories, but warfare hasn’t moved on, not really. The new Modern Warfare, like its predecessor, is trapped in a loop of western intervention and terrorist retaliation. If Call of Duty wants to pull from the headlines, it can’t help but reflect the post-9/11 mire our world is still stuck in.

The handling of geopolitics remains imperfect, to say the least – despite a new sensitivity to Middle Eastern perspectives, Call of Duty still has a habit of demonising Russians, which led to an easily avoidable upset over Modern Warfare’s take on the Highway of Death (opens in new tab). It seems as if the series is destined to repeat both its successes and its mistakes.

There’s no denying, though, that the games are better now. Since Ghosts, Call of Duty has shaken off the inferiority complex that saw it seek out Hollywood writers, with middling returns. A new strain of Naughty Dog DNA in Infinity Ward means it’s now more capable of writing complex, nuanced character stories than ever.

Modern Warfare is the product of a time when studio welfare is forever on the lips of journalists and developers, and that concern appears to have produced a less rushed, more considered game. It bodes well for the future, even as Call of Duty sees out the generation looking backwards into the one prior.

Inside Modern Warfare (opens in new tab): Exploring Piccadilly, The Embassy, and Urzikstan with Infinity Ward’s narrative designer Taylor Kurosaki.

The post From Ghosts to Modern Warfare: how Infinity Ward evolved Call of Duty this generation appeared first on Game News.

Infinity Ward’s Senior Communications Manager Ashton Williams (opens in new tab) has been tweeting strange, contextless gifs throughout the past month, together featuring clear recurring imagery of skulls and skeletons. Naturally, this has led many to speculate (opens in new tab) that the studio’s next game is a sequel to 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, which took place in the near future and focused on the skull mask brandishing special ops force known as the Ghosts. 

pic.twitter.com/zsImJQULPtJanuary 2, 2019

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However, in a Resetera thread discussing the speculation, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier debunked those predictions (opens in new tab), simply stating “It ain’t Ghosts 2!”, though refrained from revealing anything more. Instead, rumours surfaced last year that Infinity Ward was developing another sequel in its seminal Modern Warfare franchise (opens in new tab), and it is indeed possible that Ghost, a key character from that series, could be its central star, hence Williams’ skull-themed tweets. Ghost died in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, of course, but there’s a strong possibility that 2019’s follow-up could be a prequel, taking place before the events of the trilogy so far.

Traditionally, Call of Duty games aren’t announced until the late Spring of each year, so don’t expect any more news for the next few months. Activision likely still wants to give Black Ops 4 its breathing space, after all, and it’s entirely possible that Williams is just posting spooky skull gifs because spooky skull gifs are cool. Regardless, we want to know what you make of these curious teases, so let us know your thoughts about these strange developments in the comments below. 

We may not know what the next Call of Duty looks like just yet, but here’s the best new games of 2019 (opens in new tab) that are officially scheduled for this year. 

The post Is Infinity Ward already teasing the new Call of Duty? Maybe, but reports say its not Ghosts 2 appeared first on Game News.

Starting with the original Call of Duty, this is a game that’s been putting us in the boots of larger-than-life soldiers in some of the most intense combat moments you could imagine for a long time. Let’s reflect on some of the most memorable moments that have defined the series.

SPOILERS AHEAD, read at your own risk!

15. Menendez’s bloody rampage | Time and Fate | Call of Duty Black Ops II

Very rarely do you get to know the exact motivations behind a psychopathic villain, but in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, you get to witness Raul Menendez’s plight from his own eyes–bloodshot, rage-filled eyes. In a CIA raid to capture Menendez, his sister Josefina is taken from him, sending the antagonist into a murderous frenzy. With nothing but a shotgun, machete, and blind rage, you rampage through the nearby town, slaughtering every soldier that stands in your way. Bullets can’t hurt you, you shrug off grenades, and you attack your victims like a man possessed. What a rush.

14. Saving the ‘President’ | Atlas | Advanced Warfare

Mission 2 of Advanced Warfare is a bit of whirlwind. One minute you’re meeting your slain best friend’s father at a funeral, the next you’re rescuing the Commander-in-Chief from a hostage situation at Camp David. What’s going on? When your shiny new prosthetic arm malfunctions and a colleague shoots the POTUS in the head, it suddenly becomes clear – this overblown, oh-so-CoD mission is just a VR simulation. It’s a miniature twist, and a nice introduction to AW’s future-tech. Also, Kevin Spacey’s all over it, which is always fun.

13. The United States getting nuked from space | Ghost Stories | Call of Duty: Ghosts

To kick off the new setting for Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward brought out the biggest guns they could get: a weaponized space station orbiting right above the United States. As the astronaut Baker, you and your partner witness the Federation hijack the station, gun down its crew, and launch nuclear missiles towards southern California. But what you have to do gets even more insane. As in, get-blown-out-into-space, shoot-any-bad-guys-you-see, then commit-suicide-to-save-the-world kind of insane.

12. Deciding the fate of Alex Mason | Suffer With Me | Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Black Ops II did something that no other Call of Duty campaign had done before: it let you make choices. But one of those choices might’ve passed without you even knowing it happened. The young Mason and Woods have tracked down the murderous extremist, Raul Menendez, who was betrayed by his allies. With a blinding cloth draped over his head, Menendez is displayed in front of Woods, who has a sniper rifle in hand, ready to gun the madman down. You’re given control. You take the shot. But as you inspect the body, you discover that you shot Alex Mason instead! Dun dun dun. Guess you should’ve shot him in the leg, a subtle choice which gives you a completely different ending.

11. Back to WWII | Demon Within | Black Ops 3

CoD fans have spent years campaigning for a return to the battlefields of the past – in cheeky fashion, Black Ops 3 gave them what they wanted. Entering the mind of the dying Sarah Hall (don’t ask), you’re thrust into 1944’s Siege of Bastogne, taking down Nazi threats with tech a century ahead of theirs. Quickly, things get weird(er), as the world starts folding in on itself, Inception-style, gravity begins to turn off, and zombies and direwolves start popping up. It’s all very meaningful, I’m sure.

10. Hijacked plane sequence | Turbulence | Modern Warfare 3

And there we were thinking Modern Warfares breathless airplane-based bonus mission Mile High Club was pretty special. But then MW3s Turbulence comes along and takes in-flight combat to the next level – protecting the Russian president from hijackers in the claustrophobic space of a jet is high-stakes stuff on its own. Then, the engines stall out and the dive sends you into a sequence of zero gravity shooting and a crash landing that rips the aircraft fuselage in two. True action film fare.

9. De-Nazifying the woods | The Forest | Call of Duty 3

A wonderfully paced, rising crescendo of a level. At first requiring a softly-softly snipey-snipey approach, with the relative peacefulness of the forest creating an edgy atmosphere, the player never quite knowing where the next Nazis going to spring from. Then it kicks things up a notch, with the battle intensifying as it moves between tight burrow-like trenches and wide-open spaces. Finally and a complete contrast to the cautious way the mission starts youre given a mortar to play with, allowing you to merrily blow apart any of Hitlers helmeted hobgoblins unfortunate enough to still be lurking in the forest.

8. The Airport Massacre | No Russian | Modern Warfare

“Best” is perhaps not quite the right word for this entry, but it’s undoubtedly one of the series’ most effective, affecting missions. No Russian places you in the shoes of an undercover agent in a terrorist cell. Quickly, you understand just what that asks of you. You enter an airport and are told to mow down everyone you see, regardless of who they are. It’s a video game mission that’s sparked protest, academic study and genuine soul-searching. There’s very little else like it in the medium.

7. Beach landing | The Battle of Pointe du Hoc | Call of Duty 2

Starts with a fellow soldier in the landing craft having a fear-induced puke. BLEEUURGH. This is quickly followed by the sound of bullets whizzing through the air. Then clouds of red mist as those bullets thud into flesh. Soldiers fall to the ground. Spray from a near-miss explosion obscures your view. Then the ramp is down and youre running on to the beach. MORTAR BOOM. Down you go. Cue semi-deafened shell-shocked horror of war moment as you survey the scene around you. When you regain your senses the metaphorical implications of the vertical cliff face ahead of you become apparent. Your role to this point is one of spectator, but its still a breathless couple of minutes.

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The post 15 of the best Call of Duty moments in the history of the series appeared first on Game News.

This is the dedicated gamer’s midnight launch walk of shame. It could be any launch night, but this one in particular is Wii U’s midnight launch: November 29, 2012. I’ve got pictures in my work email archive from PRs that show fun-looking launch parties from London that same night (see below) but they’re nothing like the reality that greets me as I arrive at the shop and stand in line waiting for someone to take pity on us and let us into the warmth. There aren’t any giveaways, there aren’t any costumes. Everyone’s freezing. It’s pretty miserable.

There’s also the fact I’ve come on my own. My girlfriend had come with me for the 3DS’ midnight launch and we had huddled together in the queue outside HMV, excitedly carrying our prize back home to unbox it and marvel at its beauty. But this time, she’s asleep, safely back in a lovely warm bed. One that has covers and warmth. And warm covers. Did I mention them? They say ‘KEEP COSY AND SNUGGLE UP’. Yes, they are pink, but I did not choose them. Not that I’d be complaining now. I can’t shake the nagging thought from my mind that maybe I’ve made a terrible mistake.

After all, we’re talking about midnight here. The part of night that no Brit should encounter first-hand in the plume-breath cold of November. The sort of night where anyone you see standing around in dimly-lit roads is probably up to no good, or drunk. Or both. Combine the thought of such lurkers with flimsily-wrapped, solitarily transported, brand-new electrical goods of high value and you’re basically walking around with a flashing neon sign above your head that says ‘mug me’. It’s unclear whether the recent stabbing of a man (opens in new tab) in London was directly related to his midnight launch purchase of GTA V, but let’s just say it almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if he had been at home asleep.

It’s the same reason the slow process of picking up my midnight launch Xbox 360 ended with both my parents showing up in their car. Admittedly, it probably didn’t help that I’d left my mobile phone in my own car a couple of streets away so they couldn’t contact me, but I wasn’t about to give up my place in the queue to go back for that. Ah, the folly of youth. Of course, they turned up to find me grinning from ear to ear with an Xbox 360 in my arms and copies of PGR3 and Perfect Dark Zero. Ah, the folly of youth.

The problem all stems from Dreamcast’s UK launch on October 10, 1999. Memorable enough that I can recall the date. The local game shop in my town (then called Electronics Boutique) put on the best midnight launch ever. There were Dreamcasts set up to play incredible showcase games like Power Stone, with competitions, prizes and generally a party atmosphere. I was there for a couple of hours because it had been advertised as being the ace event it actually turned out to be. Win.

But it isn’t like that any more. The shop staff are weary and security-conscious, the crowds are smaller… in fact, I look around me at the other people in the shop (all three of them. Literally) and start wondering if I really want to be associated with this event. Oh, good: an inner monologue. I am cooler than these people… right? Must be. Yes, definitely. At least, that’s what I tell myself as I purchase Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (that I’ve already played on PS3) to ‘play’ on what is basically an expensive new toy that I just *had* to have at midnight. Twat.

The Wii U midnight launch had about 4 people at it. I was one of them. Am now trying to stay awake as it updates. Sloooooowly.November 30, 2012

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I would feel embarrassed walking back home if I wasn’t so worried. With the lights of the game store now far behind, the empty shopping complex has become a level from Splinter Cell. There’s a loud group of drunk students somewhere. So I stealthily wait for them to turn either one way or the other, then sneak around the behind them, sticking to well-lit areas like Sam Fisher’s obstinate younger brother, in the hope there’s at least CCTV if I do get mugged.

And then, of course, when I eventually get in, it’s the usual story. A Day 1 patch that’s bricking consoles if you don’t let it run its inexorable course. Then the prospect of the Wii-to-Wii U Virtual Console transfer. I don’t feel well. Frankly, I’m exhausted. Slowly thawing out under an electric bulb while my new console updates itself, I finally get to test All-Star Racing and it works. Good. Now I can go to bed.

That one, perfect, life-affirming Dreamcast launch aside, it’s always been the same. Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Sony PSP, Xbox 360… I’ve been to the midnight launch of all of them and they’ve all disappointed. In fact, increasingly so as the systems themselves become more complex and initial setup is more complicated than ‘plug in, switch on, have fun’. Maybe I should go to Oxford Street in London to really experience something.

In smaller, local shops, the event itself is just an exercise in getting people through the till as quickly as possible. But there’s never time to actually play the things after getting them home, yet the next day is inevitably spent too groggy to enjoy looking at a TV screen. I can’t understand why I keep putting myself through it. Nor why midnight launches have ‘become a thing’ in the industry. They’re pointless. Your pre-order will still be there for you at 9am the next day. Or even lunch time. Heck–how cool would you look waltzing in to pick up your PS4 a week later? You can imagine the assistants’ amazement. Sure, I like to be able to say ‘I got mine at midnight’, but who cares really? Nobody.

So what will I be doing at PS4’s midnight launch? Come on now, have you not been reading everything above? The cold? The tiredness? The inner monologueing? Of course I’ll see you there. Dur!

The post Are midnight launches worth the effort? appeared first on Game News.

The Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Ghosts will run natively at 720p, while the PS4 version will run at full HD 1080p, Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin has confirmed on Twitter.

“Hey, been on the road last couple weeks so haven’t had a chance to update, but wanted to confirm that for Xbox One we’re 1080p upscaled from 720p. And, we’re native 1080p on PS4,” Rubin said. “We optimized each console to hit 60 FPS and the game looks great on both. Still on the road, but glad to see the great reception to Extinction. Can’t wait for next week’s launch.”

Native resolution is technically superior to upscaling and according to CVG, the Xbox One version of Battlefield 4 also has a resolution disadvantage, rendering at 720p compared to 900p on PS4. The news will come as a blow to Microsoft, which has attempted to play down concerns that Xbox One’s technical specifications don’t match up to PS4’s since the consoles were revealed earlier this year.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is set for release on November 5 on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC. The game will also be a launch title on Xbox One and PS4 later in November.

The post CoD Ghosts is native 1080p on PS4, 720p on Xbox One appeared first on Game News.