E3 2009 Preview
Infinity Ward has done it again …
amazingly so. Just when you start thinking that the latest iteration in the Call
of Duty general franchise can’t look any better, Infinity Ward proves that idea
to be totally wrong.
Activision was showing off Modern
Warfare 2, the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, during the Electronic
Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles with a special media viewing behind
closed doors. There was no trailer, just a level called ‘Cliffhanger’ that was
demonstrated by IW’s Robert Bowling. In a word – wow!
Modern Warfare 2 resets the visceral
bar, with fantastic facial animations, and NPC animations that are a combination
of motion capture and hand animated but are smooth, lifelike and fast.
The environment details almost stole
the demonstration. In the Cliffhanger setting, players start off on the face of
a mountain and do a little scaling up the icy side of a wall using picks. As
each pick buries the end into the ice, you see the cracks; move too slow and the
ice breaks loose and your character (‘Roach’) will fall. The missions were given
by the senior enlisted man on the mission, your partner. Essentially Roach and
MacTavish were to penetrate a mountain-top airbase and blow up the fuel depot.
While on the top of the mountain, a bit of a snow flurry moves in, which really
highlighted the newest technology applied to the game – streaming textures.
Of course, no CoD mission is easy
and the assault soon turns into a running gun battle. Bowling deftly picked off
a would-be attacker coming at Roach on a snowmobile. The snowmobile, once its
driver was killed, did not merely slow down and stop, but careened wildly,
striking and killing Roach.
Oh well, there is the auto-save
respawn point …
The snowmobile avoided, Roach and
MacTavish slide down a hill, still pursued by foot soldiers and
snowmobile-driving soldiers. A couple of the snowmobile drivers are picked off
and the snowmobiles are appropriated by the good guys for their escape.
With the roar of the snowmobile
engines filling the air, the flight to freedom was on; but, of course, not
without challenge. Roach was driving with his right hand and shooting his pistol
at attackers (also on snowmobiles) with his left – all while avoiding the
attacks from helicopters and the trees that dotted the escape path.
It was truly an amazing moment in
the level and for the series on a whole. The world is larger in Modern Warfare
2, and the entire game runs at 60 frames per second.
Modern Warfare 2 will release on the
360, PC and PS3 on November 10th.
