To my knowledge, Infinity Ward had nothing to do with this video. The animations are all from the training level, with some overdubbing.

The best viral marketing is the stuff that isn't viral marketing at all!

I'm actually pretty sure that's all in-game footage from the training level. It shows a bunch of animations made to depict the downtime of real soldiers, and is quickly contrasted by battle. To my knowledge, IW had nothing to do with this video at all.

>> ^entr0py:
Wow. This is the sort of viral marketing I really don't mind. Obviously the infinity ward guys put a lot of work into it. But you never get the sense they're trying to sell you something. Maybe because the comedic premise requires that they make fun of their own product.

*dark bit of fake *news. Awesome.

>> ^entr0py:
Wow. This is the sort of viral marketing I really don't mind. Obviously the infinity ward guys put a lot of work into it. But you never get the sense they're trying to sell you something. Maybe because the comedic premise requires that they make fun of their own product.


ONN doesn't sell out to anyone, man!

Wow. This is the sort of viral marketing I really don't mind. Obviously the infinity ward guys put a lot of work into it. But you never get the sense they're trying to sell you something. Maybe because the comedic premise requires that they make fun of their own product.

Well, no matter the videogame precedent this scene is going to catch a lot of heat - and I figure ActiBlizz likes it that way.

*Spoilers ahead*

*No, I'm serious*

We know the game will be wildly popular. We now know its first level involves the player controlling the shooting of a large number of unarmed civilians running in terror. That combination of popularity and opening-intro-controversy will get the Jack Thompsons of the world back on the news talking about the game which, again, is likely more than just a happy PR coincidence for the publisher. Furthermore, we know the Jack Thompsons of the world don't even need a coherent argument or slice of reality to bash the entire spectrum of videogaming. No matter what artistic statement Infinity Ward is trying to make or no matter how 'normal' such a scene would be in an R-rated movie, they know they're going to be slammed over this.

Anyway:

As a game concept and mechanic, ignoring for the moment the likely upcoming controversy? Not sure if I like it. To me personally there was something deeper about Modern Warfare 1's movement restriction in the 1st level where the player watches a military coup through the eyes of a deposed president. The helplessness in controls reflected the helplessness of the situation and afforded the player more observation; by not having to decide where to walk and being literally taken for a ride, the player was instead able to focus their attention on watching the scene that unfolded. The design choice felt purposeful and, to me, increased the emotional affect.

This issue of control, to me, is a key distinction with the prior title versus the opening of Modern Warfare 2. Modern Warfare 2 allows the player to gun down those civilians and in a sense encourages it by requiring the player to keep up with the other terrorists who perform the same actions. I reserve full opinion since I've only seen the shakycam video, but on a conceptual level it just doesn't seem as purposeful. Being placed into the body of a civilian? That would have been interesting from a design standpoint as well; not necessarily better or worse, but I think you could have conveyed the same gameplay message. To me, the official PR response that "the scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit ... By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them" does not justify the choice from a design standpoint.

Again, clearly this is just ruminating on the designers' decisions without getting deep into the moral or PR aspects of the level. However, I do wonder just how much backlash this is going to get as a result.

TL;DR

I loved that they killed the protagonist in the first game. Maybe you'll get to run around shooting innocent civilians here. Awesome, Infinity Ward, take no fucking prisoners! I like you, Infinity Ward. You've got balls. I like balls.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95594-Infinity-Ward-Responds-to-Modern-Warfare-2-Controversy

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw

Actually Modern Warfare 1 ran like a breeze on my rig, and I'm sure this will too. Infinity Ward was commited to getting 60 fps on the consoles with MW1, they use a lot of tricks to make the game look great without straining the system. The character in MW1 had less polygons to them then COD 3.

I love Infinity Ward. I can't believe millions of gamers bought into the cheap knock-off crap that was Treyarch's World at War because of how great IW's 4th iteration of the franchise was.

This is why I love Infinity Ward. They just won't disappoint.

*promote

Thanks for posting this, thegrimsleeper!

>> ^thegrimsleeper: Infinity Ward always makes sure their games run at 60fps on the consoles. Although they had to lower the resolution of CoD 4:MW to 1024x600 to get it to run at 60fps.

Actually, the framebuffer size is due to a limitation of the Xbox 360. The 360 has only ~10 MB of eDRAM, which means it can't fit an HD (even 720p) framebuffer with antialiasing without using tiled rendering. This is more expensive and a big price to pay if you're trying to get your frame rendered in 16.67 ms. So, as a starting point, you use the biggest buffer you can fit with antialiasing for the majority of your scene (rendering the UI using tiling, since you want it pixel-accurate). If you're content to make a 30fps game, then the hit from tiled rendering isn't nearly as big a chunk of your frame.

More info: HD problems in Xbox 360 and PS3

>> ^campionidelmondo:
Looks great, especially the scenes in Rio. I do get the feeling that the game was running at a steady 60fps for this trailer and I doubt that's the way it'll end up running (especially on consoles).


Infinity Ward always makes sure their games run at 60fps on the consoles. Although they had to lower the resolution of CoD 4:MW to 1024x600 to get it to run at 60fps.

you can read more about it here.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/call-of-duty-4-engine-analysis

While it's somewhat of a dream for me to be employed by an independent dev of Infinity Ward-caliber, unfortunately I couldn't really say I'm involved in the industry at the moment. I've merely been a... I guess the word is "producer" for a single casual game and for half a year I've also been co-producing another RPG/adventure/quest game that's got a twist to it, which, in the case of success, will hopefully lead to (read:greenlight a big, completely unique project, that would be aimed at establishing gaming as a recognized and respected social medium among non-gamers, sort of a PR-project for the whole industry.

Among GraterGraterers that I know are in the industry are Zonbie (who's an artist for the upcoming World in Conflict: Soviet Assault RTS) and there's also crushbug, who's been working with BioWare for more than 9 years. But I bet there's whole lotta more of them

Cheers, Ed

In reply to this comment by fuzzyundies:
I'm a coder on MW2, doing mainly rendering and gameplay. I've only been working at this company a little under a year, so I wasn't at all involved in CoD4.

Are you in the industry? Is there another grater who works in games?

Thanks for the kind words! I really like the teaser, too.

-Chris

Oh my goodness -another- one of you lucky bastards who enjoys being employed at a game developer with top-quality products.

Seriously, I am green with envy here. Incidentally, what's your line of work if that's not under non-disclosure?

P.S. I genuinely meant what I said there, it's the best teaser I have ever seen (and I absolutely can't stand teasers 99% of the time).

In reply to this comment by fuzzyundies:
Obligatory upvote. I would have posted this myself, but since I work on MW2 at Infinity Ward, I *think* it would have counted as self-promotion.

Thanks for putting this up, EDD!

Obligatory upvote. I would have posted this myself, but since I work on MW2 at Infinity Ward, I *think* it would have counted as self-promotion.

Thanks for putting this up, EDD!