Activision On Iterating, Innovating Call Of Duty Series

Activision's Noah Heller sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the refinements made in Call of Duty: World at War to keep the popular FPS franchise moving forward. He points to cosmetic things, like realistic burning and the ability to set just about everything in the environment on fire, as well as bigger gameplay improvements, such as making the AI more difficult to beat without having it "cheat." "... the main thing we tried to do is honestly make the placement just more brutal. You've always got an advantage on the enemy; you've been through the level before, you know where they're going to be, but in Veteran mode you're going to find that they're not going to cheat. You're really going to have to be going for headshots using the most effective weaponry. You're going to have to use that bolt-action rifle and aim for the head if you want to take an enemy out at a distance. It's a different sort of gameplay. We heard those concerns and we tried to address them."

Comments

Call of Duty 4½. Scratch that, Call of Duty 3

[boarder8925]

I lost any and all interest in Call of Duty 3½ as soon as Activision happily announced that the next iteration in the Call of Duty series would take place during World War II.

Re:I may be in the minority here...

[Fallingcow]

I dug the gunship mission. If they made a whole game that was mostly or entirely stuff like that, I'd play it.

Beyond Moral Reproach

[nick_davison]

Releasing your game on 11/11/2008

90 years to the day after 11/11/1918

The day dedicated, each year, to the memory of the millions who lost their lives in that war.

The day dedicated, each year, to reflect on the terrible cost of war.

Launching your videogame on that day of all days.

How could anyone call that crass?