While in Santa Monica, CA recently for an Activision Pre-E3 event, COG was lucky enough to check out Activision’s upcoming E3 line-up. Part of that line-up included a glimpse of Call of Duty: Ghosts which as everyone is probably already aware by now is slated to be released on the just announced Xbox One and PS4. At the time of writing this article, it is also anticipated that the game will be released on current generation consoles but Activision has yet to make any official announcements in this regard.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshburg was first to hit the stage at the event where he explained to all those that were attending that the easy thing to do this year would have been to release Modern Warfare 4. I certainly agree with him as there is no question in my mind a MW4 game would sell a boat load of copies and in all likelihood would please the CoD faithful; however, the development team, including Activision, made it clear they did not want to rest on their laurels and simply pump out more of the same. They did not want to play it safe and just release Modern Warfare 4 which is what most people were expected. Instead, Infinity Ward and Activision want to take the opportunity to capitalize on a new generation of consoles. They want to push the franchise forward by bringing in a new world, new characters, new storyline, new play mechanics and new technology. Additionally the team has been working hard at creating a new next-gen CoD engine.
After Activision’s CEO finished giving his remarks, Mark Rubin, Executive Producer at Infinity Ward took the stage and explained the development teams’ focus and how they wanted to make those 40 million die hard CoD fans happy.
For starters, Mark explained there is going to be more emphasis on character development and the characters themselves. The team wants the characters to feel like real people. They want you to feel more emotionally connected to the players. Activision enlisted the talent of Stephen Gaghan who won an academy award with his work on the movie “Traffic”. He also wrote and directed “Syriana”. Stephen’s main focus is character development and bringing those characters in Ghosts to life.
In terms of Call of Duty Ghosts basic premise Mark explained that the game will open up with some kind of mass event where America is crippled. Military forces have been decimated and the government is in disarray. As a player in the game you are the underdog as you are fighting back against superior forces. You are part of a group that has been put together with the remnants of all the US Special Forces. This group is called Ghosts. Ghosts are a super elite fighting force that have adopted every technique and have adopted various modern, guerrilla, and urban fighting styles. Dogs are now part of your arsenal too. Granted dogs have been a part of previous CoD games but not like this. Your dog is someone you care about and is part of your squad. You fight for him and he fights for you. He does everything from sniffing out explosives to protecting the team.
One of the ways the development team wanted to support the new storyline was to create a new visual game engine. What this means is you can expect more detail and higher fidelity. With the new tech in the game you get more images that actually maintain their curvature when you get up close. Mark reinforced the core philosophy that gameplay drives tech. So really nothing is compromised when it comes to the new engine. The development team want to do everything they can so you feel like you are there in the action. Some things you can expect to see are fluid dynamics, interactive smoke, and even an AI system where fish, for instance, move out of the way as you get closer. Bottomline, the team is devoted to making a game that is as immersive as possible.
In addition to the new engine, multiplayer has been revamped with dynamic maps. They have now included things that change the flow of the map. Big earthquakes, floods, and player driven actions are some things you can expect with Ghosts online game. There will be explosive traps, doors and things that change the flow of the match. The intention is to add a new dynamic experience for the player and bring some life into the game. Character customization’s is another new addition to the online game allowing you to connect with your player unlike you have before. You can now choose your players head, helmet and body.
The good news about the new additions and wrinkles added to the mix is that the new tech does not affect the low latency controls or the team’s commitment to 60 frames per second. So in other words, you can still expect a game that will maintain the same CoD feel. What you will get however is a game that looks more life-like and more immersive.
During the presentation, we had a chance to see the new tech in action compared to the tech that was used in Modern Warfare 3. In one sequence we saw an image of Price compared to a new image of a character in Ghosts. The level of detail was impressive and the high resolution textures make for characters that do seem very life-like. It was explained to us that the high resolution scaling perfects every little detail and the texture resolution gives a whole new level of element to bruises, cuts, hairs on forearms and even dirt under the fingernails. Weapons are more detailed as well with higher polycounts being used. Even environments look much more life-like. A jungle used in MW3 was compared to a jungle environment in Ghosts. The result is incredible as the polymetric lighting and boosted polycounts just make for a landscape that is unlike I have ever seen before on a console. It is indeed a photorealistic world.
The development team have also significantly enhanced the visual fidelity of the games environments. Activision has gone ahead hiring a number of CG artists who have assisted in the development of Ghosts. The team has introduced displacement mapping effects where even little things like rocks, creeks and streams come to life. The geometric detail has an amazing effect on what the environments look like. Those blocky images are seemingly gone. Increased texture resolutions result in the player feeling more attached and more involved in the immersion in the level.
Towards the end of the presentation we had a chance to watch a brief gameplay demo which takes place underwater. The demo starts out where you and another member of your Special Forces unit, decked out in full diver gear and equipped with an automatic rifle, are making their way towards an objective beneath the ocean. After swimming under the sea with exotic fish passing by, and even large sharks overhead, the team notices a group of divers enter the sea from a boat above. You and your dive partner, in familiar simultaneous CoD-like fashion, take out two of the divers with your rifles. The thunderous sound of the weapons caught me off guard as did the colours and vibrancy of the underwater environments. The divers continue making their way through the water navigating various structures and other items that appear to have recently fallen below the surface likely due to that mass event I mentioned earlier on. The team then takes out a large ship with a guided missile. Quickly after, all hell breaks loose as the large ship starts to fall below the surface and right over top of the two divers. The divers then quickly make their frantic escape and it is not long after that the demo ends.
As far as the demo was concerned, it is certainly something I have seen played out before in other Call of Duty games. While Activision claims are they are not going to “play it safe”, the reality is you will unquestionably get a Call of Duty game with an impressive single player experience where you are moving from one big epic set piece to another and a robust multiplayer experience will be included. So I would argue they are “playing is safe” to a degree. I know it is early, but that is certainly the impression I get. Yet this is not a bad thing as unlike any other franchise CoD has a loyal fan base and Call of Duty games continue to break sales records every year. So there is no sense throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In the end, fans should be pleased with what Infinity Ward has been able to do in the visuals department with Ghosts. From where I sit, the new visuals look impressive and just hope to see more of them in the coming months.
For now take a look at the high-res screens below and look to COG to provide more coverage in the near future:
