Videogames are full of loops. Often, the loop isn't just a loop in space but a loop of labour, a loop in time. It's a repeated task with a touch of variation from cycle to cycle, typically associated with a character progression system of some kind. The classic one is the town-dungeon loop in an action-RPG such as Diablo 4. You sally forth into the depths with sword and shield, slaughter a bunch of blameless goblins, then orbit triumphantly back to the village square with its 24/7 forge and bustling adventurer's guild. Then off you go, once again, with a Sword +1 and a shield now bearing a Goblin Magnet. There are straightforward equivalents in multiplayer, especially in the wake of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - sign in, play a few matches, harvest some XP, unlock a new laser sight, equip it, play a few more matches with +5% to your aim.
]]>Every so often in the course of our irregular series of Gamers Hate Thing posts, I like to chuck in a Gamers Love Thing post just to shake things up - though in this case, Gamers Love the Thing in question partly for not being another Thing they Hate, and the Thing they Love is something they Hated back in 2016. Erm.
Let's start again. As you may know, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - is out from today, 9th November. Pre-ordering players and a few lucky journos (whom we absolutely don't fear and resent for receiving copies early) have been able to play the campaign since 1st November, and the reactions and reviews thus far haven't been great.
]]>Like a zipline descending into Verdansk, the quality curve of the Call of Duty campaign trends ever downward, year-on-year. Or so a casual observer might assume. But this is Task Force 141, soldier: we don’t do casual observation. Take my binoculars and you’ll soon see that the real story is far more complicated and compelling.
For every Ghosts in the graveyard of CODs past, there’s an unlikely space adventure to rival Titanfall. And no matter how many times Captain Price tells you to let ‘em pass, there’s always an experimental RTS mechanic or Hitman-lite stealth mission waiting around the next corner. Call of Duty has been far more brave and changeable than it’s given credit for, and while the best ideas haven’t always stuck, they’re still very much playable. What’s more, they rarely outlast a weekend - which counts for a lot in an age of life-consuming AAA releases.
Over 20 years of service, I’ve played every single COD campaign, and can share my intel freely with allies like you. So hop in for a ride through the ups and downs of the series. Just don’t take the helicopter - those things never land softly around here.
]]>Love a duck and stone the crows, Activision are finally going to sell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered [official site] seperately. Because they're a gaggle of silly sausages, they originally launched the revamped version of 2007's wildly popular Call of Duty 4 only as a bonus included in expensive editions of the wildly unpopular Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Seven months later, Activision have announced they're putting an end to this foolishness and releasing Modern Warfare Remastered separately. Oh, but it's never that simple. The June 27th release date announced today is only for PlayStation 4, with other platforms to follow. What are you like! The silliest sausages.
]]>With Call of Duty headed back to the oh-so-familiar battlefields of World War 2 later this year, I'll be sorry to see some of its ludicrous sci-fi bits go. If you've not played CoD in a while but do fancy seeing the apogee of its sci-fi silliness, you can check it out this weekend in a free multiplayer trial of 2016's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site]. That's the one which goes to space, remember?
This and other CoD games are half-price on Steam this weekend too, though they're still too expensive for me to buy old ones just for the rollercoaster campaigns.
]]>“Those who do not learn from from history, are doomed to make another World War II videogame.” A famous saying, and one we all know well. So when Activision hosted a live presentation for the reveal trailer of their latest shooter, Call of Duty: WWII [official site], I watched and felt nothing but a tired wave of low-burning resentment for everyone involved. During this presentation the word “visceral” was said a total of eight times and our own news editor Alice silently got up from her desk, walked solemnly out of her house, and never returned. If anyone has seen Alice, please call us.
]]>Activision Blizzard Studios are planning for potentially years of Call of Duty movies, drawing inspiration from the interwoven Marvel Cinematic Universe. Activision reckon that Call of Duty could carry a series, jumping between the first-person shooter's sub-brands for different perspectives on war. Chinny reckon.
]]>Rumours of Call of Duty's return to World War 2 have circulated since, well, since Activision's mega-hit FPS series left it almost a decade ago. This time it's really for really real, folks including our chums at Eurogamer say. Whispers, rumours, and supposedly leaked artwork say this year's game will bear the rubbish name Call of Duty: WWII. Presumably this would mean a sad farewell to the wall-running and double-jumping of futureCoDs but the welcome return of the M1 Garand rifle's ping, the loveliest sound in all murderdom.
]]>I can't stand it, I know they planned it: the first DLC for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] has arrived on PC, one month after its PlayStation debut. Activision are scheming on an exclusivity deal - that's sabotage. As is the first DLC. 'Sabotage' is its name and new maps is it game. It's the standard CoD DLC deal: four regular multiplayer maps and one new map for the co-op Zombies mode. And as ever, Zombies is where CoD devs get to lark about, this time visiting a zombified rave in a redwood forest in the '90s, with guest star Kevin Smith. Really. Look:
]]>As December approaches like a runaway sled and we prepare to say our goodbyes to 2016, it's natural to reflect on the year as a whole. Those reflections could easily take the form of laments but we're keeping our focus firmly on the world of PC games, where we've identified ten trends that may not have defined 2016, but have certainly helped to shape it. We delve into Sorcery and synthwave, DOOM and Danganronpa, and much more besides.
]]>We're nearly at the end of silly season: most of the big releases are out now, with only Watch No Underscore Dogs Two really still to go. It's been a messy one for a lot of the big companies, by all accounts. Let's see how it shook out during Dishonored 2 launch week.
]]>We’ve already aired our misgivings over Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s campaign mode but how does the multiplayer stack up? Does the space-future setting re-energise the arena, or is it the same as always with a fresh coat of silver paint? We threw Brendan into the murderfields to find out.
It has a fitting name, I’ll give it that. Call of Duty is the series that seems to go on forever – it never dies and it never changes. There is always a man and there is always a gun, to bastardise a phrase from another game concerned with the Infinite. This outing has taken the action to outer space but it has done so little with the opportunity that it is hard to recommend, even to those who have been with the series from its Modern Warfare glory days.
]]>Last week, like drinking mulled wine on a chilly November evening, I found great comfort in a Steam top ten that seemed to reflect the wide, weird and wonderful nature of modern PC gaming. After months of recurrent names, it was a bright new dawn of variety. Anything is possible.
I am a fool.
]]>Battlefield 1 may have fallen back to 1914 but the other first-person shooters of the year are marching on, towards militaristic futurewar. Titanfall 2 was released a week ago (inexplicably, in the gap between two monster franchises) and now Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] has rounded off the explosive triumvirate with more grenades, dogfights and tin men. It’s that final image – that of the tin man – which best sums up how I feel about the story campaign of Infinity Ward’s latest gunromp. Let me try to explain what I mean.
]]>If you were hoping that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official website] or Modern Warfare Remastered would have the cross-platform play that some recent PC games have had, you're in for a bit of crushing disappointment. It's not even unified on PC. People who buy IW or MWR for Windows 10 through Microsoft's Windows Store are unable to play multiplayer with players who own it on Steam, Activision Support confirm. That's a bit of a bum deal.
]]>Winding up to launch Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] tonight, publishers Activision have detailed unlock timings and blasted a few surprising details such as: it'll have an unlockable permadeath mode. They call it 'YOLO Mode' but let's pretend they don't. I'm also into talk of the mega-tough Specialist difficulty mode, which includes such fun as needing to wear helmets to survive headshots and getting your weapon shot out of your hand. Splendid!
]]>Adam's review of Titanfall 2 [official site] praised Respawn's mechtastic FPS but he did worry the game might end up overlooked. Titanfall 2 launched at a very busy time for faceshooting, see: one week after Battlefield 1, one week before Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Given that Titanfall has solved some of the issues that stopped the first game from taking off--it has a singleplayer campaign, and all new multiplayer maps and modes will be free--it'd be a shame to see it flop. So what were publishers Electronic Arts thinking here? Turns out, a big load of foolishness.
]]>With the launch of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] just over a week away, Activision are busy ticking off items on their usual launch checklist.
- Make live-action trailer starring celebs because reasons ☑
- Announce PC system requirements ☑
- Research oddball comparisons for post-launch sales boasts ☐
I'm excited to see what they come up with this year on that last note. Infinite Warfare Twitch livestream minutes watched versus the Superbowl? Dollar sales figures versus the combined value of the shoes of everyone who saw Suicide Squad? We'll have to wait and see! But for those first two, read on.
]]>I would absolutely buy a cheap standalone version of the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] story campaign. Its Michael Bay-esque tale of Martians, Moonmen, spaceships, loyalty, duty, robots, explosive decompression, and explosions looks a right lark in this here new trailer. Given that Activision half-heartedly tried selling Cod Blops 3's multiplayer separately, maybe one day they'll try it with the campaign? Or that doofy co-op? While I work on crossing my fingers and toes, you can watch the trailer with a villainous turn from that babyfaced fella from the TV show where everyone keeps telling him he knows nothing - The Weakest Link?
]]>Gotcha. It's just a new trailer. Alongside a video of the upcoming Mass Effect spin-off, some footage for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] was also released during Sony’s dull as drapes news conference today. It shows a bunch of our friendly soldiers storming into an abandoned space facility where the sun outside burns at 900 degrees. It looks like it’s an asteroid mining complex. I can tell because of all the dissatisfied robot labourers.
]]>We've had a taste for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's [official site] story and the requisite zombies co-op mode (this time with wild '80s prints and the Hoff himself), but what of the multiplayer? How will we compete in this world of infinite war?
Luckily, Infinity Ward have the answers to your burning multiplayer questions in two new trailers. It all looks very classic Call of Duty, but with a cool futuristic aesthetic.
]]>The co-op zombie survival mode is always Call of Duty's sillier side, and that's certainly continuing with this year's Infinite Codfare [official site]. While the main campaign is shooting robots and blasting off into space in the near-future, the co-op zombie action will warp back to a theme park in the 1980s. Yes, this is all at least three years behind the cultural curve. Yes absolutely, David Hasselhoff is involved. But Zombies in Spaceland does look a bit of a lark, check this trailer out:
]]>Brendy posted about the 12 minutes of Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] footage over the weekend but I've been watching the narrative panel from San Diego Comic-Con in which it also made an appearance to just get a feel for what Infinity Ward are up to with this next instalment and what exactly is up with the space plot:
]]>If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a robot face - forever. In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site], you will play as the boot. Infinity Ward have graced the internet with a gameplay trailer showing off the first level, where the boot, played here by a soldier called Lt Reyes, must tramp through Geneva, shooting as many robots and robot-loving humans as possible, before flying into space and shooting possibly more robots among the stars. Come watch all the explosive, robophobic action after the jump.
]]>Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered has a new video showing off the game's snazzy makeover. To the casual viewer you are seeing bits of Crew Expendable, the second mission from the game wherein yer man Soap MacTavish is going on a cruise sent to retrieve a package from an Estonian freighter.
More technically-focused watchers will note "next generation textures, physically based rendering high-dynamic range lighting and much more to bring a new generation experience to fans".
]]>Although Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] is sadly not the procedurally-generated Escherian Nightmare we might've hoped for, Activision's latest war-torn FPS is set in space and you'll be pleased to know its single-player campaign looks to be shaping up nicely. Don't take my word for it, though - cast your eyes over six new minutes of gameplay highlights below.
]]>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the prettied-up version of Infinity Ward's seminal shooter Call of Duty 4, will indeed only be available as a bundle-in with some of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's many premium editions. That's what Activision say, at least. I am astonished. That can't mean that, can they? They must have been so excited about Infinite Warfare's spaceships and power armour that they forgot to add a little footnote with an asterisk saying "*exclusive for a limited time". No? Sheesh. Weird!
]]>Activision today announced Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site], the latest in their long-running mega-hit military FPS series, and I am sorely disappointed. Firstly, today is a holiday in the UK, so I'm not even supposed to be here. Secondly, Infinite Warfare is about futurewar with spaceships and everything, not the Escherian nightmare that we were assured it would be. This 'real' Infinite Warfare does sound exciting, but I can only assume we were deceived as someone's idea of a 'joke'.
Activision also announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, a revamp of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - the game which defined the next nine years of CoD.
]]>Activision tend to announce each year's Call of Duty in late April or early May, so we should be expecting the teaser trailer for the announcement for the teaser trailer for the ARG for the announcement any day now. The big surprise of 2016's game may have been slightly ruined, as folks including that Kotaku mob saw a mysterious entry for Call of Duty: Infinite War pop up in the PlayStation Store today. It's Infinity Ward's turn for CoD again, so yeah, maybe that's it. But that's only a name, not very exciting. Only RPS can tell you what it actually factually definitely truly is. Exclusive details follow.
]]>Gosh! Is it time for the annual "Activision have confirmed Call of Duty [official site] still exists and is still getting its annual instalment" post already? But it was only just Christmas! Where does the time go?
Anyhoodle: Activision have confirmed Infinity Ward are working on Call of Duty 2016 and it will be released in Q4 (it's usually during the first half of November if you haven't been keeping track).
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