With development switching back over to Treyarch (Call of Duty 3), Call of Duty: World at War is heading back to the World War II setting, but will be using the Call of Duty 4 engine.

With new features including the ability to burn down buildings and set grass on fire, World at War is set to be the darkest Call of Duty game yet. The game will also feature new weapons, such as the flamethrower, and new multiplayer perks that will go well with the World War II setting.

The game will mainly take place in the pacific with US forces taking on the Imperial Japan, but players will also be fighting as the Russians, who will be invading Germany. The game will also feature a new party system that will allow you to issue commands to your troops in the campaign mode.

Being a huge fan of Call of Duty 4, I’m kind of pessimistic to how World at War will turn out seeing that Infinity Ward won’t be developing the game. But with two years of development time and use of the Call of Duty 4 engine, Treyarch is promising to deliver the best game they can, which is going to be huge task to follow up one of the best games of 2007.

I’m hoping they can keep that promise.

Soure: Maximum Fear.net (via OXM)

What’s cooler than the cryogenic freezing chamber they’re going to put Stan Lee in after he dies? Stumbling upon the Konami booth and seeing that the NYC Comic Con gets the US premier of Metal Gear Online. That’s what!

Holy Revolver Ocelot, Batman!

So how did it play Zungre?

Pretty Cool Right from the Get Go.

You begin each round, as well as every time you respawn, with choosing your primary, secondary weapons and explosive items. There are multiple types of grenades and claymores, but you can also choose a magazine in this category. Strange right? I was like, “No I will not choose an issue of Cosmopolitan over 2 grenades, Kojima!” But from what I hear from Patrick is that it’s actually a dirty mag that you can use to distract other players. That’s something you won’t see unlocked when your rank up in Call of Duty 4 multiplayer.

The animation is silky smooth. I especially noticed when I was running up stairs. Very slick. I’m pretty sure his feet touched every step. And the ragdoll physics are well implemented too. Check it out.

Japanese Trickery! Based Gameplay

I should probably call it stealth based game play, but so much has to do with it being tricky. And yes, you can hide in a box! Which I did for a while, but then felt really lame and stopped. There were people watching and I only got to play for a few minutes!

The multiplayer is built on a lot of the same stealth concepts that the Metal Gear Solid franchise stands on. So why would walking around in a box fool anyone? Because there are freaking boxes littered everywhere throughout the multiplayer stages. So every time you approach one you don’t know if it contains a moustached stealth agent or not.

I spent a few clips shooting into a box, wondering, “Why is no one dying?” Because that’s just one of the random environment boxes, you idiot! That’s when Kojima ran up to me and gave me a DDT for being such a moron.

Check out this quick clip of box time.

You can also lie on your stomach, back or slump against a wall and play dead. I didn’t see anybody trying this technique, which is a shame, because I wonder how convincing it looks. I also wonder how long these tricks will be effective. I mean how many times can I fool someone with the dead possum thing? How long before players just start double tapping corpses for safety? And if the tricks only work early on in the multiplayer, how well is a game that is largely based on them going to work?

Controls

There’s an unusual auto-aim mechanic that locks on to your opponents if you see them and press the R1 button. The Konami rep told me that the auto aim is for new players and you can switch to manual if you want. Personally, I found the auto-aim kind of cumbersome and think I would have done better with the traditional target sites.

But you know, I always have a hard time controlling a Metal Gear Solid game at first, especially with Snake Eater. So, of course, there were times where I was trying to reload my gun, and I accidentally disarmed myself, or put myself in the box and it was pretty frustrating. I can’t help but wonder if the inventory bar that pops up that worked so well in MGS single player games, may not work so well in multiplayer. Too many things to keep track of during too many split second decisions.

Lastly, I was KO’d by an opponent’s stun knife, with stars swirling around my head and everything. I was surprised with how long it takes to regain consciousness by moving the left analogue stick back and forth. It felt much longer than regaining your shields in Halo 3 or recovering from a stun grenade in CoD4. It felt like I was out forever, and I got capped before I could regain my bearings. Yikes! That stun knife’s enough to make Dan Landis quiver (Landis doesn’t quiver easily).

The Future

The Konami Rep told me that you will be able to build a character to use in online matches. You determine what he looks like as well as what his battleground specialities are. He also talked about a mode where you can play 1 guy vs. fifteen. This must be the return of the Sneaking Mission we talked about at the begining of the month, a task only old Snake could tackle right?

All in all, it felt like a promising experience and I can’t wait to try out the different stealth tactics I didn’t have an opportunity to try, like hanging down from ledges. I bet popping out of the box to cap someone who’s run past you is a pretty satisfying experience, too. The Beta’s up tonight guys! Go grab your new patch, v1.02, to make sure you’ll be ready to stealth in time.

A couple weeks ago rumors were swirling about a few maps in development for the upcoming Call of Duty 4 downloadable pack. It seems the info was not entirely correct. Imagine that!

Official word is now out that four new multiplayer maps are on the way very soon, including the return of an old favorite from the original Call of Duty.

Microsoft has revealed that the Variety Map Pack will be available for download April 3, 2008 on the Xbox 360. The pack will cost 800 points ($10 USD) but will be an Xbox Live exclusive for 21 days before hitting the Playstation 3.

While two of the previously rumored maps are nowhere to be found, Broadcast is included in this pack. It features a redesign of the indoor and outdoor TV Station areas from an early mission in the single-player campaign, ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ (a reminder to go watch Apocalypse Now, now).

The other maps are Creek, an outdoor village environment; Killhouse, an indoor training locale; and Chinatown, the triumphant return of a very popular multiplayer map from the original CoD.

What’s that? You don’t recall a Chinatown location in WWII Europe? Quite right! Infinity Ward has added a modern twist to the old map, and a similar twist to the Middle Eastern and Eastern European settings of CoD4. Variety is the name of the game, after all. Gametrailers TV had the first look at Chinatown recently, where it was revealed to be a complete re-skinning of Carentan.

For those of you new to CoD with CoD4, Carentan features a mix of indoor and outdoor combat with some long streets, multi-story buildings to occupy and a few very clear choke points. Whatever your preferred role, you could always find a place to hang out in Carentan.

If you’re interested in getting into CoD4 but haven’t yet, there will also be a Game of the Year Edition of CoD4 releasing April 1, 2008.  This will include a token to download the new maps online April 3rd for free. A nice incentive for new players, but why not reward the players who have purchased the game already as well?

Source: Loot Ninja

COD4, currently one of the most played online multiplayer games, looks to be getting some new content soon. Already said to be “on the way”, current rumor is detailing at least three maps in development: Broadcast, Dusk and Hill.

The three maps look to provide a variety of gameplay with some close-quarters action and differing light levels, as well as indoor and outdoor locales. Only a few shots are available so far, but the areas should be familiar to gamers who went through the single-player campaign. No doubt Infinity Ward will have some nice tweaks and re-designed bits to adapt the locations to the multiplayer arena and challenge gamers.

No official confirmation yet, which means no word on pricing or release timeframe.

Source: psu.com

Activision has confirmed Treyarch is working hard at Call of Duty 5 for 2008, and once again is taking a step back and opening the once thought closed doors to World War 2.

Ever since the release of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4, fans have been craving nothing but “Modern Warfare” in all it’s glory. Unfortunately, for all the Call of Duty 4 lovers out there, you are going to have to wait for COD 6 before being able to return to the modern style of combat you have grown to love.

The only advice I could give to you as a fellow gamer is just keep on wishin’ for the best — and with that, here is my COD 5 wish list.

Call of Duty 5 Wish List

1. Longer campaign
2. Co-op campaign mode
3. Add a guest system for online play.
4. Dedicated Servers
5. Introduce the M2A1-7 Flamethrower
6. Multiplayer-Be able to pick from all countries dealing with WWII and all weapon classes produced by each country.
7. Larger multiplayer maps.
8. Newly added game types.

9. Multiplayer introduces medals, achievements, and an updated in-game ranking system.
10. Multiplayer map editor and forge.
11. More in-depth story line focusing on specific characters on the axis and allies.
12. DLC (downloadable content)
13. Updated and accurate matchmaking system.
14. Free roam, more exploration, and open ended decisions that could affect your campaign mode.
15. Infinity Ward develops it “Ha Ha, that’s not going to happen.”

If you just absolutely don’t want anything to do with Treyarch and its WWII’ness, then you must wait for Call of Duty 6 in 2009. And if you are looking forward to the return of the WWII era, give us a shout in the comment box on what YOU would like to see in the next Call of Duty.

From what we’ve been told, you should expect to see a few maps warmed and ready for picking in the foreseeable future.

Besides confirming that it’s coming to both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, we didn’t get much else besides this spicy little quotation:

The upcoming downloadable content will thrust gamers into a hot zone of added combat across a variety of intense multiplayer locales.

Thrusting in hot zones? Count me in! Let’s just hope they go uphill with the quality and make it hot hot hot.

The makers of Call of Duty 4 are looking for new maps, and they’re going to outsource the job to the unlimited creativity of rabid Call of Duty fans.

They’ve set up a contest looking for the best user created map, with the winner receiving an unspecified prize.

On March 31st, we’re going to be choosing our favorite community made maps and award the map makers of our favorites picks with special prizing and opportunities which we can’t announce just yet but will be in the very near future (probably within a week).

However the clock is ticking to get your map designed, as I said, we’ll be choosing our favorite community made custom multiplayer maps on March 31st.

What will this mysterious prize be? As someone famous once said, “Well, dude, we just don’t know.” Presumably the winner will get to see their creation made available to the masses, which in itself makes this contest worth a shot. But the added prize incentive should have many fans frothing at the mouth. Who knows, maybe the winner will be offered a job?

To find out more please visit Infinity Ward’s website.

One thing’s certain: Infinity Ward has come up with a brilliant way to add new content without doing much work.

As we previously reported, Xbox Live has not been having a good time, what with all the disconnects and general wonkiness. All this was meant to be fixed by the end of the weekend.

Well, the weekend is officially over and the service is officially “getting better” – so says Major Nelson.

Given that my beloved Live is now working again, I “jumped in” to reminisce about all of the things that made me enjoy Xbox Live in the first place.

So, without further ado, I present to you the Top 5 Reasons to Love Xbox Live!

5. Universal Gamertag – No matter what game I play, my Gamertag is the same. People that meet me on Call of Duty 4 can see my tag again later in any other game, and they know I’m the same guy.

The last people you played with show up in a “players list”, which if I look at now… wait… oh, I guess I haven’t played with anybody, EVER, because my players list is empty. Weird…

4. Friends List – Unlike other services, which I refuse to mention, my friends list is tied to my Gamertag, so I can always see what my friends are doing – watching a movie, playing any game, etc.

For example, right now all of my friends are… uh… I guess they are all offline. Either that, or I’m not really online. Hmmm…..

No you won’t Robbie, nobody will be

3. Marketplace - The Marketplace is awesome, offering movies, television shows, original Xbox games, Live Arcade games, demos and trailers for upcoming 360 games.

They just released a demo for Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom that I really want to check out, but I’m unable to retrieve content from the Marketplace.

2. Media Center – If you have a Media Center PC, you can easily stream movies, pictures, and music from your computer to your TV through your 360. Even non-Media Center PCs can do most of this without any problems.

Right now a friend of mine “found” I Am Legend on his PC, so we’re going to watch it on his big-screen. What? You must sign in to view this content? I thought I was signed in? And why would I need to sign in to look at crap on my PC, er, his PC anyways? Well, never mind. I guess we’ll actually go pay for it and watch it in the theater like suckers.

1. You’re Always Connected – From the moment I turn my 360 on, my Gamertag auto-signs me in, and I am connected to everything – Marketplace, Friends, my PC. I can launch a game and immediately get into multiplayer, or I can join a friend’s game in progress.

This is something I would love to do right now, but whenever I attempt to do so my dashboard screams obscenities at me (not that I could see or connect to any of my friends anyways). This is the best feature Xbox Live offers, and it’s the one thing that gets people to pay to upgrade to a Gold membership. So that begs the question: What exactly am I paying Microsoft for again?

So as you can see, there is plenty to love about Xbox Live. I wish I could love those things right now, but I can’t.

For me, Xbox Live is the worst it’s ever been, so I’m not quite sure what language Major Nelson was speaking when he said the service is “getting better”.

Major Nelson and his bottle of lies

Hopefully Microsoft realizes that they need to apologize to all the Live subscribers if they wish to keep us as just that – paying subscribers. And by apologize, I mean I want some free shit… or some cake.