Call of Duty interview
Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:40 pm
While many of the single player levels in the game will feature you on foot against the German army, there'll be more missions that involve vehicles of some sort. Two of these missions were demoed last night. One put players in the back of a moving truck trying to fend off German vehicles and the soldiers in the back of them using machine guns, anti-tank weapons, and sniper rifles. Your aim will have to be good and your decisions quick. You, the driver, and the guy helping you out in the back of the truck depend on it. Fighting while moving like this has been done before, but it was still a damn fun experience and pretty challenging.
We also had the chance to jump behind the controls of a tank rolling along in a column of six. There were plenty of enemy tanks to engage and battles to fight. One of the things that really tickled my fancy was just how the environments were handled when it came to tank interaction. Those pesky trees that seem to give your tanks so many problems in other games like this stand no chance. They just crunch, crash, and become fodder for your treads. Being able to run through forests seems like a small thing, but I found it almost entertaining enough by itself. This level gave me the feeling like I was just part of someone else's RTS game (particularly because of the mechanical way the tanks move around in line much as they might in an RTS when wandering across a map).
You can see all of these different parts of the game in our video preview , which I highly recommend checking out. The game looks and plays amazing in single player. While Medal of Honor really started this mad rush at working with your fellow soldiers, Call of Duty will take it to the next level.
The one thing that we haven't really had the chance to talk about up until now has been the multiplayer portion of the game. After everyone had the chance to drop into the single player for a while, the server was started, teams were chosen, and all were put in the middle of some team deathmatch to get warmed up. Over the course of the night, we saw four of the multiplayer maps, and each of the nationalities available for play.The first map was from the demo mission, but in daylight, as it is in the single player mission that follows the demo. The entire map is there and intact and is surprisingly fun without many changes at all. Perhaps this is due to the basic nature of the game. Because the single player has so many soldiers fighting on each side, ducking, running, hiding, finding sniper positions, and so on, it already lends itself to team play fantastically.
The second map brought us to the hills just inside the Normandy shoreline. Those that have seen the opening mission in Band of Brothers will recognize this immediately. While we started out on this map in team deathmatch again, it was later switched to objective based play. The map itself was a pretty interesting design that took some time getting used to. It was actually a circle with boundaries on the outside of the circle in the form of a very deadly minefield that our old compatriot David Smith managed to find right off the bat. In the middle was a mess of shrubs and a hill that can't be climbed. But there are tunnels going through the mound to get to the other side. One side of the hill holds the Allied starting point while the other is home to two artillery pieces. The Allied objectives are to destroy them while the Axis hunkers down to protect them. The interesting thing here is that the game worked in a Counter-Strike fashion. Meaning once you die, you're dead until the next round. It certainly adds more strategy to the mix and tension. No one wants to run right into the enemy and have to sit out until the round is over.
But if you do happen to do this, you'll get the chance to check out the Kill Cam, which shows the few seconds before your death from the perspective of the person that killed you. So you can see how that guy snuck up behind you and shot you in the back or sniped you from a distance. It's actually pretty entertaining to see how you were offed. This feature works for any of the multiplayer modes. Another mode like this will actually allow players to watch the last few seconds of the player that managed to complete the last objective in a mission. Nothing wrong with a little bit of glory I suppose.
The next map put players back into team deathmatch, but this time with the Russians and Germans going at it. The Russians have a smaller selection of weapons to pick from, which I didn't like quite as much. One thing that can be said for all of the weapons in Call of Duty is that they look, sound, and feel fantastic. But if you happen to be a Russian in this level, you might find yourself snaking weapons from fallen German soldiers as I did. One of the coolest parts of this map was an area that seemed to concentrate some of the action. It actually was the second story of two separate buildings with windows facing each other. Getting in a firefight between these two buildings was a blast. There were usually a lot of dead bodies in each of those rooms.
The last map and mode for the night took place in a European town somewhere (whatever, I was too busy trying to kill people to pay attention) with a lot of buildings and plenty of places to get in close quarter fights. Running down the middle of the road through town can be a seriously dangerous proposition with so many windows looking down on the lane. The mode for this map was called Behind Enemy Lines. Basically, there were three Allied soldiers on the map with the rest Axis. The Axis players were charged with hunting down these Allied soldiers and killing them. Once an Axis player had killed an Ally, those players would switch teams and respawn. The object was to survive as long as possible as an Allied soldier. Allied soldiers would gain a point every 10 seconds they remained alive as well as a point for every Axis soldier killed during that time. The trick is, that as well as you hide, the Axis will find you. Each Axis player has question marks on their compass that tells them the last known location of the Allied soldiers. It was a pretty fun game of cat and mouse.
Up to 64 players will be able to join games in multiplayer, which we imagine will be pretty damn insane and we can't wait to try it out. Everything we saw in this game makes us believe that it should be in the forefront of people's minds this holiday season. Make sure to keep your eyes on it and look for it to hit store shelves this November. Now make sure check out that Call of Duty Video Preview when you get the chance to check out plenty of direct feed footage accompanied Steve's commentary, it's well worth it.
We also had the chance to jump behind the controls of a tank rolling along in a column of six. There were plenty of enemy tanks to engage and battles to fight. One of the things that really tickled my fancy was just how the environments were handled when it came to tank interaction. Those pesky trees that seem to give your tanks so many problems in other games like this stand no chance. They just crunch, crash, and become fodder for your treads. Being able to run through forests seems like a small thing, but I found it almost entertaining enough by itself. This level gave me the feeling like I was just part of someone else's RTS game (particularly because of the mechanical way the tanks move around in line much as they might in an RTS when wandering across a map).
You can see all of these different parts of the game in our video preview , which I highly recommend checking out. The game looks and plays amazing in single player. While Medal of Honor really started this mad rush at working with your fellow soldiers, Call of Duty will take it to the next level.
The one thing that we haven't really had the chance to talk about up until now has been the multiplayer portion of the game. After everyone had the chance to drop into the single player for a while, the server was started, teams were chosen, and all were put in the middle of some team deathmatch to get warmed up. Over the course of the night, we saw four of the multiplayer maps, and each of the nationalities available for play.The first map was from the demo mission, but in daylight, as it is in the single player mission that follows the demo. The entire map is there and intact and is surprisingly fun without many changes at all. Perhaps this is due to the basic nature of the game. Because the single player has so many soldiers fighting on each side, ducking, running, hiding, finding sniper positions, and so on, it already lends itself to team play fantastically.
The second map brought us to the hills just inside the Normandy shoreline. Those that have seen the opening mission in Band of Brothers will recognize this immediately. While we started out on this map in team deathmatch again, it was later switched to objective based play. The map itself was a pretty interesting design that took some time getting used to. It was actually a circle with boundaries on the outside of the circle in the form of a very deadly minefield that our old compatriot David Smith managed to find right off the bat. In the middle was a mess of shrubs and a hill that can't be climbed. But there are tunnels going through the mound to get to the other side. One side of the hill holds the Allied starting point while the other is home to two artillery pieces. The Allied objectives are to destroy them while the Axis hunkers down to protect them. The interesting thing here is that the game worked in a Counter-Strike fashion. Meaning once you die, you're dead until the next round. It certainly adds more strategy to the mix and tension. No one wants to run right into the enemy and have to sit out until the round is over.
But if you do happen to do this, you'll get the chance to check out the Kill Cam, which shows the few seconds before your death from the perspective of the person that killed you. So you can see how that guy snuck up behind you and shot you in the back or sniped you from a distance. It's actually pretty entertaining to see how you were offed. This feature works for any of the multiplayer modes. Another mode like this will actually allow players to watch the last few seconds of the player that managed to complete the last objective in a mission. Nothing wrong with a little bit of glory I suppose.
The next map put players back into team deathmatch, but this time with the Russians and Germans going at it. The Russians have a smaller selection of weapons to pick from, which I didn't like quite as much. One thing that can be said for all of the weapons in Call of Duty is that they look, sound, and feel fantastic. But if you happen to be a Russian in this level, you might find yourself snaking weapons from fallen German soldiers as I did. One of the coolest parts of this map was an area that seemed to concentrate some of the action. It actually was the second story of two separate buildings with windows facing each other. Getting in a firefight between these two buildings was a blast. There were usually a lot of dead bodies in each of those rooms.
The last map and mode for the night took place in a European town somewhere (whatever, I was too busy trying to kill people to pay attention) with a lot of buildings and plenty of places to get in close quarter fights. Running down the middle of the road through town can be a seriously dangerous proposition with so many windows looking down on the lane. The mode for this map was called Behind Enemy Lines. Basically, there were three Allied soldiers on the map with the rest Axis. The Axis players were charged with hunting down these Allied soldiers and killing them. Once an Axis player had killed an Ally, those players would switch teams and respawn. The object was to survive as long as possible as an Allied soldier. Allied soldiers would gain a point every 10 seconds they remained alive as well as a point for every Axis soldier killed during that time. The trick is, that as well as you hide, the Axis will find you. Each Axis player has question marks on their compass that tells them the last known location of the Allied soldiers. It was a pretty fun game of cat and mouse.
Up to 64 players will be able to join games in multiplayer, which we imagine will be pretty damn insane and we can't wait to try it out. Everything we saw in this game makes us believe that it should be in the forefront of people's minds this holiday season. Make sure to keep your eyes on it and look for it to hit store shelves this November. Now make sure check out that Call of Duty Video Preview when you get the chance to check out plenty of direct feed footage accompanied Steve's commentary, it's well worth it.
Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:55 pm
Will there be planes, tanks, jeeps....
WIll it be like battlefield!
WIll it be like battlefield!
Thu Oct 09, 2003 5:55 pm
no planes..there will be tanks and other vehicles...they didnt specify jeeps, but there are trucks apparently
Thu Oct 09, 2003 6:51 pm
not to burst any bubbles but I believe this has been posted before...by our local forum whore:roll:
Thu Oct 09, 2003 7:33 pm
I've got the feeling that this is more of a vamped up Medal of Honor with a couple of vehicles.
-Bagginses
-Bagginses
Thu Oct 09, 2003 8:46 pm
Originally posted by Bagginses
I've got the feeling that this is more of a vamped up Medal of Honor with a couple of vehicles.
-Bagginses
Have played the mohaa demo and was not TOO impressive...
I felt that it was too restrictive and had a Linear feel to the whole thing...
Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:54 pm
has anyone played the CoD demo yet?
Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:15 pm
Uh, yeah, it came out like a month ago.
Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:59 pm
ok well how was it?
Fri Oct 10, 2003 10:10 pm
It was great... like MOH but more exciting.
Sat Oct 11, 2003 8:04 am
how many bullets can you take before you die,...is it like wolf where you can take quite a few, or like battlefield
Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:47 am
Uh, it's like MOH.
Sat Oct 11, 2003 12:06 pm
last time i played MoH was very long time ago...