By Jim Rossignol on October 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm.
The all-seeing vid-eye of GameTrailers has nabbed some more Modern Warfare 2 footage, with explanatory chatter from the devs. It focuses on Spec-Ops mode, which is the co-op mode which consists in a whole bunch of independent missions that boast a modicum of internal variation. Not sure I quite understand what this chap is saying about alternative difficulty setting, however. He says the difficult effects the AI most, and yet you can both select different difficulty levels in the same co-op game? Hrm.
I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're not sure about understanding. But presumably the AI would be better at shooting person A and shitter at shooting person B, like.
Which is… an interesting idea and one with which I'm not sure I'm comfortable.
report
It should be fairly easy to do, theoretically-speaking. Just make the AI focus on one player more than another, or if that's too much to ask, introduce static multipliers (so player B has 200 health and deals 150% damage whereas player A has 60 health and deals 75% damage).
Do keep in mind that the simultaneous variable difficulties thing is only for SpecOps, though. Since it's a co-operative game mode, I think that's a very good idea indeed – much like the party mode/unlock all tacks options on Guitar Hero/Rock Band/etc.
report
NOOOOOOOO0000000ooooo I want to shoot somebody in the head once and have that man fall down dead.
None of this 75 percent damage malarky.
45mm or 40 watt range or whatever they use in modern warfare now a days doesn’t matter.
Faceshoot dead.
report
Faceshoot the slightly less divisive alternative to Facebook.
report
“40 watt range”
What.
Secondly, this is just for the co-op mode, not deathmatch.
report
Re: 40 watt range… It’s a Terminator reference.
report
“that boast and modicum of internal variation”
I’m sorry, but that’s shameful =P
report
Indeed it is.
Other devteams are doing total randomisations in the areas of weaponry and landscape and what
are these fellows doing?
Minor enemy spawn point variation. Oh my.. don’t go bragging with it.
Well it’s a blockbuster alright and its grafics are nice and the action is apparently going to be intense.
The wall explosion part looked phony, though.
report
Is it 4 player coop? Or just 2? BOOOOO if it’s just 2 player. I like my coop with 4 players, thank you Borderlands/L4D/COD5: World at War!
report
Honestly, do you folks from the EU and USA realize that there is something BEYOND to Brazil than favelas and jungle?
: (
report
Nope. Brazil is all slums and irresponsible woodlogging, just as France is all bérets and Eiffel towers.
report
And England is all tea, pubs and foot-to-ball violence
report
Of course, there’s also that big statue of a man wanting a hug and that thing where you fight people while pretending you’re just dancing.
report
There is more truth to what each of you are saying than what you are willing to recognize.
report
I’m brazilian and even I think that Brazil is just slums and jungle, goddamnit.
report
Ba dump ching (rimshot).
report
Lies.
Beaches too.
And thongs.
report
Olympic stadiums too, soon.
But why set a game anywhere unless you use what is most iconic to that place?
report
Add pretty girls to Brazil.
report
And america is all McDonalds and suburbs.
report
“There is more truth to what each of you are saying than what you are willing to recognize.”
And America is all xenophobic idiots.
report
Hoping we can pick any gun in the game for coop missions, at the very least after finishing the mission once or something.
report
It’s two-player co-op.
report
Guys, this co-op difficulty tweak has been done before in Gears of War 2 and it worked pretty well there.
If he genuinely means that the difficulty affects how smart the AI is, then that’s great news. The first game’s Veteran setting was artificial and total bullshit.
report
That trailer sold me I think.
Time to go spend money.
report
A well-armoured but slow enemy with a powerful close-range attack?
Wish I’d though of that one.
report
He isn’t really slow he charges in to you but yeah it’s not THAT original :P
report
Totally going to shout “TAAAAANK!” when he comes running out.
report
I wonder how many years it’ll be before this game drops to a price-tag that isn’t insulting.
I still haven’t bought CoD4 because I just feel it’s being arrogant about it’s price for a game that takes about six hours to play through.
report
Ditto. I’m pretty much content to wait until it’s on GOG ten years from now if the only alternative is to pay the current asking price for a 6 hour SP game.
report
Anyone buying this solely for the SP is missing the point.
Which isn’t to say you’re objectively wrong, just that it isn’t your kind of game.
report
Why? The SP is genuinely a huge step in the right direction for the medium. At least when you don’t see past the wires or behind the curtain.
report
“just that it isn’t your kind of game.”
No argument. The SP still sounds like it’s worth playing though, so on that far off day when I can buy the game for a price appropriate the the portion of it I wish to play, I’ll pick it up.
report
No, MP FPS for me is a horror. I just don’t have the skills for it to be an enjoyable experience.
I will just end up as fodder for the classic “Teenage boy with a foul mouth, no sportsmanship and 300+ hours of playtime”
report
Dracko: the narrative devices they used in SP were absolutely innovative, the shooting mechanics were the same as in CoD1 (bar weapon penetration I believe). The most memorable (and best) section of the game was the one that wasn’t actual FPSing. Which certainly says something.
report
Which mission would that be? The one where you’re bombing the shit out of people from the comfort of a gunship? The invasion of Not-Saudi Arabia? The 90s flashback set in Chernobyl? Wiping out a ship’s crew in the middle of a storm? Taking back a nuclear silo? What?
Not to say the game is flawless, because once you’re used to its tricks and see its scripts it loses a lot of its impact, but I do get the impression Infinity Ward more than realise this and that’s why they’re making a deal out of environments that aren’t static movie sets (Yes, not a big deal there, but it certainly won’t harm the immersion factor), larger arenas of play allowing for dynamic and emergent situations which shift at each playthrough whilst simultaneously keeping the best lessons in narrative they set in the first instalment. Sure, it could all just be stuff they’re saying for the Hell of hype, but it wasn’t like I was going to buy the game on day one anyway. Not at that RRP.
report
You might find that Modern Warfare drops in price once MW2 comes out. In shops here in Blighty, I had noticed that MW had come down in price slightly (£20 instead of £30 for PC version) until a couple of months ago. After the revelation of Activision’s new pricing strategy (aka ‘gouging’) it jumped back up to full price (in fact I’m fairly certain I’ve seen it cost more than it did when it was released).
Hopefully you’ll only have to wait another 2 years or so to get a price drop on MW2.
report
D: I agree about all those being great missions – I’d add the Night-Vision bit with the SASS – but I think the brialliance is in the narration and structure rather than the mechanics, e.g. I prefer the actual shooty bits in F.E.A.R.
(For example, taking the russian(?) village near the end with the infinitly respwaning baddies and checkpoints to stop them was not great at all.)
report
Yes! That NV segment was a nice little number as well.
I’m not disagreeing with you in any way, actually. As I said, once you’re wise to the spawning patterns and scripted events, it loses a Hell of a lot of its punch (And one of the many reasons I loathe Veteran mode is because it makes these things all the more obvious). But from the sound of these interviews and others before it, and because it’s pretty much certain these people “get it”, I’m genuinely hopeful that they are putting their new developments in texture streaming and dynamic AI to good use. If it was any other developer (Save a few exceptions), I’d dismiss it as hype talk. But I can’t help but feel optimistic about this one.
report
Enjoy never owning CoD4:MW2, I doubt they’ll ever drop prices bellow 20USD. Although I think a remember there being a Steam sale in which CoD4 was under 20USD, but I’m not sure if that was a fever dream or not.
report
I think thats how I got my copy of CoD 4, just like many of my steam games (L4D during a weekend sale, same for Orange Box, Civ 4 + expansions, Fallout 3, Oblivion and World of Goo)
report
wow..my high level of interest in this game had wavered a bit in the last two weeks but that totally reignited it…spec-ops looks like an awesome new way to play which would gives us lots of new experiences =)
report
I was never tremendously excited about this title (I’m more of an RTS guy) but this trailer has me sold. After playing COD5′s Co-Op campaign with a friend Spec Ops sounds like a great way to continue that kind of gameplay without limiting it to a linear campaign setting.
report
I hate artificial difficulty, seriously ruins everything. That’s why I rarely play at anything above normal, because it’s usually ridiculous stuff. You have less health, they have more health, your weapons now do as much damage as a noodle, etc.
report
And if you’d watch the interview, you’d know they’re doing away with that. Or at least claim to be. I’ll believe the AI improvements when I see it.
report
They’re leaving it late to announce the inevitable-nothing-to-do-with-the-P-word-release-delay-on-the-PC… can we open a book on when it will happen?
report
The prospect of a less-good-but-has-a-playerbase version of Synergy sounds great, but the 2=player limit pretty much kills that mode right off the bat.
Unless they let us play harvest moon in it, of course, then all is forgiven.
report
Well, the increased difficulty usually gives me a little bit more play time out of a game. Since I rarely play through a game twice, increased difficulty is where it’s at for me.
report
Am I the only one who noticed him emphasise “And PC” when he said November 10th, so no delay mr dev? :O:O:O:O
report
It always annoys me when games reduce difficulty by dumbing down the AI. (if that’s what they mean).
Even if i’m playing on easy difficulty so i don’t die, i still want the enemy to use tactics, etc.. not just stand there like morons. Making it easier shouldn’t mean making it less of a game.
report
Interesting that he stated the same release date for all platforms, when previous rumours suggested the PC version was coming out two weeks later than the console ones.
report
Didn’t he say something about this being perfect for DLC?!?!!?
report
They already have two DLC packs planned as far as multiplayer goes. No idea about Spec Ops, but it’s bound to happen.
report
I just heard MW2 won’t support dedicated servers. What the fuck?
report
http://www.incgamers.com/News/19161/cod-mw2-pc-dedicated-servers-out-iwnet-is-in
Yeah.
What the fuck indeed.
report