Rock, Paper, Shotgun

VG247 posted this video of the first five minutes of Treyarch’s Call of Duty 5, which is out next week. Pat notes that the intro sequences includes actual footage of people being executed. Not game engine killing, or rendered in a cutscene, but the actual death of someone in the war. Of course we see this kind of footage all the time in documentaries about the era, or simulated and mocked up in World War II movies, so I guess it’s nothing to worry about…

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How many zombies does it take to make a meme? How many zombies is too many zombies? And why is every game suddenly obsessed with them? Well, even more so than usual.

It certainly seems like the en vogue way to drum up renewed interest in a game right now – no less than three usually non-zombie-centric titles have made the headlines in the last few days thanks to a little unexpected undeadery.
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As there’s doubtless a legion of Nazi-jaded folk queuing up to loudly lament COD’s return to WW2, now seems an opportune moment to observe that hey, some of you seem really angry this week. Is it pre-release tension about all these games? Are you okay? Do you need a hug? A biscuit, maybe? Please be happier. Please.

COD: World At War, then. A taste of co-op here, and what I’m now informed is in fact an old trailer beneath the cut. Unfortunately neither spend much time on the survival horror element Treyarch claim is central to the Pacific campaign, but that may be because E3 is so terribly focused on bombast. Hence, ’splodes!

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…as I shall insist on calling it, even though it’s officialy ‘COD: World at War.’ Anyway, here words here, which I wrote for Britain’s Most Influential Games Journalist Tom Bramwell over at Eurogamer after getting eyes-on with COD5 a little while back.

Things said include the likes of this:

“You get the sense all the secrecy is at least partly because World at War is a huge deal for Treyarch. This is its chance to earn its own vaunted reputation. World At War might have ‘Call of Duty’ in the name, but for once it really does feel like Treyarch’s making its own game, not simply carrying someone else’s luggage. That the team’s chuffed to bits about this was plain to see.”

Your task for the day – predict how many people in EG’s comments will say something like “World War 2? Not interested”.

I know! Who’d have thought that there would be another Call Of Duty game. And that they would advertise its existence with miniaturised motion pictures on the internet! Well, dowse your incredulity and set course for hyperbole island, because below the jump is a trailer for the fifth Call of Duty game. World At War, for that is its entirely generic subtitle, is a World War II game, and it’s being developed by Treyarch, who did Call Of Duty 3. And it actually got announced last month or something, but we were busy looking out of the window to bother mentioning it. The details that have emerged so far is that there will be four-player co-op and “swimming elements”. It should be out later this year. For Christmas, probably.

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