Pre-hype for the latest Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 3, is on the up as Infinity Ward devs have revealed a truckload of details of the newest iteration of the franchise’s careworn multiplayer mode, claiming there are “more changes to the game than ever before.”
“This is the most balanced Call of Duty experience ever,” insists creative strategist Robert Bowling.
“Map layout, speed of movement, perks; every area has been meticulously balanced. We listened to the fans. As such, there’s no longer a Commando perk, no Last Stand, no shotgun as a secondary weapon. And we’ve added in more choices to support a wider variety of play-styles than ever before.”
An additional two new game modes are added alongside classics ‘Free-for-All’, ‘Team Deathmatch’, and ‘Domination’. New modes can be played across all 16 of MW3’s new maps.
The first new game mode, ‘Kill Confirmed’ objectively requires players to down enemies and collect their dog tags, while attempting to stop the opposing team from collecting the most tags in the same fashion.
Second mode, ‘Team Defender’ blends classic Capture the Flag with a sort of Team VIP mode, with teams taking and holding the flag to accrue additional match points.
As for killstreaks, three new kinds of streak, ‘Pointstreaks’ are available to players, vaguely based around attack, defence and buffs. The first concentrates on classic kill streaks, air support and UAV support, while the second, while also providing UAVs of all kinds, focuses on defence, including anti-air support turrets and other area-denial features.
“We really went back to drawing board here,” explained Bowling.
“In MW2 Killstreaks were basically optimised for Team Deathmatch play. In objective-based games there was no benefit for the player who wanted to focus on clearing objectives. To combat that we’ve changed Killstreaks to the Pointstreak system, which rewards diverse play styles. Now it isn’t just about kills: you earn points for assists, objectives and so on.”
The third Pointstreak skill focuses on buffing the player with additional perks based on how many points you obtain. While seemingly awesome, my money’s on this being the select choice of the more annoying Camper ‘Pro’ who, after exploiting the map somehow to get all the perks in the game, will basically grief everyone until the match is over.
More features include levelled weapon proficiency upgrades, Facebook integration, web, iOS and Android apps on top of custom private matches and game modes.
However, fancy game modes might not be enough to sway the gamer crowd currently in love with DICE’s Battlefield 3, with 78% of YouTube thumb ratings negative for the multiplayer video recently released.
Back at Nintendo…
The major game company is still hanging in there, with a slew of Ninty-related news just in.
The juicy scoop talks of increased sales, legal action, developer troubles and new peripherals for the 3DS.
Increased 3DS Sales Post Price Drop
Firstly, according to the market and those in it, over 235,000 3DS systems were sold in the previous month, following a drastic Nintendo price drop. About 185,000 units left stockists following the price cut on August 12, representing a 260 percent increase in the 19 days in August after the cut, compared to the same 19 days last month.
“Consumers are responding very positively to the new suggested retail price of $169.99 for the Nintendo 3DS,” said Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt.
“With Star Fox 64 3D and the new Flame Red colour launching tomorrow, and Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 arriving later this year, Nintendo 3DS will offer consumers cutting-edge entertainment and tremendous value this holiday season.”
Legal Patent Issues Abound
Meanwhile, a patent filed by tech firm ThinkOptic regarding one “electronic equipment for handheld vision based absolute pointing system” has brought more trouble to Nintendo’s door, with ThinkOptic claiming that Nintendo created the Wii Remote with prior knowledge of the patent.
An additional two patents were brought up in the same case, regarding a “Handheld Device for Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System” along with a “Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System”.
ThinkOptic also claim that the Wii U will infringe these patents even before its release.
If that’s not bad news then this is, the 3DS’s stereoscopic screen is allegedly an infringement of a 2003 patent filed by Tomita Technologies, concerning one “stereoscopic image picking up and display system based upon optical axes cross-point information”.
The complaint says it all: “Nintendo’s America’s infringement of the ‘664 patent has been, and continues to be, willful.” No details yet of the exact error by Nintendo, but Tomita are seeking damages for this infraction “in an amount not yet determined”, and are currently seeking trial by jury, awaiting a court decision.
Wii U Development Troubles
It’s not yet clear how Nintendo has responded to these legal issues, as the Wii U in question is apparently currently in the middle of a ‘development crisis’, with sources at 01.net claiming that the hardware for the Wii U is being “rushed through the door”.
“According to our source, it seems that the final architecture has been rushed through the door, with undesirable consequences,” the 01 report reads.
The list of apparently rushed hardware includes “inadequate” wire-free communications features integral to the Wii U’s design, along with an apparently underpriced (read cheap) main chipset.
“So far, the wireless functions simply do not work at all,” the report goes on, claiming that a wired version substituted by developers for testing “still does not work properly”.
“Many developers are feeling lost, their progress impeded by a distinct lack of visibility, their working hours by the quasi-paced daily software updates,”
The report outlines a suspected June 2012 release, potentially impeded due to Nintendo engineers struggling to fix their hardware and architecture in time.
New 3Ds Peripheral
Here it is; the new attachment for the 3DS that apparently includes an additional analogue stick and generally chunks out the console in general.
Nintendo spokespeople said that “[They could] confirm that Nintendo does plan to release the attachment but that any further announcements on the attachment will be made at some later time by Nintendo.”
A “Nintendo 3DS new product announcement conference” is set to be held in Japan on September 13th. Watch out for 3Ds add-ons soon.
Better Late Than Never: Crysis the First Hits Consoles.
It’s official, the original Crysis is ready for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners for the first time since its release nearly half a decade ago.
No certain declaration of add-ons Crysis: Warhead and Crysis: Wars coming to the party, but a trailer is out for the console versions now.