Archive for the ‘press’ Category
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Subscribers of Game Informer will be getting their mailboxes hit with the first world-exclusive cover story for Modern Warfare 2 starting around May 15th (depending on where you live), with copies hitting retail stores anytime after that. The feature apparently is weighing in at around 10-ages. Having met with the writers for this piece personally, I know they’ve got plenty to show & tell. I can’t wait for these to start hitting readers as this is the best part of the job. To finally hear / see the first reaction to something the team has been putting so much work into for so long! I can’t wait to hear what you guys think when you read it and check out the first screenshots of the game.
May is a busy month and the hype machine is definitely in full effect. Cover story hitting mid-may, the first Gameplay trailer ever hitting May 24th and then E3 just around the corner the first week of June, I’m stoked. Can’t wait to FINALLY be shedding the shroud of secrecy and getting down to the good stuff!
If you need something to tide you over, here’s a 15 second preview of the upcoming gameplay trailer that will aire on the 24th!
Tags: Modern Warfare 2
Posted in Modern Warfare 2, press | Comments
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Gamespot.com’s Brad Shoemaker stopped by the studio last week to check out the new DLC we’ve been working on and posted up his impressions today along with some of the first screenshots to ever go public from the new maps. There will officially be four new maps in the map pack, and Brad goes over two of them in depth, including the new map Broadcast and Creek.
The second map we played is entirely new, and it’s named Creek. But there’s a lot more to it than a simple babbling brook. This is a very large-scale outdoor map with a small cluster of houses on one side of it. In the middle, there’s a huge ravine circling the perimeter with multiple levels of pathways up its side. Down below, the trail leads along the eponymous creek bed to a waterfall. Elsewhere along the base of the ravine, there’s a lengthy and winding cave that cuts underneath the hill then out to the other side. As big as it is, there are a lot of places to go on this map; from prone sniping atop the cliff face to hiding out behind a rock in the tunnel, you never know where an opponent will be attacking you.
For the full article with full details on both maps, as well as some tidbits on the remaining two maps in the map pack (Killhouse and Chinatown), and two of the first screenshots from the new maps, be sure to read the article over at Gamespot.com right now:
Call of Duty 4 DLC Map Pack Hands On
Also, Spike TV will be airing a special episode of GametrailersTV this Friday at 1 AM that will have the world exclusive unveiling of the third map in the upcoming Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. So be sure to check out that episode which will include exclusive gameplay footage from the map as well as an interview we did with them at GDC this year.
Tags: broadcast, call of duty 4, cod4, creek, dlc, Downloadable Content, exclusive, hands on, modern warfare, new maps, preview, screenshots, variety map pack
Posted in Downloadable Content, Playstation 3, call of duty 4 modern warfare, press, xbox 360, xbox live | Comments
Friday, March 7th, 2008
A research study done by GameDeveloper magazine, sister-companies Gamasutra.com, and Game Developer Research division has announced the Top 50 Game Developers in the gaming industry today. The entire report can be found in the March issue of Game Developer Magazine (pictured left) which also has the Call of Duty 4 postmortem written by our Lead Technical Artist Michael Boon and one of our Lead Designers Zied Rieke.
The report was based on reputation and sales data, through anonymous surveys and assessments of sales charts in the US, the UK, and Japan, the number of games released each year, and the average metacritic rating. While the sales data is handy, the all-encompassing approach taken by the study to include reputation, as well, makes this study interesting.
So how did Infinity Ward make out? Well, I don’t need a report to tell me that Infinity Ward is the greatest developer around today, but it’s always nice to see it recognized as such. The top 5 Developers from the list include:
1. Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play)
2. Infinity Ward (Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
3. Blizzard Entertainment (World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade)
4. Electronic Arts Canada (FIFA Soccer 08, NBA Street: Homecourt)
5. Valve (Portal, Team Fortress 2)
I have to say that this is a huge honor to be in the company of such amazing developers and to rank #2 of the the top developers world wide is absolutely amazing. According to the report:
The second place went to Activision-owned developer Infinity Ward, thanks to both the resounding critical and commercial success of its 2007 release Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and high scores and healthy praise for the developer’s working conditions, professionalism, and attention to quality.
I can 100% vouch for that statement as there is absolutely no developer that I would rather work for. The report does a great job of breaking down why they were chosen and displaying some of the data used to determine their status. It’s great to see developers like Nintendo, Valve, and Blizzard topping the list with us as they are some of my personal favorite developers.
Meanwhile, in the same issue you can check out a postmortem for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this time written by our Lead Technical Artist and one of our Lead Designers. It’s a fantastic read and goes over the top 5 things that went right (such as the switch to Modern Setting), and the inevitable top 5 things that went wrong (such as too much desert). So if you’re interested in an honest behind the scenes look and retrospective look back at the development of the game, check it out.
Hit the jump for the list of the Top 20 Developers of the Top 50 report.
(more…)
Tags: call of duty 4, cod4, gamasutura, Game Developer Magazine, infinity ward, modern warfare, Postmortem, Top 50 Developers
Posted in awards, call of duty 4 modern warfare, infinity ward, press, sales, video games | Comments
Saturday, December 29th, 2007
2007
Year in Review
Call of Duty 4: Modern WarfareBy far the biggest accomplishment and largest contributor to everything awesome and insane that happened in my life in 2007 is the development and most importantly the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360, Ps3, and PC.
I started to write out lengthy paragraphs regarding the roller coaster ride that was video game development in 2007, but I’ve decided for the sake of my ADHD and the ADHD of my readers, I’ll sum it up in a quick bullet list w/ pictures:
All in all…. it was one crazy year full of amazingly long nights and lessons you can only learn by falling flat on your face, but in the end we pulled out a game I couldn’t be more proud of.
The Consoler (available for your viewing pleasure here)
A site I decided to create in Early 2007 (the background story here) as a hobby to satisfy my google / wiki tangents of wanting to know everything about anything in video games and wanting to document my ever growing video game collection. I got hooked and eventually ended up scanning in every cover of Nintendo power from the first issue in 1988 to today, as well as breaking down the contents page of every issue and making an article for each, complete with the included fold out poster, cover art, and editors note. (compulsive anyone?). Sadly, I took the site public around the same time all my free time was sucked away by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. One day little Consoler, one day I will give you the attention you deserve… (see new year resolutions)
For some reason I thought this list would be longer, but it seems the majority of all things in 2007 for me revolved solely around the game. Regardless, I can say this has by far been my most successful, busiest, most amazing year to date. I have grown and learn so much over the past 365 days (as of new years) and I’m anxious to see how 2008 plans on even coming close to this year…. good luck 08, 2007 is a hard act to follow.
Now for the RESOLUTIONS (Many will be made, few will be followed through), as with every new accomplishment, comes many new vices:
2008
New Years Resolutions
- Blog More - I apologize, you deserve better. I’ve gotten in a bad habit of only blogging when there’s a major announcement, forget why I started blogging about work so much in the first place. I’m going to start blogging more often, with more personal insider updates, and not just the major Press worthy tid bits.
- Answer EVERY Email - This has always been my motto, ever since I started working professionally I made it my first priority to answer every email or message I ever received because I’ve always felt that anyone that takes the time to write you deserves the same attention in return. With the success of Call of Duty 4 my inbox and private messengers exploded, before I knew it I was receiving thousands of emails a day to all my accounts. Over 1.5 million in my work accounts (thanks beta), and thousands a day to my hotmail (personal), blackberry, and other accounts. Not that I’m complaining nor mind, I love getting email, but I hate when I can’t reply to everyone. I try to get to as many as I can, and I honestly read everything I receive and make sure it’s used as intended. However, I admit there we’re moments when I simply couldn’t get to them all, but NO MORE. With things winding down a bit, it is my goal to get back to answering EVERY message I receive, whether it be email, IM, comments or other.
- Create a more functional blog design - I’m never happy with the blog, I mean the basics are all there, but I think I really need to do some redesigning and add some functionality. I may move over to some paid professional blogging software to get what I need (community server perhaps), which I think will help a lot in the organization and communication of my first two resolutions.
- Take more Photos + Videos - One thing I’ve never been is a picture person, don’t know why, but I rarely take photos of anything, which I regret. So I’ve decided to make it a priority to document more through photo and video, I’m gonna be picking up a mini-cam in JAN to help with this and will hopefully be providing a more visual look behind the scenes of what it’s like to work in video games, go to the events, meet the people, and just live daily live in the city of Los Angeles and at Infinity Ward (the greatest company around). What do you guys think? Is that something you’re even interested in seeing? (comment if so)
- Become even more accessible - I’m always looking for new ways to interact with you guys, the public as a whole. I mean I consider myself pretty accessible already as I heavily make my contact information available, and for good reason as you can’t make a good game without the influence and input directly from your community. I strongly believe that, and in the ingenious words of Kimya Dawson “I’ll ask you what you think, because your thoughts and words are powerful”. I couldn’t name any other developer whose AIM, MSN, Hotmail, Phone Number, Blog, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and just about any other means of communication is ready available for anyone with the fancy to use it may, but I’ll find even more ways to keep you guys updated more detailed, more personal and more frequent.
Well… as my iPod starts to die and demand to be recharged and my thoughts start to become less and less coherent as the time rounds 1:30 AM I’ll call it a night. Just a few more days left in 2007 and I plan on spending them working towards the aforementioned goals and aspirations… I return to California on Jan 6th and I’ll see you all in 2008!!
Words of Wisdom:
Never blog without music
Always go with your first draft
Always publish without proof reading
Its more honest…
Tags: Uncategorized
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, life, press | Comments
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Episode 81
“It’s Hard To Wake Up Everyday Knowing I’m This Awesome”
I know it will be tough, but if you can tear yourself away from Call Of Duty 4 for just a moment, you might find some interesting discussion going on in this episode of Evil Avatar Radio. Even more interesting is the interview we had with Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling, who answered the questions YOU asked! And even some you didn’t. There’s no lack of talk surrounding Call Of Duty 4 here, and if you’re still on the fence, this show might just sway you to the COD side of things as you hear us chomping at the bit to end our broadcast, if only so we can get home to play the game ourselves. Hell, we didn’t even stay very long after the show because of that reason.
^As you can see, I did an Interview with Evil Avatar Radio this week so go check it out. They’re a great group of guys, enjoy!
Tags: Uncategorized
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, interview, press | Comments
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Tonight on Spike TV’s GameHead at 1 AM is the episode where the GameHead crew spent the day at our studios here at Infinity Ward.
Episode Description: “Game Head visits Infinity Ward, the award winning developers of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Find out about all the new single player and multiplayer features in this exciting episode!”
If you miss it tonight it will be airing again on November 2nd at the same time, 1 AM. While they were here they took a tour of the studio, interviewed a lot of the dev team and of course checked out the game to get some insider info on the Single Player and Multiplayer. So be sure to check out the episode and see what it’s like inside Infinity Ward.
Tags: Uncategorized
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, press, television | Comments
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
The first ever review of the full game for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is in from OXM and the verdict is looking good.
I won’t spoil the review, but if you’re a subscriber OXM should be hitting your mailboxes in the next few weeks, and probably a week or so after for news stands, but from the looks of things on Gamerankings.com we’re at 100% (10 out of 10)!!
I saw a sneak peak of the preview and it delves out a massive amount of info about the game, from pretty much every aspect of Single Player to an in depth look at multiplayer and how it all works, as well as hints and spoilers to some of the never before talked about additions in the game (such as Prestige Mode and others).
This is the fun time just before launch, when people finally get to start seeing the FULL GAME with nothing held back and see what they think of all the work that went into it.
Speaking of which, don’t forget that tonight is the Exclusive Gamestop Hands-On event where you can go to select Gamestops across the country from 9pm-Midnight to play a portion of the Single-player of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare yourself as well as pick up some CoD4:MW swag.
I’ll be hitting up the GameStop on Universal City Walk here in Los Angeles all night so stop by, play the game, hopefully walk away with some free stuff, and say hey!
For those not in Los Angeles, you can check out the other Gamestops around the country and sign-up to attend at: http://www.gamestop.com/gs/cod4ftp/default.asp
Tags: Uncategorized
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, press, review | Comments
