modern warfare

Friday went by pretty quick today. It kicked off with our standard weekly Leads meeting, where all dept. leads sit down and talk about what’s happening in their individual deprtments; but once that was wrapped, I headed to the lobby to meet up with this years World Series MVP and Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels. Seen above (on the right) with one of our resident baseball fanboys and animators, Chance Glasco (left).

For being the most highly sought after player in league right now, after securing the MVP award at the World Series recently, he’s an extremely down to earth guy and a most importantly a huge gamer as attested to by his wife who confirmed he’ll disappear for days only to reappear fully bearded from a week of uninterrupted gaming. A life style I can relate to.

Although, from talking to Cole, it seems those game-a-thons are few and far between, especially when preparing for the World Series. He said gaming during the season is typically reserved for the early hours of the morning after games, when him and fellow team mates jump on. So if you’re playing between 11pm - 2:30 am and hear an abnormal amount of baseball talk, then you know why.

We gave him a tour around the studio while he was here, and it was especially interesting when we were showing off some of our Motion Capture. Cole started talking about how he’s done it before, but not for a game. He uses Motion Capture to record and analyze his pitching form, so that they can determine how to further improve his pitching and prevent injuries.

It was a good visit. It’s always nice to meet fans of the game, especially if were fans of theirs. Cole admitted he’s not alone in his COD4 addiction, saying he typically parties up after games with fellow team mates like Adam Eaton or teams they’re facing that day like the legendary Ken Griffey Jr. 

Just goes to show, you never know who you’re going up against when you log on. 

Call of Duty 4 will be making it’s First Live Circuit Appearance at the 2008 National Championships in Las Vegas in two weeks (November 21st - 23rd) at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Several of us here at Infinity Ward, including myself, will be flying over to Vegas to celebrate and support our community members competing in the event.

Check out what MLG had to say about the event:

Call of Duty 4, MLG’s first Online Pro Circuit title, will be featured as a live competition at the November 21-23 MLG 2008 National Championships. Throughout the 2008 Season, Call of Duty 4 teams battled it out through the course of three Online Pro Circuit Competitions. Come Vegas though, the teams will meet face-to-face for the first time this season as they do battle for some serious cash and the title of 2008 National Champion. 

The Top 8 Call of Duty 4 teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket in Vegas. Six teams have automatically qualified for the National Championships by finishing in the Top 2 in any of the three Online Pro Circuit Competitions. The other two teams have been determined by cumulative ranking points. These teams will play using a closed-circuit internet connection, ensuring the highest match quality possible. 

MLG will be providing editorial coverage of the Call of Duty 4 National Championships all weekend long, so be sure to tune in and see who will win the first Call of Duty 4 National Championship. Be sure to check out the prizes, rules, and schedule below, and remember that Vegas is open to all spectators. Best of all, spectatorship is completely free, so don’t miss out on the most intense Call of Duty 4 action of the year! 

I’ve booked a suite at the Hard Rock (where the event is taking place) so I don’t miss a single part of the action. If you are competing or going to be in Vegas during the event, be sure to drop me a line and let’s meet up. Especially if you’re competing and I don’t know about it, because we need to hook you up with some IW / COD4 swag to represent at the event.  Good luck to all of our teams competing for some cold hard cash. 

The 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards were held in London this past weekend, and I was stoked to get the call that we had won Four awards during the ceremony this year.  Included in those four was the Ultimate Game of the Year award as well as three other GOTY awards included below:

Nuts All-Nighter Multiplayer Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

PC Game of the Year (Sponsored by The United Kingdom e-sport Association)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

Games Radar Online Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4 - Infinity Ward

Virgin Media Ultimate Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

What made the awards even more humbling was the fact that they were voted on and the winners determined by over 850,000 gamers; which personally are the most rewarding accolades to get.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote in the awards and honor us with these, we really do appreciate every recognition we get.  Thank you!

It’s getting closer and closer to, quite possibly my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween. While most chumps are putting up the same old tired Halloween decorations they’ve used every year up in the yard of ghosts, tombstones, and a talking skull that sings when you walk by the door step, Luke had different plans. More awesome plans. Plans that involved this awesome Call of Duty 4 carved pumpkin you see above.

Nice work Luke. You can check this out more over at Luke’s blog: http://dymndheartkilla.wordpress.com/

Starting this Thursday the 18th (and going till the 25th), we’re going to be kicking off a full week of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare promotions on PS3. Starting with the #1 DLC on PSN, the Variety Map Pack, dropping to $4.99 all week long. In addition, you’ll be able to rack up double XP and rank up all weekend from Friday - Sunday. I’m aiming to beat my personal best of 45 ranks in one weekend and aiming to rank up a over a full 55 ranks on PSN. I’ll be partying up with a few of the IW crew on Friday from Noon - 4 pm (PT) to take advantage of the double XP. Be sure to add the following PSN IDs to your friends list or send us invites if you see us online:

Fourzerotwoiw

COD4qaBurx

COD4qaEd

COD4artist_OLO

COD4qaNairb

COD4studioVince

COD4studioJason

While the official Play with Devs event is Friday, I’ll be playing all week long, so anytime you see me online drop me a line and let’s get some games going. 

This weekend was great! After lurking at Prestige 1 lvl 55 for nearly a year; the double XP this weekend enticed me to finally prestige again. That, coupled with watching 007 Casino Royale on Friday night, made me want to get to at least level 37 to unlock the suppressed G36c for some stealthy action.

All said and done, I was able to rank up 45 levels between Friday and Sunday night; I could have done a bit more, but that was without neglecting the family.

I experimented a lot with Perks I never used before this weekend and have found a pretty sweet combination for playing Hardcore Team Deathmatch and Hardcore Search and Destroy (which is where I mainly hung out this weekend).

First of all, screw the M16. I’m done with it. It’s dead to me. The G36c is where it’s at. 

Add a  little Bomb Squad for picking up enemy claymores in Search and Destroy so I can stay alive and warn team mates where to plant.

Some obligatory stopping power (although it’s not really needed in Hardcore); Once I unlock a more stealthy perk I’ll switch it out.

Finally, Last Stand. Which I never used before but have gotten damn good at this weekend. You couldn’t imagine how pissed off people get when they put you down and then you headshot with a pistol. Hilarious and makes you not so angry when you get killed. All in all, I was bringing my a-game most of the weekend with this set-up. 

So how did you guys do this weekend? Any one rank up an an entire 55 levels or more?

Now that the Xbox Live weekend is finished, we have the PS3 weekend coming up this weekend (I believe). We’ll have official confirmation on that soon and a full post detailing it, but I as I said before you guys can expect the same treatment for the most part. Minus the prestige picture pack, as regretfully PSN avatars are reserved to 1st party devs only :sadface:. I’ll get you PS3 players all the details on the weekend soon.

Heads up that this weekend from Friday the 12th - Sunday the 14th on Xbox Live (PS3 event will be later, closer to the 18th), we’ll be having Double XP all weekend long on every playlist. In addition, we’ll be doing some DLC promotion on the Xbox Live Marketplace that will allow you to download the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Variety Map  Pack for 50% off, which means you’ll be able to snag all four maps for just 400 MS points. 

That’s not all though, thanks to so many of you who have written in and requested; we’ve been able to work it out to get the Prestige Gamer pic pack back on the marketplace for download for all those who missed out on it’s limited offering during our last LIVE fire weekend. 

Some of the IW crew and myself will be jumping on this weekend to prey on all the new Variety Map Pack owners wandering lost in Chinatown, ripe for the picking. Be sure to add the following Xbox Live gamertags so you can join in on some of the games:

The official Play With Devs time is Noon - 4pm PDT on Saturday, but we’ll be jumping on and off unofficially all weekend long. This is all going down exclusively on Xbox Live this weekend, but don’t worry PS3 players, because we’ll be doing the same for you guys ; but due to schedule conflicts we couldn’t do them back to back so the PS3 weekend will be closer to Sept the 18th  (I’ll have a dedicated post for our PS3 users on that event), but you can expect some of the same benefits and festivities. 

This past week, one of Croatia’s largest and most beloved musical acts Dino Dvornik, seen above in his Croatian hit Jace manijace; sadly passed away. Thousands attended his funeral to pay their respects to one of Croatia’s biggest idols. We are extremely humbled to learn that one of his final requests, was to be buried with his favorite video game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. An act that undeniably honors him with the title of our biggest fan, and us as just an equal a fan of his.

News coverage of his funeral:

http://www.24sata.hr/show/clanak/obrisali-suze-i-na-ispracaju-zaplesali-dvorniku-u-cast/79378/?context=naslovnica&web_page_id=main_page

RIP 

DINO DVORNIK

You will be greatly missed. 

Looks like one of our PC modders from Japan, by the name of Qrysalis on our forums, has found and re-constructed the files from our original training mission for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Ah, brings back memories. As you can tell, we decided to make it short and sweet for the final version of the game, but I do miss some of that choice VO (voice over). Nice work Qrysalis, as long as you don’t find our Brokeback Snipers / Hot Coffee moment with Price and MacMillian … then we’re all good. 

(fyi: Cpt Hammer is my PartnerNET gamertag, not my secret XBL account)

Just got finished jumping into some of QA’s playtests of the new gametypes. While they’re ensuring there are no bugs to be found, I wanted to jump in and test out how fun the playlists were. Hardcore HQ is a lot of fun because it’s a lot more fast paced than normal and HQ’s are falling a lot faster. Not a lot of waiting around in this gametype. Not to mention it’s a lot more tactical when you’re not just spamming the HQ with nades. I think I’ll be playing the Hardcore Ricochet version of Hardcore HQ a lot. 

We played several games of Second Chance Search and Destroy, which essentially just adds 1 respawn per player. A small addition, but makes a big difference in the tactics you use. Plus, it wasn’t as frustrating to be taken out early in the round because you get a second chance to do some damage. No more dying early and waiting around the entire match. The only problem I can foresee with it is the occassional spawn kill if someone gets past your defenses and gets in a position to kill your second wave of respawns before you get him out. Other than that I actually prefer Second Chance over standard Search and Destroy. I found myself missing the second life when we were playing standard. There were a few UI (user interface) bugs, but those can be taken care of really easily, just need to shorten the name of the gametype. 

Still on the fence with Sudden Death Sabotage, what do you guys think of that. It essentially just turns into Team Elimination because no one has any respawns, so everyone starts camping and never goes for the bomb. In a way, I like that, because it’s a sneaky way to get Team Elimination into the game with an extra twist, but on the other hand the rounds end really quickly. I’m worried this one might not make the cut, but we’ll see how the rest of testing goes this week.

Hardcore Ricochet is the answer to my prayers. Team Killing is non-existent and you no longer have to say “my bad” to a team mate you accidently blow to hell with a badly placed grenade. If you fuck up, you’re the only one hurting for it. Not to mention you never have to worry about having a team mate shoot an RPG into the ground at the start and killing everyone in Hardcore Search and Destroy. That alone makes this entire playlist worth it to me. 

Things are looking good. I’m still working hard on that upcoming Xbox Live promotion I told you about. Getting some final thoughts from our Art Driector on the Ads I designed for it, and securing the rest of the details. 

On a more personal note, I finally got my automatic office defense system online and operating… 

… and by that, I mean big ass NERF cannon; Which I have mounted on a mobile defensive position (aka office chair) for maximum effeniency. This battery-operated, belt fed, automatic rapid-fire dart cannon is exactly what I needed to the turn the tide of the war in my favor. You see, there’s been ongoing skirmishes with the radicals in IT for quite some time now…. around the time they covered my Master Chief in Peanut Butter while I was out of town for GDC.

Dare’s a war a’comin… pik yer side!  

It was awesome putting together this bad boy late last night after work. I felt like I was 8 years old again, sitting on the floor with one of our producers assembling and test firing it. Some toys you’re never too old to get a kick out of. If the day ever comes I think other wise, kill me…. preferrably death by NERFing.