NEWS
by Mark Barley
Infinity Ward Chats Up Modern Warfare 3
Infinity Ward was holding a press event in New York yesterday and the developer's head man, Robert Bowling offered up some new insight on Modern Warfare 3's Party Chat feature, map making, and more!
Speaking with MTV, Bowling talked about how Party Chat mode was blocked in Modern Warfare 2 because the feature made it too easy to cheat.
“When designing multiplayer, especially Modern Warfare multiplayer, you have 30 million people,” said Bowling. “They all are very different. You have guys playing just for fun, just want to jump on there and have a good time. You have your hardcore competitive guys. You have your casual guys that maybe are competitive, they’re just not as good. It’s all about delivering a platform to allow you to have fun the way you want to have fun without hindering the other audiences.
“A major focus of Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer is allowing you to have a lot more control over [how you play], looking at those restrictions and doing away with stuff like [Party Chat blocking] that’s super hardcore. It’s about giving options. We will have places where competitive guys go where you might have restrictive voice chat. And then you have an option to maybe play that same mode without the same restrictions if that’s the type of player you are.
“The only place where Party Chat should be blocked is Search & Destroy, and won’t be blocked for modes like Dom[ination].”
Bowling then spoke on how the multiplayer maps will be different for MW3, in which , looking at those restrictions and doing away with stuff like [Party Chat blocking] that’s super hardcore. It’s about giving options. We will have places where competitive guys go where you might have restrictive voice chat. And then you have an option to maybe play that same mode without the same restrictions if that’s the type of player you are. “The only place where Party Chat should be blocked is Search & Destroy, and won’t be blocked for modes like Dom[ination].”]Kotaku has him stating, “A major focus of Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer is allowing you to have a lot more control over [how you play], looking at those restrictions and doing away with stuff like [Party Chat blocking] that’s super hardcore. It’s about giving options. We will have places where competitive guys go where you might have restrictive voice chat. And then you have an option to maybe play that same mode without the same restrictions if that’s the type of player you are.
“The only place where Party Chat should be blocked is Search & Destroy, and won’t be blocked for modes like Dom[ination].”
“Modern Warfare style is, for me, all about the high-speed, fast-paced—and I’m talking in terms of smooth controls and 60-frames-per-second framerate—infantry-focused combat,” said Bowling. “And it’s all focused on that gun-on-gun gameplay, especially in Modern Warfare 3.
“I feel like it’s something we nailed with Call of Duty 4. We moved away from it a little bit with MW2, relying heavily on air support, killstreaks, perks and stuff like that. Modern Warfare 3, very much [is] building up from that Call of Duty 4 mentality of gun-on-gun, fast-paced infantry gameplay.”
Bowling than spoke on how map making would be completely redone and more improved. “I feel like it’s something we nailed with Call of Duty 4. We moved away from it a little bit with MW2, relying heavily on air support, killstreaks, perks and stuff like that. Modern Warfare 3, very much [is] building up from that Call of Duty 4 mentality of gun-on-gun, fast-paced infantry gameplay.”
“Call of Duty 4 was much more simplistic in its map design: You have the sight points, you have the routes players will take. It was very flat in terms of where you could go. Modern Warfare 2 had a major focus on vertical combat, increasing the multi-floor levels, increasing the number of buildings you go into,” he told Kotaku.
“There were a lot more places you could go than just the main routes and buildings where you were meant to go. That encourages and discourages a lot of types of gameplay. With Modern Warfare 3, it’s much, much more on allowing you to focus on what’s necessary; it’s making vertical combat when it makes sense but it’s not a blanket rule across every map. You will have some maps that focus on verticality and that are focused on multiple things. And then you have other maps that are very limited on the hotspots. The hotspots are a key thing on Modern Warfare 3. We went into each map wanting you to be able to turn a corner and know very easily that these are the three—no more than five—places I need to check.
“For the hardcore guys who have been with us since the beginning, that speaks volumes: the map design, the return to focus on gun-on-gun, all that stuff. I like to always make sure the hardcore players know we’re building it up for them.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the beginning of November for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
“There were a lot more places you could go than just the main routes and buildings where you were meant to go. That encourages and discourages a lot of types of gameplay. With Modern Warfare 3, it’s much, much more on allowing you to focus on what’s necessary; it’s making vertical combat when it makes sense but it’s not a blanket rule across every map. You will have some maps that focus on verticality and that are focused on multiple things. And then you have other maps that are very limited on the hotspots. The hotspots are a key thing on Modern Warfare 3. We went into each map wanting you to be able to turn a corner and know very easily that these are the three—no more than five—places I need to check.
“For the hardcore guys who have been with us since the beginning, that speaks volumes: the map design, the return to focus on gun-on-gun, all that stuff. I like to always make sure the hardcore players know we’re building it up for them.”