SK167
Enthusiast
- Messages
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TeamXbox: Lets cut right to the chase. November 10itll be pretty exciting from what weve seen tonight. What will the players get when they buy the game that day?
Joel Emslie: I envision everyone going home, opening up the package and popping it inand I hope they dont stop playing untiltheyre done. And were talking a big game, too. Having multiplayer co-op now, the Spec-Ops mode and single playerfor us, we were really working hard at it. Ive never worked as hard on a project, because its like were making three games.
The single player has some tremendous jaw-dropping moments, and its one right after the other. Its all paced. And youve got Hans Zimmer scoring it, we have some kick-*** voice talent and the story is fantastic. I hope everybody gets a kick out of it that night.
For the multiplayer people, who wont even start up the single player, I think theyre going to be level-grinding all nightand missing a lot of school or marriage or [laughs]
TeamXbox: While were talking about it, why dont you run down some of the key things that have been added to multiplayer.
Joel Emslie: Todd Alderman [lead multiplayer designer at Infinity Ward, who jointly gave the press presentation that night] talked about customizable Kill Streaks, which I think is kick-***. One of my favorite things is the Care Packageyou get it early on in the game; its just one of those things thats already set there. You do have to level it up; so you would unlock these Kill Streaks andyoure getting the tip of the iceberg right now with this beta [the event was taking place on a closed beta version of the game]. Theres quite a lot to work with there. It comes down to what type of player you are and what type of Kill Streak youre going to use.
The Care Package especially is one of those things I love using. You can actually kill people with itit gets airdropped by a little bird, a big Pelican case that slams down from the sky. Its almost like a jackpot: Itll roll through randomized Kill Streaksan AC-130 might come up. The cool thing about it is, the bad guys can steal it. If you get fragged or hit before you get to that crate, and they know its there, it becomes this mad dash. You can see what it is, they cantbut they know its something that might be good; it might be an AC-130. I like to throw it out in the middle of the map to lure people out to grab it. Hopefully then its something low; if its an AC-130, Im truckin out there to get it to save my ***. You can use it as cover.
It adds a whole different element to multiplayer. It can really turn things around quite quickly if you get a favorite Kill Streak.
Leveling up your perks? Bad ***. When they set that in, it took a lot of tweaking to get it right, but it works extremely welland it just another layer to leveling up your character and getting things to work properly. Youll work on like a Commando perk that enables you to lock on a little betterit gives you a couple more inches in your lock-on. You can go to Commando Proonce you go into the Pro version of the perk, they have these attributes that just make the perk that much more powerful and cool.
There are so many attachmentsweve been playing this for two years and I havent been able to look at everything combined together and working. Its wild. Theyve tested it like crazy, but the equipmentthe tactical insertions [being able to mark a custom spawn point] that you saw, its bad *** and really works well. I wasnt sure about it at first, but now that Ive played with itI dont use it all the time, some people use it all the time, some people only use it for certain things. Its bad ***. It all takes up your grenade slot, so you can pick grenade as your equipment. That was a key design point that they really worked hard on to get everything to balance.
And then theres Death Streaksit can really, if youre having a bad day, it can make your day a little betteryou get something on the back end if you die four times. Theyre not leveled up, but you unlock them as you level up.
TeamXbox: Is it safe to say thats like a handicap in golfthat maybe the weaker players still get something to take home?
Joel Emslie: Its not going to swing the game one way or the other, but its going to make your day a little more manageable if youre having a bad round. If youre really getting pounded on, you can use Copycat [a Death Streak perk that enables the one who died to take the killers load-out]if theres some crazy dude that has some weird configuration that Ive never seen and I want to try it out, I can steal that from him. Its really cool.
TeamXbox: You said its been two years that its been testing. How long has the game been worked onwhen did you start working on it?
Joel Emslie: In reality, right after we finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, we stepped right into thiswe didnt miss a beat. We were already on it. When you start out early in the project, its reallythe design philosophy, like Todd was saying, was to not make the same game, to make something different.
You can imagine there are some really passionate arguments and heated debates in the office about what were changing and how were changing it, but the goal is to make a game that you can step right into, for the entire two-year development that we were working on it, and a Modern Warfare player can step right into Modern Warfare and feel very comfortable with it and be familiar.
About all the new bells and whistles, it just feels smoother, slicker, betterits like stepping into a Ferrari.
TeamXbox: So, the key is, like, that you work on game, buta lot of games get done a month before their release date. This you have to, Im sure, do ahead of time, so that you can balance itbecause balance is very critical.
Joel Emslie: Yes, balancing has been critical. We go into lockdown mode months before we go to print, and we try to let it marinate. You knowget everything worked out. There are elements that come online later, like music and voices. Its funny when we get used to a certain temporary voice in the game, and then theres the real actors voice that comes in, and you say, Wow, okayI didnt know they could sound like that. Those are the elementsthe polish elements that dont really change the gameplay and the mechanics that come online a lot later and we save room for that.
TeamXbox: There were big complaints about Juggernaut in the first game. Whats the counter? What did you do in this game?
Joel Emslie: I would say that the Riot Shield is this games answer to fixing that. I think when you do the man dance with a guy who has a Riot Shield, youre dodging and weaving and maybe its like little Velociraptors where youre trying to come at him from the side. It can be really fun. I like to mess with people who have Riot Shields. Id say that the Riot Shield is a bigger, badder, cooler, more effective Juggernaut.
TeamXbox: One more question thatitll put you on the spot, but Im doing it anyway: Whats one thing that didnt make it into the game?
Joel Emslie: One thing that didnt make it into the game. [pauses to think] I would say flying a helicopter. We keep trying it, but it just doesntactually doing the mechanics, maybe some day we can play with that. We have a tendency to play with things in development and then just kind of shelve itjust put it away. We tried helicopter stuff on Modern Warfarejust trying to play with it. We have levels where were driving things, but we tend to focus on what works at the time and fits well into the story. It would be nicemaybe someday well do something similar or well do that. Well see.
Credit: TheTechGame.com
(Just surfing the site, posting all the goodies I find =))
Joel Emslie: I envision everyone going home, opening up the package and popping it inand I hope they dont stop playing untiltheyre done. And were talking a big game, too. Having multiplayer co-op now, the Spec-Ops mode and single playerfor us, we were really working hard at it. Ive never worked as hard on a project, because its like were making three games.
The single player has some tremendous jaw-dropping moments, and its one right after the other. Its all paced. And youve got Hans Zimmer scoring it, we have some kick-*** voice talent and the story is fantastic. I hope everybody gets a kick out of it that night.
For the multiplayer people, who wont even start up the single player, I think theyre going to be level-grinding all nightand missing a lot of school or marriage or [laughs]
TeamXbox: While were talking about it, why dont you run down some of the key things that have been added to multiplayer.
Joel Emslie: Todd Alderman [lead multiplayer designer at Infinity Ward, who jointly gave the press presentation that night] talked about customizable Kill Streaks, which I think is kick-***. One of my favorite things is the Care Packageyou get it early on in the game; its just one of those things thats already set there. You do have to level it up; so you would unlock these Kill Streaks andyoure getting the tip of the iceberg right now with this beta [the event was taking place on a closed beta version of the game]. Theres quite a lot to work with there. It comes down to what type of player you are and what type of Kill Streak youre going to use.
The Care Package especially is one of those things I love using. You can actually kill people with itit gets airdropped by a little bird, a big Pelican case that slams down from the sky. Its almost like a jackpot: Itll roll through randomized Kill Streaksan AC-130 might come up. The cool thing about it is, the bad guys can steal it. If you get fragged or hit before you get to that crate, and they know its there, it becomes this mad dash. You can see what it is, they cantbut they know its something that might be good; it might be an AC-130. I like to throw it out in the middle of the map to lure people out to grab it. Hopefully then its something low; if its an AC-130, Im truckin out there to get it to save my ***. You can use it as cover.
It adds a whole different element to multiplayer. It can really turn things around quite quickly if you get a favorite Kill Streak.
Leveling up your perks? Bad ***. When they set that in, it took a lot of tweaking to get it right, but it works extremely welland it just another layer to leveling up your character and getting things to work properly. Youll work on like a Commando perk that enables you to lock on a little betterit gives you a couple more inches in your lock-on. You can go to Commando Proonce you go into the Pro version of the perk, they have these attributes that just make the perk that much more powerful and cool.
There are so many attachmentsweve been playing this for two years and I havent been able to look at everything combined together and working. Its wild. Theyve tested it like crazy, but the equipmentthe tactical insertions [being able to mark a custom spawn point] that you saw, its bad *** and really works well. I wasnt sure about it at first, but now that Ive played with itI dont use it all the time, some people use it all the time, some people only use it for certain things. Its bad ***. It all takes up your grenade slot, so you can pick grenade as your equipment. That was a key design point that they really worked hard on to get everything to balance.
And then theres Death Streaksit can really, if youre having a bad day, it can make your day a little betteryou get something on the back end if you die four times. Theyre not leveled up, but you unlock them as you level up.
TeamXbox: Is it safe to say thats like a handicap in golfthat maybe the weaker players still get something to take home?
Joel Emslie: Its not going to swing the game one way or the other, but its going to make your day a little more manageable if youre having a bad round. If youre really getting pounded on, you can use Copycat [a Death Streak perk that enables the one who died to take the killers load-out]if theres some crazy dude that has some weird configuration that Ive never seen and I want to try it out, I can steal that from him. Its really cool.
TeamXbox: You said its been two years that its been testing. How long has the game been worked onwhen did you start working on it?
Joel Emslie: In reality, right after we finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, we stepped right into thiswe didnt miss a beat. We were already on it. When you start out early in the project, its reallythe design philosophy, like Todd was saying, was to not make the same game, to make something different.
You can imagine there are some really passionate arguments and heated debates in the office about what were changing and how were changing it, but the goal is to make a game that you can step right into, for the entire two-year development that we were working on it, and a Modern Warfare player can step right into Modern Warfare and feel very comfortable with it and be familiar.
About all the new bells and whistles, it just feels smoother, slicker, betterits like stepping into a Ferrari.
TeamXbox: So, the key is, like, that you work on game, buta lot of games get done a month before their release date. This you have to, Im sure, do ahead of time, so that you can balance itbecause balance is very critical.
Joel Emslie: Yes, balancing has been critical. We go into lockdown mode months before we go to print, and we try to let it marinate. You knowget everything worked out. There are elements that come online later, like music and voices. Its funny when we get used to a certain temporary voice in the game, and then theres the real actors voice that comes in, and you say, Wow, okayI didnt know they could sound like that. Those are the elementsthe polish elements that dont really change the gameplay and the mechanics that come online a lot later and we save room for that.
TeamXbox: There were big complaints about Juggernaut in the first game. Whats the counter? What did you do in this game?
Joel Emslie: I would say that the Riot Shield is this games answer to fixing that. I think when you do the man dance with a guy who has a Riot Shield, youre dodging and weaving and maybe its like little Velociraptors where youre trying to come at him from the side. It can be really fun. I like to mess with people who have Riot Shields. Id say that the Riot Shield is a bigger, badder, cooler, more effective Juggernaut.
TeamXbox: One more question thatitll put you on the spot, but Im doing it anyway: Whats one thing that didnt make it into the game?
Joel Emslie: One thing that didnt make it into the game. [pauses to think] I would say flying a helicopter. We keep trying it, but it just doesntactually doing the mechanics, maybe some day we can play with that. We have a tendency to play with things in development and then just kind of shelve itjust put it away. We tried helicopter stuff on Modern Warfarejust trying to play with it. We have levels where were driving things, but we tend to focus on what works at the time and fits well into the story. It would be nicemaybe someday well do something similar or well do that. Well see.
Credit: TheTechGame.com
(Just surfing the site, posting all the goodies I find =))
