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Why Call of Duty Still Has Single-Player Campaigns
Call of Duty was always popular, but became a cultural phenomenon only in 2007 thanks to a revised multiplayer system that hooked players with a then-innovative ability-unlocking level-based system. That year’s Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare became the new GoldenEye, the new Halo… the new multiplayer game that it seemed like everyone who had…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 24, 2012 -
Modern Warfare Creators Were Going To Make $16 Million Each In The Year They Were Fired
All manner of dirty laundry is currently being aired the ongoing ongoing lawsuit between Activision and Vince Zampella and Jason West, creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare A series of internal Activision emails indicate the projected 2009 and 2010 earnings of the most well-paid 30 employees at Infinity Ward. In 2010, the year that…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 22, 2012 -
So, Activision and Call of Duty’s Creators Had a Pretty Bitchy Relationship
A stack of emails released as part of the ongoing legal action between Activision and Call of Duty’s creators have turned up some hilariously catty exchanges and contingency plans coming from the publisher’s top brass. Posted over on the LA Times, a 2009 email from Activision’s president of publishing, Mike Griffith, mentions a plan to…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 21, 2012 -
Call of Duty “Hacker” Jailed for Spreading Virus, Stealing Credit Card Numbers, Being a Thug
Englishman Lewys Martin thought it would be a good idea to to offer people “hacks” for Call of Duty Games, which not only broke the rules of the game, but also included a virus. No, Lewys, it was not a good idea, especially since it’s now got you some jail time. Martin, who is only…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 18, 2012 -
Report: Activision Tried To Dig Up Dirt On Ex-Call of Duty Developers
The ugly court battle between Activision and its former employees has gotten even uglier. According to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times and released today, Activision hired a man named Thomas Fenady to “dig up dirt” on Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella so the company could build up a case…
By Jason Schreier Published May 16, 2012 -
Call of Duty Accused of “Shamelessly” Ripping off Another Series, Legal Warfare Ensues
Activision is facing another big lawsuit over its tentpole Call of Duty series, only this one has nothing to do with people who used to work on the series. It’s to do with a rival developer who owns the right to a name that Call of Duty uses a lot Fans older PC shooters may…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 15, 2012 -
Activision Wants to Delay the Big Call of Duty Lawsuit
The lawyer in Activision’s case against Call of Duty’s creators, Beth Wilkinson, who was only hired last week as a replacement, has asked for the trial’s commencement date to be pushed back by 30 days so she can “get up to speed”. [BW]
By Luke Plunkett Published May 15, 2012 -
Reviews
This Graphic Novel Shows The Horrific Costs of Modern Warfare
Shooters protagonist Terry Glass isn’t that different from the kind of character you’d play in a Medal of Honor, Battlefield or Call of Duty game. He’s a fictional American soldier fighting in the geopolitical hotspots where America’s armed forces face off against disparate, tough-to-pin-down threats. Young, handsome and affable, Glass fights for all the right…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 15, 2012 -
Black Ops II Studio Head Knows Fans Want a “Better-Looking Game”
Activision puts out a new Call of Duty game every year. It’s been that way for the last half-decade or so. Trouble is, this annualization give people a wide-open lane to complain about recycled engines and how the games all look the same. Mark Lamia—head of Treyarch, the studio behind the Black Ops branch of…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 15, 2012 -
See Halo, Mass Effect, Battlefield & Modern Warfare Stab Each Other in the Guts
Some of the biggest shooters in the world (and Mass Effect) go head to head in this clip by Corridor Digital, which compares each series’ “instakill” by having a whole lot of people get stabbed. Of course, there can be only one winner. And it’s none of the games mentioned in that headline… Art of…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 14, 2012 -
I Like The Sound of Call of Duty‘s New 1v1 Mode
The new Face-Off mode that’s coming to Modern Warfare 3 next week seems pretty cool. It will let players compete in 1v1 and 2v2 matches on small maps just made for the mode. The brand-new, totally-official and only-slightly-confusing video from the Call of Duty folks explains and shows most of it. The confusing part, as…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 11, 2012 -
PS3 Gets a $299 Call of Duty Bundle
Sony announced today that on may 25 they’ll be releasing a bundle which includes a 320GB PS3 and a copy of Modern Warfare 3. And that’s it. No second controller, no bonus DLC, no fancy custom console. Just a black console and the game.
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
How About a Call of Duty That Shows the Human Side of Not Fighting a War
War is hell, and it never changes. Even when game developers promise to depict the more human side of military conflict, it all boils down to shooting other people as close to the face as possible. I want a game that shows the human side of not fighting a war. Something like Call of Duty:…
By Mike Fahey Published May 7, 2012 -
The Trouble With Call of Duty‘s Scary New War of the Future
The future is black, announces the trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II The next iteration of the popular first person shooter hardly needs any marketing campaign: immediately after the official announcement, the gaming press diligently started to operate as an extension of Activision’s PR department. Small and big media scrambled to produce the…
Paolo Pedercini, Molleindustria Published May 7, 2012 -
What Does the Military Think of ‘Militainment’?
There couldn’t have been a better time for this panel. Tuesday brought the eyebrow-arching news that Lt. Col. Oliver North was a special guest celebrity consultant of the next Call of Duty. And Friday, former Kotaku editor-in-chief Brian Crecente was on a panel with a Navy captain at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Crecente, now…
By Owen Good Published May 5, 2012 -
Black Ops II Chooses Someone Who Failed the Call of Duty
When you face low expectations, falling short of them doesn’t count for much either. And that’s the dirty secret of Call of Duty, which has spent four years solidifying its image as a crass chickenhawk brand thanks to some particularly dumb marketing initiatives. But hiring Lt. Col. Oliver North as a spokesman for Black Ops…
By Owen Good Published May 4, 2012 -
Black Ops II Gets an Emotional Dubstep Makeover
When we say “Dubstep” most people think of hard drops and grinding wubs. But there is a lot more to the genre than that. When people think Call of Duty, they think of hard explosions and grinding machine guns. But… perhaps there’s more to the genre than that? YouTuber TomahawkTrix thinks so, anyway, with this…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 4, 2012 -
Meet Call of Duty‘s New Foreign Bad Guys
In the futuristic 2025 setting of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the United States has become locked in a second Cold War with China due largely to a shortage of rare earth elements, which are vital in the creation of a lot of the technology and advanced military hardware we use today. In the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 3, 2012 -
Kim Kardashian is Psyched for the Next Call of Duty. Really.
Gaming connoisseur and poisonous celebrity Kim Kardashian is super psyched for the next Call of Duty, she said on Twitter today. Because the graphics look crazy. “But wait,” you might be thinking. “Doesn’t Kim Kardashian sell her tweets? Nope, Kardashian says. It wasn’t a paid tweet. She and her brother play Call of Duty “all…
By Jason Schreier Published May 3, 2012 -
There Will Actually Be Women in the Next Call Of Duty
Guns were always a given for the next Call of Duty. Women? We really did not expect them. And yet when I saw the game in action last week, there they were. Women. Two of them in the press demo alone! Ye gods. I went down to Call of Duty: Black Ops II developer Treyarch’s…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 2, 2012