Activision had made it abundantly clear earlier that we will be seeing a plethora of content rolled out for Modern Warfare 3 in the months following its release. Today, the publisher has rolled out their DLC schedule for this year, and htey sure weren’t kidding.

The first pieces of DLC, the Liberation and Piazza map packs, are already available exclusively  to premium CoD Elite members from today onwards. Here’s the full lay-down on how you can expect the year to unfold:

• February: New map
• March: New map, two new Spec Ops missions
• April: Two new maps
• May: New map, new Spec Ops mission
• June: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• July: Two new maps
• August: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• September: New map, new Spec Ops mission

Details on pricing or when the map packs will be available for regular Elite members weren’t disclosed. Expect to hear more on the content packs as we approach their release.

Source.

Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, has opened up an “ask me anything” thread on social networking site Reddit. For those who think it may not be the real Robert Bowling, he confirmed it on his twitter.

There are plenty of questions already popping up, and he’s answered a fair amount of them.  We’ll be making a round up of all the interesting information that he’s posted over there later on the day, but feel free to join in over at the AMA, which is still live.

Modern Warfare 3 is heading for a November release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

The game which started it all

Back in 2003, Call of Duty made its way to our shelves and brought with it, a spectacular campaign and an addictive multi player. The future looked bright for the series, but back then, nobody would have predicted that it would become the fastest and largest selling franchise of this generation.

With seven titles to its name, not including expansions, handheld versions and PS2 and Xbox spin offs, Call of Duty has established itself as one of the most seminal franchises in the Entertainment industry. But with a new installment arriving every single year and rumours of a prequel already in the works, it’s blatantly obvious that Call of Duty is the most milked franchise of all time putting even franchises like Halo to shame. We at Gamersmint are going to tell you why we feel that a new installment in the series is totally redundant and uncalled for. Most of you might not agree with it, but it’s our opinion, so no flaming fanboys invited.

Just answer me this, If World at War, Modern Warfare 2 and Black OPS were never released, would you still be playing Modern Warfare? If your answer is yes, then you already know the reason behind this article.

As the series grew from its debut, the focus shifted more and more on Multiplayer and in one swift swoop, Modern Warfare revolutionized the online FPS genre. Today, Call of Duty has become synonymous with unlimited replay value. The foundations laid down by Modern Warfare still have many developers playing catch up. In a similar fashion however,  legions of games released in the past, have stood the test of time but the devs didn’t see the need to stagnate their products. Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Tribes, Battlefield, Halo, Day of Defeat, Enemy Territory are some fine examples and I don’t need to point out that it’s not just restricted to the FPS genre. StarCraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires 2, Everquest, Street Fighter, Diablo, Neverwinter Nights, Total Annihilation, you get the point. If it’s not broken, why fix it? Unless you want to milk it, i.e.

Who would have thought?

As more and more days pass by, the more we realize the extent of their magnificence. While Modern Warfare, World at War, and now Modern Warfare 2 still has a considerable presence in the online community, it’s nothing compared to the thousands of servers filled to the brim during the first few months of their respective releases. It’s not like the games can’t hang in this day and age or that the gamers are too bored playing the same maps and modes over and over again. Even though the multiplayer offerings of the past four CoD games are essentially the same with some new “features” thrown in here and there, they are still as addictive as all the games mentioned above. Modern Warfare’s dominance over Xbox Live, PSN and PC wouldn’t have diminished one bit if there weren’t so many sequels tossed out in such a short interval of time.

Ever heard of Team Fortress? Think of it, what if Activision kept releasing new patches and upgrades for Modern Warfare which could have been bought at a much cheaper price rather than making full-blown sequels? How many of you would have liked that better?

Even with the release of Counter Strike Source, CS 1.6 overshadows its shinier update and has more servers running than every single Call of Duty game combined on the PC, a true testament to the staying power of an impeccable multiplayer suite. Pretty graphics add little to nothing to the fun factor, which brings me to visuals.

This is Black Ops, NOT MW 2!

Graphics don’t make or break a game, but there are plenty of graphic enthusiasts out there who think otherwise. And for this purpose, some sequels, while not adding anything new in the gameplay department receive an overhaul in the visual department (I’m looking at you, UT3) just to ensure that the series can steal appeal to those who are obsessed about graphics. But Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops don’t look a whole lot better than Modern Warfare, which can still hold its position in the graphics department. This generation of consoles has reached its limit when it comes to producing great looking  Multi-Platform games and there is not much a sequel can improve upon.

Next Page: Cont’d

]]> http://www.gamersmint.com/why-we-dont-need-another-call-of-duty/feed 6 http://www.gamersmint.com/rumor-modern-warfare-prequel-in-the-works http://www.gamersmint.com/rumor-modern-warfare-prequel-in-the-works#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:01:29 +0000 Devils Own http://www.gamersmint.com/?p=14731

A reliable source has informed ThisIsXbox that Infinity Ward is hard at work on a prequel to 2007′s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The same source had confirmed Black OPS back in March 2010 and also leaked the naming of Kinect before E3. Judging by the track record, the story is mostly legit.

Apparently, the game will run on the IW 2.0 Engine seen in MW2 and Black Ops and the game will center around the character Ghost.Locations from Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 will be revisited in the events leading up to Ghost joining Task Force 141.

Activision and Infinity Ward refused to comment on the rumor, but didn’t debunk it either.  We will let you know when we here an official confirmation

The guys at Activision are swimming in a pool of green paper.  According to internal Activision Publishing estimates, Black OPS has already crossed the $1 billion mark in sales worldwide. This is the second COD game to cross the 1 billion mark after Modern Warfare 2.

“In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and “Avatar” have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly,” Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement. “This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise. Our ability to provide the most compelling, immersive entertainment experience, and enhance it with regular, recurring content that delivers hundreds of hours of audience value, has allowed Call of Duty to continue to set sales and usage records.”

To date, more than 600 million hours have been logged playing Call of Duty: Black Ops since the game launched on November 9, 2010. And it wont be slowing down anytime soon.

No surprise here, Black Ops continues to sell millions. The NPD Group has now provided the reports of sales witnessed by the game on each platform.

According to the report given to Gamasutra, the 360 version of the game sold 4.9 million units, the PS3 version 3.1 million units while the  DS, PC, and Wii versions combined lie around 400K. However, Steam Sales were not included.

Black Ops has sold a total of 8.4 million copies during its launch month alone which already make it the 7th Best Selling game of all time. The game also fared better than Modern Warfare 2 in their corresponding launch months.

The numbers reveal the ratio of Xbox 360 and PS3 sales to be at 3:2, which closely resembles the current US  install base of the two consoles, according to figures punched up by Gama. Only time will tell how much further the COD series pushes the boundary in terms of sales. Black Ops can very well surpass Modern Warfare 2 which managed to add a billion US $ to Actvision’s Piggy Bank.

The Call of Duty series is renowned for producing some of the finest WWII fps games of all time. Each of its versions has also been developed for mobile phones.  Unlike its ancestors Modern Warfare does not portray the events of World War II; it instead takes place in the modern era and displays modern day combat tactics for countering terrorism.

The mobile version is developed by Glu mobile and puts you in the shoes of Sergeant Fairborn (what a name!) and his squad who have been sent behind Russian enemy lines for evacuating the pilots of a fallen Blackhawk. But, things doesn’t go quite as planned for you and your squadmates and you are soon stuck in the middle of a terrorist conspiracy by a group known as the Ultranationalists, which makes your life as a marine very tough!

The game comprises of 9 levels which are divided into three acts. It provides a lot of variation in terms of gameplay as all the levels will offer you a unique playing experience. From assaulting an enemy basecamp to destroying satellite towers to stealthily sneaking around and killing off enemies with your trusty knife, the missions gives you the chance to experience all of these and more. Usually, you will have a lot of soldiers to accompany you and killing enemies won’t be a problem as they lack any A.I and just hold their positions till you fire. Your squadmates are slightly better and manages to follow you most of the time. Upto 8 NPCs can assist you at a time! Like a classic COD game, this also gives you the chance to take cover behind walls and bunkers, throw grenades and snipe your enemies. The final mission even gives you an opportunity to try your luck with a Bazooka.

Visuals are also very classy and you will feel like you’re experiencing war on your mobile screens. The only complaint is the lack of a background score or sound effects with only a short tune playing at the start of every mission. A war game sans a good bg score feels seriously out of place.

But, if you can overlook the lack of music in game, then you have a very decent WWII game at your disposal, which will quench your thirst for a warlike experience while on the move.

What Clicked

• Great Visuals
• Varied Gameplay.
• Relatively Long Campaign

What Bombed

• Lack of Background Score
• Few missions are confusing
• Crashes if a call comes

Verdict – Buy

Final Score

[rating:3.5/5]