Gird thy loins, equip a flame-proof jockstrap and fasten up your fanboy flamesuits, things are about to get hot around here. In a Tweet that CVG picked up from Infinity Ward’s creative strategist Robert Bowling -- one of the many remaining members of Infinity Ward -- he admits that building a new engine for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 would be "counter productive", after he was asked about MW3 using any new tech after the internet nearly exploded from the Battlefield 3 gameplay footage. I guess innovation finding its way into the biggest selling franchise in the world of interactive entertainment would just be financially blasphemous for Activision, eh?
Anyway, Mr. Bowling, thank you for admitting that Battlefield 3 will be the more technical game of the two considering that one will be using a brand new engine featuring destructible environments, advanced lighting, animations and weapon mechanics, while the other will be using a modified engine from 2005. Bowling further admitted that building a new engine (or updating to a newer engine) ...
"would be counter productive. An engine takes years and years to develop and get right."
Go figure. I guess starting early, maybe a few years before the franchise got stale and repetitive was completely out of the question, huh ace?
Activision might want to consider how they let employees speak publicly about the franchise attached to the fastest selling video game in history, it's starting to look bad...real bad.
To make matters worse is that apparently Activision is well aware of the troubles facing their annual outing for the Call of Duty games and have opted to have three development studios working on Modern Warfare 3 to ensure some modicum of quality.
It's funny because it reminds me of Activision being a sleazy pimp that sends out a fat, unclean, unwashed, haggily old prostitute with dollar bills hanging out of every orifice that takes money from casually inept consumers who think that’s the best way to get thrills every holiday season. At least the smart marks have realized that CoD is haggily and old.
Now I stopped being a fan of EA throughout most of the first half of this generation due to what we can now call the “Activision complex”, where the bottom-line trumps quality at all costs. However, I must admit that Electronic Arts seem to be doing a fine job in the past couple of years of pacing the release of established and new franchises. I just hope the resurgence of faith in [EA] from the gaming community doesn’t corrupt their intentions to revolutionize one of the few genres Activision has destroyed with unadulterated greed.
For those of you who have yet to witness the Frostbite 2 Engine in action, you can do so by checking out pre-alpha gameplay footage of Battlefield 3 right here.
