19 hours ago, it was revealed that the “reconstructed” Infinity Ward has upgraded the Call of Duty engine in a tweet. Robert Bowling made it perfectly clear that the engine goes far beyond that of the MW2 engine.
We haven’t gone into detail on the engine yet but we’ve moved beyond the MW2 engine and added a lot of cool stuff for MW3.
Ever since Call of Duty 2, the series has been using an proprietary engine of their own, called “IW.” As much as it is based on the legendary Quake engine, it has been modified again, and again, and again. For example COD4’s engine was dubbed “IW3.” With MW2, Infinity Ward still used the engine, but with a bunch of tweaks, and new features.
When Bowling made that tweet, people were pessimistic about the tweet, as one person said “They are just making the game shinier.” A lot of people think that Mr. Bowling was lying, and that the they haven’t moved past the modified Quake engine. In Robert’s defense, he’s actually telling the truth, because each time a new Call of Duty title is being developed, their engines get modified. With MW2 the engine went a step above: IW4. Modern Warfare 3 could very well be IW5. But internally, I don’t think its being dubbed that, since after all, the game is being developed by 4 developers.
I’m going to start talking about the developers now so that you can get a clear idea of what to expect from the new MW3 engine, and what Bowling meant by “cool stuff.”
Sledgehammer Games: These guys were in Electronic Arts’ Visceral Games label. Some of them were from Insomniac Games. Together, their experience in the industry includes developing the Ratchet and Clank games, the EA 007 games, they even created the Dead Space series. There’s a lot of dismemberment in Dead Space. This might mean that MW3 can have dismemberment “kills.” If you want to see what the team is capable of, see the Dead Space trailer:
The other thing to consider, is that they have a really big knack for detailed characters, and environments, but what stands out is their proficiency in light sourcing. They seem to be very good at it. The thing about the previous Call of Duty games is that they’ve never been known to have good lighting. Maybe Sledgehammer Games can solve that problem.
Raven Software: These guys have worked on some FPS titles. Their most recent FPS was Singularity, a game that told the story of a person traveling through time via a device that can manipulate time. These developers actually does a great job at programming, so I think they’re a good pick for MW3. Hell, their development styles may be similar to Infinity Ward, because the way in which you use your guns takes a page out of COD4’s book. See for yourself:
What stands out for them is that they are very proficient with the Quake engine, as they’ve done projects with the engine before; they were developers of Quake 4. And their relationship with Activision plays a role in being the developer picked for MW3 – Activision started out as their publisher, and then outright acquired them.
But what can we expect from them? Well, going by Singularity, an epic, on-going battle for survival. What I got from Singularity, is that they seem to have a good idea of how to incorporate the story into the gameplay as you go along. In Modern Warfare 2, we had a similar feeling, but it didn’t feel like the universe of MW2 was in any way sync’ed with the on-going crisis. It felt like, MW2 didn’t have much going on in the background, but more going on in front of you. Singularity seemed like it was doing a good job of having one story on one side, and the other story on the other end.
Infinity Ward: We don’t know much about the “reconstructed” IW. Nothing, at all. The only thing that we know for sure, is that IW5 was still in the Infinity Ward offices when Vince and Jason left with the old IW crew, and that whoever is working there is using what they have. With help from Raven and Sledgehammer.
Beachhead Studios: They too, are very questionable. This company came out of nowhere in the masses of information. I wrote an article about them trying to figure them out. We still don’t know who they are, and why they’re a big deal to Activision.
Stay tuned for the official trailer of MW3 tomorrow. By then, we’ll know exactly what Robert meant by “cool stuff.” Robert also said he’ll blast a tweet about the MW3 trailer.
‘Till next time.
