Black Ops on the green > Annihilation DLC

The next (possibly last?)  Call of Duty Black Ops DLC was officially announced this morning, after an earlier leak. 4 new multiplayer maps and yet another zombies environment for your murderous competitive enjoyment.

The maps coming this month have been discussed at length and detailed else where so allow me to chime in on something less vital to the run of the mill fan than size and choke points but something I think is far more important. Atmosphere.

Seen in the trailer below one of  Treyarch’s goals for this map pack is to be more visually dramatic than their previous outlays and from the released footage and screenshots? they’re succeeding admirably.

here is a visual breakdown of my 3 standouts from that trailer.

Hangar 18:

An homage to Area 51; Hangar 18 is a concrete laden, industrial looking level with the same grey tones we are used to from maps like Grid and Launch but with a couple of flamboyant differences. The main area, the hangar, houses an SR-71 Blackbird as it’s multi tiered centrepiece, SR-71s are good to look at on any day but as the focal point of a level like this it’s a nice touch, they were the height of technology in the 60’s after all. On the more fanciful side of things you can see an interactive Arc-reactor like Sci Fi generator room, likely below the main hangar area, it’s a nice change from the habitually bland offerings usually found in Call of Duty maps.

Hazard:

An apparent homage/reimagining of Cliffside from World at War (after the leap forward taken by Cod4 I just couldn’t get excited about a WWII setting again) Hazard is a Resort/Golf course mash up that is easily the most enticing looking map I have seen from a game developer for a long time, with the tongue in cheek colourful nature we usually find in fan made maps. Hazard is verdent fairways, lush foliage, rolling hills and gaudy signage. Unlike Treyarch I never thought of a Golf course as a killing field but the idea of looking out across the green through the scope of an SVD? sounds like a uniquely amusing experience to me.

Shangri-la:

The next entry in the Black Ops zombies mode, a pretty exciting addition from Treyarch. Shangri-la; Often thought of as a reference to the mythical spiritual city of Tibetan lore known as Shambalah this is a huge departure from what we have seen up to this point. Ancient carved temples, soft inviting skies, lush tropical overgrowth, pristine waters flowing from miniature pools all a backdrop to the defence of your comrades from the blood-letting horde of undead. Juxtaposition like this works great in zombie fiction, the corruption of the pure as it were. There is also a distinctive Indiana Jones feeling from this map, bamboo spike traps and mine cart coaster rides through what looks (at a glance) like an archaeological set up. We don’t just see a departure in the environment art here either, mask wearing ghouls, monkey zombies and robe clad female undead will be coming for your brains in Shangri-la, not to mention a very ominous burning corpse seen above.

New, original ideas from Treyarch this late after the game has been released is a refreshing change, and it may even be worth the $15 it costs you to get in. we’ll find out on June 28th

Via Gamespot>

-Expatriategamer

The prelude to warfare

Not a lot to say here, we all knew it was coming, and we all knew it would be good, and we all know the actual game could be crap. see below for the reveal trailer for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. (720p is good for your eyes)

For your time you get a meaty crescendo and a healthy splashing of modern destruction in an international city near you! I have to commend them for going a little nuts with the story here, it sounds like we’re talking WWIII and why not? I will keep my reservations in check for this one but you can’t say they haven’t put out a damn fine trailer.

Worthy of note is the considerably improved animations seen here, mainly from outside the familiar 1st person perspective, scripted or not that grenade toss midway through the trailer looks nice and fluid with a healthy degree of the idiosyncrasy that is usually lacking in motion capture.

-Expatriategamer

Vintage is the newest black.

Today saw the release of Rockstar and Team Bondi’s LA Noire. Sort of an LA Confidential for the Grand Theft Auto generation, although from what I have heard it plays more like a modern day adventure game than Rockstars previous outings, I intend to dive in to it’s 1st act once I have finished here but in the meantime I thought I’d chime in on a trend that is becoming more prevalent across the full range of my interests.

Retro has been cool on and off for a long time, As a child of the 90’s I have seen several things that I loved come back in a big way, Transformers is the first that comes to mind and though I can’t say I entirely appreciate the way Michael Bay has handled his cash cow of late, I will be the first to admit I was in that cinema on day 1. However it’s more widely reaching than that,

1940 – 1985 if you are creating something right now, this is your target. Perhaps because we wish for a simpler time, maybe we are secretly afraid of progress or even in a wish to innovate we are being lazy and looking at what hasn’t been done for a while rather than what hasn’t been done before. One way or another here are some examples plucked from the stuff I enjoy with that vintage influence,

In Video Games:

L.A. Noire [1947] the aforementioned game that brought me to this post intends to give us the feel of the classic film noir genre with the backdrop of a stunningly recreated 40’s Los Angeles, waistcoats and fedoras? count me in.

Call of Duty: Black Ops [1961 – 1968] one of the biggest games of last year was based entirely in the 60’s gleefully and liberally using it’s cold war backdrop, we got everything from Creedence to Soviet sleeper agents and the assassination of JFK.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker [1974] taking outlandish liberties with technology from the time period but then showing utter devotion to its setting with ample info on the Cuban Missile Crisis, El Che, the Cuban revolution, and the post Vietnam military industrial complex. It’s cold war science fiction at its finest.

Mafia II [1943 – 1951] an excellently presented rise and fall tale in the vein of The Godfather that portrays the transition from a wintery WWII era city into the rocking 50s with great attention to detail, clothes cars and crime.

Bad Company 2: Vietnam [1965 – 1975] released on the heels of Black Ops this Battlefield BC2 expansion was an exercise in what 2004’s Battlefield: Vietnam would be like in the new engine. Answer? awesome.

Interesting no? all of these released since 2010. . more from film, comics, fashion and automotive later. For now? L.A. Noire; here I come.

-Expatriategamer

More modern, Modern Warfare

So taking the gaming world by storm, a surprisingly unexpected teaser trailer for the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise has landed!……………. sarcasm, don’t you just love it?

The new teaser below is our next tidbit of information from a hobbled multi-team development effort comprised of the remnants from Actiblizz/Bobby Koticks batshit insane legal fiasco, duct taped together with greed and capitalism.

Originally rumoured to be a prequel but recently confirmed at Kotaku to be the direct sequel to Modern Warfare 2 (in my opinion the worst entry in the franchise so far) we have a relatively untested dev team, picking up where Infinity Ward left off, and from the spoiler laden details in the above link, they’re aiming a little higher towards the fantastic than the slightly more grounded storyline of the previous two Modern Warfare titles, not a bad decision if you ask me.

The move to hand off the inevitable sequels to a new cast of main characters comes as a surprise, considering the main goals of the new development team (At CEO Koticks instructions I’m sure) are a bug Free release and a Metacritic rating of at least 95, I would have expected them to take the safest road to release. Well, it will still sell like water in the desert, singularly occupy millions of highschoolers for a few months and hopefully fund the upcoming sequel to last years Black Ops.

So what can be gleaned from that? the conflict obviously partly takes place in the US , but we already knew that. Otherwise?……. Steve Blum’s Russian is really coming along nicely.

-Expatriategamer