Is Call of Duty: Ghosts Taking the Franchise Next-Gen?
Of all the places on the internet you could catch a leak, today’s big, ponderous rumor comes from Youtube by way of user Drift0r, a man that busies himself with uploading everything Call of Duty. Stressing (over and over) his source – supposedly someone close to development at Infinity Ward – was too legitimate not to quote, Drift0r quickly put together a video that may just out this Fall’s expected but unannounced installment of Activision’s yearly breadwinner.
Calling the game Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’s claimed this new sequel relates to the Modern Warfare universe but branches off on its own. Though Ghosts’ setting is the future, much like Black Ops II, a major plot device makes it so players have to use archaic – or “modern” – weaponry instead of arsenals augmented with x-ray sights and other attachments twelve-year-old’s use to piss me off online.
Changes to gameplay touched on involve increased mobility including the ability to “slide and shoot” instead of simply diving to prone as well as players being able to peek around corners. Apparently rolling while prone is also being implemented (I can only envision players rolling around on the ground like they’re being wrapped up in invisible carpets – hilarious to watch and shoot at).
Destructible environments are also being toyed with. The feature doesn’t sound locked down yet – single-player might see more breakable geometry than multiplayer – but one example given was a killstreak chopper caving in a building after being shot out of the sky. Loading times, oddly but awesomely enough, are said to be replaced by “mini-games” that have players breaching or repelling onto a map instead of simply watching a countdown before a match. Modern Warfare’s Spec Ops mode is also seeing the boot, usurped by a “new mode.”
The video’s uploader posits we may see an official announcement of Ghosts on or around May 1st, going on to report that the title might be a next-gen exclusive, gracing the PC, PS4, and “NeXt-Box” and not the current slew of established consoles what with their installed user base of millions (extremely far-fetched and yet…an insidiously great ploy to get people to buy up the new consoles). That last bit falls in line with rumoring ‘round the net that Infinity Ward was developing an unnamed title on next-gen hardware.
Until we hear otherwise, though, chase the entirety of this rumor down with a helping of salt. Then swallow the shaker. Grab pepper. Repeat.