Grave Gamer News & Views — call of duty: ghosts

“The Ghosts Are Real” - New Cast, New Engine, Next-Gen Call of Duty

And now for the announcement that surprised no one today: Activision has officially revealed Call of Duty: Ghosts, this year’s entry into the military shooter franchise, releasing November 5th and headed up series creator Infinity Ward.  That much anyone without internet access knew already thanks to some critical leaks.

What we didn’t already know is sure to excite fans, especially those growing tired of the series’ baby step amount of “innovations."  Ghosts is slated for release on both existing consoles as well as Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s soon-to-be-unveiled Next-Box.  Because of this, Infinity Ward is using an entirely new engine for the game, finally retiring the one powering the last seven hundred Call of Duty’s.

Despite Infinity Ward’s involvement, Ghosts isn’t a follow up to Modern Warfare 3.  The game features an all new cast of characters within a brand new setting.  "Everyone was expecting us to make Modern Warfare 4, which would have been the safe thing to do,” said IW executive producer Mark Rubin.  “But we’re not resting on our laurels."  Rubin explains that the transition to newer hardware was the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the world to Call of Duty through a new branding with new ideas.

Just what those new ideas are is up in the air.  The first official trailer for the game is a live action teaser featuring precisely zero gameplay.  But Activision promises way more, including actual gameplay, will be shown off right alongside Microsoft’s Next-Gen reveal event taking place on May 21st.  Till then, here’s a corporate byline to make you feel all fuzzy on the inside:

"Infinity Ward is going all-in to create the next generation of Call of Duty worthy of the world’s greatest fans.”

Well, then.  I guess this is Activision’s version of a confirmation.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Confirmed and, Better Yet, Dated

New promotional art circulating stores the likes of GameStop (I’ve never heard of ‘em; must be small time) has outed the latest installment of Activision’s annualized FPS breadwinner.

Once again under developer Infinity Ward’s reigns, Call of Duty: Ghosts, which is more than likely to have an official May 1st reveal, was also dated by the retailer art for November 5th of this year, falling in line with the release dates of the umpteen titles before it.

Not just an exceptionally badass subtitle, Ghosts is rumored to improve on the aging shooter’s formula through the addition of destructible environments ('bout time), increased mobility options such as a new slide n’ shoot maneuver, and tweaks to smaller components like loading segments becoming playable.

The promotional art keenly fails to name which consoles this seeming Modern Warfare offshoot is coming to, but initial reports heavily suggest Activision is taking a multi-generational stance and launching Ghosts on both current and forthcoming systems.  Personally, I’ll be watching closely how Acti looks to handle the shaky bridge between now and the next-gen, especially considering one of their first ventures will be their biggest franchise.  More to come, folks, as this one develops.

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.