Of all the major companies within the E3 2011, one of the most requested was Activision. The company's stand is a large empty space with trailers passing. No demo, no video of gameplay, no hint of what to expect from new.
What not everybody knows that there is another world in the Activision booth behind the screens: the area reserved for the press. I arrived yesterday at the press table and asked to schedule a booth tour this area. Scored for 10:30 in the morning without delay.
I arrived at 11.00, thanks to the quiet traffic of Los Angeles and went straight there, totally ignoring the booth tour that was scheduled to see in 2K Games The Darkness II. Sorry there if anyone wanted to read this hands-on game, but it was for a good cause.
Within the space of Activision took us to the first room. Inside, a company official told us: no pictures, no video, all they need is material in the press area. He left the room and an employee of Infinity Ward took over, explaining a bit about the history of Modern Warfare to date and explain that would show us two campaign missions.
Closed the briefing, he took a wave putting on Veteran level and started playing. On the mission, a U.S. team is under water and has a mission to lay mines in a Russian submarine. For those who do not remember, MW2 ends with the Russians invading and destroying the U.S. Washington.
The first 5 minutes of the mission are just an underwater journey dodging mines and explosive charges thrown up by ships. In the end, the mine is planted, the submarine explodes and first saw the area: New York in the background with flames. The camera turns around and shows a great naval battle, with several boats besieging the city.
In the second part of the mission, the player rises the submarine damaged and get all the shooting action. That's where we understand the true purpose of the mission: infiltrate the submarine and uses it to sink the Russian fleet in the Hudson River. A few minutes pass shooting, missiles are fired and begins a chase scene. The goal: escape. How? Threading the boat on the back of the rescue helicopter (ok, that sounded pretty ugly).
The second mission is one of the classic situations of stealth infiltration. Nothing much, except that the final part is an exciting chase. You, on the back of a truck, has to eliminate a subway full of Russians. Just who was in the room saw how that mission is intense in this part, with several explosions, crossfire and things falling apart. In the end, the train derails, explodes and we do not know what happens to the protagonists of the mission.
What matters: hands-on multiplayer
After watching almost a half hour demo of two phases, the most expected: put your hands on the game at a pre-Alpha version also has some bugs.
In the next room, several Xbox 360 arranged in pairs of big TVs and headsets. In each, a person waiting for a couple to show the step-by-step one of the novelties of MW3: the special ops multiplayer mode.
I played the stage 'The Dome', and the goal was to survive as many rounds as possible. In every corner that is the phase, except near the player, enemies will spawn and try to kill you. It's kill or be killed.
Each wave of enemies, a timer of 30 seconds to start the next round. This time it takes to get ammunition, or visit one of the armories in phase 3. In each armory, a different possibility: one to buy explosives, and one another for support for gun. It is also possible to upgrade weapons, buy different types of ammunition etc..
Survived until the 12th round and was very exciting. In two rounds, juggernauts invaded (and died in one of them), and in another, helicopters chase you.
I asked about other ways of special ops or multiplayer, but no one could comment on. Also, they said that has much more news coming for the multiplayer, but that will count in the coming months until the release of the game at the end of the year (promised for November 8).
Call of Duty: Elite
Also new to the show at E3 Call of Duty CoD is the Elite, a social platform that will integrate games of the series. In it, you can monitor recording statistics, replays and other information about the players.
It is free: all resources are free, except a few that will charge for a subscription. Clear that these will be focused only on the public extremely hardcore.
Social platform: it will pull data from Facebook via Xbox Live, PSN or PC game via their friends and show them the statistics and replays. It will also give rise to videos to YouTube, with their replay videos. The system automatically tagueia other players already in the video and tells them all. You know that guy you gave 10 headshots? Your friends can see if it really plays well or not.
Improve your game: through heatmaps, data from their games and game history, you can have an overview and discover their strengths and weaknesses. In one particular phase, which weapon was wearing when he made the most kills? In that situation you die more? All this gives to get an idea of what lies ahead. In addition, you can customize your game classes at Black Ops and MW3 not only the game but within the platform, whether you're accessing from a PC, Mac, iPhone or anything that has internet access and a screen "(their words) .
Awards: regular events for all types of players and that will give real prizes. Since whoever kills more in a week, even those who capture more flags between 7 am and 8 pm that day. Among the awards provided for shirts, and even a jeep iPads custom Call of Duty. The question is, we here in Brazil will be able to win something?
Groups: just want to play with people accessing TB? Or play with people who cheer for the same team? You can join groups and play with these people. Also, each group can be created by any player, will have its own data and ranking of players.
Clans: is there. They did not give details because it would spoil the surprise news of MW3 multiplayer. All said they'll have a lot to make life easier and organization of who plays in clan. I asked if they will allow clans with members on different platforms, the answer is they do not know.
Much of what was shown at E3 can change until the final game. They said that the Beta is not as many commercial game companies do, but something real to test what will work or not. The beta starts on July 17. Interested parties should register on this page.
That's all had the courage to tell and show the news on CoD. What are you waiting for future releases of the franchise?
