Modern Warfare 3 - Spec Ops and Survival Mode

So, I've been reading a lot of news about Spec Ops and Survival mode being discussed by Infinity Ward's fourzerotwo. The short story is that Spec Ops has returned, bigger and better than ever. They've included rankings, matchmaking, and leaderboards. As for mission types, I can only guess they'll be similar to what we saw in MW2. But ... there is always a but ... they've thrown in an additional part of Spec Ops called Survival mode.

Survival mode is going to be played on the games multiplayer maps, in hopes that newer players will play Spec Ops first, most likely learn the maps, and then go online. I'm sure the thought being that map knowledge is a serious problem for new players fighting older players who know the map. Which can be true, but I really enjoy the games that happen right when a new game comes out, or a new map pack, where everyone is running around not knowing where the heck they are and almost no one is camping.

A lucky reporter over at USA Today, Mike Snider, got to play some Survival mode recently. Here's a link to the article. Survival mode in 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'

Mike summarizes his gameplay experience in the article, which can confirm a few things for us. He states:

Rubin passed me some in-game currency and I bought and installed a turret to keep the evildoers at bay, while I watched for attack dogs.

So, we know that there is a currency system for at least Spec Ops. It might even just be in Survival mode, who knows. The other thing that may only be in Survival is the attack dogs. The fact that they are here does not mean that we will be seeing the same currency based weapon unlocking system from Black Ops, nor does it confirm attack dogs as a kill streak.

The next paragraph really gets interesting:

After a few waves, the attack dogs became suicide bomber dogs that exploded a few seconds after you shot them. The next wave brought the kamikaze soldiers who exploded similarly.

Suicide dogs and soldiers. I'm starting to see Survival mode as more of a Horde game mode from Gears of War. Or you can look at it as IW's version of Zombies, since that is in an infinite wave style just like this is going to be. Oh, and in later waves you can expect a variety of our good friends, the Juggernauts.

Now, this isn't the type of innovation that I expect from Infinity Ward, as some are saying that they're taking a page out of Treyarch's book, essentially copying Zombies. But the release is hardly here, and I can't wait to see what IW does with the multiplayer, since we all know that is where the real game lies.

Stay tuned for more MW3 news, and more. Until then,
Go Deep. Go Hard.
-K1ng K00p4

Gaming with K1ng - Black Ops - Friday, May 27th, 2011

So, I figure this is a blog, I can write my thoughts about some games I play on some nights, need a good naming system though so they're easily looked through, sort of a log if you will.

Anyway, played with a bunch of good people tonight, started off fooling around with Gun Game, there were five of us, pretty fun. Played some One in the Chamber and Sharpshooter as well. I like wager matches as a whole, they're part of the reason I bought Black Ops, something less serious. I'd like to see them in MW3, but no biggie if they are not there. Something I do not want to see is COD Points, which I suppose wager matches uses as a base, but I'm sure some substitute system could be thought of.

The reason I don't want COD Points in MW3 is because they completely remove the motivation to use any gun that you aren't good with. Once one gets to their favorite gun, they buy it, the respective attachments, camouflages, and emblem displays and they're all done. What would have taken hours of play time now takes seconds. Unless IW can implement them in a more compelling way, I'd rather go back to the old system.

That said, I also played some of a game type I have very little experience on, Search and Destroy. I've never liked it. I always play it like I play any other game type, run and gun, and sometimes that works out, but most of the time it doesn't. Usually that means the other team plays Search a lot, and either "camp" or have a better feel for what they're doing than my team does. What ever the situation, it never ends well for me in this game type. And it didn't end well for us tonight. Oh well, it's too slow a game type for me anyway. Any game where the good strategy is using ghost, ninja, and a silencer and head glitching to the point of near invincibility doesn't sound like a game type I'd like to play. (That's actually probably not the good strategy, I just see it more often there than anywhere else.)

Moving on. Sabotage was next on the list. We had a full party, which made it hard to find any games that the other team would stay in for more than one round. Which outlined a clear problem with Sabo for me, it's only one round. You play to one, what's the point of having the score counter in the bottom left then? It'd be a bit more interesting if it was best of three. One of the guys I was playing with was suggesting a shorter timer between games, and I know this was done in a TDM game type in MW2, maybe it should be done here too.

Regardless of whether people would stay, we were racking up the wins. But eventually that got tiring. I don't think we lost a game for the two or so hours we were playing that before finally moving to Domination. Ahhh... Domination. Fun game type. I didn't play much of it before Black Ops. But tonight was good. Had a bunch of decent games on Jungle after unlocking the MPL. Four of us could hold a decent spawn trap.

As for guns for the night, I bounced around a bit, getting to Level 36 at the end of the night. Used the Galil for a bit early on, moved to the MP5K with Rapid Fire, that helped my K/D for the night, mainly because of the lightweight and marathon setup. That allowed me to beat all my friends to the kills. Because when you play with five other good players it's really just a competition for kills, especially in TDM, which strangely enough I didn't play at all tonight.

Anyway, I sprinted around with the MP5K until level 35, then hello MPL! My love has always been with fast shooting SMG's in the COD series, and an MPL with Rapid Fire fits that description. It's the first SMG that I get that I'm really excited for, the other one being the Spectre. The MP5K is a decent substitute until these two guns. But the Rapid Fire is key. In other games I'd normally run a silencer, but SMGs in Black Ops need the Rapid Fire, I just wish it wasn't so damn expensive.

Hopefully I'll be able to bring some more Guns of Black Ops posts soon, as that seems to be where I'm getting the most hits. I also have started tracking the MW3 news very closely, so I'll be sure to keep you posted on any new I read.

Until then,
Go Deep. Go Hard.
-K1ng K00p4

Not a Prequel

So, based on an email I got this morning announcing the reveal trailer for MW3 I'm wrong on the whole prequel thing.

The email says this below the video link:

Modern Warfare is back.
On November 8th, the best-selling first-person action series of all-time returns with the epic sequel to the multiple Game of the Year award winner Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Now, this doesn't rule out the possibility of playing prequel-esque parts. We all remember playing as Captain Price (then a Lieutenant I believe) in One Shot, One Kill back in COD4. Who's to say we won't have a similar experience with Ghost.

That's the update, I'll keep you posted on anything else I hear. Until then,
Go Deep. Go Hard.
-K1ng K00p4

MW3 Reveal

So, tonight during some NBA something or other the reveal trailer for Modern Warfare 3 was shown. fourzerotwo shortly after tweeted a link for the video. Here it is.



Initial thoughts are hard to describe. I love the Modern Warfare series, and waiting until November to see how they proceed with the story will be tormenting. But something I want to bring up is the possibility of a prequel to COD4, this may be it. Let me explain why.

Back in January of this year it was posted on thisisxbox.com, that a "source within the industry" informed the site that Infinity Ward was working on the next Call of Duty game after Black Ops, nothing new I know. The new part is that the story will consist of a prequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare focusing on Ghost's character and the start of the conflict that is focus of the previous two games.

Now, great, this is all speculation, maybe a hoax, you can never trust these sorts of rumors anyway. But, in this reveal video, if you take a look at around 0:57 into the video you'll see this:

It's just a shadowy figure, yes, but doesn't it look oddly reminiscent of our old friend Ghost? Yes, yes it does.

Now, this obviously neither confirms nor denies the rumor, but it sure as hell gets one excited about it. You all may not have been sad when he died in MW2, but I certainly shed a tear. Ghost was the epitome of badass, and if I can get the chance to play as him in MW3, IW has earned another sale. Not that I wasn't going to buy it already.

MW3 - November 8th, 2011. Mark your calenders boys and girls, and get ready to stand in line at midnight, it's sure to be a long one.

Go Deep. Go Hard.
-K1ng K00p4