Gaming
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Release Date Details & More
Franchise publisher Activision announced Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare earlier this morning in a video posted to YouTube. That video doesn’t include much. There’s no commentary from the game’s developers, nor does it provide an in-depth look at the motivations behind the new game’s design. Instead, the game is a nearly three minutes monologue from actor Kevin Spacey. He talks about America taking over trying to build democracies in places that aren’t necessarily ready for them. While Spacey’s character is speaking the video cuts to soldiers using advanced weaponry like hovercrafts and armored suits during a battle around the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
Even without more information from Activision or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s developer, Sledgehammer, there are some things that are clearly implied in the trailer. First, as its name suggests players who purchase the game on release day, which is on November 4th of this year, should expect to have lots of different futuristic weaponry at their disposal. In fact, the trailer goes so far in showcasing these futuristic weapons that many gamers may walk away with the impression that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare feels eerily similar to Titanfall, this year’s other high-profile first-person shooter. That there is apparently a power up in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare that allows players to scale walls like on Titanfall certainly isn’t going to make any perceived similarities between the two titles any less noticeable.
While there is still very little information about the game to come by, we do know that users can expect to hear more about the upcoming game on Sunday May 4th. That’s according to a teaser website that surfaced last night. That teaser site also included links to articles that we assume provide more context for the comments Spacey makes during the trailer.
There’s a link to a piece that originally appeared in The Economist that concerns mercenaries and military contractors and the consequences on relying on a hired army in foreign lands. Called “Beyond Blackwater”, it also delved into the changes in the defense contracting industry after Blackwater came under fire for its behavior on foreign soil and its cozy relationship with government appropriators.
It’s likely that potential buyers will have all the information they need to know about Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare by the end of this coming weekend. All Call of Duty games have cost $59.99 in the past, and Activison has routinely made Season Pass subscriptions available so that users could prepay for additional maps and add-on content when they first pick up the game.
Sledgehammer has already confirmed that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was created with next-generation consoles in mind. That doesn’t mean that the Xbox 360 and PS3 won’t get versions of the game. However, the game was primarily designed to take advantage of the Xbox One and PS4 advanced graphics and more powerful processors. It’s unclear whether players on older consoles will lose any crucial features. Presumably, if there is a big difference between the versions than Activision and Sledgehammer will share the details at their May 4th event this weekend.
Expect more talk about those new vehicles and weaponry that are showcased in today’s teaser trailer. Whether they’ll have actual video footage of the game itself so that people can get a feel for how it’ll look in their living room remains unclear.
Hopefully, this new title will take advantage of the new PS4 and Xbox One specific mechanics like further highlighting Challenges on Xbox Live and second-screen experiences with the Xbox SmartGlass and PlayStation Mobile apps for iPhone and Android.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be featured on the cover of this month’s Game Informer magazine. Presumably, that article will deep dive into the motivations about the story and the challenges that the game developers faced in introducing new gameplay mechanics and balancing it with the game systems that players all know and love.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare couldn’t come at a better time, particularly for the Call of Duty franchise itself. Gamers have complained that the series was getting stale for years. Adding these new weapons and play styles should breath new life into the game’s online multiplayer. Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners who ran out to purchase Titanfall back in March should also find the game exciting. Titanfall was interesting because of users ability to cloak, have giant robotic partners and the ability to scale walls. That being said, the game’s story mode left a lot to be desired. There was a story mode, had users had to play online and it didn’t really offer much of a story line for anyone go get excited about. With Kevin Spacey staring in this game’s campaign there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
