An in-depth and exclusive look at the next Call of Duty game.
via [Tbreak.com]
I settle into my leather La-Z Boy with a drink in hand, feet propped up, and staring at a 103-inch plasma screen. No, I’m not at a private cinema screening although it feels very much like that. I’ve been gracefully invited for a press event at Treyarch Studios in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and we’re all eager to see what this award-winning studio has in store this afternoon.
After a brief introduction from the lovely PR folks (i.e ‘film anything and you’re flying home’), Mark Lamia, Studio Head at Treyarch, strides into the room. “Welcome”, he begins “to the Internet’s worst-kept secret.”
Lamia is of course referring to the recent Internet leaks that have pointed to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and today we get to be the first ones in the world to officially see what the studio has been up to. Treyarch has enjoyed plenty of success with the Call of Duty franchise – the studio reception area holds a large screen that displays in real time the hundreds of thousands of gamers logging in to score some headshots. Lamia credits the studio with pushing the boundaries of the franchise, and promises that they will always deliver a ‘complete package’ to fans. Without getting into too much detail, he said that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will receive a massive technological push to take advantage of DirectX 11 and deliver a COD experience like never before. The original Call of Duty: Black Ops opened to phenomenal success, selling an estimated 4.2 million copies in the U.S alone within 24 hours of going on sale.
A COD story like never before
The story for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 initially sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but Lamia assures us that as with previous titles, the game is based on hard facts. While the present day sees the battle for oil being a key political driver, in a number of years attention will be shifted to something called “rare earth elements”- seventeen chemical elements that fuel most of today’s consumer devices. From screens to smartphones, every modern device has some degree of rare earth elements in it. And it turns out that China currently has the largest deposits of rare earth elements in the world, making it a hot topic of discussion.
The story for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 initially sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but Lamia assures us that as with previous titles, the game is based on hard facts. While the present day sees the battle for oil being a key political driver, in a number of years attention will be shifted to something called “rare earth elements”- seventeen chemical elements that fuel most of today’s consumer devices. From screens to smartphones, every modern device has some degree of rare earth elements in it. And it turns out that China currently has the largest deposits of rare earth elements in the world, making it a hot topic of discussion.
Lamia’s short geography lesson is intertwined with press clippings and even a statement from President Obama in March 2012 stating that the United States is planning to look into China’s iron grasp on its export of rare earth elements. It’s also revealed that rare earth elements play a big factor in military technologies, especially heavy weapons and unmanned military drones. Which leads us to the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ moment about the storyline in Black Ops 2.
The game starts off in the ‘80s, where you play as David Mason, son of Alex Mason, the main protagonist in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. Rather than just introduce a roster of familiar characters in Black Ops 2, Lamia explained that the team had to sit down and think about ‘why does so-and-so character need to come back to COD?’ I’m not saying that every single character you meet will be someone from the original game, but (HUGE SPOILER ALERT AHEAD) as a tip, fans will be happy to know that Woods does return to the franchise and that most of the game is told through him. Having said that, each and every character you meet will be vital to your character and story progression.
For the first time in the series’ history, Black Ops 2 will shift the time-frame halfway through the game, fast-forwarding the action to the year 2025. Now of course Treyarch could have gone all Terminator and flooded the world with killer robots and deadly lasers, but they’re far too sensible to do that. They instead employed the thinking of a man called Peter W Singer, author of the book “Wired For War”, which essentially details how warfare is going to completely change in coming years. Singer’s job is essentially to advise world leaders on any growing concerns in the coming decades. His first divination is what Lamia talked about at the start of the presentation – who is going to control the rare earth elements in the years to come? The second statement was more of a play on what is already happening on the battlefield today; the use of robotics in warfare. Drones, automated turrets, and bomb-diffusing robots are just some of the things that troops use every day in battle.
So naturally Treyarch thought they would play on this ‘automation invasion’ and see if they could work this into the game. And they did it beautifully – in 2025 huge waves of American drones and equipment have gone on the fritz and are now bombing and attacking various cities. It turns out the machines aren’t out of control at all, but are being manipulated by the game’s villain, who Lamia describes as “the most comprehensive three-dimensional character we’ve ever created”. That’s saying quite a lot, but the beauty of that statement is that you get to see for yourself if it’s true – when the game is set in the 80s you get to learn of this villain’s character, and you gradually see events unfold that created the monster you confront in 2025. To him everyone else are merely pawns in his twisted game; whether he wants to achieve world domination or unadulterated chaos is for you to discover. The story unfolds in spectacular fashion, thanks to the writing skills of David Goyer, who consulted on the storyline for the original Black Ops. Here’s a short video from Dave Anthony, Game Director, on how the story is setup in Black Ops 2:
The next phase of our mission was to get the President to an awaiting aircraft, which again was proving to be quite difficult. Mason’s task was to clear out a nearby building so the team could move to higher ground. Here we saw how technology would assist the player in the game – two quadrocopters armed with assault weaponry hovered close to Mason, and he was able to command them to any area he wanted to. When in range of an enemy, the quadrocopters automatically opened fire to take out targets, and if left on their own will follow the player and attack enemy units within range.
After clearing the building and returning to the street, we encountered some tech from the enemy lines – a massive four-legged tank armed with a machine gun and rockets. These things don’t play nice, and if you aren’t careful they can tear your team apart in seconds. The easiest way to deal with them is to simply sneak up from behind and take out each of its legs until it detonates into oblivion. The last leg of the mission was to protect the President’s vehicle while flying after groups of drones. This sounded easy, but proved to be quite difficult thanks to the tight formations of the drones and the endless skyscrapers gracing the horizon.
The demo not only showed us what kind of warfare we would be jumping in to, but also showcased the ever-changing game mechanics and weapons that you would be utilizing to survive each mission. Regardless of what vehicle you’re in or which way you choose to let a mission unfold, there’s never a surefire way to determine how a mission is going to unfold.
New tech under the hood
Did I mention that everything in the demo looked supremely GORGEOUS? Black Ops 2 certainly flexed its muscles in the demo, and it’s at once clear how much of detail is going into this game. Dan Bunting, Online Director at Treyarch confides that the new visuals are a combination of ‘tech’ and ‘technique’, which is brilliantly portrayed in a simple level render set in Yemen. A section of the street is made up of grooved stones that look like they have sand stuck in each groove. In reality it is two separate layers – a layer of the stonework and a layer of sand – that are merged together to produce some stunning details. It is of course much more complicated than I’ve described it, but the end result is superb. Even something as simple as a rocky cliff face now casts multiple shadows in between each individual rock, rather than just being one flat repeating texture. Lighting also plays an important part here; subtle solar flares and shimmering water reflections are just a taste of what complicated the visuals the game is able to pull off while still maintaining a crisp 60fps. Dan Bunting, Director, Online, sounds off a bit about the tech that’s going into Black Ops 2:
Did I mention that everything in the demo looked supremely GORGEOUS? Black Ops 2 certainly flexed its muscles in the demo, and it’s at once clear how much of detail is going into this game. Dan Bunting, Online Director at Treyarch confides that the new visuals are a combination of ‘tech’ and ‘technique’, which is brilliantly portrayed in a simple level render set in Yemen. A section of the street is made up of grooved stones that look like they have sand stuck in each groove. In reality it is two separate layers – a layer of the stonework and a layer of sand – that are merged together to produce some stunning details. It is of course much more complicated than I’ve described it, but the end result is superb. Even something as simple as a rocky cliff face now casts multiple shadows in between each individual rock, rather than just being one flat repeating texture. Lighting also plays an important part here; subtle solar flares and shimmering water reflections are just a taste of what complicated the visuals the game is able to pull off while still maintaining a crisp 60fps. Dan Bunting, Director, Online, sounds off a bit about the tech that’s going into Black Ops 2:
Multiplayer
David Vonderhaar, Game Design Director, next steps up the plate to briefly talk about multiplayer. And by briefly I mean literally three sentences and he was out of there – ah the joys of having PR standing just behind you. While he wasn’t allowed to disclose any juice details, Vonderhaar commented that multiplayer in Call of Duty is no longer a ‘one size fits all’ scenario, and that the game is a healthy mix of new players, experienced ones, and veterans. Black Ops 2 is going to make multiplayer very interesting with the combat techniques of 2025, and Vonderhaar even hinted that kill streaks may be evolving this time around. Lamia also chimed in that zombies are going to make a return in this game as well. What had originally started as a simple DLC turned out to be hugely popular, so Lamia said that the studio is definitely cooking up something with zombies for Black Ops 2.
David Vonderhaar, Game Design Director, next steps up the plate to briefly talk about multiplayer. And by briefly I mean literally three sentences and he was out of there – ah the joys of having PR standing just behind you. While he wasn’t allowed to disclose any juice details, Vonderhaar commented that multiplayer in Call of Duty is no longer a ‘one size fits all’ scenario, and that the game is a healthy mix of new players, experienced ones, and veterans. Black Ops 2 is going to make multiplayer very interesting with the combat techniques of 2025, and Vonderhaar even hinted that kill streaks may be evolving this time around. Lamia also chimed in that zombies are going to make a return in this game as well. What had originally started as a simple DLC turned out to be hugely popular, so Lamia said that the studio is definitely cooking up something with zombies for Black Ops 2.
Demo level: Singapore Docks
We were treated to one more level demo before our session came to an end, and this level was to demonstrate the ‘Strike Force Operations’ missions that you can carry out. These are particular missions that are related to the main storyline, and depending on whether you compete or fail the mission, they have an end result on your main story arc. The way the game ends will then depend on what happened in each of these side missions, so in theory there are different ways in which the game can end. The mission we saw put you in charge of a basic team whose objective was to secure four key points on a map, and then sabotage a missile launch. During the mission you can zoom out to ‘Overwatch’ mode, which lets you see your entire team and mission objectives. You can also use this mode to target and control any of your team members, either human or robotic. You use the D-pad to instruct your other team members or drones deploy or secure specific areas, and for the most part it seemed that the AI control is quite good, so hopefully you won’t have your teammates walking straight into the line of fire. The underlining message we go through this demo is that these missions aren’t just random events that you can replay until you succeed – if you fail the mission, that’s your only chance gone and you’ll have to replay that section of the game if you want to try and win the mission. Treyarch are certainly trying to put in something else other than multiplayer to keep fans glued to the game, and from what I saw these side missions are both challenging and add a good degree of replayability to the game.
We were treated to one more level demo before our session came to an end, and this level was to demonstrate the ‘Strike Force Operations’ missions that you can carry out. These are particular missions that are related to the main storyline, and depending on whether you compete or fail the mission, they have an end result on your main story arc. The way the game ends will then depend on what happened in each of these side missions, so in theory there are different ways in which the game can end. The mission we saw put you in charge of a basic team whose objective was to secure four key points on a map, and then sabotage a missile launch. During the mission you can zoom out to ‘Overwatch’ mode, which lets you see your entire team and mission objectives. You can also use this mode to target and control any of your team members, either human or robotic. You use the D-pad to instruct your other team members or drones deploy or secure specific areas, and for the most part it seemed that the AI control is quite good, so hopefully you won’t have your teammates walking straight into the line of fire. The underlining message we go through this demo is that these missions aren’t just random events that you can replay until you succeed – if you fail the mission, that’s your only chance gone and you’ll have to replay that section of the game if you want to try and win the mission. Treyarch are certainly trying to put in something else other than multiplayer to keep fans glued to the game, and from what I saw these side missions are both challenging and add a good degree of replayability to the game.
Taking character animation to the next level
Adam Rosas, Animation Lead, then took us under his wing to give us a demo of how the studio improved upon its character animations for Black Ops 2. The team employed what’s known as a ‘full performance capture’, in which actors are fitted with special suits and up to 84 light-sensitive spheres are fixed onto their limbs and facial features to capture precise movements and expressions. In order to see just how far they could go with the characters, the team decided to first use a female actor to capture their first few shots. Rosas explained that women tend to emote differently than men, so it was much more challenging trying to map the female actor’s expressions with the character model. But after a little bit of tweaking and the addition of just four minor bones, the animated character was able to produce a near-exact lip sync with the actor’s voice, and her facial expressions and body language was fluid and right on cue. This was then used as a starting point for the other characters in the game, so the animations that we saw in the game were some of the best yet in the franchise.
Adam Rosas, Animation Lead, then took us under his wing to give us a demo of how the studio improved upon its character animations for Black Ops 2. The team employed what’s known as a ‘full performance capture’, in which actors are fitted with special suits and up to 84 light-sensitive spheres are fixed onto their limbs and facial features to capture precise movements and expressions. In order to see just how far they could go with the characters, the team decided to first use a female actor to capture their first few shots. Rosas explained that women tend to emote differently than men, so it was much more challenging trying to map the female actor’s expressions with the character model. But after a little bit of tweaking and the addition of just four minor bones, the animated character was able to produce a near-exact lip sync with the actor’s voice, and her facial expressions and body language was fluid and right on cue. This was then used as a starting point for the other characters in the game, so the animations that we saw in the game were some of the best yet in the franchise.
Making it sound like 2025
The last leg of our studio trip was with the great guys from the sound team. Brian Tuey, Chris Cowell, Shawn Jimmerson welcomed us to their little corner of the studio, surrounded by speakers, amplifiers, and all kinds of weird and wonderful devices that they use to manipulate sounds and create new ones. The team explained that the challenge for them was how to dream up what warfare in 2025 would sound like without making it sound too artificial or cheesy. For them, the context of sounds are important as they help drive the game forward (along with the game’s background score), so it’s important that in a franchise like Call of Duty everything sounds realistic and true to form.
The last leg of our studio trip was with the great guys from the sound team. Brian Tuey, Chris Cowell, Shawn Jimmerson welcomed us to their little corner of the studio, surrounded by speakers, amplifiers, and all kinds of weird and wonderful devices that they use to manipulate sounds and create new ones. The team explained that the challenge for them was how to dream up what warfare in 2025 would sound like without making it sound too artificial or cheesy. For them, the context of sounds are important as they help drive the game forward (along with the game’s background score), so it’s important that in a franchise like Call of Duty everything sounds realistic and true to form.
Shawn also showed a few of the custom-made electronics that they’ve dreamt up to generate all manners of blips, and squeaks which they can later manipulate into anything from a menu-navigation sound to a weapon firing. And speaking of weapons, Brian confided that a majority of the weapon sounds in the games are careful recordings of how the actual weapon fires in real life. A complicated firing range equipped with as many as sixty microphones help to capture the sound from every single angle, which is crucial to determining which sound track to use depending on where the player is standing in the game. It’s a true labor of love, and it shows on each of the team’s happy faces.
With the audio tour wrapping up our day at Treyarch Studios, we caught up with some of the studio members over a light dinner, but my head was already swimming with all the information we had been shown. Even with a brief look at Black Ops 2, the game looks to be well on its way to satisfying fans’ appetites and garnering a few more hundred thousand followers.
Make sure you check back later in the week for our in-depth interview with Mark Lamia, Studio Head at Treyarch.
via [Tbreak.com]
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