I think at this point in time, developers are really just starting to figure out all the little tricks that they can pull to get the most out of both systems (360 and PS3). The graphics in Max Payne 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier are very nice, and Skyrim has pretty good graphics too considering the size of the game world; why not see how much further they can push the current tech? Maybe then, when we do get a new console cycle with much higher specs, developers will have so many sweet tricks up their sleeves that they can absolutely blow our minds with how much detail and content they can get out of a game.
Of course, that would require developers to take a look at game design that's more along the lines of Bethesda and Rockstar, which I highly doubt the cash-cow mindset at Activision or EA (and, of course, those smaller indie developers without large budgets) would allow.
@Banefire76 Before jumping to such conclusions, I would like to actually see the specific language used in Zampella, West, and Co.'s employment contracts. A company like Activision has the funds to hire lawyers who can easily sneak in little terms that could throw massive curveballs into this case: look at how many years musicians have been fighting labels over contractual language, and what the royalty calculations should be, and how much they should be paid, and whether digital downloads count as sales or licenses for royalty purposes, etc.
Well, maybe you don't look at or think about that kind of stuff because it doesn't interest you. But the entertainment industry is fraught with these things, moreso than any other industry, because the big CEOs want to keep their million dollar bonuses while everyone else scrapes by with pennies.
Do we even know *what* the royalty kickbacks were supposed to be for this game? I keep seeing the statement "owed royalties" kicked around, and yet, strangely enough, there is never actually any concrete proof that these exist. Are we talking about royalties on the license for the "Call of Duty" brand -- because the rights to that would have been transferred to Activision when they acquired Infinity Ward. Are we talking about royalties on physical disc sales? Digital downloads? Royalties for the use of the game engine designed by IW? For game assets, such as art or code?
And then, Activision could always go the music industry route, and start deducting for "recoupables," such as advertising expenses, breakage/returned merchandise, packaging and distribution costs, any advances given to West, Zampella, and/or the rest of the IW team in order to begin production of the game, etc.
Until ALL of the evidence is shown in court, I will refrain from siding with one party or the other. At the moment, however, neither party seems to be giving us a complete picture of what happened.
@warhawk-geeby Treyarch did something fresh with Black Ops' campaign -- and critics complained that the story was "too complicated." I guess that's to be expected, though: Call of Duty gamers don't want a story that requires them to think a little, they just want to shoot pixel-people in the face.
I hope it's better than Far Cry 2's broken mechanics and omniscient A.I.: kinda sucked to be a malaria-stricken dude fighting omniscient A.I. (to whom your stealth kills were more attention-grabbing than a gunshot) with rifles that broke after three shots...
The "download content" button scares me. Especially when it says "offers" on the page when you click on it. For a radically stripped-down version of the PC game, I hope that additional content is rolled out consistently and for free. Some 360-exclusive content could be a nice bonus, too, for those of you who have both copies of the game.
@edgewalker16 Are you a hipster by any chance? I bet you liked Call of Duty, back before it was mainstream. Or are you one of those under-underground gamers who prefers the original PC version of Medal of Honor?
@GTO_Shabs How can you even say that with a straight face? The last patch absolutely killed the gameplay (suppression? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that a military-trained sniper could COMPLETELY miss his shot because some dick was 500 yards away spraying the sky with an M249), and it's VERY suspicious how EVERY official DICE server disappeared about two weeks that they started renting them out.
DICE turns proceeds into servers for stable, proper game-play? Then why do I experience so much lag, even on the rare occasion I manage to find an official server? Why did they play around so much with the weapon balance, when all they really needed to do was reduce the range and damage of the 12g frag rounds? Snipers are now effectively useless, people who miss their shots are now more useful than players who actually HIT their targets, counter-air systems doesn't work, air vehicle defenses don't work as they should, and the only class worth playing as now is assault.
Yep, I can see how you'd mistake that for DICE making a stable game.
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