Sledgehammer: Modern Warfare 3 Not a 'Cut and Paste'

With a new installment of Call of Duty coming out each year, the franchise has attracted its fair share of critics. Many of the most vocal accuse each game of simply repeating the formula of its predecessor, "cutting and pasting" the previous version and making only small changes. According to Sledgehammer Games general manager Glen Schofield, this isn't the case.

In a new interview with CVG, Schofield asserts that this couldn't be further from the truth.

"If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference," he said. "Look at all the character models, look at all the gun models, look at the reflections, look at the water. There is so much that we've added, so when someone says 'cut and paste', I don't even want to talk to them because they don't know. They just don't know. They have no idea."

Schofield added that the engine is "a Porsche," calling it more impressive than engines he's worked with previously.

"I've worked on a lot of engines over my lifetime and spent a lot of time putting graphics in to them and this thing is Porsche," he said, "and what I mean by that is that it is stream-lined, everything in it is perfectly freaking clean. You can tell it's been worked on for years. It's easy to upgrade."

"On top of that you have what we added to the audio engine. Then there's a lot of stuff under the hood. People don't think about this but when you make your tools better and you can iterate twice as many times, you make the game better."

Still, he said that gameplay is the primary focus, not just graphics.

"I've said this before - I'm not shipping an engine, I'm shipping a game. So that's why I'm going to talk about the game. You can talk about your engine all you want. It's not fun."

Schofield also discussed game's lack of an open beta, saying that Call of Duty XP sufficed since so many players were able to try out the game.

"This game is so big between the campaign, the Spec-Ops and the multiplayer, there was so much work to do that I don't know whether [a beta] hit anyone's mind or not," he said. "We had XP and XP was in itself a way for 1,000s of people to play the game and for us to look over their shoulder and see how they were doing and how they liked it and that was really good."

The full interview is available on CVG.

Modern Warfare 3 hits stores on November 8th.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/120/1200637p1.html

I think if they put more effort in COD then people would bash it has much.

:lol: yeah right. Certainly looks that way.

Its Call of Duty which means a day 1! dont care if its a copy and paste or even a DLC. the biggest FPS of the year is almost here! :cry:.. cant wait :oops:

Newsflash for Sledgehammer, it takes more than better graphcis for a game not to be cut and paste.

Newsflash for Sledgehammer, it takes more than better graphcis for a game not to be cut and paste.

turtlethetaffer

Glen Schofield's doing a good job at making me hate him. Everytime he opens his mouth, he just makes himself sound like an even bigger ass.

Which is why MW3 needs to flop so that these big-mouthed developers can keep their flapping traps shut.

"If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference," he said. "Look at all the character models, look at all the gun models, look at the reflections, look at the water. There is so much that we've added, so when someone says 'cut and paste', I don't even want to talk to them because they don't know. They just don't know. They have no idea."

So the "huge difference" is a few graphical tweaks? Really?

"If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference," he said. "Look at all the character models, look at all the gun models, look at the reflections, look at the water. There is so much that we've added, so when someone says 'cut and paste', I don't even want to talk to them because they don't know. They just don't know. They have no idea."

So the "huge difference" is a few graphical tweaks? Really?

organic_machine

Exactly what I said.

Too bad Infinity Ward is dead...and Sledgehammer is just riding off of the massive success that Infinity Ward created.

Let's see you actually introduce novel gameplay ideas, Sledgehammer, instead of making up nonsensical excuses for why your critics' opinions are invalid.

Too bad Infinity Ward is dead...and Sledgehammer is just riding off of the massive success that Infinity Ward created.

Let's see you actually introduce novel gameplay ideas, Sledgehammer, instead of making up nonsensical excuses for why your critics' opinions are invalid.

peterw007

"This game is different because graphics."

That's more or less what he said.

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

from what i've seen, it looks exactly like a copy and paste, but im going to buy it anyway :P

When will people get sick of playing the same game every year i dont know. But when they do call me.

If the game didnt look like one then people would not be saying this left and right and he would not need to come out and deny it.

If the game didnt look like one then people would not be saying this left and right and he would not need to come out and deny it.

soiheardyoulike

that pretty much sums it up

He won't talk about the engine because the engine is copy paste. The other features are somewhat new. I don't care what he says, the "game" is the engine. You can't have a game without an engine.

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

walkingdream

Q - does it still have horrid, embarrasing, generic, cheesey, rancid shooting mechanics a 3 year old can master?

A - "Yes"

ok, Ill be playing Battlefield...have fun.

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

walkingdream

This is the first Cod which I feel like they are not changing much since that campaign trailer which showed the exact same set pieces as MW2. Then Multi trailer showed no evolution either. IW was good now this sledgehammer dev will ruin modern warfare games.

[QUOTE="walkingdream"]

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

MyopicCanadian

I'm buying it, but that's bullcrap Sledgehammer... We know exactly what were getting with COD4.2

So, their Best Defense of the Fact That MW3 isn't cut and paste is "Look At the Water??:lol:

oh god don't let this Be 65 dollars wasted

[QUOTE="walkingdream"]

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

MyopicCanadian

Dice never said it was

ill find out Nov. 8th when i redbox the gameeboyishere

Me too.

And the earth is not round.

All I got from that was blah, blah, blah, we lie for activision. blah, blah, blah, we say its not cut and paste because 12 yr old tweens and casual idiots who buy this game believe us, blah, blah, blah, Activision pays us in coke and whores, so we can keep a straight face while we lie to you.

I seriously can't wait until CoD plummets to the bottom of a New Jersey pond covered in sewage and frog S*** just like a few other activision games....Tony hawk *cough* Guitar Hero *cough*

Call it extreme I don't care I have been burned by too many bad CoD games. And every FPS game tries to replicate CoD now days....the game sucks I dont get it. Leave it to the casuals though to lap up a game the is inferior to everything else out there.

I hope activision, Sledgehammer, infinityward, and treyarch all die of the plauge.

The only answer to their damage control is.... IW engine. There is nothing drastic being done to the engine that technically has been used since CoD1 (id Tech 3 aka Quake III or IW 1.5). Improvements, yes. Of course! Is it enough to constitute that it doesn't look like a cut and paste? IMO, no.

That's not neccessarily a bad thing either considering it's obviously not hindering on the core casual gameplay. Come November, we can really comment on these claims on both sides.

The same engine used in Call of Duty 1 is the same engine being used by Modern Warfare 3, people don't even get it. Every game in the franchise since the original has been a copy and paste with new guns, maps and graphics.Goro69

[QUOTE="Goro69"]The same engine used in Call of Duty 1 is the same engine being used by Modern Warfare 3, people don't even get it. Every game in the franchise since the original has been a copy and paste with new guns, maps and graphics.millerlight89

Call of Duty 3 did not use the IW engine. It used Treyarch's NGL.

[QUOTE="millerlight89"][QUOTE="Goro69"]The same engine used in Call of Duty 1 is the same engine being used by Modern Warfare 3, people don't even get it. Every game in the franchise since the original has been a copy and paste with new guns, maps and graphics.zeta

Call of Duty 3 did not use the IW engine. It used Treyarch's NGL.

When your game stops having the same scripted campaign and the same messed up multiplayer talk to me glenn.Graphics are one of my worries with MW3, but not my biggest worry.

I saw one of MW2's DLC maps for the first time. I thought it was MW3 footage honest to god :o

We know this Sledgehammer. Call of Duty is one of the greatest and most inovative strategy games this gen and brang so many new things to the table. FPS's like Battlefield 3 and Starcraft 2 wish they were as strategic as CoD. MW3 just continues to prove to be the dominatn RPG/FPS/Strategy game.

[QUOTE="MyopicCanadian"][QUOTE="walkingdream"]

Note to sledgehammer

Look at the difference between BC2 and BF3 that's how you make a sequal. Not only Graphics but animations, scale more options everything is upgraded.

lawlessx

Dice never said it was

Same graphics engine, same textures, same sounds, same guns, same animations...

No copy and paste eh?

Same animations, same gameplay, very slightly improved graphics, some new maps with a bunch of recycled maps(willing to be any amount of money the dlc will have recycled maps), some different guns/perks with the majority of them being recycled from older games, and a 4-5 hour campaign with more holes in it than swiss cheese...sounds like a rehash to me.Moriarity_