Full credit of this translation goes
to STealthyShogun from GameFAQs. Everything below is quoted from
him/the translated version of the magazine.
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Hi everyone,
So
I recently got the latest issue of Power Unlimited (the biggest Dutch
gaming mag) on my doormat, and they had a six-page overview in it. So I
got to translating it, which took a while. There might be some spelling
and grammar snafus in it, but please don't mind them. It's a big piece,
which I'll probably take multiple posts to get up, so please don't post
until I say so.
All rights to the original text are Power Unlimited's.
NOTE:
Segments between parenthesis, in bolded italics, are comments by me.
Regular segments between the parenthesis are part of the original text.
Additionally, there are some inconsistencies in the piece. For example,
under the “things that stood out” section, they mention they were shown
one completed levels, pieces of a second level, and a demonstration
space constructed for the purposes of this demo. However, we were shown
three levels; Kazachstan (apparently in finished state) Rio Favela
(almost finished) and Desert (status unclear)... Or referring to MW2 as
CoDMW2...
Room 612
The
pressure on Infinity Ward must have been immense. Like mentioned
before, it’s not just a sequel they’re making. It’s the sequel to the
best game of the last few years. A game which, if the forums are to be
believed, shouldn’t be changed to much.
Twelve million fans is a
nice thing to have, but is a big burden at the same time. How do you
keep them all happy, especially if you are going to change stuff
anyway? Everyone has his own opinion. One loves Martyrdom, the other
one hates it. And what if your favorite weapon is gone in number 2?
So,
no, we wouldn’t like to be in Infinity Ward’s shoes, despite the fact
that those shoes are undoubtedly very swank, owing to the shipload of
money they made on the previous title.
Infinity Ward came up
with a very simple and efficient way to cope with this pressure. They
set up a good filter on the input from the community, and at a certain
point just took a decision in the vein of ‘this is how it’s going to
be’ and they haven’t deviated from that path ever since.
The
result of over a year and a half of hard work was shown to us in a room
612 of a posh London hotel. Phat couch under our butts, coke in hand, a
gigantic plasma TV and the airco on minus 10 C. That last bit proved to
be a good decision, because our internal temperature rose pretty
quickly because of what we were shown, and that’s putting it mildly.
Let’s just describe what we saw, that appears to us as the best way of conveying how awesome this session was.
First Demo Level: Cliffhanger
Modern
Warfare 2 is a direct sequel to the first installment, but even so, the
beginning is markedly different. The first images we were shown were
pretty uh.... White. Very white even, because were in the middle of a
whole lot of snow! The first mission of the game takes place somewhere
in the Kazachstani mountains. The name ‘Cliffhanger’ is suitably
appropriate for this level, as the first thing we do is shimmy across a
narrow ledge. Beneath us is a deep ravine, the wind is howling and it’s
******* (you're allowed to swear in Dutch media)
cold. Not even ten seconds later, we’re hanging on a ice wall, by means
of two picks. Straight up the side it is. The picks are controlled with
the trigger buttons, one by one. Not even the cracks made by our
icepicks seem to be scripted. The howling winds are still ever present,
and don’t make it any easier on fully geared up soldiers, climbing up
the mountain.
A jet passes by, just over our heads. The enormous
noise generated by the plane causes a small avalanche to occur. Heaps
of snow and large ice cones only just miss us. Suddenly a fall, phew.
General MacTavish grabs our hand just in time. MacTavish... doesn’t
that ring a bell? Precisely, it’s one of the main characters of the
previous game.
During moments like these, the gameplay is slowed
down. The same thing happens when you kick down a door, or trigger an
explosion. A small slow motion segment happens, after which the
gameplay returns to it’s normal pacing.
INFILITRATION
What
struck us both, is the finished look of the game. The frame rate, the
facial expressions and the little graphical details, it all already
looks super smooth. The best part of it all is that Robert Bowling and
Vince Zampella (the guys demoing the game to us) know it all too well.
You could see them gleaming when they could finally unveil the project.
When they could finally open their mouth about it.
Finally on
top of the mountain, we and MacTavish are trudging through the snow.
Our weapon has a heart beat measuring device, allowing us to detect our
enemies. Snowfall heavily limits vision. At no more than 30 meters
ahead of us, two patrolling soldiers. MacTavish: “You take the left,
I’ll take care of the right!” We wait until a fighter jet flies
overhead to mask the noise of our shots, and take the patrolling
enemies down with a minimal amount of bullets. The blood spatters fly
through the air and color the snow red.
Modern Warfare starts
with a pure infiltration mission. We’re supposed to sneak around, which
is not what we’re used to. The accompanying stealth kills are new to us
as well.
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
We
dispatch of a patrol a couple of times again, and sneak into the enemy
camp, cutting some throats here and there and setting explosives. It is
at that moment that we are caught and MacTavish is forced to surrender.
Just before he does so, he yells over the comms to proceed with plan B.
MacTavish
is being held at gunpoint by about twenty Kazach combatants. A simple
press of the button makes the scenery behind these guys explode, which
ends the sneaking. Half the camp is one fire, smoke plumes, jet
fighters, and helicopters are involved, and armed enemies pour from
every nook and cranny. When the first real shootout starts, the floor
of the hotel room shakes. Should be audible three stories down.
So,
MacTavish was saved by the explosion, but how long will you last in
this chaos? Not long, it turns out. Accordingly, we were spraying the
guns around like blindfolded Rambo’s,taking cover behind sandbags
before getting our asses on to snowmobiles. All within 15 minutes of
playing!
DOWNHILL
Like
two drunk teenagers, we race down the mountain at full speed,
zigzagging between the trees. Shaun White, eat your heart out. All the
while we keep shooting at our enemies. Looks like James Bond in Die
Another Day. While there is little color in this level, there's enough
to experience. Racing through fresh snow, to gliding across an ice
sheet. No matter what surface we’re traveling on, it’s fast... downhill
fast. Bullets whistle past our heads, trees get hit and fall down, snow
falls from branches, and if all that isn’t enough, a large chasm looms.
A huge jump follows. We’ve made it, and are greeted by our teammates.
The mission is (partly) successful. The action, the entry!
Second Demo Level: Slums
The
next level we were shown seemed like more familiar terrain to us, or so
it appeared. It turned out fairly quickly we were not in Afghanistan,
but in fact in a Favela, a slum in Rio de Janeiro.
We’re in a
car when all of the sudden, we’re fired upon. Our driver gets a bullet
in the head, and is bleeding to death on the steering wheel. The amount
of bullet holes in the windshield is multiplied in a mere fraction of a
second. You’ve probably already seen it coming: All hell breaks loose,
again. Multiple dudes are shooting, and not only at us. Our objective
is pursuing some dude, but we have to capture him alive.
It’s
complete chaos. Residents of the city run away screaming, in sheer
terror. Exploding cars, bodies in the streets; looks like a news
broadcast about Afghanistan or Iraq on a particularly violent day.
There’s
enough civilians around that you don’t really want to maim, that
hitting the right target turns into an art. Nevertheless, we succeed in
hitting the sprinting dude, the one we were looking for, in a leg.
We’ve got him! That’s where the demo ended.
GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS
At
that moment, our ‘demonstrator’ Zampella, quits the mode, detaches the
camera and shows us the gigantic level. He zooms out, and in again. For
Modern Warfare, they’re using texture streaming, so that much bigger
levels can be created. Wouldn’t you notice more pop-up, we asked.
Bowling was honest about it: “Yes, that could happen if you don’t
utilize the technology correctly, but we don’t intend to do that”.
Regardless:
We can expect even bigger levels, which is good news. “You can devise
your own approach to success in these levels. However, we haven’t done
it, just because it’s technically possible. The story and gameplay come
first, and then we think about making it technically possible.”
Modern
Warfare 2 is going to surpass it’s predecessor in the graphical
department as well. Among other things, the lighting is a lot better
than it was in COD4. The way the sun reflects in a windshield or on the
lenses of the weapons! When zooming in you can even see finger prints
on the lens. Really, the details are unprecedented.
The
corrugated plate living huts built on the mountainside, the little
shacks, the clotheslines full of clothes, the structure of a brick and
the way in which a sun ray falls through a hole in a tent cloth. It’s
bizarre how pretty it is. All those huts, all those little hallways;
we’re inundated by details, like a few old newspapers in a little
corner, being subtly moved by the wind. It’s amazing! When we remark
that this would be an amazing multiplayer map, Bowling answers, with a
wide smile ”Yes, yes it would...”
Third Demo Level: Desert
By
now, we’ve seen two levels, packed with action. In Rio, we stopped
playing after a while, and just ‘looked at the game’. For example, the
way the level was built. The ‘Slums level’ is not done yet, although
you’d think otherwise at first glance. The gentlemen at Infinity Ward
are not ones that leave things half-finished, and didn’t want us
playing ‘unfinished business’. Which was the reason we explored the
third level in precisely the same fashion in which we concluded the
second level.
It isn’t even afternoon yet, when we’re surprised
for the third time by the duo Zampella & Bowling. Because we’re now
smack bang in the middle of a desert. A deserted landscape, with
nothing but sand all around. Zampella tells us we’re driving a Jeep
from the middle of the desert, to a ravine. There, we see a deep
ravine, with a river in it. We also come across a abandoned settlement.
The setting is old and dilapidated. Zampella says we’re going to abseil
down the cliff face. Right at that moment, you see a smoke stack,
puffing out smoke, and realize that this abandoned settlement is
anything but abandoned. When we, just after, notice a cave entrance, it
becomes clear. We’ll be playing underground!
After walking into
the cave a bit, Bowling starts to tell how proud he is of this segment.
“It looks a lot like that scene in Iron Man, where he builds his suit”
He’s right: It looks exactly like that! The cave has large rooms and
consists of a seemingly endless corridor system, right until we exit on
the other side.
“We really have to stop now, guys” An Activison
rep tells the Infinity Ward guys. You can tell by looking at the two,
that they’d like to tell more and show more. In their enthusiasm,
they’ve told too much already.
Other Information (Still from the Magazine)
It’s
clear that there’s a lot of work still cut out for the development
team, especially so considering the rock solid November 10th deadline.
It’s very clear however, that these dudes are doing one hell of a job.
Who’d have thought they’d top CoD4’s levels.
Nevertheless,
that’s exactly what it looks like they’re going to do. Of course, as an
experienced gamer, you won’t be immediately blown away, after all,
you’re used to Modern Warfare’s level, but count on it that number two
will be a unavoidable game for everyone.
Activison manager Simon
Wells even dares to predict that Modern Warfare 2 will be the best
selling game ever. That’s about the same as Dirk Scheringa saying that
AZ will be Eredivisie champion for the next five years. Additionally,
it seems unlikely to us that the game will top Wii Sports.
That
notwithstanding, it is very clear, even now, that we’re dealing with
such a awesomely awesome game that every gamer with common sense has a
big exclamation mark on the November 10th page of his calendar.
THINGS THAT STOOD OUT
In
two hours time, Bowling and Zampella showed us one complete level, some
pieces from another, and a specially for the purposes of a demo,
constructed demonstration space in which you could blast anything back
to kingdom come. Further, they mainly gave us info about the story and
the possibilities within the level they ran. They kept their lips
together, but nevertheless, by paying close attention and asking some
clever questions, we managed to gleam some things, which we’ll divide
into the segments ‘singleplay’ and ‘multiplay’.
- SINGLEPLAY
- »
The physics on bullets and grenades have become more realistic. Bullets
will now ricochet, and grenades will bounce down stairs, or roll down
inclines, like they would in real life.
- » You can now hold a pistol in one hand, and a knife in the other. In doing so the knife hand supports the gun hand. Knifing will now become even more popular.
- » We’re going under water. Why else would they show us a extremely cool, heavily armed SEAL diver?
- » We glimpsed a level with the name ‘International Cyber Space Lab’ We aren’t going into space are we? Or was this a abandoned Russian missile base.
- » Bullet time will make it’s debut in CodMW2.
Hold your horses!, it won’t be FEAR, ramming on yellow if you get into
trouble. Bullet time will only occur when the developer wants it to,
and will be used more like a dramatic effect during an explosion,
allowing you to take out those few extra enemies.
- » This time around, there will be more innocent bystanders.
- MULTIPLAY
- » There will be a number of new modes in multiplayer.
More about this will be only made public after E3, but they are modes
we aren’t seeing in other games yet. The menu structure from which you
start multiplayer sessions, will be changed as well because, and we
cite Bowling, “there will be too many extra things, that we want to
present in a decent manner”. And oh yes, the music will change too. We
know it all to well by now.
- » Perks like Martyrdom changed the
shooter genre in a pleasant way. Other shooters happily steal the perk
system from Infinity Ward, but they don’t care one bit, because in
CoDMW2, they will have a number of new perks that will undoubtedly be a
pleasant surprise for the community.
- » The riot shield will be, for a 100% sure, a perk.
Bowling let it slip, that you’ll be able to carry two shields with two
guys, and that a third player could, while taking cover behind the two
gents, open fire on the enemy. How sick is that?
- » Good news for everyone hating on dudes that decide to walk out in the middle of a game.
Bowling wouldn’t say how, but he indicated that there would be “options
to act on that”. We’ll be keeping him to his word, because if there’s
something we hate.
A RACE AGAINST TIME (Special Forces Mode?)
A
innovation in CoDMW2 that we liked a lot, was the addition of the
so-called Challenges. When you complete a level in the singleplayer,
you immediately unlock a ‘Challenge’ This Challenge looks the most like
the Horde mode from Gears of War 2, where you have to rid yourself of a
****load of enemies (you can drop the S-bomb in Dutch media)
In
CoDMW2 however, it all revolves around time. The faster you blast
everyone in a certain setting, the higher you get in the rankings.
Really a very nice addition that at the moment is only playable
splitscreen with two people, but will very likely be playable through
online co-op as well. That this **** will be hard was proven by the
fact that Bowling and Zampella couldn’t get through it, with the two of
them playing on regular. And they built the level themselves.
Magnificent!
EVERYTHING F'D UP
A
big wish of the CoD community was that there’d be more destructible
environments in Modern Warfare 2. In the first game, you could
penetrate a lot of **** with your bullets, but really strategically
destroying a position wasn’t possible. That wish of destruction has
been heard. CoDMW2 still is no Red Faction but a whole lot more can be
sent to kingdom come. And, in true Infinity Ward fashion, not in a
cookie-cutter way. For example, you can blast a fire hydrant, resulting
in a huge geyser. It looks awesome, and will obscure part of your
vision.
Another nice one is the gas pump of which the hose, when
the thing is hit, will bark out a thick jet of fire, like a turning an
tumbling dervish. We aren’t sure yet, but we can see both the fire
hydrant and the gas station coming back in multiplayer. Resulting in
unheard of strategic possibilities.
Furthermore, crates and
boxes were riddled, and they really broke into pieces and splinters,
that ended up in the air, and floated down to the ground in real time,
all accordance to the laws of gravity and wind. Pure eye candy, that
unfortunately, you won’t have a lot of time to admire, as the enemy
won’t account for sight seeing.
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All rights to the original text are Power Unlimited's.
Credits to STealthyShogun for translating.
Original source: m
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessa ... c=49638552 
