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Digital Foundry analyzes Wii Modern Warfare, deemed 'functional'

by Andrew Yoon { Nov 11th 2009 at 6:30PM }

Obviously, the Wii port of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was going to have a few setbacks visually. However, Digital Foundry's recent hands-on with the game suggests developer Treyarch was successful in recreating the overall feel of the original game. "Texture detail and geometry levels are savagely hacked down, lighting effects and shadowing are brutally pared back, frame-rate is cut from 60FPS down to the more manageable 30FPS," the preview notes. However, "it does a good enough job of capturing the look of the original," Digital Foundry concludes.

Of course, visuals aren't the most important aspect of Modern Warfare's transition to the Wii. Digital Foundry answers the hard-pressing question: how does it control? At times "beautifully," although "awkward button placement on the controller makes things difficult for anything other than running and gunning."

It may be watered down, but Reflex will finally grant Wii owners the ability to see what all the fuss was about. While the port is deemed "functional," we can't help but lament the fact that this Wii port still can't best some games from the last generation of consoles.

All CoD: World at War map packs $5 until Nov. 1

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 26th 2009 at 7:15PM }

Remember the report that said the average Call of Duty: World at War player has spent $9 on DLC? It looks like that number is about to get just a bit higher, as Major Nelson has announced that all of the World at War map packs have been reduced to 400

($5). That's half of the usual $10 price tag. Taking all three packs together, that's 12 maps for $15, putting them at a buck and a quarter each. Not bad. If you want to snag 'em on the cheap, you have until November 1.

Sure, it's probably just a cash grab before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 makes everyone forget World at War, but hey, it's hard to argue with cheap. Browse the available World at War DLC right here.

Report: Average CoD World at War player has spent $9 on DLC [update]

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 21st 2009 at 3:43PM }

If there were any doubt left in your mind that Call of Duty is a popular franchise, a recent report from Gamasutra should firmly cement the fact in your mind. According to the piece, Call of Duty: World at War's three DLC packs digitally pushed 6.5 million units between March and mid-August of 2009 across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.

As you might imagine, those kind of numbers add up to a lot of extra revenue for the mega-publisher – the piece approximates a cool $45 million. Taking that one step further, the average cost of each box of CoD: WaW sold at retail becomes $65. We're not sure if that number accounts for the chunk taken out by Microsoft and Sony respectively for distribution, but even cut in half that's still a nice chunk of change.

So today, we'd like to officially announce that we're changing the site's name to Call of Duty: Joystiq. Call it a strategic business move – it's all about brand recognition, people!

Update: To be clear, the $45 million number is an approximation by Gamasutra, put together with information from NPD, EEDAR, and Activision PR. It was apparently calculated by taking 65% of 7 million units at $10 a piece, without accounting for giveaways or bundles.

Third CoD: World at War map pack enlists one million on first weekend

by David Hinkle { Aug 21st 2009 at 8:00PM }

In a very unsurprising turn of events, Activision has announced that the third downloadable map pack for Call of Duty: World at War was downloaded over one million times during its first weekend of availability (August 6 - 9). That figure is derived from both Xbox 360 and PS3 downloads. The console war doesn't impede the progress of real war! Real war in the ... game, we guess. That could have been phrased more cleverly.

Activision also revealed that all of the game's combined DLC has been downloaded a whopping 6.5 million times, which, based on the price of each pack, comes out to around $65,000,000. It's easy when you just have to multiply by ten!

Wii's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare screens can't be helped

by Justin McElroy { Aug 19th 2009 at 12:00PM }

So, we've got the first screenshots of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Wii, collected in a gallery for your enjoyment below. And to think, we were worried that they wouldn't be able to approach the look of Modern Warfare on the 360 and PS3! Can you imagine?

All jokes aside ... have a look at the dead guy in the foreground of the above shot. Does something look a little odd to you? Perhaps a closer look is in order. And those clouds? Didn't we see them in our Betamax copy of Apocalypse Now. Sure, old flat gun here looks like he's in a real screenshot, but if you think about it, that's even more terrifying.

Gallery: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Wii)

Xbox Live Top 10: Nazi zombies run amok

by David Hinkle { Aug 18th 2009 at 11:45AM }

Guys, do you ever play anything aside from four games? Major Nelson reports that last week's Xbox Live activity was very much the same as the week before ... and the week before that. Taking top spot was none other than Call of Duty: World at War, followed by usual suspects Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War 2. Madden 10 took last place, which isn't much of a surprise considering it released on Friday. Come next week, we're sure you'll be hearing more about that one.

On the XBLA side, it was all about Trials HD, as the title earned top honors. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled managed to shell shock the competition by taking second and DICE's Battlefield 1943 continues its sad story of decline, falling to third. Well, okay -- maybe it's not a sad story, per se.

World at War event calls community to duty this Saturday, Aug 8

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 6th 2009 at 4:45PM }

Treyarch Community Manager Josh Olin has a post up on the PlayStation Blog announcing a "Game with Developers" event for CoD: World at War this weekend. The battle goes down this Saturday, August 8 from 1-5PM, in celebration of the game's third map pack. To join in the festivities, add one (or all) of the PSN IDs to your friends list that we've listed after the break. Happy hunting!

Gallery: Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3

Continued →

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Wii coming Nov. 10 [update]

by Randy Nelson { Aug 4th 2009 at 8:50PM }

Just as Modern Warfare 2 is hitting PS3 and Xbox 360 this November 10, Wii will finally be getting something a little less modern in the form of a port of the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, according to Kotaku. The site doesn't divulge the source of its information, but claims the game is being brought to Nintendo's console by Treyarch, developer of Call of Duty: World at War. An official announcement is said to be coming tomorrow; we've contacted Activision for confirmation.

Update: Activision has confirmed that the Treyarch-ported "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" will launch on Wii on November 10th.

Call of Duty: World at War 'Map Pack 3' hits Aug. 6, iPhone app out now

by Randy Nelson { Aug 3rd 2009 at 6:00PM }

The third downloadable map pack for Call of Duty: World at War -- titled, oddly enough, "Map Pack 3" -- will deploy on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network this Thursday, August 6. It'll run 800

($10) and $9.99, respectively. It's bringing three new maps on which to make your friends (virtually) dead, along with more undead.

In other CoD news, Activision has launched the free Call of Duty: World at War Companion app for iPhone [App Store link]. With it, players who've linked their gamertags / PSN IDs to the CoD: WaW site can browse detailed stats, realtime leaderboards and compare their performance against friends. We also imagine it'd make a great first date icebreaker.

[Thanks, eXHausT II!]

Source -- Map Pack, August 6th!
Source -- CoD:WaW Companion iPhone Application

Zombies run amok in Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3 trailer

by David Hinkle { Jul 30th 2009 at 2:30PM }

If thrashing guitars, zombies and Call of Duty: World at War are all things you enjoy, we have a treat for you! The above trailer for Map Pack 3, a new set of maps featuring three locales for multiplayer and one zombie-specific map, incorporates all of these things while highlighting the exploits of a group of Russian soldiers fighting off hordes of the undead. If you've enlisted for duty in all of the previous map packs (a very real possibility), then you'll probably be foaming at the mouth for this new bit of DLC while watching. Just, uh, check and see if you have glowing eyes. You may just be a zombie yourself.

Third Call of Duty: World at War map pack coming in August

by Justin McElroy { Jul 20th 2009 at 1:45PM }

Call of Duty fans' heads are likely still swimming with the thought that they might own night vision goggles by year's end, but Activision's still cranking out Call of Duty: World at War DLC for fans living in the here and now. August will mark the release of the third map pack for the game, the company announced today.

As with the second map pack, the three new maps ("Battery," "Revolution," and "Breach") have been developed in conjunction with Certain Affinity, the team of former Bungie guys behind Age of Booty. There's also a new zombie map, "Der Riese," provided for your brain-blasting pleasure.

Call of Duty: World at War PC patch 1.5 arrives tomorrow

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 16th 2009 at 9:45PM }

Downloadable content sure seems to move along a lot faster without all that pesky "certification" getting in the way, huh? It seems like only yesterday that we heard about patch 1.5 for the PC version of Call of Duty: World at War -- an update that would bring along the Map Pack 2 DLC that console-based Duty-answerers had to pay for a few months ago. We just heard word from Treyarch, who explained the update will go live tomorrow. But at what time tomorrow? We may never know. (Okay, fine -- we'll probably know tomorrow.)

A full list of changes coming in the patch is after the jump.

Continued →

Next World at War PC patch adds Map Pack 2

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 12th 2009 at 8:00PM }

If your devout WASDing-and-mousing ways have turned you into a frequent player of Call of Duty: World at War on the PC, you'll be pleased to know that Treyarch hasn't forgotten about you. The oft-downloaded Map Pack 2 that hit Xbox 360 and PS3 last month will be making its way to PCs in World at War's next update, Patch 1.5.

According to Treyarch community manager J.D. (a.k.a. JD_2020 on the Treyarch forums), the patch is "in test right now, and is looking great." For those of you who remained spitefully out of the loop on the map bundle, it includes three standard levels -- Bonsai, Corrosion and Sub Pens -- and a swampy, undead-plagued stage called "Shi No Numa," which we believe is Japanese for "Oh crap, Zombies."

[Via Evil Avatar]

Xbox Live Top 10: Halo, can anyone hear me?

by David Hinkle { Jul 7th 2009 at 11:45AM }

Xbox Live sure can, Master Chief, as your game Halo 3 was once again the most played title on Xbox Live. For the week ending June 29, many gamers took to the floating rings in space for some first-person combat, knocking down the duo of Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 4 to second and third place, respectively. The rest of the list posted by Major Nelson is pretty run-of-the-mill, save for what came in last place: Rock Band 2. We can't remember the last time Rock Band 2 populated this list. So, good for you, little game-that-could!

On the XBLA side, it's all about the Worms 2. Explosive sheep were quite the draw, as the sequel to Team17's fragfest managed to beat out another popular XBLA title, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker. We guess Magic: The Gathering is all tapped out. Get it? Hello? Where are you going?

Xbox Live Top 10: World remains at war

by David Hinkle { Jun 23rd 2009 at 5:15PM }

Dearest Lorraine,

Microsoft's Major Nelson has brought us another annual status report on enemy movements throughout Xbox Live, and it's not pretty. Conflict has surrounded us, as the enemy, Call of Duty: World at War, has spread like wildfire, becoming the most-played game last week. We tried to flank it with our platoons of Halo 3 and Gears of War 2, but, alas, the enemy had reinforcements in Call of Duty 4. Hope has diminished, and one only needs walk by the injured tent to feel the full force of the enemy's cruelty.

Lorraine, I know not if I will return home. I have managed to live longer than most, but, I feel there's that one bullet out there with my name on it, relentlessly pursuing its new home. Please, take care of my Gamertag when I am gone (I think my Gold subscription ends next month, so look into that), and be sure to earn as many Achievements for me as you can. I suggest you start with Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Yours Truly,
Gus