**Pre-order Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and receive the Advanced Arsenal Bonus, including unique Bullet Brass Exoskeleton and EM1 Quantum. Pre-Order links are further down the article.**
One of the genuine giants on the field, there was no way a new hardware generation was going to kick off without the Call of Duty franchise having something to say. At this point, the First Person Shooter is an elder statesman of gaming genre’s, and it would be fair to say that it had reached a ceiling in terms of innovation by the end of last generation. Had you asked me back then, I’d probably have said I couldn’t imagine what was left for the FPS. However, in this industry it’s never a wise idea to bet against the winners, as folks who sneered at Nintendo time and again can tell you. Sure enough, it seems the potential of the new boost in hardware and the tools that come with it has bridged the gap. Though the trailer that announced the next stage in Call of Duty evolution, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare didn’t make major promises about game play, there was obviously room to breathe from a design standpoint, and everything seemed more dynamic.Advanced Warfare indeed.
Release Date: Nov 4, 2014
Consoles: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4,PS3, PC
Rating: M
A game of firsts, which is saying something given the longevity of this particular franchise, Call of Duty: Advanced warfare is the series first since (date) to be built from the ground up with a new game engine. Also new are Sledgehammer Games, the developers for Advanced Warfare. I find this particular tidbit very interesting, to bring a new team into the fold to work on what is probably the most important title since Modern Warfare.
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare takes place in the not so distant future, where independent military contractors, rather than countries, are the dominant power on the planet. It would be convenient to write it off as tripe, but given the state of things in the world, it might be eerily prophetic. It gives you an excuse for some moral dilemma and a power/money mad corporate dictator, and probably raise some very valid concerns about the blood for profit enterprise that is very successful for mercenary companies even today. Regardless, I got the sense from the trailer footage that, having almost singularly smothered the ‘First Person Shooter’ Campaign, Call of Duty seems to be investing some energy into that long abandoned ‘game type’. Personally, games like Half Life 2 and Bioshock were very important in my gaming history, I fully endorse a return to the tradition, even in Multi-shooter fair like Call of Duty.
Though it might be a little early to speculate on all the additions to game play this time around, the entire animation, physics and audio systems have been overhauled. It got the ground up treatment, and judging by tidbits like the holographic readouts, it was a welcomed effort. And that’s without speculating on all the new weapony goodness they’ll no doubt have in store.
Drop ships, exoskeletons, including mech sized suits stomping around the battle ground. I think it’s fare to say there’s a host of fun new ways to dispatch friends family and strangers in Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. Pre-order now and receive the Advanced Arsenal Bonus, including unique Bullet Brass Exoskeleton and EM1 Quantum, what they’re calling a Directed Energy weapon…a series first weapon type and some of that new ‘weapony goodness’ I mentioned. Energy based, they recharge over time, and add a new dynamic to the playing field, just another way the COD franchise is trying to establish Advanced Warfare as the next big thing.
Remember to pre-order now and claim your Advanced Arsenal bonus!
Pre-order for the PlayStation 4
Pre-order for the PlayStation 3
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare releases Nov 4, 2014
