As the cover story for Game Informer's June issue, we've learned a decent amount about Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, especially when you consider the trailer just released a few days ago. There's still a swirl of information and conjecture going around, so we've gathered it all together in one place for easy digestion.
Activision Presser Pumps Up Plot for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
First up, we got a nice peek at at least one vehicle that will be featured in Advanced Warfare, a sleek looking futuristic tiltrotor with some pretty nifty light-bending camouflage, disappearing and re-appearing seemingly out of thin air. It's an extrapolation from a program currently in development for the army, but its appearance in the trailer certainly set a standard for the game's remaining vehicles. The only thing is that it seems like Sledgehammer doesn't know quite yet how other vehicles will follow suit.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Bursting at Seams With Hi-Tech Equipment and Kevin Spacey
An image of a job listing for a for a weapons and vehicle artist surfaced recently, looking for a weapons and vehicle artist "to generate hyper realistic assets for in-game use."
The listing's absence among the various other openings on the both the developer's LinkedIn page or official site suggests its been filled, but the slew of other jobs looking for talent to work on the next CoD seem to indicate Sledgehammer is slowly but surely working its way through development.
What's interesting is the listings description for weapons designs, as the trailer seems to show an overflow of all manner of death dealing devices as is. Gun enthusiasts and CoD fans came together to form an interesting cross-section at Reddit (where else?), where a list was drawn up showing all the would be guns set to be included in the game, based on their appearances in the announcement trailer and screenshots. It's a theoretical list, with guesses as to what the guns of 2054 may be based on, but even considering it may not be "legitimate," it's impressive nonetheless. The list tabulates at least 11 separate weapons, spread across different types of sub and light machine guns, pistols, and assault rifles.
There's also been talk that the CoD playerbase has dropped significantly on the Xbox, and migrated over the the PlayStation, making Sony's console the lead platform. We've heard this trend before, but given the fate of that source, combined with no confirmation from Microsoft, Sony, or Activison, we can only speculate as to whether or not this source is legitimate. Still, it deserves to be given some attention.
Again, the source if this "info" comes from yet another "insider," Ahsan Rasheed, better known as "thuway" over at NeoGAF. Rasheed recently tweeted "I want to say one thing to all the Xbox One fans that keep telling me COD is X1 lead platform. It's not. It's a marketing deal...Here's the part you should pay attention to. Developers inside Infinity Ward prefer the PS4. Majority will use it to play at home."
In this case, preference is likely just playing the numbers game. At last count, the official sales numbers had Sony's console way ahead of Microsoft's. Whether or not the Xbox's recent launch in Japan, and the console's supposed arrival in China changes the ration remains to be seen.
While Rasheed cites Infinity Ward, it's important to note that Sledgehammer is developer behind Advanced Wars. When a user pointed as much out to Rasheed, he responded, "So cute. If you think the PS4 version won't be the definitive console version technically, I have some bad news."
It seems like a possibility, but until a confirmation arrives, it's all just words and suspicion. But supposing it's true, and the PlayStation audience is indeed the larger of the two, it's of little importance, as the DLC deal has already been signed.
If you happened to miss Advanced Warfare's announcement trailer, be sure to check it out below. The game is set to release on the Xbox One and Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 and 4 on November 4.
