When Call of Duty: Ghosts was initially announced, we thought we'd be getting an entirely new engine. It's one of the reasons we actually felt a little excited.
However, it should probably be noted that the engine isn't…well, it isn't technically brand new. Activision may have said Infinity Ward was building a new engine, and that Ghosts would be powered by a "next-gen CoD engine," but now we have an interesting/disappointing clarification from IW animation lead Zach Volker.
In speaking to the Official PlayStation Magazine (as cited by CVG ), Volker said it's not an all-new engine, but an upgraded version of the same engine. Yeah, that's kind of unfortunate.
" When we're talking about a new engine we're talking about upgrading significant systems within in that engine. We're not talking about throwing it all away and saying we're starting from the ground up ."
Oh, God forbid. He added that it's "impossible to develop a new engine from the ground up in a two-year cycle." That much is probably true and only lends further credence to visionaries like David Cage, who really hate constant installments in franchises. Obviously, there's no chance Activision wants to take a year off; they'd be passing up a guaranteed $1 billion, and for no real reason. Why? Just to make the game better? What for? People are gonna buy it, anyway.
Yay.
Related Game(s): Call of Duty: Ghosts
I can't say that I'm all that shocked. CoD tends to be the pretty samey every year but they couldn't have taken any of that pile of money to write a new engine? CoD 4 came out in 2007; they've had the time to gin up a new engine.
Yah, I thought that XBox One reveal trailer looked lacking.. the lighting looked current-gen.
Anyway. Jeesh Activision just can't even take ONE extra year off to rebuild an engine from scratch for the next-gen?
I so hope this next-gen doesn't have the same race leaders as this gen. It's time for CoD and friends to step down and have something else step in.
@Temjin, we had the same thought…
What? Do you mean because there was 2 suns in some of the scenes?
Come on man, all the cool games have 2 suns these days!
This is shameful. New engine means brand new. Frankenstein-like modifications to the same engine over and over again is NOT brand new. Especially, when we're talking about NEXT-GEN consoles, jeez…
As someone who honestly doesn't give a crap about Call of Duty, I was actually a little excited when they announced they would "try something different". That happened with 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare' and look what happened. Some people regard that as their favorite games ever.
Here it was just… Call of Duty. Really disappointing after the hype they were pushing. All they accomplished was creating a hilarious internet meme "We built a AI engine so fish move out of the way." Pfffft!!!!
That's one thing that pisses me off. Can't you spend some money and pay another studio (Sledgehammer) and tell them to build you a Battlefield like engine? Seriously I mean I know it would take them a few years but come on. F-ing greedy people.
Most engines tend to be built-up but CoD needs a new one for sure. This kind of thing is what happens when a game comes out yearly, I'm just waiting for it to actually affect the reviews.
Cracked.com has an article on how the XBone will ruin gaming. In it they showed a comparison pic of Black Ops II and Ghosts. Differences were minor at best. Being a comedy website of course they made a snarky comment about it. Now I know why.
Wait, another Call of Duty is coming out soon!?
You were in a different dimension for awhile so your ignorance is forgiven.
His ignorance is bliss… lol
GASP! Really? How shocking! Cod, no need to wash, just rinse, repeat. If only I cared about Cod in the slightest this might upset me.
Wow. This is disappointing news. 🙁
Brings something to mind?? why don't EA bring the Frostbite 2/2.5/3, or whatever, to Madden and C Football, maybe they have, hadn't seen anything on it though….
EA said that the frostbite 3 will be coming to "many games" this year i think somewhere in the 16 ballpark and that is why they dropped wii u support, madden was on that list, however when the xbone was announced EA didn't say anything about the frostbite engine being used… so idk its weird.
I should have known, this does not surprise me actually. Such disappointing news.
So basically Activision lied to us.
Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can't get fooled again.
Last edited by pillz81 on 5/31/2013 3:43:51 PM
The game will still be awesome , though.
That's how they wanna play it.
HA!!
This WILL be their downfall.
Hell no you're using the same engine going into the next gen.
Nuh-uh, no matter how much update you put it through, an outdated engine is still outdated.
Why do you think Epic is making Unreal Engine 4 instead of supporting the Unreal Engine 3 through the next gen?
The difference between CoD and the rest of the FPS for next gen will be too obvious that it's a no-brainer that CoD will suffer regardless of the fans and marketing.
I can see why the executives are taking this view. There are plenty of people who will buy it for multiplayer because they're used to it; and plenty more who will buy it because their friends (in the former category) have bought it and it will roll along from there. Just like every year.
If it was a single player focused game then maybe I can see it hurting them.
What I don't understand is why multiplayer gamers bother upgrading each year. To them it MUST feel like the same game with subtle changes in the unlock perks which cannot be worth $60.
I have bought one or two of these in the past because I wanted to play the single player and yeah, it was fun. But a handful of hours gaming for $60 is too little.
Last edited by Gabriel013 on 5/29/2013 1:45:27 AM
Just so you guys are all aware….
This engine is built off of the Quake 3 engine.
The QUAKE 3 ENGINE!!!!!!
Thats a big surprise… To be honest wasn't impressed with the visuals at all. Wasn't long ago when it was all about quality with IW now their just looking for loose change.
The sad thing is I read a NY Times article on that Xbox One reveal and they called the CoD characters nearly indiscerbnible from real people. I was like whaa? This dude hasn't seen QD's tech demo. Gaming journalism isn't so smart on the mainstream end either.
Well that "journalist" will probably get front row seats at the next Xbone or Activision conference.
It s bf4 this year for me ( was like 90 % sure of it ) and that news just made it a certainty .
sigh.
what happened to the good old days where false advertisement was illegal?
and they wonder why there hated so much, both IW and antivision.
well, maybe its time to look in the mirror!
If they can implement new tech in their engine, what's the big deal?
It's not like they should be forced to redo what's already working from scratch to appeal those who don't even understand what an engine actually is.
If you create the lighting part of an engine that looks good and does what it needs to do for the games you're developing, why throw it away and create a new one for the next game? You'll end up redoing what you had in the first place… Why not improve it with what tech is now available to you to make it better?
Conscious developers take what they already have achieved, and build on it. That's normal. And don't fool yourself, David Cage and his team do the same with their engine. They take what worked from the older game and build and expend on it. They don't forget what they created already just to appease some ignorant fanboys who barely understand the concept of graphics engine.
Most developers do that. And that's only normal. Naughty Dog and Santa Monica are two good examples. But because it's not CoD, they don't get the stupid treatment Infinity Ward is getting. You can hate them for creating the same game over and over again, because you don't like that kind of game. But complaining because their engine isn't entirely new is utterly ridiculous.
Last edited by Hynad on 5/29/2013 7:05:11 AM
Agreed. I don't know why people expected them to start from scratch.
It's true that I don't understand 1/10th of what an engine really is but I know this:
1) We're going next-gen. You're supposed, even expected to wow the consumers and raise the bar of quality, even if it's only a little bit.
2) They flat out lied about being a new engine. You don't lie to the people who will buy your game. It could be a marketing strategy to grab everyone's attention but it could backfire for not being honest.
Ok, and?
Features from new gen consoles are mostly from DX 11 and OpenGL 4.3… These features can be added to an existing engine no problem. Add to that the increased poly count, better streaming of data, enough power to push real global illumination methods, etc… And yeah, the engine is pretty much new. You don't have to recreate everything from the ground up to make the engine new.
The things that worked don't need to be coded again… They already ARE coded. Why recode them, if it's to achieve the same result? That'd be retarded. -__-
Last edited by Hynad on 5/29/2013 9:57:10 AM
The point you're missing is how outdated CoD looks. Games from ND and Santa Monica actually looks current and up to date. If CoD developers can update their engine and look up to date, then that's fine.
A company at the scale of success that brings CoD is just a bad role model on how developers should push for innovation and technology into their games.
All ridiculous. Developers build engines when a franchise needs it. If all anybody ever had to do was upgrade an existing one, nobody would ever make a new engine because they'd just be "redoing" the first steps.
Call of Duty needed a new engine. The only reason it's not getting one is because Activision refuses to give anyone the time to do it, because they want their billion dollars from CoD every year. Given the time and resources (the latter of which is NO issue for this franchise), any game maker on earth would've set out to make a new engine for CoD by now. ESPECIALLY for a new generation of hardware.
We've got all sorts of developers debuting new engines for the next generation. What, they just did that because they're inefficient? Give me a break.
They needed a new engine? Why? Please, do tell.
Because their games don't look as good as you'd like? Their target is 60 fps no matter what. Ever asked yourself what needs to be done, graphics-wise, to make sure this happens?
As for the other devs… Cry Engine 3 isn't exclusive to the new gen. There are many PS3 games using it, and there are many PS4 games that will use it… Why isn't Crytek creating a new engine for the PS4? And why aren't the other devs using the engine not creating one by themselves… Why? ¬_¬
And who told you that other developers create a new engine for every gen? That's just not true.
Last edited by Hynad on 5/29/2013 2:59:23 PM
Where the hell did I say that all developers create a new engine for every new generation? I'm not the one trying to make it sound like building a new engine is a waste of time for everyone.
There's no defending this. Call of Duty desperately needs a new engine; it has needed one – as just about every last critic will tell you – for the past two or three years. Its graphical performance is lagging; they can only do so much with what they've got.
Are you really going to sit there and tell me that, given the opportunity, a developer wouldn't create a new engine for the one series that everyone says so badly needs it? Really? You're going to defend the third or fourth iteration of a 2005 piece of technology?
The truism stands: The only reason it doesn't have a new engine is because a new Call of Duty has to come out every year. It's the perfect example of a constant release schedule hindering progress. There is no better example in the industry today. This is about the mainstream not caring about mediocrity, Activision being well aware of it, and a guaranteed revenue stream dictating and in fact overriding creativity. And that's it.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 5/29/2013 4:09:16 PM
"Because their games don't look as good as you'd like? Their target is 60 fps no matter what. Ever asked yourself what needs to be done, graphics-wise, to make sure this happens?"
If it's so hard for them to achieve 60 fps for next generation, while at least looking up to date to current technology, what does that say about how outdated their engines are? Don't be surprised if you see Battlefield 4 running 60fps while looking 100x better than CoD Ghosts.
If they truly invested time into their engine for the current gen, they could achieve what PD was able to achieve with Gran Turismo. 1280X1080p resolution/60fps LOCKED (without taking into account weather). Granted that took years of effort but Ben's point stands that they aren't willing to reinvent because of their yearly schedule. CoD ran 60fps while subHD. C'mon. If it's going to be SubHD, at least look good.
Activision and CoD needs a slap in the face of reality and you know it. If they weren't as successful as they are now, they'd be pushing for better tech to try and appeal to gamers, just like what Battlefield is doing.
Similarily, a company like Microsoft, where they actually increased the price of Xbox Live. That's called riding the success from the consumers and showing ZERO appreciation to whom made them successful.
Thank goodness my favorite franchise of all time continues to push in technology. I love you PD.
Here's what Ben actually said,"Developers build engines when a franchise needs it."
Not "developers create a new engine for every gen" like you erroneously inferred.
the only thing we can do is hit Activitision in the pockets, which seems unlikely. This is fine news to me though, because it means CoD will cause no conflict in my desire to purchase Battlefield 4
Activision is just greedy.. not that i care too much as i don't really like the COD franchise.But it's a lazy way for them to get but with a new game..using the same engine for going on, what it is now?,7 years? lazy
Not surprised, figured it was a rehashed update. It looks on par with current-gen games like, BF3 (how CoD should've looked this entire generation).
Bobby Kotick would've been assassinated-investor beatdown-if he ever thought of taking off a year but they could've had a small team develop the "new" engine while they continued their annual release. Some game companies have hundreds of employees. It would not hurt to hirea few more to develop a new engine…
Well I'm not getting COD Ghosts.I'm all COD out just got tired of them,so to me even if they got a new engine for I still wouldnt get it.