It's that time *again* for CoD4

[WaveSurfer]

Well, this seems to bring back memories (good or bad is another thing) from CoD3. Anyways...

(Source: http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-36...rn-Warfare/p1/)

Ordinarily, multiplayer map packs aren’t the most exciting things. But this is Call of Duty 4 we’re talking about, the biggest multiplayer phenomenon since Halo. Players who’ve been playing for months may have advanced past the prestige level, but have played every single map in every single mode many times over, most likely. It’s time for some new stuff.

Developer Infinity Ward invited TeamXbox and their office mates at IGN and Gamespy down to their offices in the San Fernando Valley to get some serious hands on time with the game to road test the new maps. We played the four new maps – Creek, Chinatown, Broadcast and Killhouse – for about four hours, our butts handed to us repeatedly by the IW crew. But we did some handing ourselves, you can be sure. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect from each when they go live sometime in April.

Creek



An outdoor map set in a small glen with the aforementioned creek running through it, Creek does not represent anything you’ve seen in the single player game. One of the Activision guys thought it looked a bit like Tom Sawyer island at Disneyland. With a fairly tall hill at the middle, a cave running underneath, and a canyon-like area where the brook runs through, Creek has some of the most vertical variability we’ve seen in a CoD4 multiplayer map.



This made for some pretty exciting game flow, with players going over, around or through the hill to get to the other side. Multiple paths is a definite theme of these new maps, with tons of nooks and crannies to take cover behind along the way. The cave area, plus the interiors of a few buildings scattered at the opposite ends of the map made for a nice indoor/outdoor balance, another common theme seen in these maps.

Chinatown



Chinatown is actually a remake of a map that appeared in Call of Duty 2, Carentan. The basic outline of the map is the same, but instead of a French village, Chinatown has the look of an inner-city neighborhood. Again, mixing the outdoor areas of the street and alleys with the two-story indoor areas of the building makes for a very nice mix of close quarters and long-range style fighting. You’ll want a shotgun and an assault rifle on this one.



Remembering to look up at the second story windows for snipers is key, and enemies really stand out against the inner lighting. But a team could hold one of those rooms if they were really determined, and the other team wasn’t so good at throwing grenades through the windows. The second stories also make for trouble if you’re trying to sneak along the walls underneath. More than once I felt the sting of death from above, once even when Gamespy’s Bryn Williams dropped silently on top of me and knifed me in the head. I owe him one for that.

Broadcast



This is the one map actually based off of a single player area in CoD4. You should remember the television studio from the “Charlie Don’t Surf” mission in the game. Broadcast seems like the largest of the new maps, but that could be an optical illusion. It does offer a ton of alternate routes and hairy choke points that make it fantastic for Domination and Sabotage game types. That big central room full of computer desks saw some pretty large scale firefights in the games we played with IW, with teams grabbing the upper floor perch to fire down on the room, and plenty of claymore mines hidden around the cubicles.

It’s a great map, and you have to wonder why it didn’t make it in to the original lineup of multiplayer maps based off of single player levels.

Killhouse
Killhouse is a free-for-all only map, and for good reason. It’s small and fairly open, so bullets fly and people die with a lot of regularity. This large open warehouse with small plywood barriers doesn’t make any sort of tactical play possible, hence the free-for-all style gameplay. There are some dark places one might camp for a few kills, but visibility is at a premium in this one. If traditional style deathmatch is your cup of tea, you’ll probably have a fantastic time with Killhouse.

Chinatown sounds interesting as I could still recall the fun we had in Carentan, CoD2. One of the best liked maps then. We even held regular Shotgun-only sessions in that map.

I have expected a map on the Broadcast station to appear, since it was one of the landmarks in CoD4. Sounds like a great map too.

Killhouse, on the other hand, sounds boring. Gonna skip that map as it would probably remind me of another existing less-than-popular map.

Update: Added new screenshots.

[bedlamite]

Originally Posted by WaveSurfer

Well, this seems to bring back memories (good or bad is another thing) from CoD3.

ouch...

[xplor3r]

Interesting...

[bedlamite]

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marke...y4/mappack.htm


Map pack drops Apr. 3rd, 800 points

[whoami]

Originally Posted by bedlamite

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marke...y4/mappack.htm


Map pack drops Apr. 3rd, 800 points

Wah, still need to wait so long.
They should release it like NOW, cos Vegas 2 SUX...

hahahahahaha.

[bedlamite]

ouch

nobody likes v2 eh?

[Seth]

:|

Just when i'm hot and ready to go buy the game after work and now YK says V2 suckz???~~~

Why dei??? WHY???

Seriously, is it fun?

[bedlamite]

Originally Posted by Seth

:|

Just when i'm hot and ready to go buy the game after work and now YK says V2 suckz???~~~

Why dei??? WHY???

Seriously, is it fun?

movement speed in CoD4 is a lot faster, impatient types might not be able to get used to R6's slower running speed

Ranking up in R6 isn't locked to ranked matches though, which means we don't have to play 2 solid hours of team deathmatch if we don't want to, which is a VERY GOOD THING

[whoami]

Originally Posted by Seth

:|

Just when i'm hot and ready to go buy the game after work and now YK says V2 suckz???~~~

Why dei??? WHY???

Seriously, is it fun?

COS i keep getting run over and killed by the Aimbot Jit over and over again?
WAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[Seth]

Originally Posted by bedlamite

movement speed in CoD4 is a lot faster, impatient types might not be able to get used to R6's slower running speed

Ranking up in R6 isn't locked to ranked matches though, which means we don't have to play 2 solid hours of team deathmatch if we don't want to, which is a VERY GOOD THING

Ahhh, slow movement... mmkay, don't sound like a bad enough excuse not to buy the game.

And ranking up don't need ranked servers? Not that i'm a rank whore... Muahahahah but still is a good thing!

[Seth]

Originally Posted by whoami

COS i keep getting run over and killed by the Aimbot Jit over and over again?
WAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Then let me be the sacrificial lamb to be everyone's free frag then! (I'll get a friend to join me for the massacre)

:|

[bedlamite]

Originally Posted by Seth

Ahhh, slow movement... mmkay, don't sound like a bad enough excuse not to buy the game.

it's not, however FWIW i saw one or two guys in my FL who went back to CoD after playing Vegas 2 for an hour or so

And ranking up don't need ranked servers? Not that i'm a rank whore... Muahahahah but still is a good thing!

as long as it's not to the detriment of the gaming experience i'm not too bothered about this ranking stuff. Being forced to play match after match after match after match of Team DM just for the sake of everybody getting some silly XP points completely killed CoD4 for me

[Seth]

Fwah, what in the monkey arse is FWIW??? Hahahha!!!

Well my friend's gonna get it too so i can always just play co-op if cannot tahan the MP (doubt it though), always fun to play MP with people you know!

[sinleong]

Hmmmmm....

[bedlamite]

Originally Posted by Seth

Fwah, what in the monkey arse is FWIW??? Hahahha!!!

for what it's worth

Well my friend's gonna get it too so i can always just play co-op if cannot tahan the MP (doubt it though), always fun to play MP with people you know!

Last night's trash-talking was worth the price of the game lol

btw all you farkers calling me army of one are banned from the forums

..l.. ..l..

[WaveSurfer]

Originally Posted by bedlamite

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marke...y4/mappack.htm

Map pack drops Apr. 3rd, 800 points

Thanks for the information.

Looks like unlike CoD3, there are no free maps available. So each map will cost 200 points.

Probably I will set up a thread to see who will be purchasing the map pack at end of March to see how's the market like. Will history repeat itself?

[Seth]

Originally Posted by WaveSurfer

Thanks for the information.

Looks like unlike CoD3, there are no free maps available. So each map will cost 200 points.

Probably I will set up a thread to see who will be purchasing the map pack at end of March to see how's the market like. Will history repeat itself?

I believe CoD4 will still be going strong.

[bedlamite]

don't see why we can't switch between games