The final of the three games to be unveiled at last night's unveiling of Microsoft's newest console, the Xbox One, and arguably the biggest title shown was Call of Duty: Ghosts, the latest in the incredibly popular series of shooters. Taking to the stage, Activision boss Eric Hirschberg went to great lengths to explain the ideas, decisions, and concepts that have gone into trying to make the latest Call of Duty game stand out from those that have gone before.
Set in a near future America, the takes place several years after what was referred to as a "mass event", which has left the country - its military, its government, and its people, crippled. Putting you in the role of the underdog, it's up to you and your fellow Ghosts - a group made out of the remnants of the special forces, the elite of the elite - to lead the fight back against your unnamed, superior foes.
A lot of emphasis was made about how the developers want this game to feel more emotionally engaging than before, with a story people can be involved in, and believably characters you can feel something for. One of the ways they've set out to achieve this is by adding a new member to your squad, in the form of a dog - a German Shepherd. An essential part of your team, the relationship between your character and man's best friend will be a key part of the story - although we're getting an awful feeling we're not going to like how your relationship ends. An emotive storyline, that makes people really feel something, and a team involving a dog? He's going to die. Isn't he...
On a slightly happier note, the team have released a behind the scenes video of them all hard at work, which, while it has lots of technical talk in, does feature footage of a German Shepherd in a motion capture suit - which is enough to make it worth watching on its own.
Other details that have been revealed revolve around the game's multiplayer mode. A huge part of Call of Duty games, as most of their appeal has traditionally been in the online side of things, Call of Duty: Ghosts will bring with a number of additions for multiplayer, including customisable characters, that lets you choose their clothes, head, and other assorted accessories, and dynamic maps, which see levels changing as you're playing, whether it's due to a flood, an earthquake, or something a player triggers themselves, like an avalanche of logs. As before, all Call of Duty downloadable extras will be available as timed exclusives on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, letting Xbox owners play the new maps and levels months in advance of those on other systems.
Although it was revealed at the Xbox One event, Call of Duty: Ghosts is set to launch across PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC on the 5th of November. While the fact the reveal took place at the Xbox One event may make a PS4 announcement less likely, we wouldn't write it off too soon. In the mean time, why not check out the first trailer below:
