Activision has a strong holiday lineup, but one of their biggest titles this holiday is Call of Duty 2. The game was recently released on the PC and will soon be heading to the Xbox 360. To get a better grasp on the highly anticipated next generation shooter, we spoke with Designer Steve Fukuda about the call of duty.

Call of Duty was a huge success. What's being improved upon to make the sequel an even better installment?

Call of Duty 2's goal has always been to immerse players in the most intense battles of World War II, and make them feel as though they are truly under fire. This time around, not only are the missions much larger than in the original game, some of the missions also present the player with more pathways to complete their objectives, while still keeping that sense of cinematic intensity throughout.

Early on, our military advisors pointed out a missing aspect of most squad-based military games: soldiers were unrealistically silent. We felt the incorporation of a well thought-out Battle Chatter system driven by comprehensive AI to be the solution, with each soldier vocally reacting to situations from their own perspective. The result, we believe, is a much more authentic and immersive battlefield experience - much more true to life and compelling.

Another major improvement is our brand-new graphics engine - we've been able to take advantage of a variety of new features: normal and specular maps for enhanced surface relief and details in the world, heat shimmer effects, feathered volumetric smoke, screen blur, and soft shadows.

What kind of research goes into a Call of Duty game?

Designers spent the early stages poring over books and maps, gathering as much detailed information as possible about the various campaigns to be portrayed. For practical details not normally found in books, we conducted exhaustive interviews with our military advisors, who provided valuable feedback and suggestions that helped make the game that much more immersive. The Battle Chatter system and the thick obscuring nature of dust and smoke in Call of Duty 2 are examples of that feedback.

To capture the feel of the weapons in the game, we fired hundreds of rounds of live ammunition from authentic WW2 weapons, videotaping recoil effects and spread patterns. The sound department recorded all of the weapons from scratch, including the reloading and rechambering sounds of the various weapons.

For the environments, we sent groups of artists to Normandy and North Africa to photograph and video as much of the real places as possible. We took 10,000 photos on those trips, and they proved invaluable in achieving a real sense of place in our levels. For weapons and uniforms, we found and photographed the real thing. We have thousands of photographs of one of our military advisors and a few of our artists modeling dozens of different WWII uniforms in various configurations, and videos, photographs of every weapon in the game.

Continue...