There’s a lot of dispute out the over which maps should be brought forward from Call Of Duty 4, what led to the choice of Crash and Overgrown in particular?
Those two are definitely two of our most popular classic maps. I mean, they were two of the original ones which you’d have played in the beta, if you were in the beta for Call Of Duty 4, and they continued to be the most popular through the life-cycle of [Modern Warfare]. These maps have basically proven to be the fan favourites and have the biggest mileage, so they’re really going to add a lot to the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2. Plus, it was really cool to see how players adapted to them with all the new cool stuff you have in Modern Warfare 2 – all the new perks, new weapons and new killstreaks and stuff you have to take into account. So it was really fun to have these maps that we really love but to have to take into account all this new stuff.
Like you say, there’s a bunch of new factors to consider, so has there been any tinkering done – bits of furniture moved around – or are they just carbon copies?
The biggest difference you’re going to notice is, just cosmetically/visually. We changed the lighting out for atmosphere and thanks to the fact that we have a bit more memory to work with because of texture streaming, we can detail them out a bit more. So the interiors might be a bit more filled out or have more stuff in them and things like that. But, overall, the layout or the environment and the geo[metry] of the levels hasn’t changed.
Don't you think people will feel a little short-changed by that?
We brought them back because we loved how they flowed. We loved the cover point, there’s the perfect sniper spots and all that stuff, so we don’t want to mess with them.
Out of the three new maps, the most interesting for us is Bailout. This map looks absolutely massive, but it’s been pretty hard to get a sense of scale from videos. There appears to be a unique concept behind each of the three brand new maps, so what was the thinking behind this monster?
Well, you’re definitely right, it has a huge scale to it. What I love about this map is that it’s one of those that really allows you to play any play-style. And it works great no matter what game type you’re on or what tactics you use. There are really parts of the map for everyone because it has a big wide open outdoor area, so you be sniping from like, a third story apartment building over a parking lot or the community pool area or, you know, stuff like that. Or, there’s also huge long flanking interior sections, so whether you’re cutting through the gym on the property or the individual suites or apartments that have been blown out, or lobbies and hallways, you can spend the whole match inside the interior. Or you can go out and capture some objectives, deal with the streakers and stuff like that. So I think that map’s greatest quality is just how versatile it is.
What about Salvage?
Well that’s really just about boiling it down to the basics. It’s a snow map in a junkyard. There’s a ton of debris and crushed cars everywhere , but it has very narrow pathways. It’s not about where you can hide and play defence, it’s about being in the fight, so run and gun guys are really going to love this, but campers will soon realise that this isn’t a map for them, it’s all about very classic gameplay and really boiling it down to what makes the game fun.
So there’s no place to hide, right? Campers aren’t going to have a great day on Salvage.
Yeah, it’s all about working your way around it and exploiting those narrow pathways. It’s not a super-small map, though, like say, Rust. I don’t want to confuse people into thinking that it’s another Rust because Rust’s motto is that there are places to hide, but you’re always shooting somebody. This map is much less about the nooks and crannies.
The last time we spoke a few months back, we politely hassled you about including a bare-bones playlist. Has there been any movement in this respect?
It’s something that I’ve been personally advocating and I know it’s something that our community wants to see. Right now it’s not on the cards to do, but it’s definitely something I’d like to see added in the future. We’re always looking at new ways we can mix up the playlist.
And what about Storm?
Storm is a great objective map. It’s a huge industrial park, there’s a giant warehouse in the centre. There’s an outdoor area where it’s raining and that effects visibility, and you have cracks of lightning which really mess with your situational awareness if you’re using the audio a lot to your advantage. So that map has great interiors and some superior objective-based fighting.
Spawn logic is an issue we experience and indeed hear about time and time again. With this first map pack there’s an opportunity to change the way this works, so has there been any re-thinking in this respect?
The spawn points in every map are unique. We definitely take that feedback into account when we’re designing new maps or tweaking existing ones. All of these maps have all-new spawn points. We’ve definitely taken your point into consideration and tried to ensure that you’re not spawning into danger or spawing in front of an enemy … things like that.
Okay, so what specifically have you learned since launch which has then been applied to these new maps?
The first thing we look at is player behaviour, and then listening a lot to player feedback. That really determines the types of map and the design philosophy that we go into when we’re designing them. When I was talking about salvage earlier, that map boils things down to the fundamentals and that was all based on player feedback. There’s a section our community that want to get back to the basics, they don’t want to deal with campers, and that map is definitely for them. We have other maps that are geared toward snipers. We like to offer content that’s great for the community as a whole, but also content that addresses the specific concerns of the smaller portions of our community as well.
A lot of people think they should be getting the old maps for free. Don’t you think 1200 MSP is a little bit expensive for what is essentially three new maps?
I have no doubt that anyone who downloads this map pack is going to get their money’s worth. They’re going to feel their investment is worthwhile. Because if you’re playing Modern Warfare 2 like myself or many other people do every night, that’s actually going to give you a bunch of new mileage and a bunch of extra gameplay – to really explore and discover them and to really, you know, come up with new tactics and experience them in a whole new way. Regardless of what the price is you’re going to feel your money’s well-spent.
So the direction for Stimulus appears to be filling gaps in the needs of the community then? Is this going to be carried through to future content during this generation of Modern Warfare?
We’re definitely going to do at least one more DLC pack, but the direction of it and specifically what we’re going to do hasn’t been determined yet.