Welcome to part one of four of our exclusive inquisition with Infinity Ward's Rob Bowling...

It's a mere four days and a bit until Modern Warfare finally hits shelves. NowGamer had the final chance to gather in-depth recon straight from Infinity Ward's ouspoken mouthpiece, Rob Bowling. With a new part for each of the four days leading up to relelease, be sure to check back for the final lowdown on the biggest game of the year...

NowGamer: Any dogs this time round? The dogs annoyed the hell out of us.
Rob Bowling: Not in multiplayer.

NG: Ah yes, that was in World At War - not your game...
RB: They're in some of single player where it fits.

NG: We found them incredibly difficult to kill on veteran. The timing is so hard.
RB: On veteran the window is so small. Miss it... dog wins. In Spec Ops, dogs totally change the way you approach the level. Because you can hear the dogs barking from a long way away. As soon as you hear them, you shout 'Dogs!' and both of you start backing into a corner and start to watch your sector just waiting for them to come. Even then they have a habit of leaping through a window rather than taking the path you might expect.

NG: We remember going through on Veteran on the last one and getting repeatedly taken out by the same damn dog on 'All Ghillied Up'. It was like, we just escaped a gunship helicopter just to get killed by a dog.
RB: The worst thing about the dogs in Spec Ops is the panic they cause when one is on your team mate. You only have a few seconds to get the dog off of him or it's all over. Tell you what, in a minute we'll play a level with dogs on Spec Ops and set it to Veteran so you can get some of the punishment you seem to enjoy so much [laughs]

NG: For us that's all about making the experience last longer and a greater sense of accomplishment. It just has to be Veteran all the way. That's not to say we're good at it, but through sheer bloody-minded determination, we get through.
RB: It's enjoyable. It's just enjoyable for a whole different reason than when you play through on regular. You're not playing it for the Hollywood experience, you're just saying test me. Really test me.

NG: We hear that infinitely respawning enemies are a thing of the past now. That should make things a bit easier on the tougher difficulties.
RB: No. The mass respawn of enemies was never actually infinite in Call Of Duty 4. It was a set amount and granted, that amount was absurd - way beyond the number that anyone would reasonably stand around and kill, but that was really just to push you forward. Now, during the fast-paced, high-octane levels of Modern Warfare 2, you will see the different AI tactics we use. There's no longer that thing of reaching some invisible point to push them back. They're just much more dynamic AI. With texture streaming we have much bigger levels, much bigger world so you don't have to always go down this hallway.

… continued