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

It's a mere two 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...

NG: We were playing Call Of Duty 2 with some buddies the other night. For us, it made a pretty refreshing change not to have to deal with the complexity of Modern Warfare. Do you ever think there’s a lot to be said for not over-complicating things?
RB: Yep, there sure is, but I think it’s all about options. Because every player has different preferences because they’re in different moods at different times. We focused on that idea a lot in Modern Warfare 2. Even toward the end of Call Of Duty 4, I was speaking a lot with our community, saying ‘what would you like to see more of?’. Not only so we could add new stuff to Call Of Duty 4 and change playlists around, but we were also making mental notes for when we came to making Modern Warfare 2. We put out the idea of a bare bones Call Of Duty 2-style playlist – no perks, no killstreaks – it’s classic, it’s all about the skill, the guns and the speed of it all and that appealed to players. That stuff is good, but it’s also good to have options. To give the player the choice of jumping into a bare bones playlist, but also playing it as is and having all of that intensity.

NG: So there’s a bare bones playlist in Modern Warfare 2?

RB: Not necessarily. Playlists can change dynamically, but it’s definitely an option we’re considering.

NG: Options, like you say, are fine for experienced players, but aren’t you ever worried that the more stuff you add, the steeper the cost of entry for newcomers? That’s a pretty fine balance.

RB: Some of those features are designed specifically for those new to the series. We focus very much on making accessible, so even though we’re adding a bunch more, the progressive ranking system means that you aren’t overwhelmed when you first play the game. You unlock stuff when you’re ready to unlock stuff. Even in Spec Ops. Spec Ops is very deep and it’s very challenging, but you unlock it’s features gradually. Once you’re totally used to something then we introduce you to something new and not before. So part of it is how you pace out the game, but also features should be designed to help the player. For example, there’s the deathstreaks; die four times in a row and get a beneficial reward. It’s like a handicap in golf and really helps to level the field.

NG: Deathstreaks are a neat idea, we’ll give you that, but do you think they’re enough to compensate for the terminally hopeless [pointing at ourselves], or do you think more could be done?

RB: I think they’re good. Deathstreaks in conjunction with progressive ranking, good matchmaking and so on, I think that’s enough to keep players playing. Especially with the rank unlocks and everything, we focus on rewarding you for what you do. And in Modern Warfare 2 we do that a lot more because when you first play a first-person shooter, you think it’s all about the killing. Like, ‘oh if I don’t kill the most people then I’m not a good player’.

… continued