No COD3 for PCs, but another war is on the horizon

Many fans were disappointed when it was announced that Call of Duty, one of the best World War II shooters, would not be coming to PC for its third iteration. This left many unanswered questions about the franchise and whether fans would see the series return to where it began. Last week, some of those questions were answered.

COD2 HQ spoke to Grant Collier, President and CEO of Infinity Ward, about a number of topics related to the Call of Duty franchise. Infinity Ward were the developers of Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2, while Treyarch Games has been given the task to develop Call of Duty 3.

It was soon learned that while Treyarch was busy developing Call of Duty 3, Infinity Ward has been hard at work on Call of Duty 4. With a development team of 80 people, compared to the original 20 for Call of Duty, Call of Duty 4 should raise the bar for the WW II FPS genre.


With Infinity Ward concentrating upon Call of Duty 4, this leaves the development of a possible Call of Duty 2 expansion up to another developer. If history repeats itself, Gray Matter would be the company to do it.

As Call of Duty 4 has not been officially announced, there is no current estimate for a release date.

Since the news broke about E3's downsizing next year, more details have emerged, and various companies and industry figures have offered their reactions.

Gamespot cites an interview that ESA president Doug Lowenstein gave with the Wall Street Journal, in which he revealed E3's new name. It will now be called the "E3 Media Festival", with Lowenstein expecting about 5000 attendees at next year's show - a significant reduction from the tens of thousands who have attended E3 in recent years. The new event will be held in July and will be invitation-only.

Meanwhile, both Gamespot and Game Informer Online have their own interviews with Lowenstein. Speaking to Game Informer, the ESA boss denied rumours that some major companies had pulled out of E3, forcing the ESA to restructure it or face an exodus. Lowenstein said "it's just people making stuff up". He also offered tentative details on what the new E3 will look like, saying companies will likely hold individual press conferences and set up smaller suites and demo areas, rather than the ostentatious booths of previous years.

In the Gamespot interview, he offered reasons for the resizing:


Several game companies and industry figures have commented on E3's downsizing. Gamespot has thoughts from various publishers, developers and other individuals regarding the news, with the responses being generally positive. Meanwhile, GamesIndustry.biz sought comments from EA and NCSoft, both of whom support the ESA's plan.

Finally, FiringSquad has comments from a number of individuals, including Scott Miller (3D Realms), Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software) and Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian Entertainment). They offer interesting and sometimes conflicting opinions on what a smaller E3 will mean for developers, publishers and gamers.

Dystopia is set to Undermine

Project Manager "Fuzzy", from the Half-Life 2 mod Dystopia, has revealed some new snapshots and information about an interesting new map named "Undermine" that will hopefully appear in the next release.


The team describe Dystopia as a "modifcation which places the player into tense combat situations in a high tech world spanned by computer networks. As either Punks or Corp Mercenaries the player will fight through the physical world to gain access, via jack-in terminals, to cyberspace. Cyberspace is a three dimensional representation of the world's network. Inside cyberspace players will launch programs to hack into systems linked to the physical world, fight off enemy hackers or defend critical systems".

Dystopia is definitely shaping up as one of the most interesting, polished and unique multiplayer mods in development for Half-Life 2 - and it is developed by Australians.

High quality images from the new map can be found here.

netKar PRO is renowned as a highly realistic racing simulation, and now it's about to offer its services to the world of real motorsports. BallRacing Developments and netKar PRO have announced a joint project to create a realistic simulation aimed at the professional motorsports industry, including F1 teams.

BallRacing will handle the hardware development while netKar PRO will provide the software in order to develop a unified product suitable for real driver training.


This does not spell the end of netKar PRO for sim racing fans, however. According to this post (in Italian) by production director Marco Massarutto, a consumer version of netKar PRO will remain in development in addition to BallRacing's project.

I fort The Combine and The Combine won

The team from SourceForts has announced the release of version 1.9.2 of their Half-Life 2 mod:


SourceForts is a Half-Life 2: Deathmatch mod where Combine and Rebel teams face off in a Capture The Flag style game with a twist. Players can build bases and other structures with blocks and plates in the "build phase" to protect themselves and their flag (which is actually a ball), and then fight it out to capture the enemy flag in the "combat phase". Once the combat phase has ended, it's back to the build phase, where players can repair, improve, and change their structures to prepare for the next round.

More information on SourceForts can be found here.