By spinning out from today's ideas about how wars are fought and the resource struggles likely to be causing problems by then, much of the next Call of Duty game is concerned with China's hold on rare earth elements ... it's not hard to conduct a headline search or two and discover all types of talk about China's stranglehold on these increasingly vital substances, and it's even easier to find people talking about the eventuality of a new Cold War rising out of all this.

China has already won. Walk into any electronics store in the world and 90% of everything is "Made in China"... the consoles we'll play this game on are made in China. They don't need to invade other countries, the economic victory is there's. This isn't a criticism either, I mean I live in Australia and our last Prime Minister spoke Mandarin and sinks a lot of money into Australia's resource sector (foreign ownership does suck though)... I know this way off topic, and yes it's just a video game, but I keep seeing Americans creating works of fiction where China is some crazy rogue state... I mean they haven't invaded another country in how long?

Sorry for the rant ... anyway, I liked really the article ... piece by piece my faith in CoD is being restored.

Why does this sound so appealing? I'm skeptical, but I could be persuaded to buy this, maybe. Maybe.

@nintendoeats said:

@Napalm: I was always partial to Roy Rogers myself.

I like purple basketballs.

I am still tired of shooting dudes with guns from the first person perspective. No thank you.

@cassus said:

"That sniper rifle, by the way, can see targets through walls and penetrate cover via a charged-up shot that expends more ammo than a standard shot."

.. You know.. 10 years from now when they invent those bullets that you charge up to increase their mass and velocity. You've probably heard them talk about that stuff..

Metal Storm. Shred through the solid objects, then send the bullet through afterwards. Obviously, that application of the tech doesn't exist today, but it's feasible for a work of fiction.

Think about where we were 15 years ago, technologically-speaking. Then think about where we'll be 15 years from now.

Meanwhile, the Ghost Recon team is beating their collective heads against a wall.

Now EA needs to announce 2143...

This might persuade me to shoot guys in the face again....

Great to hear they're trying new things with the series. Great write-up, Mr Gerstmann.

This all sounds like CRAZY TALK.

@bybeach said:

They are trying. Just introducing the RTS/Sandbox elements, if only into targeted segments of the game is a big step for them. One thing I really like about treyarch. I felt Vinny kind of got it right one time about Black ops exploiting movies and other media They are trying to stay just barely on this side of fantastic/dramatic/ even ridiculous. They don't want the clown award, but they do want some freedom and latitude.. So they will exploit tropes like the good-die-young on a Apocalypse Now river raid set to Sympathy for the Devil, orThe James Bond dive to the ocean floor Evil laboratory, whatever glows in the dark is potentially good for treyarch. And that is wierd because for this I consider them actually advancing beyond the MW format, and they were second dog.

I guess I should emulate Woods, and only be suprised that yes..he's alive?

I like that breakdown of Treyarch's approach. Although they play around with some rank shit, Treyarch seem like they are having so much more fun with storytelling. IW proper is gone, but the self-seriousness that worked okay in the dramatic COD4 became self-indulgence in MW2.

I haven't played one of these damn games since COD4, so color me impressed that I'm even interested. Still, I don't like the imagery of non-western people in these games. People of color are usually bad guys at the end of a gun. I hope this game changes that and, even as its having future fun, crafts a more equitable interpretation of society. Big bad China and a dude with a Latino-sounding name seem like more of the same jingoism from here....

Still, those gameplay changes and the desire to go on a more meaningful adventure make me intrigued. Good job at least doing that, Treyarch. And good writing, Jeff.

Mechs and a Mason family line? So this is a prequel to Red Faction?

You know what? I bet this is all because they couldn't properly replace Gary Oldman.

@Jellybones said:

Mechs and a Mason family line? So this is a prequel to Red Faction?

Considering how THQ has been doing lately, maybe Activision should buy the rights to Red Faction from them and make the link official.

Shrug. It's Call of Duty. No matter what they do with it I'll say I'm not buying it, then some day months down the line when I can get it for 20 or 30 bucks I'll buy it just because most of my XBL friends play online a lot.

@cassus said:

"That sniper rifle, by the way, can see targets through walls and penetrate cover via a charged-up shot that expends more ammo than a standard shot."

.. You know.. 10 years from now when they invent those bullets that you charge up to increase their mass and velocity. You've probably heard them talk about that stuff..

Metal Storm. Shred through the solid objects, then send the bullet through afterwards. Obviously, that application of the tech doesn't exist today, but it's feasible for a work of fiction.

Think about where we were 15 years ago, technologically-speaking. Then think about where we'll be 15 years from now.

@Napalm: Learn your action movies.

None of this even sounded like a Call of Duty game, which is the exact best thing I could say about a Call of Duty game.

Yeah, I'm kind of interested in this. Aside from any serious questions, why does that character look like a militarized version of Danny McBride (had to IMDB his name)?

I suppose they are attempting whatever they can so they don't seem like they are doing the same shit every year, but still, these are all features that have appeared in other games, It sounds cool, but I want something innovative.

@ToasterDylan said:

I...am kind of interested in this idea?

What?

Ditto

@goudaj: Now I'm excited!

@Godlyawesomeguy said:

I suppose they are attempting whatever they can so they don't seem like they are doing the same shit every year, but still, these are all features that have appeared in other games, It sounds cool, but I want something innovative.

at this point what FPS IS being innovative?

@nintendoeats: I still hold that Die Hard 2 is a pretty goddamn alright Die Hard film.

Played every COD game and will play this one....and the next....and the next....I like good games sue me.

metal storm sounds awesome , wonder how much its incorperated in the game

Call of Duty 4's campaign was the main reason I played the game. If the same amount of effort goes into this campaign, I could spring for it.

Everything since Modern Warfare 2 has jaded me on this series, but I'm always optimistic that creative minds in the industry pay attention to feedback. Jeff's writing has got my interest piqued, so let's hope the game is worth buying this time around.

@Kierkegaard said:

I like that breakdown of Treyarch's approach. Although they play around with some rank shit, Treyarch seem like they are having so much more fun with storytelling. IW proper is gone, but the self-seriousness that worked okay in the dramatic COD4 became self-indulgence in MW2.

I haven't played one of these damn games since COD4, so color me impressed that I'm even interested. Still, I don't like the imagery of non-western people in these games. People of color are usually bad guys at the end of a gun. I hope this game changes that and, even as its having future fun, crafts a more equitable interpretation of society. Big bad China and a dude with a Latino-sounding name seem like more of the same jingoism from here....

Still, those gameplay changes and the desire to go on a more meaningful adventure make me intrigued. Good job at least doing that, Treyarch. And good writing, Jeff.

Modern Warfare and BLOPS had kind of interesting takes on jingoism, though. BLOPS was less subtle about it (the final shot is so ironic it borders on satire), although it had a better story, but what made those games so bizarre was the quiet reminders in the background that you're not good, you're just less evil than the guys you're shooting. Woods' line in the trailer about 'we who can do what others cannot' is overtly jingoistic, and in with any other game I'd be put off by it; but he's actually just the continuation of what these games have been doing with Capt. Price and Reznov (and yes I know they're from different creators, it still holds). I don't want to turn this into a big long thing, but if they can continue with that same crazy take on anti-war, anti-patriotism stuff, I'm totally fine with whatever else they do.

Huh.... I guess we'll see, Jeff. I'm looking forward to finding out more.

LOL @ all the users saying the graphics looked like crap.

"Well, for starters it'll look a whole lot nicer. Treyarch has put in a lot of work on the renderer, and overall, the whole game looks a lot sharper and more detailed, while still running at 60 frames per second. Facial animations looked especially nice, better showing off some of the performance capture that the team has been doing, which includes mocapping horses for that '80s Afghanistan level."

The xbox can only do so much and I am a PC guy, but just goes to show how people just shout things out there to bash something.

@Animasta: Half-Life 3.

I am actually interested after reading this. Really looking forward to more details closer to release. Too bad it's far enough away to completely forget about it until more front page coverage pops up.

It's weird. Reading this makes the game sound more like an actually fleshed out game than any of the previous ones did, and worth paying 60 bucks for. I hope it all comes together in the final product to be as enticing as it sounds right now.

@Vorbis said:

I'm not a CoD fan but I'm glad they are least trying something different for a change.

This may be the first COD I actually play. We'll see.

@Tan said:

Horses!

Indy and Drake APPROVE.

This sounds interesting. Wait. Interesting? What? Did I just say a Call of Duty game sounded interesting? Holy shit.

You take away the CoD label and this still sounds like a game I'm interested in.

it's not hard to conduct a headline search or two and discover all types of talk about China's stranglehold on these increasingly vital substances, and it's even easier to find people talking about the eventuality of a new Cold War rising out of all this. And that's today. By 2025? Well... like I said, Treyarch's argument sounds pretty convincing.

You got played Jeff. By 2025, major rare-earth production facilities will be online in Malaysia, Australia and the U.S. Rare earth elements are not, in fact, rare at all. They're just a pain in the ass to refine, and leave a lot of low-grade radioactive waste as a byproduct. (Waste we could be exploiting in molten-salt thorium reactors... but that's a different discussion entirely.)

The real action is going to be over dwindling petro-resources and decent fishing grounds in the Far East. Some of the blue-water fish stocks are near-collapse and many Asian cultures depend on sea food to feed their populations. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines... all are going to be butting heads with China over territory at sea.

None of this matters for a piece of fiction, it's only a game after all. Just don't believe the rare-earth hype.

I actually really appreciated parts of Black Ops, and preferred it to MW3. So it's really nice to see them do something different both with the story and gameplay, looking forward to seeing what comes out of E3.

Let's not pretend the multiplayer (by far the most popular and important part of any CoD game) isn't going to be exactly the same: mostly twitchy, luck-of-the-draw gameplay without teamwork.

@Ellboy: Science! Good post.

Looks like it could be nifty if they make a single player that lasts longer then 30 seconds and not just focus on online. Also hope they don't poop on the PC version this time around, but we all know they will.

Wow sounds like they actually have changed COD...becoming slightly optimistic about this.

I'm surprised to say I'm kind of excited for this

I am not real big on Call of Duty, but this looks interesting

@Dalai said:

It would be hilarious if CLOPS unexpectedly pulled a Valve and was delayed until 2025.

Clops?

really?

Don't know what to think of it yet.

@Jethuty said:

@Dalai said:

It would be hilarious if CLOPS unexpectedly pulled a Valve and was delayed until 2025.

Clops?

really?

You know it's not that bad now that I think about it.

I wonder if we can make that name stick.