Some COD4 map pack details

[Queasy]

Link - click through for two pics

We got a chance to chat with IW community relations manager Robert Bowling--better known to COD4 diehards by his online handle, "fourzerotwo"--about the pending downloadable maps. The first thing he told us was the first thing we wanted to hear about this pack: The Middle Eastern and Russian environments will no longer comprise the entirety of the retail game's lineup. Now that the team has moved on from the single-player campaign (and has time to work up some new art assets), we can expect to see new Call of Duty 4 maps set in entirely new locations separate from the original game.

Well, except one of the maps in this pack. It's called Broadcast and is lifted from the Iraqi campaign "Charlie Don't Surf," in which you assault a television station where the enemy is holed up. Don't think the team just copied and pasted the campaign map into this multiplayer pack, though. It does contain the iconic, cavernous main room with its dozens of computer monitors and TV screens, as well as a big map of the world on the wall. We can tell you from experience that that's a great place for multiplayer firefights, with all those cubicles to duck down behind and all that equipment just waiting to get shot up by you or your opponents. A large-scale multiplayer match concentrated in that room is going to be serious calamity.

But Broadcast has been expanded significantly throughout its incarnation in the campaign. There are multiple routes into and out of that main room. Some routes lead up to the building's second floor, replete with smaller rooms and hallways. The map is mostly indoors, so air strikes and helicopters will be largely ineffectual--except up on the roof, which you can access from the second floor, as well as in the expanded parking lot area outside the main building. On the other side of that parking lot is another new, smaller building that you can hide out in as well.

The second map we played is entirely new, and it's named Creek. But there's a lot more to it than a simple babbling brook. This is a very large-scale outdoor map with a small cluster of houses on one side of it. In the middle, there's a huge ravine circling the perimeter with multiple levels of pathways up its side. Down below, the trail leads along the eponymous creek bed to a waterfall. Elsewhere along the base of the ravine, there's a lengthy and winding cave that cuts underneath the hill then out to the other side. As big as it is, there are a lot of places to go on this map; from prone sniping atop the cliff face to hiding out behind a rock in the tunnel, you never know where an opponent will be attacking you.

Broadcast naturally looks exactly like COD4's campaign, but Infinity Ward's artists have done a nice pass on Creek to give it a distinctive look, with rocky terrain and various sorts of foliage that are more verdant than what you've seen in the previous Russian maps. It all feels a little sunnier and more pleasant than the game's other forested maps, too--at least until you catch a slug between your teeth. Because there's so much underbrush and shrubbery on top of the cliffs here, Bowling pointed out that it's a great map for you to use the sniper's ghillie suit for blending in while going for some sneaky kills.

There will actually be four maps in the final pack, though we can only really tell you about these two. The other two will be Chinatown, which is pretty self-explanatory, and Killhouse, which is a "bonus" map that we didn't get any hard details on (though we were told to think of the single-player campaign's initial training level as a reference). The map pack will be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the coming months for an unspecified price. But interestingly, Infinity Ward hasn't decided how the maps will be distributed on the PC, where players are much more expectant of postrelease bonus content being released for free. Realistically, Call of Duty 4's multiplayer is so absurdly good that would have gladly handed over cash for whatever maps the designers could have phoned in--so we're especially glad to see them putting so much time and care into this first release.

 

[oznerol]

As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

lol.

simple - don't pay for em.

 

[JE78]

I play COD4 on my PC and its by far the best game i've bought and played in a long time for PC. I would gladly pay for the extra maps.

 

[BladeVenom]

Of course you don't need to since there are already over 100 free maps for the PC.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

Where does it mention that the map pack costs 960 MS Points? I don't see any mention of a price at all. Or are we assuming it will be 800 MSP like the Halo 3 DLC?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: R Nilla

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

Where does it mention that the map pack costs 960 MS Points? I don't see any mention of a price at all. Or are we assuming it will be 800 MSP like the Halo 3 DLC?

I think it is safe to assume 800 MP. That seems to be the standard for map packs. Just don't buy them and wait for them to be free. The last Halo 3 map pack should be coming free in the next month or so when they release the next Halo 3 map pack.

For better or worse, DLC is here with us for the long haul.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: R Nilla
Where does it mention that the map pack costs 960 MS Points? I don't see any mention of a price at all. Or are we assuming it will be 800 MSP like the Halo 3 DLC?

I think it is safe to assume 800 MP. That seems to be the standard for map packs. Just don't buy them and wait for them to be free. The last Halo 3 map pack should be coming free in the next month or so when they release the next Halo 3 map pack.

For better or worse, DLC is here with us for the long haul.

I agree, if you don't like the price then don't buy it. I never bought the Halo 3 map pack. I haven't been playing COD4 much lately so I probably won't buy that map pack either. The 16 maps it comes with out of the box have been more than enough, anyway.

 

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: R Nilla

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

Where does it mention that the map pack costs 960 MS Points? I don't see any mention of a price at all. Or are we assuming it will be 800 MSP like the Halo 3 DLC?

I think it is safe to assume 800 MP. That seems to be the standard for map packs. Just don't buy them and wait for them to be free. The last Halo 3 map pack should be coming free in the next month or so when they release the next Halo 3 map pack.

For better or worse, DLC is here with us for the long haul.

DLC has been with us since the beginning of the internet. The only difference is now that it is on a console, it somehow has intrinsic value. This, of course, on top of paying $50 a year to even have the privilege of using said content (ZOMG SONY DSN'T CHRG NETHING 4 IT SO IT'Z BETAR!).

Some games do DLC right - Crackdown, in particular. $10 gave a decent upgrade to the game, but, most importantly, if I didn't buy it, I could still join in with a friend who did and experience it all the same.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

Well, considering that I spent less than 10 hours on single player and more than 50 hours on multiplayer so far, multiplayer accounts for a dispoportionate amount of my enjoyment of the game. If 4 more maps extends that enjoyment further, then sign me up.

I'm not sure if I'll buy the maps though since R6:V2 is coming out soon.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Modeps

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

wah

He has a perfectly good point. It's asinine to spend 20% of the cost of the actual game on 4 fucking maps.

Well, considering that I spent less than 10 hours on single player and more than 50 hours on multiplayer so far, multiplayer accounts for a dispoportionate amount of my enjoyment of the game. If 4 more maps extends that enjoyment further, then sign me up.

I'm not sure if I'll buy the maps though since R6:V2 is coming out soon.

That's why I'm not buying them. But I'll buy anything they release for R6:V

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

This exactly why I'm NOT an ex-PC gamer .

There are already more custom maps for CoD4 PC than I'll ever play, especially considering the number of TF2 maps I also have available for download, completely free of charge.

Welcome to console gaming, where the only thing you get for free are the bug fixes.

 

[Queasy]

Gametrailers look at the new map of Chinatown.

 

[nycxandy]

I'll probably be buying this pack. I love COD!

 

[holden j caufield]

I too think it's stupid to be charging map packs like it's stupid for EA to charge a whole new game for basically updated rosters. It's why I don't support EA now, I mean 800 points isn't anything and if a lot of my friends get it I will too. I think it's a great business model. Charge ~$60 for a game, $60 a year for live, use the player's internet and machine as hosts, charge DLC etc. Sucks for consumers but it looks like this is going to be the wave. BTW I don't remember paying for cod2 map pack. Was that free or was it 800 points and then free after a month.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: holden j caufield
I too think it's stupid to be charging map packs like it's stupid for EA to charge a whole new game for basically updated rosters. It's why I don't support EA now, I mean 800 points isn't anything and if a lot of my friends get it I will too. I think it's a great business model. Charge ~$60 for a game, $60 a year for live, use the player's internet and machine as hosts, charge DLC etc. Sucks for consumers but it looks like this is going to be the wave. BTW I don't remember paying for cod2 map pack. Was that free or was it 800 points and then free after a month.

I believe CoD 2 has a map pack that is currently free, and a map pack that is still not free.

Do you think that game developers are charitable organizations? Why should they spend their time and money on new maps and give them away for free? You get free maps on the PC because individuals or groups of individuals do it in their spare time. It'd be nice if user-created content was available on consoles in the future, but c'est la vie. Servers aren't free either. When companies provide their own servers for games, it's time-limited. Beyond that you're playing on servers that are paid for by other gamers. If a company makes downloadable content that is worth what they're charging for it, then I have no problem paying for it. I love rewarding GOOD developers for their hard work.

And video games cost about the same now as they did on the SNES, while development costs have skyrocketed. I don't think we're getting screwed.

 

[Xylitol]

Just found this thread cause my thread got lost (didn't bother searching heh)

Major rip - paying 10 bucks to play 4 additional maps (that less people will have access to since you have to pay). Are you going to buy the map pack? I might but it's bullshit that you have to

 

[nycxandy]

I wonder how often these maps will be played.

Are they going to start only pairing players with these downloaded maps?

 

[ric1287]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: holden j caufield
I too think it's stupid to be charging map packs like it's stupid for EA to charge a whole new game for basically updated rosters. It's why I don't support EA now, I mean 800 points isn't anything and if a lot of my friends get it I will too. I think it's a great business model. Charge ~$60 for a game, $60 a year for live, use the player's internet and machine as hosts, charge DLC etc. Sucks for consumers but it looks like this is going to be the wave. BTW I don't remember paying for cod2 map pack. Was that free or was it 800 points and then free after a month.

I believe CoD 2 has a map pack that is currently free, and a map pack that is still not free.

Do you think that game developers are charitable organizations? Why should they spend their time and money on new maps and give them away for free? You get free maps on the PC because individuals or groups of individuals do it in their spare time. It'd be nice if user-created content was available on consoles in the future, but c'est la vie. Servers aren't free either. When companies provide their own servers for games, it's time-limited. Beyond that you're playing on servers that are paid for by other gamers. If a company makes downloadable content that is worth what they're charging for it, then I have no problem paying for it. I love rewarding GOOD developers for their hard work.

And video games cost about the same now as they did on the SNES, while development costs have skyrocketed. I don't think we're getting screwed.

I agree with most of that.....but i thought the key to xbox live is that there are no 'servers' for each game....its hosted by the people playing it

 

[lupi]

No wonder the can put out such shitty quality consoles and eat the cost if they get so many suckers to pay for this stuff.

 

[tfinch2]

Looks like this is scheduled to come out April 1st for 800 points.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live...allofduty4/mappack.htm

 

[foghorn67]

It's 10 frickin dollars. Cry me a river. Since CoD4 takes up 90% of my gaming time since it's release, I have no problem paying 10 bucks for more maps. That's a lot of mileage to me.
By the time Halo3 released their maps, I already started to hate the game...so I waited until it was free.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: ducci
As an ex-PC gamer, I am fucking pissed at this new trend of charging for these map packs. I'm also pissed at the typical console gamer's need for new maps.

I remember playing Counterstrike, and playing nothing but Dust and Dust 2 and being perfectly happy with it. Just like playing ONLY 2Fort in Team Fortress Classic. Now people want 4 new maps and are willing to spend 10 bucks on it. Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.

So go back to CS 1.6 or CS:Source and play Dust and Dust 2. The most overplayed and boring maps ever in any game in history.

Because good maps are hard to come by and cost money to create. Pay the $ if you want to play them, if you don't...don't!