Call of Duty 4: You're Welcome Infinity Ward

Got me a note in the mail from Infinity Ward today and it goes like dis--make sure to read the bolded parts for PC news and Token news:

http://www.charlieoscardelta.com/sitrep.php?uid=2&b_id=MTE3MQ==&req=view

Behind The Scenes of the Beta

With the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare MP BETA in full swing, and literally tens of thousands of emails coming in to cod4beta@infinityward.com and betafeedback@infinityward.com, I wanted to take some time to really explain what things are like behind the scenes of a beta like this.

The Feedback:

We've been receiving a massive amount of feedback from the beta, through many different avenues. Whether it's directly from you guys in the Public Beta forums, sent to the beta feedback email address, or tracked behind the scenes by us here at the studio; we've been collecting countless volumes of information that is helping us fine tune before we launch.

In particular, the beta has allowed us to tweak matchmaking, game performance, how hosts are determined in ranked matches and overall game play. None of this would have been possible without your feedback. With your help we were able to discover some glitches, such as what MapMonkeys lovingly called, "Lazy Husband." The glitch can be found here among others: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4YOg5I2Y0

Not to mention the countless reports we've got telling us how you've managed to find your way on top of everything from the Farmhouse in Overgrown, to the Watertowers in Vacant…you damn Ninjas! The great thing is we've been able to address all of these issues and more in the main game.

I see a lot of people complaining about glitchers, but glitchers are exactly what we need in a beta -- in that they can help us eliminate them during pre-launch -- to smooth out the overall gameplay experience. The big thing to keep in mind is, if you find a glitch, that's awesome, SEND IT TO US! If it's a glitch that gives you an advantage over other players, don't repeatedly exploit it for your own benefit, just send us an email letting us know about it (assuming we don't already) so we can get it taken care of. No need to ruin the fun for everyone else.

The N0M4D:
Probably my favorite new addition to the game, which was a direct result of community feedback, is a brand new control scheme we're calling the N0M4D. As some of you know, one of our community members, and professional gamer, Randy “N0M4D" Fitzgerald, dropped us a line in the forums and via email to suggest a change to the control layout to allow him to better own some faces online. The entire story / thread which you can read here.

I'll let you read up on the full back story, but the cut and dry of it is thanks to his feedback, we were able to get working on it immediately and will be making sure we get the brand new control configuration into the final version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. We've been working with N0M4D to further customize the new control scheme on his behalf and have collectively ended on the decision to use the current Tactical control scheme with a new option to toggle the left trigger so that you can turn on and off ADS (aim down sights) by hitting the left trigger instead of holding it down the entire time for ADS. Thanks Randy for giving us the heads up on this, as I know it's going to be a great addition to the game and really open up the accessibility of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to even more players in our community.

So as you can see, your feedback on everything from glitches, jumps, bugs, balancing, maps and even controller schemes has been a huge help, and is shaping Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare into a game we'll all have a hand in crafting.

The Artist Life:
As I mentioned earlier, we're nearing the end of development, and with the game shipping on November 5th, we've been spending our time polishing up the game wherever possible, tweaking it here and there based on community feedback, and overall putting in those little final touches that really make the game what it is.

For Artists, this is typically when they start knocking out some of the support art assets for the game, like Gamerpics, Themes, Wallpapers, and other extra art goods. I've been checking out some of the concepts and prototypes they've been coming up with and I'm pretty stoked to finally sport some of these, such as this concept pack tentatively titled "CQB":

And this is just one of quite a few packs that they're working on. No ETA on when these may be available for download just yet, as the main focus right now is the beta and getting the final game finished and shipped. That said, we wanted to get started early on these pieces to make sure you guys have a good number of potential downloads to choose from before launch.

The PC Version:

We recently officially inked our deal with Even Balance to provide Anti-cheat support via Punkbuster out of box for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Despite the recent announcement, we've actually had the Punkbuster crew working in-house at Infinity Ward for a while now. This has been helpful, as it's provided plenty of intimate hands-on time with the game, which only helps to really fine tune the Anti-cheat so that it's flawless come launch.

We've also been working hard to incorporate a lot of the feedback we've received from the PC portion of the community that's very PC-specific, such as focus on mod support, inclusion of extensive config options for server admins, and the incorporation of additional options which will make the game accessible not only to those who like to play their games stock, but for those who are interested in playing competitively. On example is the inclusion of half-time for objective team gametypes, hardcore mode (realism), options to disable / enable perks and other options for competitive or tournament play.

We recently talked extensively about these and several more PC-focused additions with our friends over at Gameriot. The piece should be making it's way online in the near future at: http://www.gameriot.com

In Conclusion:

Expect a surge of new users to join the MP Beta, as International Token Codes are being distributed along with Gamespot.com and GameStop's North American codes. So if you're currently in the beta, expect an influx of fresh meat deploying over the next week +. Let us know immediately if any of you start experiencing problems, as this is going to be the most people online we've ever had. We're going to be checking the servers and game performance regularly, so if you notice any wonky things start to happen or errors caused by the flood of new users, just hit up the forums and let us know so we can address. Keep in mind, that's the entire point of betas!

That's it for now... see you online!