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Our man Siddharth Masand
was in Los Angeles for the recent Call of Duty XP expo and he gives us a rundown
of the events that spanned multiple days.
And in case you missed
it, check Sidd's hands-on preview of
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
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Call of Duty XP: The
Events
This past weekend, Activision hosted the first ever
Call of Duty XP Event in Los Angeles. Call of Duty XP was brandished to be the
ultimate experience for the hardcore fans. Present at the event were stations
setup with the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 3, event panels with the developers
and actors, celebrities,
concerts and fan events such as zip lining, paintballing and sumo wrestling.
Described below are some of the notable events that happened this past weekend.
Clan Panel
Some of the Developers from Beachhead Studios took
to the main stage to discuss the clan system in Call of Duty Elite. Some
important tidbits from the panel included:
- Clans can level up like individuals players.
- Clan tag can appear next to your name
- Clan’s get their own webpage, create their own clan logo, motto and clan
leader can send out message of the day to clan members.
- New stat tracking including map leader boards, mode leaders boards, spec ops
leader boards,
- Clan operations/challenges (for example get the most kills from 6pm to 10pm)
- Up to 100 members can make up a clan
- The top 6 members scores determine the final standing of the clan.
The Voices of Call of Duty
Coming out to the main stage were past and present actors in the Call of Duty
franchise including (sitting left to right) |
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One announcement made during the panel was that William Fichtner has joined the
cast of Modern Warfare 3. No details were revealed as to what character he would
play, but it appeared it would be a main character in the story. Fichtner has
starred in numerous movies including one of my favorites, Black Hawk Down.
The actors discussed the recording process of the voices and how much different
it is from typical Hollywood films. Activision revealed that lines for the
actors are marked on a 1-4 intensity scale with 4 being the most intense. The
actors jokingly revealed their displeasure when doing a number 4 and how a line
is extremely taxing on their voice. Also revealed was that a lot of the voice
actors are involved with the motion capture process. Most of the voice recording
is actually done in a small booth with the actors recording their lines
separately from the other actors.
As we speak the recording process with the voice actors for Modern Warfare 3 was
still on going even this late in the development cycle. The panel also took some
questions from the audience with most questions directed at Nolan North. All of
the actors, with the exception of Troy Baker, revealed that they themselves are
not gamers, but doing voice acting in video games has increased their stature
amongst their own children, nieces and nephews. Some of the actors even revealed
that they are now being more recognized for their work in games rather than the
movies. There seemed to be a great camaraderie between the actors on stage,
especially Nolan North and Michael Rooker.
Game Stations
Setup around the event was one main area full of Xbox’s with Modern Warfare 3,
Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and even Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer. The lineups
to play Call of Duty were fairly long. Speaking with a lot of the attendees, a
most of them did get some hands on time with Modern Warfare 3 and did have
positive things to say about the game.
The Armory
Setup next to the Call of Duty multiplayer stations was an armory which
consisted of a display of all of the guns, costumes, posters and characters that
have appeared in previous titles in the series. The setup was quite impressive.
Also on site were various actors dressed up as soldiers from the game that you
could take pictures with. Also on hand was the actual actor who was photographed
on the front cover of Call of Duty Black Ops.
Juggernaut Sumo
Amongst all the gaming stations was a small ring
called Juggernaut Sumo. Attendees would wear a juggernaut suit and square off
against one another in effort to see who could knock the other out of the ring.
Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling even got into the action taking on some fans.
Burgertown / Zipline/ Paintball / Jeep
Experience
Outside of the event were a number of setups including Burger town, Ziplines and
Paintball. Burger town is best known as a backdrop from Modern Warfare 2.
Activision had recreated Burger town to provide food and drinks to the
attendees. While, I didn’t get a chance to try out their food due to the
extremely long lines, the menu appeared fairly over priced. $12.00 for a fast
food burger? I guess this may explain the reason the lines shrunk from Day 2 to
3. Setup directly across from Burger Town was two ziplines, which ran a hundred
to hundred, and fifty meters or so and seemed to be a popular attraction amongst
the attendees.
One of the most impressive setups was the paintball area. Activision had fully
recreated the Scrapyard Map from Modern Warfare 2 for two teams to play
paintball against one another. This just wasn’t any regular game; it was eerily
similar to the domination mode which sees two teams try to capture and hold
several control points around the map.
One of the biggest attractions, with waiting lines stretching up to four hours
was the jeep experience. Unfortunately, one of my biggest regrets was not being
able to experience this event. The event saw attendees ride in a jeep through a
simulated military mission whereby you must work with a team of Navy SEALs to
complete an objective with bullets whizzing around you. Most of the attendees I
spoke to who tried the attraction had extremely positive things to say about the
jeep experience.
Pros vs. Joes
An event which attracted some celebrity talent was Pros vs. Joes. NBA All-stars
Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love and Russell Westbrooke played Black Ops on
the main stage with US Troops currently serving in Afghanistan, Qatar and
Europe. Watching the Pros play Black Ops on Nuke Town actually gave me some
faith in my multiplayer game as I was being schooled fairly badly on Days 2 and
3. Also making an appearance at the event was rapper Xzibit.
Million Dollar Tournament
Clans from around the world descended on Call of Duty XP to compete in a million
dollar tournament that Activision was hosting. The first part of the tournament
was played on Call of Duty Black Ops, with the finals being played on Modern
Warfare 3. The two clans to make the finals were Team Optic and Team Infinity.
Team Optic was a clan from the US while Infinity was from the UK. The winning
team would win $400,000 to be split amongst its four members while the losing
team won $200,000. The finals were played as a best of five. The results were as
follows:
Game 1: Capture the Flag - Winner - Team Optic
Game 2: Domination - Winner - Team Optic
Game 3: Kill Confirm - Winner - Team Infinity
Game 4: Search and Destroy - Winner - Team Optic
Team Optic walked away with the grand prize, but watching the finals was much
more exciting than I anticipated it to be. The first two games Team Optic faced
little to no resistance from Infinity, but Team Infinity seemed to own Kill
Confirm. Game 4 came down to the wire as both teams played well. In addition to
the cash prize the winning team also took home a tournament trophy.
Concerts
Punk Rock band The Dropkick Murphy’s and Rapper Kanye West provided the
entertainment for the last two nights of the event. As was the case with all the
events at Call of Duty XP, nothing went according to schedule. I was fairly
tired the second day and skipped the Dropkick Murphy’s concert after the show
was already 45 minutes late.
The biggest attraction of the two musical acts was Kanye West; hot off the heels
of his recent album with Jay-Z, who was also rumored to show up at the concert.
Unfortunately the Jay-Z rumor was not true, but Kid Cuddi did show up as a
surprise guest. Kanye was scheduled to take the stage around 8 PM, but the
concert did not start until shortly after 9PM. The building that Call of Duty XP
took place was not a convention center and seemed more reminiscent of an
airplane hangar that Howard Hughes once used. The area that housed the concerts
was
 obviously
not made for constructed with music in mind. The sound a lot of the time was
muffled and the microphone volume sounded far too low. After a few songs, I
found myself leaving for the hotel.
Closing Thoughts
Call of Duty XP was an experience. Being my first press event, I was not exactly
sure what to expect. As I walked away, I was impressed by how much money a
Publisher is willing to put up to promote a single game. XP was certainly
directed towards the hardcore fans and from what I experienced, Activision
succeeded in putting on an amazing event. It will be interesting to see whether
XP will become an annual event as the yearly release of Call of Duty titles is
not likely to go away any time soon.
- Siddharth Masand
(September 8, 2011)
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