Call of Duty: Ghosts Gets a Brand New Game Mode

[Josh Engen]

Call of Duty: Ghosts Gets a Brand New Game Mode

Activision is rolling out a new patch for Call of Duty: Ghosts, which includes a swanky new gameplay mode.

Today, Activision announced that it would be releasing an update for Call of Duty: Ghosts. The new patch addresses a handful of fixes, but, most importantly, it includes a brand new gameplay mode.

Heavy Duty mode isn't based on a complicated concept; it basically just increases player health. This will encourage long-winded gunfights, and force players to change their loadouts to account for increased ammo usage. Infinity Ward, the developer behind Call of Duty: Ghosts, is asking players to provide feedback [http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200816369#.Uri9gmRDv7p] about the new mode once everyone has had a chance to check it out.

The patch also addresses several balance issues, which are primarily sniper-related, and removes a few exploits. If you're interested, feel free to check out the patch notes over on the Call of Duty forums [http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200795177#.Uri1sGRDv7r].

Unfortunately for Activision, Call of Duty: Ghosts hasn't been quite as successful as previous CoD titles. Obviously, part of the downturn can be blamed on the new console generation, but that's not the only problem.

"Upon further reflection, we think the [Call of Duty] numbers are a bit more troubling than they first appeared," says industry analyst Doug Creutz [http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/16/analyst-call-of-duty-ghosts-numbers-are-troubling/]. "While the year-over-year gap is only 19 percent thus far, that includes two extra weeks of sales for the 360 and PS3 versions [of Black Ops II]. Against 2011′s [Modern Warfare 3], where the difference is only one week, the title is down 32 percent life-to-date."

It's possible that gamers have finally grown tired of the Call of Duty formula. Either way, it would be nice to see Activision take a few risks with the franchise.

Source: Call of Duty Forums [http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200795177#.Uri1sGRDv7r]

Permalink

 

[Sectan]

Hope it works out for them. Even though it isn't very realistic, having a longer Time To Kill makes shooters so much more than twitching and quickscoping. Plus your perk choices mean more if you aren't killing/being killed in less than half a second.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Would be interesting to see a game of CoD where the gunfights don't last less than a second. Kinda makes me want to buy it just to hear the squeaking sounds of people crying about not getting one-hit-kills with their sniper rifles.

On another note, it's great that IW seems to be actively asking for feedback on their game now. Never thought they'd take that step forward.

 

[fix-the-spade]

On another note, it's great that IW seems to be actively asking for feedback on their game now. Never thought they'd take that step forward.

I bet Activision never thought they'd see a 30% drop in sales over two years. That they are not only adding new modes, but adding them for free makes me think they are way behind where they expected to be and looking for ways to drive sales.

In fact, when it comes to chest thumping about the sales of Call of Duty and Battlefield, the silence this year has been deafening.

 

[DjinnFor]

Hope it works out for them. Even though it isn't very realistic, having a longer Time To Kill makes shooters so much more than twitching and quickscoping. Plus your perk choices mean more if you aren't killing/being killed in less than half a second.

Longer TTK's do nothing but make tactics and strategy meaningless compared to mechanical skill.

When getting shot drops you in milliseconds, then flanking an opponent is really effective, especially if you have poorer aim or slower reactions and won't win a head to head twitch-fest. But if you start shooting and he jukes and spins around before you can kill him, he can turn it into a head-to-head duel again and win if he's a better twitch-shooter and jukes your aim. Increasing TTK from two or three bullets to four or five makes that all easier to do (see Treyarch's removal of Stopping Power in Black Ops 1).

Sure, as TTK increases further, reaction is less important than consistent aim (see Halo). But that's just mechanical skill again; strategy or tactics are still completely absent unless map design makes map control relevant.

 

[Flutterguy]

Oh man if this keeps up they might even put effort into the new CoD.

I would like if shooters could die down a bit more in popularity, developers would be forced to other stylings of games or even make new ones. I would love if a western company could start making games as complex/cryptic as Asian titles like Dark Souls or the 'Tales of' series. Beating a difficult and cryptic game that requires good understanding of the system is immensely more satisfying for me. That is why almost everyone loved portal while many couldn't sit through half-life 2.

 

[Thyunda]

Hope it works out for them. Even though it isn't very realistic, having a longer Time To Kill makes shooters so much more than twitching and quickscoping. Plus your perk choices mean more if you aren't killing/being killed in less than half a second.

Longer TTK's do nothing but make tactics and strategy meaningless compared to mechanical skill.

When getting shot drops you in milliseconds, then flanking an opponent is really effective, especially if you have poorer aim or slower reactions and won't win a head to head twitch-fest. But if you start shooting and he jukes and spins around before you can kill him, he can turn it into a head-to-head duel again and win if he's a better twitch-shooter and jukes your aim. Increasing TTK from two or three bullets to four or five makes that all easier to do (see Treyarch's removal of Stopping Power in Black Ops 1).

Sure, as TTK increases further, reaction is less important than consistent aim (see Halo). But that's just mechanical skill again; strategy or tactics are still completely absent unless map design makes map control relevant.

Strategy and tactics are equally valid with lengthy TTK. They're valid in every situation. No matter how long it takes to kill someone, the player who fired the first shot, who has the most cover, who is in charge of the range of combat - if I attack a player with a submachinegun and he tries to counteract with an assault rifle, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win. Mechanical skill - mechanical skill is LESS valid in this instance, as a clever player won't have to rely on sheer reflex anymore. The biggest gripe I've always had with Call of Duty is the fact that I could kill eight players in a row, take the empty clip out of my rifle and bang. Player respawned and ran around the corner, ending my spree and my carefully-played game because he happened to respawn closer to me than I would have liked.


In terms of the sales drop - yeah, kinda saw it coming. When Ghosts was announced, I was fairly optimistic about it - the trailers implied so much more than it turned out to be. Then the gameplay shows up and I'm sure every fan of the franchise collectively looked at their stack of titles and decided maybe they would save £50 and load up Black Ops II. I won't say Ghosts is a bad game...it's competent and is exactly what it says on the box. It's just a shame that it isn't what was said in the trailers.

 

[Bindal]

"More health" isn't really a game mode.
Heck, Black Ops 2 added (for PC only) a weekly changing game mode. And while it was mostly just things like "Nuketown Moshpit" or the like, there was on a regular basis "Single Flag CTF", a mode that literally didn't exists in the game otherwise. And that DID play different from normal CTF.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Its less that they need to "change things up" and more that they need to forget every CoD game that existed after Modern Warfare 1 and start from there. CoD4 was the last really great CoD game; they need to learn from and be inspired by that, rather than the train wrecks that were MW2, MW3 and Ghosts.

 

[thewatergamer]

Still not buying it I think Cod is a boring waste of money, but ehh if your into it, never had a problem with it, (even though publishers mindlessly copying it is dumb but that's not Cod's fault) and nice to see a Triple A Developer wheel out some free content especially coming from Cod

 

[xshadowscreamx]

The gun fight turns into a gun fight smilier to bulletsponging borderlands.

Yes I we see crazy concepts, in the next cod I want to see time traveling etc. the series is out of steam, maswell get crazy.