Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Message Board older than one year ago

#callofduty Just in time for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, peripheral maker Turtle Beach is releasing line of MW3 branded cans for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. More »

#callofduty Website ModernWarfare3.com used to redirect to Battlefield 3's website. Pretty funny! Modern Warfare 3 publisher Activision was not amused. More »

Activision is looking to seize control of ModernWarfare3.com after the website was found redirecting to the official Battlefield 3 website...

Activision filed a domain-name dispute with National Arbitration Forum on Friday over ModernWarfare3.com, a gag website attempting to convert Modern Warfare 3 fans to EA's Battlefield 3.

Activision argues that the person behind ModernWarfare3.com "has no right or legitimate interest in the Domain Name," a violation of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and wants the site under its own control. Activision has provided the panel with a two-page list of Modern Warfare's accomplishments as evidence of its right to the domain, or perhaps because it wants to see its "Best Shooter" award from CNN.com in writing. Activision claims the site contains copyrighted material, including the style of its Modern Warfare 3 header, and that the owner "supports the game Battlefield," quoting that it "urges visitors to 'grow up and forgettabout Modern Warfare 3 (because it looks just like Modern Warfare 2) and buy Battlefield 3 instead.'"

ModernWarfare3.com was purchased on March 26, 2009, almost two years before Modern Warfare 3 was officially announced, and until recently the website redirected users to Battlefield3.com. Currently its front page reads, "Warning: this website is under seige," with the above clip from Monty Python's Life of Brian re-dubbed to bash Modern Warfare 3.

#werenotgonnatakeit It appears that Activision is fed up with the owner of ModernWarfare3.com. The publisher filed a complaint with a dispute board seeking to sieze control of the domain, after noticing this week that it was redirecting visitors to Battlefield 3's official site. More »

Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling says that if you want to chat privately with your friends while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, you'll probably be able to do so. While the last entry in the series blocked Xbox Live's Party Chat in many of the game modes, Modern Warfare 3 will apparently be much more forgiving.

"The only place where Party Chat should be blocked is Search & Destroy," says Bowling, since that's the only mode where players are meant to have only one life per attack, and allowing dead players to chat with live ones might create an unfair advantage. For all of the other modes, "it's about giving options. We will have places where competitive guys go where you might have restrictive voice chat. And then you have an option to maybe play that same mode without the same restrictions if that's the type of player you are."

So, good news! You and your girlfriend can have some private time together to say lovey-dovey things in each others' ears, even while you gat some noobs. How romantic.

At a Modern Warfare 3 preview event this morning 50 floors above Central Park, Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling spoke with me about a variety of IW-related topics. Ranging from MW2's controversial "No Russian" level, to the importance of the Modern Warfare series' running plot threads in the eyes of both IW devs and gamers alike, Bowling took a proud and optimistic stance on the franchise's less-than-clear "Task Force 141" storyline.

"For the single-player campaign, especially for Modern Warfare 3 more than ever -- this is the payoff for the investment that people have put in since Call of Duty 4," Bowling began. Though he explained that IW has been "learning new ways to tell stories and learning new ways to deliver experiences" across the development of all three games, it's his belief that MW3 "is the payoff to all those lessons learned."

Speaking briefly to the flawed, often convoluted plot of Modern Warfare 2, Bowling admitted, "Every game we put out, we sit back and we look at 'What can we do better? What areas can we focus on to bump the experience up?' And story was one of those coming out of MW2." To him, as MW3 is the focal point for the series thus far -- especially in terms of plot -- the goal is to tell "one hell of a story." Specifically, "we want it to build up on the key themes that we started in MW2, but really polish that storytelling ability."

For me, that aim played out immediately in the single-player hands-off demo I was given. Less than five minutes in, two separate keys were required to launch missiles from a hijacked Russian submarine -- and two separate individuals turned those keys, more or less directly mocking the massively unbelievable nuke launch moment with Captain Price from Modern Warfare 2.

Listen up, recruits! If you signed up for Operation Call of Duty Elite Beta, keep an eye out for a dispatch from Activision HQ. The top brass has informed us that beta invites are beginning to be sent now. "The beta will be activated in phases for feature testing, with limited invitations rolling out in the coming weeks," the classified document reads.

These Call of Duty Elite beta invites only extend to Xbox 360 users playing Call of Duty: Black Ops right now, but will support all future franchise titles, starting with the launch of Modern Warfare 3 on November 8. The PS3 release of this beta was held back by the PSN outage, according to the FAQ. According to Activision, over 2.8 million have signed up for the beta, so if you have yet to receive your beta invite, exercise patience.

For more information on Call of Duty Elite, be sure to check out our preview of the service and interview with Activision's VP of Digital, Jamie Berger.

#callofdutyelite Call of Duty Elite beta began a "staged launch" today and to kick it off, Activision unloaded this two minute trailer that spends one minute cracking jokes and another minute answering questions except for the biggie: How much is this damn thing going to cost? More »

#modernwarfare3 A reduction of the number of so-called hotspots on the multiplayer maps of Modern Warfare 3 will alter and accelerate the flow of action in this fall's installment of the Call of Duty franchise juggernaut, one of the game's creators told Kotaku this week in New York City. More »

We knew tickets for the Call of Duty XP 2011 gathering in L.A. would go on sale July 19th, but for fans who spend hours tweaking which sight works best on their assault rifle, that level of specificity just isn't enough. Activision has announced that the $150 tickets (good for both Sept. 2 and 3) will go on sale at 1 p.m. EDT sharp on the event's official site.

The XP homebase has also been updated with some more information about the $1 million on-site CoD tournament and a full map of the event. Do us a favor, though: If you immediately start scanning the floor plan for the best sniping spots and choke points, maybe just, you know, stay home. Just to be safe.

#event Tickets for Activision's paintball-playing, Modern Warfare 3-sampling, fundraiser celebration of all things Call of Duty go on sale July 19, 10 a.m. More »

"mapMonkeys are a community of gamers who have become infatuated with discovering and sharing glitches, exploits, tricks, and strategies found in the video games they play." And now, that very same community is putting its prodigious abilities to use ... at Infinity Ward? "Four members of mapMonkeys are being flown out to California on Sunday, July 10th, to test Modern Warfare 3," founder Rezzo wrote on the mapMonkeys forum.

"The mapMonkeys are correct," Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling told CVG. "They're out at the studio to help us run Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer through its paces." While the 'Monkeys had previously lent their talents to World at War and Modern Warfare 2 -- two Call of Duty games that still suffered from a fair amount of glitches and 'sploits -- this time is different. Rezzo said, "We've been flown out to test other games in the past [...] but we only had 2 or 3 days to test the game and find glitches, which wasn't nearly enough time." This go-round, they'll have an entire week to ... un-glitch and, uh ... de-exploit the game.

While we love seeing this kind of preemptive planning, the cynics in us have already preemptively stopped playing Modern Warfare 3 because of all the future-glitches and neo-hacks! Can the mapMonkeys do the impossible, reach directly into our shared futures and de-hack the game? And if so, think they'd pick us up an iPhone 5 while they're over there?

#domainstruggle Go ahead. If you haven't already done so today, go to ModernWarfare3.com. You'll see that you're directed to the official Battlefield 3 web site. That's some good trolling, no? But who's sticking it to Activision by redirecting visitors from what appears to be an official looking Call of Duty site to one of its chief rivals? More »

#glitchytriggerfingers A group of Call of Duty glitchers has been called back to Infinity Ward to help the studio test and shore up the game's multiplayer, according to the gang's leader. More »

The Call of Duty XP Event is set to be the gala of the year for fans worldwide, with an international Black Ops tournament worth $1 million and the chance to play Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer two months early -- and Australia has snagged the first invitation.

Australia's qualifying rounds for the million-dollar Black Ops tournament will be on July 13 at Monash University, with 32 teams of four players. The brackets will comprise four rounds of Search and Destroy on Summit and Havana, with winners advancing and losers weeping silently into their AK-47s. Killstreaks will be turned off, friendly fire will be turned on and custom classes will be made with a selection of pre-determined weapons, as listed on Level3.

The Call of Duty XP Event will run September 2-3 in Los Angeles, and more international qualifying rounds are expected to be announced soon.

Good news, eight percent of men and 0.5 percent of women suffering from color blindness: You may not be our first choice when we have to pick out drapes that match the bedspread in the guest room, but you won't have to worry about shooting the wrong dudes in Modern Warfare 3. In a recent blog post, Sledgehammer Games confirmed that its Infinity Ward collaboration would have a mode for those with difficulty discerning between red and green hues.

We submit that "shoot everyone who doesn't speak English" continues to be a sound Call of Duty campaign strategy for color-blind participants, but it's nice to see Sledgehammer putting in the effort.

Something like six percent of the popular is color blind. And some of those folks play video games. Modern Warefare 3 will offer a Color Blind Assist option, thus leveling the playing field for multiplayer. [Sledgehammer Gamers via Dtoid] More »

Ye Gods. Activision has announced Call of Duty XP 2011, a convention for Call of Duty fans taking place in Los Angeles on September the 2nd and 3rd of this year. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg cheerily admits to the event being based on Blizzard’s yearly Blizzcon and says that it will allow CoD fans to “feel like you stepped into the game.”(more…)

For those of you considering attendance at this fall's 12-acre, $150-a-pop Call of Duty festival, but worried about an abundance of under-aged gamers spewing their obnoxious, curse-laden diatribes at you in person, don't be. You have to be 18 or older to attend. Of course, that doesn't stop obnoxious adults from showing up. More »

#event This fall Call of Duty fans will be able to shoot up their friends in real-world, life-sized replicas of two of the game's maps, grab a bite to eat at the game's fictional burger joint and get their hands on Modern Warfare 3 months before its release as part of a video game convention designed to celebrate the franchise and its fans. More »

What's being described as the "ultimate fan experience," Activision today announced Call of Duty XP 2011, a two-day community event held in Los Angeles that gives fans an early taste of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 before release...

A smaller portfolio isn't the only thing Activision Publishing is cribbing from its sister company, Blizzard. A major component of supporting massive brands like Call of Duty (and World of Warcraft and StarCraft) is fan service and Activision is ready to take its support of the heretofore nebulous Call of Duty community to the next level with Call of Duty XP 2011, a two-day gathering promising "total Call of Duty immersion" at a "secure 12-acre compound in the urban confines of Los Angeles." Earlier this week, we had a chance to speak with Eric Hirshberg, Activision Publishing CEO, about the announcement.

"Call of Duty XP is going to be the ultimate fan experience for Call of Duty fans. A two day, immersive live event for fans of Call of Duty," Hirshberg told Joystiq. "We think it's going to set a new bar for experiential live fan-based events." That experience includes a first look at the multiplayer component of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the "full feature functionality" of the still opaque Call of Duty Elite online service, a $1 million CoD tournament sponsored by Activision and "lead sponsor" Xbox 360, and a handful of other big ticket opportunities.

"We are constructing a full-scale replica of one of our multiplayer maps as a paintball stadium for fans," Hirsherbg said. "We're reconstructing the legendary level from Modern Warfare 2, The Pit, which fans can actually run." More interested in what you're going to be able to eat at an all-Call of Duty event? "You'll be able to eat at Burger Town from Modern Warfare 2," Hirshberg added, quite seriously.

How many Call of Duty fans would travel to Los Angeles and pay $150 for a two-day event featuring the first hands-on with Modern Warfare 3, the chance to play real-life paintball based on a Modern Warfare 2 map and other ridiculousness? Activision's betting 6,000 people will.

Activision's calling this Call of Duty XP 2011. It takes place on September 2 and 3, within a 12-acre compound in California that's going to "feel like you stepped into the game," according to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, whom I recently spoke to on the phone about the event.

You might know Hirschberg's name because I've published parts of his internal memos to Activision on Giant Bomb before. That didn't exactly come up during our conversation yesterday.

There are a couple of things to note about the price tag associated with Call of Duty XP 2011. BlizzCon, which Hirshberg admitted to deeply examining while planning, is charging $175. In this case, Activision is not profiting from the tickets. All of the proceeds from the ticket sales are going into the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit that helps transition veterans into civilian life.

"The event itself will cost us considerably more than we would have recouped from ticket sales, anyway," said Hirshberg. "Part of it is about raising money for a great cause, part of it's about just giving a kick-ass experience for the fans."

Attendees will have a chance to go hands-on with Modern Warfare 3 for the first time.

Hirshberg noted the $150 tag fell about in line with the going rate for similar events.

"When we decided to make it 100% of the proceeds donation to Call of Duty Endowment, we wanted to make that a meaningful donation number," he said. "It felt about right, and I think that for $150, we're going to deliver a two-day experience that will be an unbelievable value to anyone who attends."

What're you getting for your money?

First crack at playing Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer and Spec-Ops modes, a chance to compete in a 32-team bracketed tournament for more than one million in cash and prizes, panels with Call of Duty developers, live shows from unnamed "AAA entertainment," an on-site museum, access to a paintball setup modeled after the "Scrapyard" map from Modern Warare 2, some mysterious exclusives available only to those who attend the event, a usable zip line, a full-scale, playable recreation of The Pit, a chance to eat in Burger Town and some other unannounced "attractions."

If you're not attending, much of the event will be recorded and released online.

"It's all about the experience," said Hirshberg. "It's all about the fact that the game is about mastery, the game is about investment of time and improving and constantly becoming better as you compete. Those are the pillars of this experience. It's all about bringing the experience of the game to life."

The full scope of Call of Duty: Elite, both free and paid, will be revealed at the event.

There are no plans to expand the event outside of Los Angeles at the moment, partially because most of the developers are already located in the area. During the event, many of them will be working on Modern Warfare 3, which is already locked into a release date of November 8.

"Obviously, they're going to be hard at work putting the finishing touches on Modern Warare 3 when this happens," he said, "and we wanted to make it easy for them to participate, since they're a huge part of the attraction of being there."

One of the big reveals at Call of Duty XP 2011 will be full clarity on Call of Duty: Elite, the service Activision recently introduced that's stacking on top of Call of Duty. Part of it will be free, part of it will cost money. The biggest cause for confusion when it was first announced was which parts would require players to use a wallet, which Hirshberg promised would be cleared up in September.

"Part of what we struggled with in the launch," he said, "was because it's so baked into Modern Warfare 3, some of the features weren't demonstrable. We wanted to do a beta, so we had to choose between a rock and a hard place. Launching without a full feature set or doing a beta, we chose the beta because we thought ultimately it's going to let us have a better product at launch. At Call of Duty XP, you'll see the feature set and everything that's free and everything that's paid for will be explained."

Tickets for Call of Duty XP 2011 go on sale on July 19. Are you in?

The lovely-looking 3DS port of the popular side-scrolling action game Cave Story has been bumped from a planned summer release to November 8, the same day as Modern Warfare 3. Good luck, Cave Story 3D! In a press release, the game's publisher attributed the delay to: "additional game improvements." More »

#pcvsconsole Battlefield 3's awe-inspiring tank battle demonstration at E3 was run on a PC, and it wasn't to make a statement about mouse-and-keyboard superiority. The game, according to developer DICE, will run at 60 frames per second on the PC—but 30 fps on the Xbox 360 and PS3. More »

Jeff talks with Infinity Ward about Spec Ops, enemy waves, and exploding juggernaut dogs.

You can find copies of this limited edition "fake issue" at GameStops across the country.

Time has never been used to promote a commercial product, but that changes with Modern Warfare 3.

Activision collaborated with Time to produce a mock cover to be used as a pre-order promotional tool for the apocalyptic sequel, according to The New York Times.

“This is where the boys are,” said Time publisher Kim Kelleher, explaining the magazine's rationale. “This is a great way to connect with millions of people we might not have otherwise connected with.”

As for why Time decided this was the time to give someone else license over the iconic red bordering, the publication argued it was an extension of other mediums using its "Person of the Year" cover.

What may be more telling, however, is the final quote from Kelleher.

“I like the concept of Time being a related brand of something that’s happening in 2030,” said Kelleher. "That makes me happy.”

As of a fan of newspapers and magazines, I can't argue with that, even if it sounds rather sad.

#modernadvertising As promised, Late Night host Jimmy Fallon has kicked off his video game week with footage of Modern Warfare 3. More »

#kotakumagu Time is one of the most storied magazines the world has ever seen, and while its relevance may have dipped somewhat during the internet era, it's still seen as a respectable publication. So its first ever video game tie-in is a bit of a disappointment. More »