After publicly announcing that Treyarch was leaving World War II behind for future Call of Duty titles, rumors have surfaced indicating the series will be heading to Vietnam.
I love the smell of rumors in the morning ... smells like victory.
Okay, now that we've got the obligatory Apocalypse Now misquote out of the way: Back in last October, Noah Heller - Senior Producer on Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War - hinted to OXM UK that the company wouldn't be returning to Normandy and Stalingrad anytime soon:
"I won't let your readers read into the comment too much, but we are showing the final battles of the Pacific and the European Theatre and that lets us put a close to the war. I'm sure game companies will be making World War II games for years to come and World War II is a very classic war. But we're happy that we put the war to bed."
With Treyarch's series co-developer Infinity Ward currently holding firm in the realm of modern warfare, this leaves the series with relatively few historical options. According to TVGB, a "source we consider reliable" has said that Activision is looking to license music for the seventh Call of Duty game: "Vietnam War era tunes, as well as Cuban, African, and Soviet Union music."
Said source specifically mentioned Noah Heller, so if this rumor pans out to be true, we'll know that the franchise is in Treyarch's hands once again. Of course, as with all rumors, there's nothing concrete here - so don't go breaking out the tie-dye, counterculture, and napalm just yet.
Anyway, time for some baseless speculation: A hallmark feature in the CoD games has been showing the story from two different points of view - CoD4 had the Brits and Americans, WaW showed the European and Pacific fronts, so on and so forth. I'm curious as to how they'd pull something like this off for 'Nam, since I doubt they'd be letting gamers play as Charlie anytime soon. Or maybe they would - two opposing viewpoints would make for a potentially interesting storyline.
Or, given that the rumor mentions "Cuban, African, and Soviet Union" music as well as Vietnam-era tunes... perhaps the second storyline could be of, say, a CIA agent engaging in some international espionage? Making this rumored title less Call of Duty: Vietnam and more Call of Duty: The Cold War? It's an interesting idea, and there's certainly a ton of potential here if executed properly.
In the meantime, looks like we'll have to wait for confirmation - or denial, so why not spend the time reminiscing about Battlefield: Vietnam with this classic Penny Arcade strip?
Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
You are over simplifying things a bit there. This sounds really interesting, i hope it goes through at some point, the story line is limitless in its potential.
They cancelled that Fallujah one, (can't remember who was making it), but Vietnam is more widespread in popular culture, so it's not that far fetched.
I would expect it to be far away from reality, but then it is a video game!
Certainly makes a change from WW2 though, so perhaps we should be grateful for that. Perhaps they could make a Napoleonic wars version? Lots of marching in formation, only being able to fire approx. three times a minute...
Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
You are over simplifying things a bit there. This sounds really interesting, i hope it goes through at some point, the story line is limitless in its potential.
Andy_Panthro: They cancelled that Fallujah one, (can't remember who was making it), but Vietnam is more widespread in popular culture, so it's not that far fetched.
It was being published by Konami and Atomic still has the rights for the game. They looking for a publisher to release the game. If they cant find one soon they will kill the project.
Psychosocial: Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Battlefield: Vietnam? Shellshock: Nam 67? Vietcong? Ok so not all made by American Developers but still involving American money, it's already been done.
Anyway, if it's Treyarch at the helm the plot won't be up to much seeing as how they made the Imperial Japanese Army a bunch of cackling psychopaths in WaW. I'd much rather see as game set in the Korean war, you never see games set there.
This would be a good game me thinks, it's different from the WWII setting that most CoD's follow this will give a deep cultural feel to the game hopefully.
Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Well... Technically it wasn't a 'war' because the official definition of 'war' demands that someone actually has to declare 'war'.
The U.S. was (officially at least) there on a U.N. Security Council mandate, largely because the Soviet representative got annoyed and stormed out of the office and wasn't present to veto the anti-Communist actions of the other permanant members of the Security Council.
Psychosocial: Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Battlefield: Vietnam? Shellshock: Nam 67? Vietcong? Ok so not all made by American Developers but still involving American money, it's already been done.
Anyway, if it's Treyarch at the helm the plot won't be up to much seeing as how they made the Imperial Japanese Army a bunch of cackling psychopaths in WaW. I'd much rather see as game set in the Korean war, you never see games set there.
Psychosocial: Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Battlefield: Vietnam? Shellshock: Nam 67? Vietcong? Ok so not all made by American Developers but still involving American money, it's already been done.
Anyway, if it's Treyarch at the helm the plot won't be up to much seeing as how they made the Imperial Japanese Army a bunch of cackling psychopaths in WaW. I'd much rather see as game set in the Korean war, you never see games set there.
There are so many ways that they could make a game about the american vietnam war interesting, but they probably won't. All evidence so far points to them not having any imagination to speak of.
Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
I think the chances are much higher with COD than they would be with any other franchise. Like Yahtzee said about COD 4, "there's much less of that 'my country tis' of thee' [hoopla] that populates most war games." (couldn't remember which word he used instead of "hoopla"
Psychosocial: Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Battlefield: Vietnam? Shellshock: Nam 67? Vietcong? Ok so not all made by American Developers but still involving American money, it's already been done.
Anyway, if it's Treyarch at the helm the plot won't be up to much seeing as how they made the Imperial Japanese Army a bunch of cackling psychopaths in WaW. I'd much rather see as game set in the Korean war, you never see games set there.
There are so many ways that they could make a game about the american vietnam war interesting, but they probably won't. All evidence so far points to them not having any imagination to speak of.
Well, not to speak of that. I was just pointing out that to be fair, the Imperial Japanese Army did have some over-the-top evil tendencies. See: Unit 731, Nanking, etc.
There was this really awesome computer name aptly called vietcong . It was excellent, challenging and above all, closer to a vietnam game than say, whatever Treyarch will poo.
Psychosocial: Americans are never gonna make a game about a war they got so fucking owned in that they had to drop napalm at innocent people.
Battlefield: Vietnam? Shellshock: Nam 67? Vietcong? Ok so not all made by American Developers but still involving American money, it's already been done.
Anyway, if it's Treyarch at the helm the plot won't be up to much seeing as how they made the Imperial Japanese Army a bunch of cackling psychopaths in WaW. I'd much rather see as game set in the Korean war, you never see games set there.
There are so many ways that they could make a game about the american vietnam war interesting, but they probably won't. All evidence so far points to them not having any imagination to speak of.
Well, not to speak of that. I was just pointing out that to be fair, the Imperial Japanese Army did have some over-the-top evil tendencies. See: Unit 731, Nanking, etc.
Very true. It wouldn't surprise me at all if your average Japanese NCO was happy to knife his US counterpart if he didn't give him the information he wanted.
There are so many ways that they could make a game about the american vietnam war interesting, but they probably won't. All evidence so far points to them not having any imagination to speak of.
There are so many ways that they could make a game about the american vietnam war interesting, but they probably won't. All evidence so far points to them not having any imagination to speak of.
Im not convinced an FPS can work all that well in a jungle environment. In terms of using trees as cover it never seems to work effectively in games - it's as if enemies have x-ray vision.
I can accept that bullets will easily penetrate foilage but if I can't see an enemy it's pretty irksome that they can pump round after round into me with pinpoint accuracy through a hedge.
Call of Duty: WoW was an example of double standards in cover - I couldn't see the Japanese in the long grass but every single one of them had xray vision engaged and hit me continually. I also found snipers in trees annoying because often I'd be dead before I could figure out which tree they were in - particularly when they had multiple snipers in different trees, I'm just not fast enough to take out snipers in a 360 degree field in the time it takes them to chamber a second round.
If a developer could balance the cover issue, I'd be thrilled to play a good Vietnam game. Though if it's a CoD game I fear that grenade spam would be making a return.
Aww come on Mr Funk, someone always trots out unit 731 when it's suggested that you can make World War 2 Japanese soldiers too evil. It's like judging every German soldier based on the Dirlewanger Brigade, there were human beings among them too you know. In WaW they may as well have come at you screaming "Blood for the Blood God!" at the top of their lungs while a pair of Defilers climb out of a pit to provide fire support.
I'd expect Treyarch to give a similarly well considered treatment to the NVA and Vietcong as well.
Extra Punctuation
MovieBob: Intermission
Experienced Points
First Person
Exploding Barrels
Miracle of Sound: Encore
Loading Time
Special Attack
Backchat
Drinking Games
Escape to the Movies
Escapecraft
Escapist News Wrap - Premium
Escapist Podcast
Feed Dump
GinxTV
Jimquisition
LoadingReadyRun
Mahalo
Meatbag and Co
Media Sandwich
Miracle of Sound
No Right Answer
Pro-Gamer Gauntlet
Reviews
Space Janitors
Tales from the Table
The Big Picture
The Escapist Presents
The Retro Show
Trailers
Unskippable
Zero Punctuation
Max Payne 3 Review
Company of Heroes 2
XCOM Enemy Unknown
Black Ops 2
Diablo 3 Review
TERA Review
Firefall Beta Preview
Starhawk Review
Critical Miss
Name Game
Rumor: Next Call of Duty In 'Nam?
After publicly announcing that Treyarch was leaving World War II behind for future Call of Duty titles, rumors have surfaced indicating the series will be heading to Vietnam.
I love the smell of rumors in the morning ... smells like victory.
Okay, now that we've got the obligatory Apocalypse Now misquote out of the way: Back in last October, Noah Heller - Senior Producer on Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War - hinted to OXM UK that the company wouldn't be returning to Normandy and Stalingrad anytime soon:
With Treyarch's series co-developer Infinity Ward currently holding firm in the realm of modern warfare, this leaves the series with relatively few historical options. According to TVGB, a "source we consider reliable" has said that Activision is looking to license music for the seventh Call of Duty game: "Vietnam War era tunes, as well as Cuban, African, and Soviet Union music."
Said source specifically mentioned Noah Heller, so if this rumor pans out to be true, we'll know that the franchise is in Treyarch's hands once again. Of course, as with all rumors, there's nothing concrete here - so don't go breaking out the tie-dye, counterculture, and napalm just yet.
Anyway, time for some baseless speculation: A hallmark feature in the CoD games has been showing the story from two different points of view - CoD4 had the Brits and Americans, WaW showed the European and Pacific fronts, so on and so forth. I'm curious as to how they'd pull something like this off for 'Nam, since I doubt they'd be letting gamers play as Charlie anytime soon. Or maybe they would - two opposing viewpoints would make for a potentially interesting storyline.
Or, given that the rumor mentions "Cuban, African, and Soviet Union" music as well as Vietnam-era tunes... perhaps the second storyline could be of, say, a CIA agent engaging in some international espionage? Making this rumored title less Call of Duty: Vietnam and more Call of Duty: The Cold War? It's an interesting idea, and there's certainly a ton of potential here if executed properly.
In the meantime, looks like we'll have to wait for confirmation - or denial, so why not spend the time reminiscing about Battlefield: Vietnam with this classic Penny Arcade strip?
(TVGB, via Joystiq)
Permalink