We all get what this trailer is: more COD for us to throw our money at. New maps, guns, and the next chapter of its freshest (and arguably strongest) game mode grace the Devastation DLC Pack from the latest Infinity Ward giant. But while this may seem like a new coat of paint over an old clunker of a car, look deeper and you'll find one of the coolest jobs that I have ever come across.
I was lucky enough to work for the studio that created this trailer for a brief stint. At the time, we had a build for some Black Ops 2 DLC that was set to release around early July of last year. This meant that our gameplay capture artists had to learn the maps, find places to set up shots (with recommendations from the client), and execute them with the help of the assistants (my job) on the controllers.
The capture guys would then take the footage and fly around with a free-flowing camera to catch every possible angle of it. Throw in some slick editing, and viola! You have a non-stop trailer that throws as much action as possible at you, and hopefully convinces you to purchase the content.
That's right, every single shot you see in this trailer is carefully planned out, timed, and practiced until perfection. That includes all of the stuff with the Extinction mode, they most likely had a build that would allow them to control every aspect of the game. I can't imagine how many times they had to do that airstrike shot, I'm willing to wager it was a lot of times.
Of course, sometimes the direction was just to run around and kill everyone you saw, but they were artists: it was all part of their process. These guys played the games until their eyes bled, but damn did the trailers look good.
"Alright everyone, enable GOD mode. Time to shoot some zombies."
Best words I'd hear all day.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, WiiU
Out Now
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
