Interesting bits here but tons more at the link (end of post)

Q: WTF was up with the first screen shots?

A: I was severely disappointed with the screenshots that were released as they did not do a good job of showing the public just how good the game looks on the Wii. I mean come on! There were bugs in those screenshots for crying out loud.


Q: Tell us more about the new "scope aiming mode".

A: I think Activision briefly mentioned that cod4wii has a new scope aiming mode - this is actually my favorite new feature of the game. It's basically an emulation of how PC aiming works, and you're going to notice a huge improvement in how precise your aim is. (You can enable this for ADS with any weapon, not just scopes.)

There is a daunting number of tweakable control options, so we created six "presets" to use as starting points. You'll choose a preset when you start the game. The "marksman" preset is designed to make the controls feel as much like a PC shooter as possible. Hope you guys like it.

Q: Can we hear more about the control options?

A: All of the actionslot commands (everything that was on the dpad in the xbox version) are now activated with a single "inventory" button. You hold the inventory button, then select which actionslot command you want by using the analog stick. We're not doing a grenade select thing - too slow. Frag grenade and special grenade each have their own button. You can map either grenade to a gesture if you like, but putting a grenade on a gesture means you can't cook the grenade.

The button customizer is pretty flexible (you can assign most commands to gestures, or even to a "twist-button" if you like) so you shouldn't have much trouble finding a button config that works for you.

You can lean side-to-side using the Nunchuk. You have to go to the options menu to enable this, it's off by default.


Q: Does MWii look better than WAWii or about the same?

A: MW looks better, hands down. This includes lighting, textures, animations, particle FX, characters, and the hud/menu system - all have seen some pretty big improvements this time around.

Q: How long have you guys worked on the Wii version?

A: Can't discuss that specifically. Obviously we don't have the luxury of near-unlimited development time, like some studios. But this game wasn't made overnight, and we had the time and resources we needed to put together a killer port for you guys.

Q: Can you tell us about gun rotating?

A: It's purely cosmetic (no effect on gameplay), but you can now rotate your gun left and right by twisting the wiimote. So if you want to hold your uzi "gangsta style" you can do that. It's pretty cool. You can turn it off if you don't like it. All weapons twist except for a handful (javelin, etc). Some twist more than others.

Q: You guys seem excited about this game. Is it coming along well?

A: If it seems like there's a lot of positivity on our end, it's because there is. Everyone on the team is totally stoked about bringing this game out, especially since it had to stay under wraps for so long. We spent the better part of the past year combing all of the forums for feedback on world at war - we fixed everything we realistically could, added new features where they were called for, and focused on bringing an undiluted cod4 experience to the wii. This port got some serious love from the team and it shows.


Q: Can you give us some insight on how the graphics have been improved over CoD:WaW Wii?

A: The biggest graphical improvement is in the lighting and shadows - both are HUGELY improved since the last game, and I think the lighting is some of the best on the wii. Character shadows in particular look really good. We've added some new special effects like environment-mapped reflections on scopes and water surfaces, motion blur, sunlight transitions for time-of-day changes, and the same nightvision and flashbang effects as the xbox. You'll also notice an overall higher level of quality on the animations, characters, weapons, particle fx, and textures, and the framerate is more solid than it was on world at war. The game looks really good.

Q: Are the blood effects, splattering on the walls and the ground, the same as the original version?

A: The splats are there, but they won't stay on the walls as long as on the original - there is a performance issue when you just leave dozens of blood splat decals hanging around. The initial blood splat when the bullet hits the guy is really noticeable though - it's actually a bit more gruesome than it was in the original.

Q: How are the controls different from COD:WAW?

A: The main thing is that there is a lot more customization possible. I personally did the controls for this game, among other things. I gave you control over everything I thought would be useful, and most options are sliders rather than preset values. Your main categories are aim styles, camera turn speeds, sensitivity controls, deadzone proportions, button configuration, and then some miscellaneous options. Each of these catergories has 4-5 tunable options in it. You can set almost everything separately for whether you are firing from the hip (normal fire) or aiming down the sight (ADS), and there are additional parameters for when you are using a scoped weapon, a turret, or the ac130.

Q: What is the Marksman preset all about?

A: The Marksman preset is special. Marksman is designed to make the game feel as much as possible like a PC shooter when you aiming down the sights - "precision aiming" is turned on, and the gun stays in the center of your screen while you are in ADS.


Q: What is Precision Aiming?

A: Precision aiming mode is brand new for this game, and as far as I know, no other Wii games are using anything like this. I'll spare you the math behind it, but basically, with precision mode OFF, where you are pointing your wiimote determines how fast the camera rotates. If you point at the edge of the screen, the camera is going to rotate pretty fast until you move the wiimote back toward the center of the screen. This is how it works in WAW and most 3d wii games. People have gotten used to this. But you end up in a lot of situations where the camera just keeps spinning, or where you overshoot or undershoot your target. Precision mode fixes this - instead of moving your wiimote to turn faster, you move your wiimote to point directly at THAT point. It is very much like how aiming with the mouse works on PC shooters. Gives you a much finer degree of control over where your camera goes.

That probably didn't make much sense, but just check it out. You can enable or disable it independently for scopes and ADS. I personally think that someone who really masters precision aiming has a huge advantage over the people who don't use it.

Q: I heard you can lean now.

A: It's off by default, but if you enable it, you can lean side-to-side with the nunchuk.


Q: Isn't that going to unbalance the game?

A: No. Leaning has been in the PC versions of call of duty for years, and it definitely hasn't unbalanced anything. We just brought it over from the PC without changing any of its functionality.

Much more, including online talk here:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371684&page=23

Thanks to J-Rock

aspro said:

If I get a copy of MW2 it's going to be on the Wii. For all the faults of The Conduit I had no complaint with the controls whatsoever.

This is a port of the first Modern Warfare.

Yodariquo said:

aspro said:

If I get a copy of MW2 it's going to be on the Wii. For all the faults of The Conduit I had no complaint with the controls whatsoever.

This is a port of the first Modern Warfare.

Hmmmm. Well if it's hobopriced then I'm there. I'll have to think about this one if it's full price.

Foolz said:

You know, the gun and the street signs look good in that screenshot. Everything else, though...

That's a screen of the PC game on low settings.

Treyarch say that it looks similar to what the Wii version will look like. The screens of WaW were ass too but the game in motion looked pretty good.

More interesting stuff:

And I know the screenshots suck, but the game looks a lot better than that, and it will have to speak for itself when it comes out

fact: cod 3 was literally ported to the wii by two guys, using ps2 assets. I'm not even exaggerating. So cut us a break on that one.

Do those screenshots look bad? Yes. Does the game itself look bad? No. I'm not defending those screenshots, because they aren't accurate in the first place. No, I don't know why Activision released them. No, I don't know why they don't release new media already. But at least let the game come out before you dismiss it out of hand. The press's impressions of the graphics at the Gamescom demo were all positive, which should at least give you a hint that the game looks a lot better than those screens suggest.

It fluctuates. I don't know if I can give you a figure as to what the size of the team is. Everyone was pretty stoked to work on this project - it brings it's own set of rewards and challenges. People on the wii team could work on the HD projects if they wanted, but they choose not to.

Originally Posted by Ormberg:

Also, is there any ideas about actually writing a Wii engine for CoD? To me it seems like a no brainer, but I'm no executive game boss handling the monies

Cod4 Wii, like all call of dutys (except maybe the portables) runs on a heavily modified quake 3 arena engine. That engine was itself a descendent of Doom and Wolfenstein 3d. (There are still references in the code base to slime and lava damage lurking around.) That's almost 20 years of development, optimization, and iteration on more or less the same piece of software. It's been the backbone of dozens of successful games. Most of the kinks were worked out long ago. It's fast and easily adaptable to new hardware. It also makes it easy to share tech with other projects using the same engine. You give all of that up when you start from scratch and create a new engine.

Obviously there are some advantages to creating an engine ground-up, but the drawbacks of giving up our existing tech are huge.

Massive.

It's the same core engine that evolves from one title to the next.

Dvader said:

I wish I cared enough to read all that GG. ( I read some)

Sounds like you did a great job asking questions.

That developers really saved that thread which is the first post with ass screens, then 30 pages of bitching and screen comparisions with other games. I posed a few new questions today, hope to get a response.