After Lucas released videos related to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Howard Hwasah, the head of Storm Action at Atari and one of the company's top designers, was also closely watching the content.
After all, the game he developed, Storm Action, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare were both launching on different platforms—one on Zeus, the other on Universe.
On top of that, both being FPS games, this put them in direct competition.
If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare turned out to have the same quality as Rainbow Six: Siege, Howard Hwasah wouldn't worry at all.
Because in that case, the other game would have no edge.
It's not that Rainbow Six: Siege is bad, but in some ways, it does things too well.
Its hardcore gameplay means it's a dish only a few people can enjoy.
And for FPS games, tying them to hardcore style guarantees they won't appeal to the masses.
The reason FPS games are one of the biggest genres worldwide is that most of them offer a quick, snack-like experience.
"Snack-like" might sound cheap or low-end.
But isn't most gaming just for relaxing?
After work, you open the game, don't overthink, and just have fun.
And if a game can also give players some emotional story moments or real depth on top of that, no doubt it can become legendary.
Some games that are too hardcore or too deep might get praise from players and good reviews.
But they won't sell to the majority.
Howard Hwasah saw this clearly.
To him, Storm Action was a game made for sales, designed to boost the Zeus platform.
Otherwise, why would Atari buy the rights to that Hammer IP?
But now, the promo videos for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare made Howard Hwasah instinctively wary.
Because he had to admit, those big scenes were truly impressive.
Plus, Nebula Games now had a solid reputation overseas.
Howard Hwasah naturally didn't dare underestimate them.
.........
Soon, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Storm Action were going head-to-head.
They traded promo waves every day.
One day you'd release news about the lead actor doing motion capture; the next, I'd share some concept art.
At first, both sides mostly showed behind-the-scenes stuff from development.
Like the lead actor in motion capture or concept artwork.
When they really ran out of things to promote, even the game designers jumped in personally to hype it up.
As time went on and development progressed, actual in-game footage started coming out.
Storm Action released a battle clip about fifteen seconds long.
It was a segment from escaping a building, which got many players excited.
Right after, Lucas dropped a video too.
In a stormy night with pouring rain, a cargo ship at sea, a team of fully armed special forces sneaks onto the deck and takes out enemies.
But what caught players' eyes wasn't the gameplay—time was too short for that.
From dropping in from the air to landing on deck, just about twenty seconds total.
What really shocked players was how outstanding the visuals were.
Lighting, rain, super-high-res textures—it looked just like CG.
After seeing this simple twenty-second demo of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, all the players were stunned.
"Holy crap, these graphics just crushed Storm Action!"
"If I didn't know Lucas doesn't do watered-down teasers or fake promos, I'd swear this was straight-up CG!"
"My god! This is too epic. Does that mean Universe hardware is way stronger than Zeus!?"
Many players let out gasps of awe.
Even game industry designers who had been following closely were taken aback.
The difference was just too clear.
And for these designers, they'd studied the performance of Zeus and Universe.
They were pretty much on par.
So they knew exactly what these visuals for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare meant.
But after a quick moment of surprise, Howard Hwasah and other industry designers figured out how Nebula Games pulled it off.
It was basically focusing the console's power on threaded level design.
But here's the issue: doing that would force loading screens.
Storm Action actually needs loading too, but it uses real-time rendering to cover it up, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare can't.
Focusing hardware like this, even with the new VR's fast hard drive model and special optimizations making speeds impressive, means at least 20 to 30 seconds of loading per map. That breaks the flow when switching levels and hurts the player experience.
Many industry designers suddenly got it.
.........
As for Lucas right now, he was testing game content.
In the game, Lucas was crawling on the ground, firing wildly at enemies all around.
Bullets hitting the dirt, shredding grass and kicking up mud splatters.
Blood staining the soil and green grass red.
A gun resting on the ground leaves a slight dent.
This was a level in the game, and inside it, Lucas played as Captain Price.
In the original game from his past life, players only got to play as Price in two levels.
One was a flashback level, the classic sniper mission: All Ghillied Up.
The other was the final level of the game.
But compared to the game, there was actually a gap.
In the past life, Activision dug a plot hole but never filled it.
Some dedicated fan players made a short film to patch the story, and the official loved it so much they said it was great and made it canon.
Operation Kingfish, or Stonefish Operation.
So in this game, Lucas officially added it in.
As the final Easter egg for the first part.
As for why at the end of the first one.
Because timeline-wise, it lines up perfectly with the second part.
Second, the game follows a trilogy format, where Sheffield in the second part and Makarov in the third are connected, with timelines that flow right into each other.
Only the first part feels cut off, so you need something to hook players and keep them coming back?
(End of Chapter)
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