Yesterday Activision announced that Call of Duty will be returning to its World War II roots. The uninspired title of the game, Call of Duty: WWII will have a worldwide trailer reveal on April 26 th at 10AM PDT. Fans of the series have criticized the game for taking the game too far into the future. Wall running, jet boosting and exo suits were fun for a while but quickly players realized it was taking away from the fundamental FPS principals that originally made it a success. Games like Counter-Strike have remained grounded in fundamental FPS design without the need for including wall running, boosting or any other gimmick. It has maintained and grown its fan base since its original release in 1999. The people developing the new Call of Duty have a lot to prove.      Another game series adding competition for Call of Duty is Battlefield . The series broke away from the future/modern theme last year with the critically acclaimed release of Battlefield 1 . ...

After playing the Battlefield 1 Beta one thing has become immediately clear, it is the most realistic war game I have ever played. I discussed my hope for this in length in a previous post . While playing, I genuinely felt anxiety as I started the game running across the desert with my comrades. As we made it to the first town we were ambushed by an enemy tank and we had to quickly dive for cover in a freshly made crater from artillery. As a medic I tried to revive my squad mate but when I made it to him I was gunned down by a German sniper. I respawned into the machine gun of an allied truck and quickly found myself returning fire at a bi plane that was trying to rip us apart and all of this was just my first game. Never before has a war game been this realistic. The magic of Battlefield 1 lays in the fact that you are going to die, a lot. Death is simply around every corner. If you are not blown up by a tank, shot by a sniper or gunned down by a plane, you will certainly be ra...

The upcoming release of Battlefield 1 will signal the franchises return to its historical roots, and the first time a triple-A gaming franchise has used World War 1 as its setting. The Battlefield series got its start with the highly successful Battlefield: 1942 . Taking place during World War II, the game allowed players to fight against each other in a recreation of the D-Day invasion at Normandy and many other historically based scenarios. The game also utilized weaponry and vehicles from the war to give players a more authentic feeling. The Medal of Honor series mastered this and the highly successful, and critically acclaimed Call of Duty franchise also got its claim to fame using World War II as the foundation of its first games. As Battlefield and Call of Duty have battled one another for sales and players, they pretty much exhausted every major narrative from World War II in the process. To continue their success, both have taken their games from the modern battlefie...