Xbox Addict

CoD Competitive Edge is 60 FPS

There’s been a bit of mud slinging between the respective sides for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. While the latter has been praised for its impressive visuals and the Frostbite 2 engine, Sledgehammer Games co-founder Glen Schofield is adamant that MW3’s ability to run at 60 frames per second should not be understated.
 In an interview with AusGamers at E3, Schofield was asked if the engine that continues to be used to power the Call of Duty series will ever be dropped of favor of something entirely new. He said, "I don’t really know. I mean we really revamped this engine. We put a whole new audio system in and it is as competitive as anybody out there. You can go out and name your engine and call it whatever you want, right. You know, I’ve done that before; I’ve seen that trick and the bottom line is, this game will run at 60 frames a second. Not sure any of our competitors will.
 
"Not sure I’ve seen any of our competitors on the console especially running at 60 frames a second and I’d be a little scared at this point -- in June -- if I was looking forward to a particular game that wasn’t on the console and running at 60. And I think 60 is our competitive edge and you just don’t throw that away."
 
Some fans have called for Infinity Ward to develop an entirely new engine. That’s obviously easier said than done, as it would require a big investment; as of Black Ops, the Call of Duty series was doing just fine whether or not it’s running on the latest and greatest technology.
 
"What you do is you build upon it, right? And build and build and build," Schofield continued. "And we build new tools that make us more efficient. We built brand new tools so that we could put more stuff in. That’s why, you’ll see a level and you’ll come out of the water; so we’ve built all this water. You’ve got New York in the background; you’ve got explosions going on; you’ve got skyscrapers, then you have this huge submarine coming out of the water. We’re able to put so much on the screen because it’s an engine and it’s well-known, it’s very clean and we’re able to easily upgrade it.
 
"So I don’t know what the future holds for the engine. But you don’t ship an engine, you ship a game."
 
Sledgehammer had been planning to work on an action/adventure Call of Duty game -- a project that has not been forgotten -- but is focused for now on assisting Infinity Ward with development on MW3.
 
Schofield never directly mentions Battlefield 3, although based upon the way the question is framed, it’s pretty clear that it is the competitor being referred to. The two games will be squaring off later this year; BF3 is set for release on October 25 followed two weeks later by MW3 on November 8.