Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey made the news known via a tweet:

.@OpTic_BigTymeR Thanks for stopping by @SHGames to check out #AdvancedWarfare. + Not a bad showing for a rookie: pic.twitter.com/nkjdP8XbyI

— Michael Condrey (@MichaelCondrey) June 21, 2014

The image also reveals that Capture the Flag will be making a return in Advanced Warfare, as well as a six versus six mode.

Atlas Corporation is the name of the largest MPC in the game — which launches on November 4th, 2014, on PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. A Wii U version hasn’t been confirmed.

“PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners don’t have to worry about Activision forgetting them, as Advanced Warfare will be brought to the last generation of consoles as well,” Game Informer writes in its latest issue.

“Sledgehammer will not be handling the development, however. Activision has yet to announce the studio behind these versions of the game.”

In March 2014, games website VideoGamer discovered that High Moon Studios was hiring for a “high-profile, First Person Shooter” for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with one particular job listing seeking an employee with experience of Radiant Engine – the level editor used to create Call of Duty maps.

Let’s have a look at what the game will look like on next-gen consoles.

What do you guys think? Looks real enough?

It’s easy to figure out Activision’s strategy here. By allowing Sledgehammer to take control of the Modern Warfare series while Infinity Ward traverses a new route, the publisher will be able to calm critics of the franchise who say that yearly releases of COD games are hurting the franchise, by being able to now say that, even if the shooter sees a new title on the market every year, each game will have been three years in development, enough time to release a quality title. Let’s not forget Treyarch and its successful Black Ops series.

Check out this new trailer from Sledgehammer, and view this job listing which explicitly makes known that whoever gets hired will be working on the developer’s upcoming Call of Duty game.

All-in-all, I believe it’s a great move by Activision and I admire their dedication to the Call of Duty franchise. I’m also looking forward to Destiny, the new title from Bungie being published by Activision.

What do you guys think about Activision’s Call of Duty strategy? Share your thoughts.

“Congratulations to the team at Rockstar for their success. We look forward to getting the record back before the next GTA title,” Activision UK senior brand manager Kevin Flynn told MCV.

Is it possible? GTAV has swiftly taken over Call of Duty: Black Ops record, and is full-throttle on track to sideline FIFA13 to become the bestselling game of all time in the UK, a feat that should be easily accomplished based on the title’s current trajectory.

So, can Call of Duty regain its crown? Let’s hear your thoughts.

When Call of Duty: Ghosts was announced by Activision and Infinity Ward, the Modern Warfare series was presumed dead. We thought Activision had finally let go of the long-running Modern Warfare story for something else that included dogs, but apparently that’s not what happened. The series only changed hands, with Sledgehammer Games now working on a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game that’s to be released next year.

Rob Valdivia, a senior VFX (Visual Effects) artist at Sledgehammer, made the huge mistake of including on his LinkedIn profile his current job description, knowing full well that the game hasn’t been announced, maybe hoping that the games media wouldn’t catch on to it. He was wrong.

And there you have it. We now know what Sledgehammer’s big secret is. It’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, most likely seeing a release next year, since they’ve been working on the title longer than Treyarch has been working on its next-gen Call of Duty game.

But at what time of the year will it release? During spring? Summer? It certainly won’t be in November 2014, as that spot is reserved for Treyarch. Fascinating stuff.

By the way, sir Valdivia’s LinkedIn profile has completely vanished. I wonder why…

In the pack you’ll find new multiplayer maps, Spec Ops missions and the first Face Off maps which introduces 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 close combat.

Oasis: Though once a picturesque escape for vacationers, the sprawling Hotel Oasis is now a Multiplayer paradise, with multiple lanes of combat built atop an ancient fortress.

Kill Switch: An intense new Special Ops Mission that places your two-man team deep in enemy territory. Your mission – cripple a Russian carrier by detonating an Electromagnetic Pulse. Be the soldier on the ground, making your way to the detonation site, or play the sniper providing vital cover fire from a vantage point high above the city. Work together or risk getting overrun by a horde of hostile forces.

Iron Clad: With one player helming an Abrams-class tank and the other escorting it on foot, you’ll clear beaches and take cover in plane wreckage as you escape Hamburg from behind enemy lines in this all-new Special Ops Mission.

Getaway: The first “Face Off” map in Modern Warfare® franchise history, what once was a tropical beach getaway boasting exotic aquariums and oversized pools is now a haven for ruthless run-and-gun violence.

Lookout: Carved into a combat-weary mountainside, this new “Face Off” map pits you against your opposition in a forward observation base littered in chokepoints and tight corridors.

Free to Public – Erosion: Make your way through Mediterranean ruins and ancient aqueducts, using leftover Roman masonry for thousand-year-old cover in this new “Face Off” map.

Free to Public – Aground: Head to Scotland’s Orkney Islands for the latest “Face Off” map, where treacherous cliff faces, networks of caves and the rusted and ruined remains of a grounded transport ship provide for constant combat.

According to G4TV, Face-off mode is intended for “small, intense battles, with maps optimised for groups of one versus one or two versus two.” In essence, if you want to take me, Maestro-GTUnit on in a one-on-one because I’ve wasted you one too many times on the battlefield, Face-off mode will be the place to settle the beef.

New Maps

Two new COD maps,”Getaway” and “Lookout” will be released on May 22 as part of the main DLC Collection 2 release.

Getaway: takes place in a beachside mansion in Brazil, while Lookout is set in a forward observation post in Afghanistan.

Lookout: an observation post in Afghanistan. The Sanctuary and Foundation maps already available through Elite will be included, as will an brand new beach resort romp called Oasis.

New map “IronClad” is also included, and is set immediately after the Hamburg mission from the single player campaign, with you and your pal making it back to the landing beach after the initial assault, or dying in the attempt.

Video Thirst: Face-off In Action

The time came when I saw the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 had been released and they had been out, about probably a year, and I was in college at the time, so I used my college money to purchase both a PS3 and Xbox 360, and I bought a bunch of games, among those games were the ones I was the most excited to play and that was Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War, I hoped into my first match on Call of Duty 4 and man I sucked horribly at it, I went 2-30, but I progressively got better and better, and I noticed that during each Call of Duty release, I was actually getting a lot better. Back when I started playing Call of Duty 4, I didn’t know what the term “Noob” or “Camper” meant, and I didn’t know at the time that you were a noob if you used the ol’ Juggernaut/x3 Frag/ and M16 combo. But as I played the game more and more, I meant more and more friends, and I started to see a trend going on.

This feature will detail what I think about the Call of Duty franchise, because lets face it, there are too many people out there right now bashing Black Ops II, and they haven’t even seen it yet, it happens every year, but I write this article in hopes that some of you realize that this isn’t what being a gamer is all about, sure we are the consumer and we deserve to have things we want in the game, however, for people to constantly bash the developers with vulgar and rude comments is immature and disgusting to me.

The History of The Call of Duty Community
The History of Call of Duty, spans years, from I believe the first Call of Duty, to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Every single game brought with it a different experience, and a different way to either play be it having Killstreaks, or even having new ways to tactically manuever around the map. The Map design in all of the Call of Duty games is done for a specific reason, and don’t get me wrong, there ARE rules to designing maps that designers set for themselves. Every single Call of Duty to date, reguardless if people think it is true or not, have brought a new way to play the game being it adding new killstreaks, or adding new weapons or perks, or even designing the maps differently. I am not one to disagree with a lot of the community that the last few Call of Duty Games have been copy and paste in a certain sense, elaborating on that statement, I believe that the developers and designers put there heart into the game, they have a deadline as to when the game needs to be finished, and everything done to the game is subject to approval or disapproval by Activision supervisors, so I for one agree with a handful of the community members, but the ALOT of the community and you know who you are, voices there opinion on the games, is not the right way to go about it, a true gamer will support his or her favorite game, in this case Call of Duty, no matter the problems, all you can do is provide feedback and hope the game changes. A lot of the feedback players give to the Call of Duty developers is highly considered but don’t make it in for a reason, they don’t just sit there and say, “Oh this guy wants this and that guy wants that” They take every idea into consideration, if it doesn’t fit, then it wont be in, move on and think of other things to give feedback on. I know I am not talking much about history, but in a sense for the last 2 years, this has been the history of Call of Duty Community, the same stuff happens every year, people complain and complain and still buy the game.

THE HISTORY OF CALL OF DUTY

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, gamers had everything they could ever want be it Guns, Attachments, Maps, Perks, Killstreaks, Etc, up to now, every Call of Duty has had these, but there is numerous differences between Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the last few games released. When playing COD4, players would immerse themselves into chaotic street battles taking place on a Russian Ship at Sea, shooting away any enemies in there way, this is what made COD4 such a blast to play. Now like all games, COD4 had its issues, be it 3x Frag Grenades hurling through the air and killing you constantly, or getting that kill you needed to be one step closer to your next killstreak, then getting killed with that Martydom, or even occasionally getting pwned by that one guy hiding in the back of map, shooting you with his M16. Aside from it’s exhilarating multiplayer, COD4′s Campaign, brought players into the footsteps of SAS (Special Air Services) Member, “Soap” Mctavish, known by his Squad Leader, Captain John Price as Soap. Of course as well all know, Call of Duty puts you in the shoes of not one, but two soldiers shoes, the other faction being the U.S. Marines, where you play as Sergeant Ramirez, with the Marine Recon Team. You spend a lengthy time, pursuing Ultranationalist Amhir Al’ Asad, forgive me if I have that wrong, under the orders by the Ultranationalist Leader Zachaev. I wont go into the story too much so not to spoil it for those of you who haven’t played it yet. My point is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was THE Call of Duty of its time.

Now let’s skip World at War and go further in the past to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In my opinion, World at War was an amazing game, save one extremely beast gun, the MP40.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

When Modern Warfare 2, was first released, millions of players played it hours and hours on end, I myself have over 400 hours on the game. Modern Warfare 2 brought an entirely new expansive Multiplayer to the front lines, adding in new Guns, Maps, Perks, Attachments, and introducing Customizable Killstreaks, which of course was the iceing to the cake, when gamers found out. However, many gamers did not like this idea, as they were more accustomed to the classic 3,5,7 Killsreaks (UAV, Airstrike, and Helecoptor) I for one liked this recipe myself, and was a bit skeptic about the new Killstreaks. Once the game launched in November of 2009, people could not wait to hop on and pwn them some “Noobs”. The game had its fair share of issues like all games, however these issues seem to become more and more with each Call of Duty, if you weren’t getting continuously spammed by Air Support, you were getting killed with the infamous OMA/Noobtube Combo, which angered players greatly and caused them to abandon the games for a good amount of time. However, the one true aspect of the game, I felt was the most valuable to the experience was the Campaign once again. Continueing off of Call of Duty 4′s Story, Modern Warfare 3, puts you in the shoes of a U.S. Army Ranger named Private Allan, however your place in the Rangers doesn’t last long, as you are selected to be apart of an elite Task for called Task Force 141, headed by General Shepard, joined by an old familiar name, Captain Soap Mctavish joins you as a highly experienced soldier in your fight against the next generation Ultra Nationalist Leader, Vladamir Makarov, seeking revenge against the Americans for the death of his mentor Zachaev. But, as many know, some things are not what it seems, and the fight is now towards your own nations men, General Shepard also seeks revenge against the U.S. for unrelated events occuring before COD4. All in all, this game was amazing, but unfortunately, fell due to idiotic people.

Now we take a jump into the not so distant past with Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops, was for some people a welcome and refreshing break, from MW2. Black Ops brought an entirely new and innovative way to play the Multiplayer, instead of the traditional, level up and unlock things, they incorporated a currency system, which allowed players to gain X amount of COD Points from regular Multiplayer matches, or the new Wagermatches. The Wagermatches in it self, brought in an entirely new way to play Call of Duty, with modes such as Gun Game, where you went into the map and use a preset number of classes, gaining a kill with one weapon would allow you to advance to the next weapon, the first player to get a kill with every weapon, was declared the winner, which was an amazing addition I might say. One in the Chamber was another fun addition, which allowed you to run around the map with just a pistol, with one bullet, allowing you to shoot your one bullet, to gain another, or knife another player to gain a bullet. Although Wagermatches were fun, players also got to pick from new Guns, Perks, Killstreaks, Attachments, Etc. Of course as well all know well enough, every game has its own faults, and with Black Ops, the faults weren’t too bad, save the Ghost Perk, which allowed you in its basic form, be undetectable by ememy radar, or air support, which was causing anger between gamers. But as well all know, no Call of Duty fails with its Campaign. Black Ops’s Campaign put you in the shoes of CIA Operative Mason, whom is under some sort of mind control. I will refrain from spoiling the rest of the story.

Now we arrive at the present, with the current up-to-date Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the biggest entertainment launch of 2011, bringing in a gross of $775 Million the first WEEK. Modern Warfare 2 definately has its fun points, such as the new and improved Spec Ops mode with the new Survival aspect of the mode, which puts you against increasingly tough AI with each Wave you complete, this in my opinion, added a small fraction of replay value to the game, however not only did Spec Ops intrigue gamers, it was the Multiplayer we were all hoping would be new and exciting. MW3′s Multiplayer gave us new Guns, Maps, Attachments, Perks, and the addition of the new Strike Packages, which would give you access to one of 3 packages. Assasult Strike package was the first, which included deadly air strikes like the Reaper, and the AC-130. The Support Strike package allowed players to play with team work in mind, however as we all know, that not everyone in Call of Duty knows how to play as a team. The last strike package is the Specialist which afforded you every perk in the game after seven kills, which made you a deadly killing machine. However, once again Infinity Ward did not fail to WOW us with the campaign, which puts you in the shoes of two soldiers, returning from MW2 is Captain Soap Mctavish, and Captain John Price, accompanied by a trusted friend Yuri. The Story takes you to new locations and different parts of the country, you continue to chase after Makarov. I will end this here, as I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. Further more, the games developer, Infinity Ward, has failed to address certain, bugs, and tweaks the games desperately needs, however, I believe MW3 is a fairly good game, and is worth the buy, aside from the most overpowered gun in the game, the Type 95.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

The Future of Modern Warfare….Is Black. After just being revealed on the first of this month, Call of Duty: Black Ops II has already far surpassed its prodesseors in terms of pre-order sales, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is shaping up to be the best Call of Duty to date. Being set in the 80′s during the first Cold War, Black Ops II puts you in the shoes of Call of Duty: Black Ops Hero’s Alex Mason and Rick Woods. Black Ops II has you galavanting in afghanistan on a horse, chasing after the villian of the game(YES I SAID VILLIAN). For the first time ever however, Call of Duty comes into the future, the year 2025 to be exact, where the use of Drones and Smart AI Robots. The game itself is promising to be the most amazing Call of Duty of all the rest.

The Future Of Call of Duty

The Future of Call of Duty looks to be promising, after Black Ops II release, Infinity Ward is due to release there next game, perhaps they can take a few lessons from Treyarch in terms of being more unique. However, the future for Call of Duty is not certain, we can only sit back and watch as the games take shape from year to year, and hope that each developer learns from each other. Reguardless, I will forever hold Call of Duty close to my heart, as it is my favorite franchise by far.

That wraps up this Games Thirst Feature, I hope you all enjoy and maybe take what I say to heart.

Let’s start a discussion with this, what do you guys see happening in the future of Call of Duty, and remember, be respectful, be mature and above all, have an open mind.

In it you’ll find four multiplayer maps, two Spec Ops missions and all the content that was released as part of collection #1 on Xbox 360 and PS3 in Janaury, March and April.

Meanwhile, the latest COD Elite drops Sanctuary and Foundation are now available on Xbox 360, and will set you back 87.11MB and 114.04MB respectively.

The pack weighs in at 85MB. Black Box, Negotiator, and Black Ice will come available in April for PS3 Elite subs, and later for regular users.

Collection 1 includes:

• Black Ice: This Special Ops mission plunges combatants deep into a frozen diamond mine via snowmobile in order to infiltrate a secret weapons plant and initiate the self-destruct sequence to take the facility offline for good.
• Negotiator: India is the backdrop for a Special Ops hostage extraction, where gamers must execute flawless breach-and-clears and negotiate a maze of surface streets to ensure the safety of rescued civilians.
• Liberation: Players take up positions in a militarized Central Park in the heart of NYC, a sprawling deathscape ripe for long-range sniper and LMG kills.
• Piazza: An idyllic seaside village, an Italian getaway gone rogue, where blind corners and a complex warren of branching pathways pose danger at every turn.
• Overwatch: A compact, sky-high battle arena set in a construction site atop a New York City office tower.
• Black Box: Players seek tactical advantage in multi-level hillside homes overlooking a downed Air Force One, as a luxe SoCal neighborhood turns into a warzone.

The DLC costs $14.99 or 1500 MS Points.

“Our biggest DLC content pack in franchise history arrives stockpiled with four Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps and two Special Ops Missions,” said Activision.