Digital Encounters: Daniel Suarez, Call of Duty: World at War

We met with Daniel Suarez, executive producer of Activision, a virtual meeting in which you are the protagonists. All questions and concerns raised by users is reflected in this exclusive interview.

After a first successful Digital encounter with Peter Hines about Fallout 3, which took place in the forums of the magazine a few weeks ago, Daniel Suarez has taken over and answered the questions that the user community over the proposed PCGameTrek days. The executive producer of Activision has shown a good sense of humor and, most importantly, a concern more than evident to demonstrate the new features World at War. This time the project has been borne by Treyarch, and on this issue, in addition to the impact and doubts arising as a result of the beta, have revolved around almost all of the questions. We summarized the interview in the following extract;

David Suarez. Good morning. I'm looking forward to the interview, I think we started on it shortly. I apologize in advance for not answering my questions in Castilian, my grandmother would have been very proud, but you probably partiríais readers laugh.

O Dae_soo: Why did you choose to Treyarch as the developer of the game after the huge success that was Infinity Ward with CoD4?

DS. Treyarch chose mainly for its history with the brand. They have been developing games for longer than World War II lasted. Many team members have worked in the first expansion to Call of Duty, United Offense (which actually is the old Grey Matter team, who worked on Return to Castle Wolfenstein). For many this is their fourth Call of Duty and also love this franchise.

Call of Duty: World At War (PlayStation 3)

unis1703: In COD4 the action took place today, and it was really awesome. Why have you gone back to the conflict of the Second World War?

DS. Just as CoD4 redefined the modern military shooter, we feel that we wanted to do the same with cod5 in regard to the Second World War. Infinity Ward after COD2 redefined this franchise and we feel that we did the same in CoD3. Treyarch has spent two years and much effort to analyze and qualify the key that could redefine the way in which the players understand the Second World War.

Call of Duty 5 (PlayStation 3)

kissadicto: Since World War 2 is a time of history much exploited in pc games and being the Call of Duty series a reference, what do you think can bring this new installment in this regard?

DS. World War to start strong in a new setting, the Pacific, we had not used before in the franchise. This gives us a new enemy, the Imperial Japanese Army, and dozens of new tactics and banzai charges, spider holes, Kamakazi attacks, etc., which actually increase the feeling of suspense and dramatic tension during the game. In the Russian campaign we have taken a very personal look for this battle from the eyes of a Russian sols and their revenge against the Nazi German army. It is the story is narrated by Gary Oldman, Sgt Reznov, who stars in a story really brutal, but very different from what we've seen before in a Call of Duty. I think it's one of the ways in which we staged to refresh the concept of the Second World War and everything that surrounds him.

Dying_day: I played well to the beta and my friends and I have encountered a lot of bugs. I killed a guy who was below the earth! Can we trust that all these defects have been corrected in the final?

DS. Yes, we are aware of all the problems of beta and we have corrected immediately. The PC version was released shortly after the 360 and solved some problems, and last week released a patch that amended some of the problems detected in the beta. We are very pleased with the acceptance we have received from users and we have been working on upgrades to ensure a smooth launch. We take into account the opinion of the fan community and it is very important to both Activision Treyarch view to providing the best gaming experience possible.