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Call of 3D

Treyarch's senior manager speaks out.

Eurogamer So how on earth did you fit a 3D solution into a game that's on crunch?
Jay Puryear

Having lots of smart people. It wasn't something that was necessarily developed in house at the studio. It was some R&D tech support through Activision, by some engineers that they had there.

It was something that they brought to us. It was mentioned that we'd like to do it, that they were going to be working on it. We said that we can't stop what we're doing, but if you can make our timeline...

Eurogamer So the tech was out-sourced?
Jay Puryear

It was internal, from some of the engineers from different teams at Activision.

Eurogamer Having added 3D so late in the production cycle, are you worried that you'll come back and look at it later when everyone's really got their heads around 3D, thinking about all the stuff you'd do differently?
Jay Puryear

Let's not forget, it's still a fantastic offering in 2D. You don't lose anything, you just gain a little bit.

Eurogamer Because if it was me, I'd have said: "No thanks! We're awfully busy here! We'll consider it for the next game!"
Jay Puryear

Believe me, that was where everybody was. We were definitely focused on delivering Call Of Duty: Black Ops, not looking at some other technology to go along with – to put another thing on our plate. The team's worked so hard and long and it's been such a passion of theirs for two years.

And to be fair to that, you wouldn't have what you have today if we'd set out to produce the game in 3D. It would potentially have been too much of a distraction for the team.

Eurogamer So if you're playing online in 3D, do you get any processing pay-off from your console working to generate the 3D? Online shooting is such a twitch-heavy affair, you don't want to be at a disadvantage because your console is catching up, crunching 3D numbers...
Jay Puryear

Correct. So that was part of the equation as well. We didn't want to have it that you could only play single player, or you could only do zombies or you could only play multiplayer. We really stressed to make sure that whatever mode you like as a player, we would be able to support that.

EurogamerAlso new is Combat Training – a mode where you can familiarise yourself with the levels, play against bots, not get spanked by 12 year-old ninjas from Ohio with reflexes like buttered cats...
Jay Puryear

In Combat Training you can have up to 12 characters on screen, you can go six-on-six co-op and any combination of that. We're actually playing 3 on 9 and right now it's free for all team deathmatch. But it gives you a chance to go through the guns.

EurogamerWhich is great, because a big criticism of online shooters is that if you're a novice, going online is not fun, because you just completely get annihilated.
Jay Puryear

That really was one of the main reasons that they came up with Combat Training - to let players get the experience of the levels, give players the ability to understand the system, understand levelling up and the perks, et cetera.

Eurogamer Zombies! What can you tell me about zombies?
Jay Puryear

Nothing.

Eurogamer Oh come on. There's been an announcement and everything. Throw me a bone!
Jay Puryear

We confirmed that zombies will be in Black Ops. And that's all we're saying. You should be excited that it's back. I believe even in the press release it said it was one of the world's worst kept secrets.

Even Eminem loves COD.
Eurogamer Not as bad as the PSP Go, but there you are. Were you surprised by the success of the first zombies? People went proper crazy for it.
Jay Puryear

People a hundred per cent went crazy for it. And you see its progression through the World Of War DLC. If you look at the maps that were on the disc compared to Der Riese, with the portals and the hell hounds, you can see how the game progressed through its iterations and became this great community game that everyone loves.

It's very exciting, and I think that the community is really going to love the new zombies.

Eurogamer Even Rockstar is jumping on the band wagon with their Red Dead Redemption zombie download. Is that imitation, flattery or shameless rip-off?
Jay Puryear

I would say it's a compliment. Everybody knows Call Of Duty has zombies, but we're not the first one to come up with zombies in video games. But the bar is high.

Eurogamer So the game's done?
Jay Puryear

It's been submitted, yes.

Eurogamer So surely it's about time that you all go mental, start turning tables over, getting sacked for gross insubordination and launching multi-billion-dollar law suits?
Jay Puryear

Well, I'll do my best to keep my nose clean. And focused on the future. We do have some festivities planned, and a lot of people getting ready for vacation... We are at the end, just waiting to see how everyone responds to everyone's hard work.

Jay Puryear is senior manager at Treyarch. Call of Duty: Black Ops is out on 9th November for PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS.

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