This week we bring you a special BASH episode dealing with Treyarch's Preview of their new upcoming CoD World at War to the CoD Community.

Matt Pruitt from planetcallofduty.com and planetmedalofhonor.com

Jim aka Rudedog from FPSadmin.com

Both Matt and Jim are on the program with me to talk about what they saw. So grab your Garand and K-rations and buckle down for an information packed one-hour special edition of BASH.

Here is Matt's diary of his trip down to Treyarch:

Matt's CoD WW Preview

and here is Jim's:

Jim's CoD WW Preview

SHOW NOTES:

Here are the questions we asked during the interview:

Community Event Description

Treyarch announced their new entrant into the CoD series a few weeks ago. Soon afterward, certain members of the CoD community leadership were invited down to Treyarch HQ in Santa Monica California for a Community Event.

What was the purpose of the event and its scope?

Who got to go and why? There were some notable members of our community left off...guys like PST*Joker, the console guys I believe were not there either...

Off to California

Briefly describe your own journeys from the NE down to California...describe where Treyarch is

How big is Treyarch? How many people work there?

One of our former community members is now the head of Community Relations at Treyarch, I'm speaking about Josh of course. How is Josh doing down there?

The Bataan Death March

MATT you participated in what I'm calling the Bataan death March...a five mile run on the Friday of the event. What was that like?

Jim, I was reading your Twitter blog during the event...I see that you were smart enough to beg off this stunt.

Treyarch Intro

Give us a background on Treyarch. Describe what they have done.

The setting for WW is the Pacific Theater and Berlin. The only things I see in common is that both theaters evoke late-WWII events. Do you think this means that W@W will be the last WWII title
to come out of COD? Are they closing the book with this game?

Matt, what was your reaction to knowing that we would be seeing the latest CoD going into the pacific, given your experiences with Pacific Assault?

Jim, you are a big history buff, and FPS games have yet to uncover 90% of it...are you looking forward to getting into hand/hand scuffles with the Japanese and seeing the death throes of the 3rd Reich?

Community Sentiment towards Treyarch

There are mixed feelings about this game and I'll come at you with these before we discuss the game itself.

Many of the general public dislike the idea of WW being worked on by Treyarch. Why do you think there is so much antipathy towards Treyarch?

The competitive guys are incensed about WW as they think it will rob CoD4 of staying power and destroy that community. What do you think Treyarch's WW will do to IW's CoD4? Will CoD4 still be updated/catered for?

The WW Engine

Word is that WW is based on the CoD4 engine. What changes that you know of have been made to that engine?

Any gut feeling as to what will be needed to run this game? Do you think that the specs will stay the same as CoD4?

Game Physics

Matt, in your article you described an environment that is a bit more destructible than CoD4. How much more destructible is it?

What is sound occlusion?

Treyarch's Dog and Pony Show

Jim, what did you get to see at Treyarch? Is the game playable? Did you get to play the game yourself?

Matt, how much time is Treyarch getting to complete this game?

Vehicles

I've seen a PBY Catalina in the XBox magazine article and heard that it was mocked up on a full scale model...

That article in Xbox magazine indicates that there will be player steered vehicles in this game? Is this true? If so...what will be drivable?

Weapons

What is the flamethrower all about?

Jim, you're a weapon's connoisseur, what weapons will we get to fire?

Single Player

Brutality and Vengeance. These words seem to constantly be used for the tone of the game.

Jim, why vengeance? What made the Pacific Theater and the battle for Berlin so different that Treyarch is required to create such a "dark" game?....I'm presuming it will be rated mature.

Matt, you have written about one level in the game, tell us a little about The Makin Raid. Did you see any other levels? For example, Midnight Patrol.

Jim, could you tell us a little about the new AI? Treyarch's been saying that they are scripting the AI to better capture the intensity and ferocity of the fighting in the Pacific Theater...do you have any
examples of this?

Cooperative Mode

Can you explain the details of Cooperative play. How does this work in Multiplayer?

How will Cooperative mode work for server admins out there?

Multiplayer

Jim, for all the competitive gamers who are worried about WW...how easy do you think it would be tune this game for competitions...can the admins turn off vehicles, flamethrowers...etc.

Release Date

Matt, your excellent article on this preview states it will be coming out in the Fall. Others have said next year. What do you know?

Conclusions

Matt, will CoD WW fragment the CoD community further? Will CoD4 see a dropoff in players? Modding talent?

Jim, any sense that Treyarch is working with IW on fixing problems with the current engine?

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