4. The Graphics
OH. MY. GOD. The graphics. The whole trailer is captured in real time from an Xbox One (it tells you so at the start) and the game looks simply amazing. Ghosts may have looked good on the next gen consoles, but it was built with the PS3 and Xbox 360 in mind. In fact, it was in development even before Sony and Microsoft had started to send out developer kits for those machines, meaning it was effectively ported to them. Advanced Warfare is the first CoD game to be built with the next-gen in mind and the results are breathtaking. From the darkest urban streets, to the bright sunshine of helicopters flying across a bay, everything is full of detail and verve. The lighting effects especially lend the game an almost photorealistic edge, especially when you look at surfaces and textures. Theres a moment in the trailer where the player leaps onto a moving armoured vehicle and pulls at the metal plates, just look at how the sun reflects on the edges of the steel, its nearly real. Then theres the fire and explosions as well as the particle effects such as sparks and crumbling concrete that behave almost realistically and sit perfectly in place with the action on screen. But they all pale in comparison to the facial animations. From the character monologue to the sly smirks from the other soldiers there is a heightened sense of belief around these character models. Their skin looks real, with pores and wrinkles being more defined than ever before. The level of detail in each character model is staggering. Factor that in with the detail in the world around them and its startling what Sledgehammer have managed to coax out of the new hardware.