Variety is the spice of life

Get the scoop on the new Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack from the game's producer, Mark Rubin.

As well as being amongst the best single player games of 2007, Call of Duty 4 is one of the most popular games on PLAYSTATION Network, with thousands of players logging in each day to continue the fun online. Now the experience is being given a boost with the introduction of the Variety Map Pack, four new multiplayer levels for you to test your skills and prove your worth. Eu.playstation.com caught up with the game's producer, Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin to find out more...

Where did the idea for the Variety Map Pack come from?

When you're developing a game there's always a lot of stuff that you love, but can't get into the finished game, so we started thinking about new maps. As the game shipped we started getting a lot of feedback from players about what they wanted, and we based the Variety Pack on that feedback. So the idea started early but developed post launch.

What can we expect from the pack?

We call it the Variety Pack, not because we couldn't think of anything clever to call it but because each map is completely different and the gameplay itself in each map is very different.

Creek is a large open map in a woodland environment, which is one of the things that people requested - large open maps with a lot of foliage that would be good for sneaking around in ghillie suits. So we made Creek based on that feedback. One of the things we did on that map was to have an amazing difference in elevation. You're not just getting a height advantage from being in a building - this is higher terrain which you don't see in many games. Even maps that are primarily outdoors tend to be very flat whereas Creek has these big differences in height throughout the level.

The next map is Broadcast. This was something we had a lot of requests for, to make the TV station from the single-player level Charlie Don't Surf into a multiplayer map. It was already a really intense single player experience, so we looked at this and thought "how can we make it as good as a multiplayer experience?" We sat down and really worked on it for a long time, so that we now have the TV station as well as areas all around it that create a really complex and intense environment for close quarters combat.

Killhouse was built on community feedback for more split-screen close-up Deathmatch, and for one-on-one, Cage Match gameplay.

Chinatown was based on a map from Call of Duty 1 and Call of Duty 2 map. We've had a history on the previous Call of Dutys of taking old maps that are really loved from old games and updating them, so we took the Carentan level that was in Call of Duty 1 and 2 and bought it in. We didn't just want to make it look Russian or Middle-Eastern like the other levels though, so we thought "what is the strangest most different thing we can do with this map?" and decided on Chinatown, San Francisco.

How do you feel about the way Call of Duty 4 has taken off online? Were you expecting such a huge response?

Not really. In development we're very sheltered, working crazy hours, and no one really knows what's going on in the world. A volcano could erupt and we'd be none the wiser!  As we were going through development we knew we had something that was really fun, and that we had a great game, but we had no idea of the response we'd get from fans, but it was good and now we're getting feedback from people outside the industry and outside the gaming community, like celebrities going on TV shows like Conan O'Brien saying that they love Call of Duty which is amazing and gratifying. So we're hitting a much broader market which has really been a great surprise.

The Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack is available for download on PLAYSTATION Network now.