Most of what we`ve learned so far about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this year`s remake of the 2007 shooter, has focused on its story. While Modern Warfare sees the return of some old characters, it`s telling a new tale when it releases this fall. At the same time, developer Infinity Ward has been mostly silent about the game`s multiplayer side, outside of details about the addition of cross-play to the game. That changes with the announcement of a new multiplayer game type coming in Modern Warfare, called `Gunfight.`Infinity Ward showed off Gunfight in a livestream that let Twitch personalities duke it out in the new mode. Gunfight drills down Call of Duty multiplayer to its essence with super-fast two-versus-two matches that take place on small maps. Players face off against each other over multiple rounds, and the first team to take down six rounds wins the whole match. Speed is the key to Gunfight: Matches run on a 40-second timer, and if you haven`t wiped out the opposing duo by then, a flag appears in the center of the map. The first team to control the area around the flag for three seconds wins the round; each round wraps up in about a minute or less.We had a chance to play Gunfight last month during Infinity Ward`s Modern Warfare preview event, and the mode was impressive. It streamlines Call of Duty multiplayer significantly--you don`t mess around with equipment, Killstreaks, or loadouts when you fire up a match. Instead, the match assigns a set of equipment to all players each round, so everyone is evenly matched with the same gear. Thus, it`s a mode that`s all about outsmarting and outplaying your opponents with your skills, rather than your weapons.Gunfight has three maps: Pine, which is set in a forest; Stack, a container yard in the desert; and King, a warehouse training area that feels a lot like Captain Price`s plywood-and-spray paint training ground from the original Modern Warfare. We played on King, which was small enough that it was almost ...
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