The graphical highlight of MW2? “Two dumpsters and a piece of garbage”

“Cracks in the sidewalk” to play supporting role.

"Might I draw your attention, gentleman, to the exquisite brushwork on the tin can in bottom left..."

So Infinity Ward’s Studio Head Vince Zampella and Producer Mark Rubin got together recently to chat about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, megaton of FPS megatons and one of a very few games to make the British look manly. Guess what, we were there too.

Modern Warfare 2’s got serious visual presence, its muscular streaming technology allowing the developer to push back level perimeters and step up the detail at close quarters, but if Zampella is to be believed, the engine isn’t at its best when rendering shiny normal-mapped AK47s, nor beautifully textured terrorist bandanas, nor exploding helicopters and the like. No sir, Zampella’s an artist – and artists find beauty in the most unlikely of places.

“It’s just a matter of detail, little touches,” he told us. ”Transitions from wall to ground are now hand-touched by all the artists so that everything fits. If you see some of the Rio scenes from the trailers, there’s just like these uphill broken stairwells that are half-covered in dirt, weeds coming through - one of my favourite parts in the whole game is there’s a back alley there, and there’s just two dumpsters and a piece of garbage, some trash blowing in the wind and the weeds coming up through the cracks in the sidewalk.”

Cracks in the sidewalk. Not exactly “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion”, is it? Next up, an in-engine showreel of Zampella’s favourite discarded shopping trolleys.

Game’s out for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 10th November, like you didn’t know already.