Activision’s stunning next-gen visuals tease Call of Duty’s potential

It looks like Activision has been quite busy in between their yearly releases of Call of Duty. Despite the franchise's popularity, the publisher has drawn criticism for its annual releases, with many claiming each Call of Duty title is a simple rehash of the previous one. We, of course, know that's false as evidenced by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, but nevertheless, the criticism remains.

Hoping to rid themselves of the criticism, Activision's R&D department gave GDC attendees a brief glimpse at what the company is calling "next-generation character rendering." It's a look into the future of gaming, and what could be a sneak peek at the next Call of Duty's potential.

The source material comes courtesy of USC Institute for Creative Technologies, which also happens to be the same data Nvidia incorporated in a demo earlier this month. Frozen fruit discussion aside, the clip shows off some marvelous facial expressions and sophisticated animations, all running in real time. The demo is running on a PC using a GeForce GTX 680 graphics card running at 180 frames per second. While impressive, there's also a certain creepy level that is heightened with the accompanying music. Nevertheless, the animations are incredibly stunning and we couldn't be more excited for the future of gaming.