Call of Duty: Ghosts introduces new engine, destructible multiplayer maps, a dog

The big finale at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal today was not Call of Duty: Ghosts. It was Call of Duty: Ghosts' instantly famous mo-capped dog. That's right, Ghosts will feature Peter Molyneux's essential invention: a dog companion to keep us company as we fight back against an oppressive someone. This is Call of Doggy. Collar Duty. The rex generation of gaming. I could go on, but I'll stop before you flea.

The lead character and his pup will be an emotional duo, according to Activision, which brought in Academy Award winning filmmaker Stephen Gaghan, writer of Traffic and Syriana, to pen the script.

"We're pushing the genre forward with Ghosts," said Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg . "I think a lot of people were expecting us to create Modern Warfare 4, but we didn't want to rest on our laurels. We wanted to press the franchise forward with a new world and new engine."

"Soldiers stand against their enemies, but ghosts haunt them," rumbles the trailer, a string of in-engine cutscenes which you can watch above. The rest of the reveal was largely behind-the-scenes video of mo-cap sessions and asset creation, but Activision did show off impressive destructible multiplayer maps which will react to player-triggered events. The other gameplay snippets were less-impressive demonstrations of leaning and sliding, which both look just fine, but aren't exactly groundbreaking stuff.

The bulk of the presentation, however, was about the engine's graphical improvements. Aside from the high-fidelity dog, Activision showed off arm hair, a shaved head, and the jungle scene below. We captured these from the Xbox One reveal livestream, but we'll replace them with high-quality screenshots when they become available.