Vince Zampella, developer of Call of Duty and Battlefield has died

[AceyMan]

I drive this section of road 'spiritedly' myself¹, and I can attest that this particular spot is deceptive and can easily bite you. I wet my pants a couple of times by overcooking it (in both directions) before I finally got the hang of the proper entry speed, which is much lower than it looks approaching from either side.

Coming this direction, the tunnel makes it feel like you are going slower than you are due to the lack of passing references (trees, etc.). It's also downhill, so you are going faster than your foot/throttle angle makes it feel.

There is zero straight once you exit the tunnel; the turn begins immediately, and it is every so slightly off-camber; there is also, iirc, a little swell that unloads the weight just a little, which can be enough to matter. You need to stand on the brakes a couple of seconds before exiting the tunnel to get down to a navigable speed. The road surface is a little rough there; it's not lumpy or bumpy, but it's not butter smooth either.

Btw, it's not a 'concrete' wall, in the sense of something man-made: it's the granite face of the mountain formed as a result of cutting the roadway itself. It's easily visibly in Google Maps with satellite view enabled (keywords: Angeles Crest Tunnels).

411, my work buddy was riding his '24 Gold Wing around the forest (for the first time, based on my briefing) that afternoon and got stopped (coming from the ascending/opposite direction) by the road closure just a few hundred meters from the accident site as LEOs and Emergency responders had just secured the area.

¹- I rent sports cars through Turo a few times a year and take them up there for fun. Among this year's choices were a 2024 BMW M2 (6-speed) and a 2024 Corvette C8. [edit: formatting]

[rootusrootus]

> It's also downhill

Going downhill is usually when I'm most conservative. The margin for error is a lot lower than when you're driving uphill. Get a little loose and gravity makes the whole situation much worse instead of helping bleed off speed.

[officeplant]

>Btw, it's not a 'concrete' wall, in the sense of something man-made

That seems to be a more recent thing. There is now a concrete barrier in front of the rock face.

[moomoo11]

I stopped going on 2 because of assholes who break the lane barrier.

It’s not a race track.

Broke ass (mentally poor is also a thing) motherfuckers driving rental supercars or daddy’s Ferrari at 100+ mph.

Imagine having millions of dollars and not being able to afford track day. Cheap ass, broke ass, losers. The whole lot.

[OrangeMusic]

?

[ViktorRay]

I remember playing the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 back in the day after I rented it from Blockbuster. That game was an incredible experience.

Thank you to Vince Zampella and everyone else who worked on that game for those memories.

Rest in peace

[antonymoose]

I remember seeing a Best Buy ad for it touting the “cinematic experience” of playing MW2 - and it truly felt like it, a real revolution in gaming.

However, I really stopped playing big titles since then. Are there any good “woah” games that took it another step further?

[dralley]

Titanfall 2 was spectacular, and BF6 is easily the best entry in the franchise in the past decade+. Apex Legends is great too.

RIP.

[toomuchtodo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Zampella

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Ward

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respawn_Entertainment

[spondyl]

RIP Vince. Whether you're a fan of FPS titles or not, the work of him and his teams have undoubtly helped to shape pop culture in some sense. One of my favourite games as a teenager (Battlefield: Bad Company 2) was arguably a reaction to his work (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) so in that sense, Vince played some small part in making me who I am today, even if I'd never thought about it before

[bitwize]

I was like whoa, he was on BOTH the tentpole military-simulator-aspirant FPS franchises? That's like George Lucas being called over to work on Star Trek.

The world lost a titan. No pun intended.

[tapoxi]

He also produced Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the best game in that series. Call of Duty and Infinity Ward were born from that game.

[tibbydudeza]

Indeed.

[brador]

The video is clear. He was speeding, tract the corner on exit straight into the wall.

3 kids, days before Christmas, passanger bopped too and DIAF while risking other road users for nothing.

Keep speeding to the tracks, reaper only knocks once.

[tibbydudeza]

Call Of Duty II was one of those games I will never forget in my life - it was like reading Lord Of The Rings.

[xnx]

Sad for their family and friends. Lucky that more weren't killed by his reckless driving.

[chakintosh]

Watched the crash video. Coming out of the tunnel way too hot, combination of speed and driver likely being blinded by the light caused him to drive straight out (likely understeer too) into the concrete barrier and strike at the right angle for it to completely peel the car like a tin can. Passenger was ejected while still attached to his seat (this isn't supposed to happen in a 600k car!!!)

[officeplant]

>this isn't supposed to happen in a 600k car!!!

Technically it isn't designed to handle someone fumbling it into a concrete barrier well beyond the speed limit.

[throwaway613745]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is probably my second favorite FPS game after Doom 2. Nothing has ever really hit me since like the nuke scene did. The set-pieces in Modern Warfare and MW2 are some of the best single-player FPS gaming I’ve ever experienced.

RIP Vince

[metabagel]

Road surface and consequently traction can vary (for example, gravel). It's important to stay well within margin. Once you lose traction at speed, it can be hard to get it back.

TL;DR take it to the track, where the road surface is well maintained.

[spike021]

Technically yes but on any given track day there can still be gravel, weeds, rubber, bits of material from car body kits/aero, and even various liquids that have leaked.

[Popeyes]

What a genius, what an idiot.

[MDTHLN]

Absolutely awful to hear.

His games were a significant part of my teenagehood, as I'm sure they were for many others. Thank you for all the memories Vince.

[gguncth]

“has died” is one way of saying “crashed his Ferrari at a high rate of speed, killing his passenger as well as himself.”

[tetrisgm]

Very unfortunate. Thank you for the wonderful moments. You created so many.

[hamza_q_]

Thanks for COD: MW2 (2009), Vince. The game of my childhood. Rest in Peace.

[lofaszvanitt]

They started at Electronic Arts with MOH. They left EA and went to Activision. Under Infinity Ward they created MW2, which is maybe the only digestible COD game ever made. They got bored with ATVI by doing COD day and night. At the time the rumor was they wanted to make scifi games, but ATVI forbade them. So they formed Respawn and went back to EA. TitanFall 1-2 were just terrible games, and EA also botched the marketing (like they usually do when they didn't want a franchise to grow wings). And seemingly they were doing Battlefield at EA lately.

[cmehdy]

Titanfall 2 is a fantastic game with perhaps the best single player FPS campaign for fast FPS games, and a skill ceiling that's incredibly high in multiplayer which is still alive to this day. Did you mean to say "terrific" instead of terrible?

[EtienneK]

Titanfall 2 is a masterpiece. You have no idea what you are talking about.

[ErneX]

Titanfall 2 was excellent.

[journal]

"A passenger was ejected, and the driver died after being trapped in the burning vehicle"

[toomuchtodo]

2026 Ferrari 296 GTS

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-game-develope...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_296

(shared for context around vehicle power and dynamics likely leading or contributing to the event)

[__turbobrew__]

Not sure why you are being downvoted. Dude crashed his Ferrari.

[riazrizvi]

I‘m in the habit of speeding, I think it’s closely tied to the mental stresses you push yourself into, in sedentary, intellectual work. Thankfully I no longer own a car/motorcycle, and have other physical outlets now, to better balance it all out. I’m only here now myself at 55 through luck.

[firesteelrain]

Wow! So sad, what a terrible way to go.