I teamed up with Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin for a couple tries at Spec Ops' new Survival mode on a map currently called Dome, a derelict Cold War-era desert radar command bunker.

As we dispatched ever-increasing waves of enemies, I discarded my pistol for a shotgun. Rubin passed me some in-game currency and I bought and installed a turret to keep the evildoers at bay, while I watched for attack dogs. After a few waves, the attack dogs became suicide bomber dogs that exploded a few seconds after you shot them. The next wave brought the kamikaze soldiers who exploded similarly.

"You definitely have to change up your strategy as the enemy changes up," Bowling said afterward. "Obviously how you fight the kamakazi dudes is different from how you fight the normal dudes and how you fight a dog is different from a dude and how you fight juggernauts, they are not only big and armored, so they will just brute force come at you. But they each have their own way of being taken out effectively."

Yes, there are juggernauts returning from the previous games; there will be several different types of them, too. But back in the game, I took heed from Rubin on how to counterattack choppers raining fire from overhead. The game has an unlimited number of waves. "We got up to wave 8 which is really a good wave for a first time player," Rubin pronounces afterwards.