Vince Zampella, developer of Call of Duty and Battlefield games, dies at 55

He had worked on Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Battlefield.

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[Sulla]

I tell people that I think driver's ed should include time on a skidpad, and they laugh, and then they find out I'm actually serious, and then they ask why, and I ask them if they know what to do when their car loses traction, and then they ask what traction is, and I've made my point.

I used to volunteer with a driver education outfit that had a "skidpad" car that was basically a Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable that had removable outriggers with wheels—basically big casters. The outriggers could be hydraulically loaded and unloaded by a control box in the passenger seat, and the instructor could load and unload each of the four casters independently to simulate various car control scenarios. The caster design made it able to operate on any paved surface—usually a parking lot—without needing to treat the surface with a skid-inducing liquid.

Driving it was very eye-opening.

 

[mordann]

That was not a Sunday leisure drive.

 

[Flipper35]

I'm reminded of the mid 80's then ultra-badass new motorcycle, the Suzuki GSX-R750 (and 1100). These were extremely lightweight and so much more power than other bikes at the time that in the SF Bay Area the lifetime of the vehicle initially was a week or less. That's how long they lasted until the new owners crashed them. One new owner barely got off the dealers property: picked up bike behind dealership, rode up side alley to front of dealership. Rev'd up the engine and popped the clutch....then rocketed across the street in front of the dealer and impacted in a building wall across the street.


I doubt anyone here can even imagine what 830 HP in a lightweight car is like. 'Back in the day" 200-300 HP was a lot. Later in the 90's 400 was a LOT. 830? The only use for that kind of power is on a race track to overcome air resistance at speeds approaching 200 mph.

It is the power to weight ratio that is important, and yes, I imagine there are some here that can imagine that 4-5 pounds per pony ratio.

 

[azazel1024]

Feels terribly similar to Paul Walker's death. With supercars you really ought to have had some advanced driving courses. They are not playin' around.

It isn't necessarily a matter of advanced driving courses.

A) You must know the road
B) You must know the conditions of the road
C) You must be able to account for the other drivers on the road
D) You must not drive arrogantly
E) You must not drive to show off

That likely means, just don't F-ing drive like that on a public road. Period.

I am not saying I have never driven dumb on a public road. A) I am a guy B) I was also a teenager C) Okay, not just as a teenager

But there is a huge difference of pushing the edge in a 124-200hp car and finding the limits and just HAMMERING it in an 800+HP vehicle.

Yeah, people get killed in Mazda Miatas/MX-5 driving dumb all the time. But when you exceed the limits, you have to be trying HARD to just shatter them. You don't have to try all that hard to shatter the limits with something that has 4x the power to weight ratio.

Plenty of very talented drivers have gotten themselves (and others) killed on public roads in high performance vehicles doing stupid things they should have known were very stupid.

You don't need advanced driving courses to drive a super car so long as you exercise a modicum of caution and attempt to drive within traffic laws and not like an A-hole. However, if you decide to not do that, yes advanced driving classes would help, but they still aren't going to solve A through E of my first list and any amount of advanced driving classes will not save you from A through E.

I still remember when I was about 22 and a work buddy took me for a spin in his kit car. A road I had driven on hundreds of times in my life has a posted speed limit of 50mph, a very gentle turn on it that has no reduced posted speed that I had plenty of times taken at 70, 75mph in my teenage years late at night just fine without cornering hard.

He punched it out of the light in and in seconds we were pushing 130+mph in that turn barely managing to stay on the road. What happens with a turbocharged chevy 350 in a 2600lbs kit car. No accidents, thankfully. He was a very good driver (he spent weekends racing a regular Camero sometimes), but if we had come up on a car, or there was some water on the road (it hadn't rained, but doesn't mean someone watering a lawn didn't cause the road to get damp, or whatever), or a deer, etc. and we would have been plastered on a tree no matter how good he was at driving.

 

[azazel1024]

I tell people that I think driver's ed should include time on a skidpad, and they laugh, and then they find out I'm actually serious, and then they ask why, and I ask them if they know what to do when their car loses traction, and then they ask what traction is, and I've made my point.

You don't rise to your level of expectation, you fall to your level of training. And just like everything else, that training is a perishable skill.

I am teaching my kids how to drive now (my oldest just got his driver's license. My middle one is getting a learner's permit next week).

A couple of things I do his have them take the car to a dry parking lot after a few weeks have learning and FLOG it hard on the dry pavement. Then I have them do the same thing in the rain. And then I have them do the same thing when it has snowed.

I plan to get them signed up for an advanced driving class (oldest this summer) so they can spend a weekend doing that kind of stuff (well, maybe not the snow part). I spent time in college racing SCCA Solo I and II and it taught me a lot (more than driving like an idiot as a teenager did).

I have never gotten into a serious accident. Heck, I've barely even gotten into minor accidents in >25 years of driving. I've avoided some accidents out of sheer instinct and only looked back in it minutes later with a "holy crap, how the heck did I pull it out of that skid? Spin? Keep from spinning? Stay on the road from that black ice? rub against the curb to keep from rear ending that car on ice?" etc.

I mean, the "duh" is a lot of experience doing that kind of stuff in somewhat safe environments to build muscle memory. Of course, some is as an adult for NOT intentionally doing really dumb things on the road too.

 

[mgh112]

Sad, but it should be said over and over again. Wear your damn seat belt. Or don't and fuck around and find out. Your life and your choices.

The passenger being dragged away from the wreckage in the videos posted was still belted into his/her seat. The seat broke away from the body of the vehicle.

 

[AusPeter]

The passenger being dragged away from the wreckage in the videos posted was still belted into his/her seat. The seat broke away from the body of the vehicle.

Wearing your seat belt is meant to protect you in typical accident scenarios (as do air bags etc).

No amount of safety features are going to protect you if the car is literally torn apart during an accident.

 

[thexile]

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/MSYmgz-pgnc

 

[agt499]

In Switzerland it is part of the exam.

That makes me glad that other places are more sensible, and despairing that we are not ....

 

[sporkinum]

After reading the headline, expected a supercar of some sort. They call high performance aircraft doctor killers. I wonder what you call these cars?

 

[Mangosteen69]

After reading the headline, expected a supercar of some sort. They call high performance aircraft doctor killers. I wonder what you call these cars?

Not sure, but the original 911 Turbo from the 70s was often called "Widow maker"

 

[Scrab]

Its sad that people like this need to get the ridiculous supercar and have fatal accidents chasing the thrill of speed.

Dirt bikes are the way to go. My KTM has 55 hp and weighs nothing. I can have endless adrenaline shredding ridiculous trails while wearing full armor and never going above 30 mph. I have broken bones but nothing I do would be fatal. It seems crazy to most people but if you have that itch that you need to scratch its one of the least (fatally) dangerous options.

 

[siliconaddict]

To be fair in this case, the driver either was wearing their belt, or got trapped in the cockpit and burned to death, so it sounds like in this case it was lose lose.

Yes but statistically speaking wear the belt. Being trapped in a car "probably" wasn't related to not being able to undo your belt. Again probably. There is always an edge case you can't account for.

 

[siliconaddict]

I tell people that I think driver's ed should include time on a skidpad, and they laugh, and then they find out I'm actually serious, and then they ask why, and I ask them if they know what to do when their car loses traction, and then they ask what traction is, and I've made my point.

You don't rise to your level of expectation, you fall to your level of training. And just like everything else, that training is a perishable skill.

As a kid living in Minnesota after I got my permit mom took me to a large parking lot late in the evening after it had snowed, thawed, and snowed again and I spent 1 hour intentionally skidding and learning to how to correct without over steering. Because this is absolutely a skill that is needed where is snows.
You are 100% right on though. Its a skill that should be learned everywhere as hydroplaning is a thing as is loose gravel.

 

[Flipper35]

Its sad that people like this need to get the ridiculous supercar and have fatal accidents chasing the thrill of speed.

Dirt bikes are the way to go. My KTM has 55 hp and weighs nothing. I can have endless adrenaline shredding ridiculous trails while wearing full armor and never going above 30 mph. I have broken bones but nothing I do would be fatal. It seems crazy to most people but if you have that itch that you need to scratch its one of the least (fatally) dangerous options.

I grew up on dirt bikes, starting at 5 on a Honda Z50. While I have broken 7 bones and dislocated joints, none have been on a bike. Worst was a torn medial tendon from wet clay and a tree root.

 

[Errum]

I am teaching my kids how to drive now (my oldest just got his driver's license. My middle one is getting a learner's permit next week).

A couple of things I do his have them take the car to a dry parking lot after a few weeks have learning and FLOG it hard on the dry pavement. Then I have them do the same thing in the rain. And then I have them do the same thing when it has snowed.

I plan to get them signed up for an advanced driving class (oldest this summer) so they can spend a weekend doing that kind of stuff (well, maybe not the snow part). I spent time in college racing SCCA Solo I and II and it taught me a lot (more than driving like an idiot as a teenager did).

I have never gotten into a serious accident. Heck, I've barely even gotten into minor accidents in >25 years of driving. I've avoided some accidents out of sheer instinct and only looked back in it minutes later with a "holy crap, how the heck did I pull it out of that skid? Spin? Keep from spinning? Stay on the road from that black ice? rub against the curb to keep from rear ending that car on ice?" etc.

I mean, the "duh" is a lot of experience doing that kind of stuff in somewhat safe environments to build muscle memory. Of course, some is as an adult for NOT intentionally doing really dumb things on the road too.

For those of you with teenage kid drivers, I cannot recommend too strongly enrolling them in a Street Survival course near you. In one weekend day they’ll get hands-on training in skid recovery, collision avoidance, emergency braking and more, all while driving your own regular family vehicle.

See https://streetsurvival.org/ for details.

 

[Stern]

This could've been the fate of John Carmack, who got into custom-modded Ferraris once Doom exploded. Who knows if CoD would've even been a thing if not for Quake.

Didn't the whole id team immediately rush out and buy sports cars? It's a miracle we don't see these accidents more often, considering how fetishized they are among tech bros and the nouveau riche.

 

[DanNeely]

Agreed, I went back and looked at the video and he had lost control even before it emerged from the tunnel. Looked at the gmaps image of the scene and it was a straight shot from the tunnel exit to the barrier. My amateur calculations based on distance traveled and frames from the video puts the car's speed at around 140mph. (speed limit there I believe is 55mph)

From the way it sounds from others here in the thread that there have been many of incidents along that highway and even at that tunnel exit. The dangers were known. I saw a YT video earlier of some guy in a SUV gunning it before the end of the tunnel, losing it and then going over the side of on the opposite side of the road (From 10 yrs ago). Also, looking at the street view shows that the NJ barriers were installed within the last two years. It is a little bit ironic because I think that someone else had crashed into the stone wall there, and they had put in the NJ barriers until they could get the wall fixed. If the barriers weren't there, that crash may have been survivable.

Looking at the crash video the end of the barrier appeared to be unprotected. Normally you'd have either a series of sand/water barrels or a telescoping crash arrester at the end of a concrete barrier to prevent someone from spearing their car like this.

I'm wondering if this location didn't have one for some reason, or if there was another recent accident that destroyed the end protection and it hadn't been replaced yet.

 

[MilanKraft]

Not much of a gamer compared to many here but even for a "noob who got pwned" a lot back in the day, "this hits" as today's modern youts would say.

Used to love me some MOHAA, earlier COD versions, etc. So many great WWII maps / death matches, complete with various allied and nazi soldier quotes to blurt out at random times. Remember fondly the multi-level, German V2 rocket base, complete with squeaky doors you'd pop open for a quick MP44 snipe, and all the rest.

While graphically not much compared to today's games, as time went on I never found anything that matched the sort of roughness and fun level of those original titles. Maybe being a little rough around the edges gave them some extra charm.

RIP, my dude. You gave a whole lotta people a whole lotta laughs and good times. Unless you're an inventor or curing a diseas or making great art, that's about all a brother can do IMHO. The rest of us are just cogs in a big-ass, ungainly machine.

 

[OldFart69]

In the video you'll see a LOT of tire prints from previous spinouts, etc.

 

[cygam00]

The whole passenger seat came out of the car not just the passenger who was buckled in.

WTF. How does that happen?

The same way a tornado drives a piece of straw through a telephone pole.

 

[OldFart69]

Didn't the whole id team immediately rush out and buy sports cars? It's a miracle we don't see these accidents more often, considering how fetishized they are among tech bros and the nouveau riche.

Getting Ferraris seemed to have been a "thing" for young, suddenly rich, software developers back then. I saw a video of an amazing, bizarre, and cool Christmas party by the company that made the Video Toaster; lots of Ferraris in the parking lot.

 

[Random_stranger]

Feels terribly similar to Paul Walker's death. With supercars you really ought to have had some advanced driving courses. They are not playin' around.

Actually, very different. Paul Walker died (most likely) due to driving briskly with 9-year-old performance tires, way past any valid lifespan for performance tires. Most people agree that was a factor in the crash. This was a brand new car, probably barely off the showroom floor - the tires should have been brand new, and probably way better tech than whatever shipped OEM in 2003 on the Carrera GT.

 

[Random_stranger]

Not just super cars. Nowadays, with electric cars, they very brisk acceleration and very high horsepower.

EVs are generally much heavier though, which probably reduces incidence of losing the tail, etc..

 

[Random_stranger]

I tell people that I think driver's ed should include time on a skidpad, and they laugh, and then they find out I'm actually serious, and then they ask why, and I ask them if they know what to do when their car loses traction, and then they ask what traction is, and I've made my point.

You don't rise to your level of expectation, you fall to your level of training. And just like everything else, that training is a perishable skill.

Skidpad? I took an auto-x teaching course (full day run by NASA / SCCA). I did the skidpad - and the only thing I learned is: don't take brand new tires to a skidpad with an AWD car with traction / stability control - you'll destroy those tires. The OTHER exercises were a lot more useful (taking a turn quickly under control, braking quickly, etc). I've also learned some things on track (Sonoma / Laguna). Skidpad, IMHO, was the most useless part of the whole day. And expensive - I needed a whole new set of PS4S tires after that..

I learned the most (many years ago) for general driving by taking cars to unplowed parking lots and sliding around on purpose. This was BEFORE ABS, which is a gamechanger in terms of stopping in slippery situations. I slide sideways into a curb once due to black ice in my '90 GTi 16v. I had snow tires. Just zero grip on that section - I was going maybe 10-15 mph. Tore up my wheel and hub - thankfully, the tire held air long enough that I was able to limp it home after I finished work (it was -20C that day, right before Christmas - I was a grad student).

 

[Niles Gazic]

That was a scary fast bike and youth and stupidity it's amazed I didn't die, but you don't think about that when you are barely in your 20's.

As someone who is approximately the same age as the deceased, speak for yourself.
Some of us were careful drivers even when we were teenagers.

 

[SraCet]

Actually, very different. Paul Walker died (most likely) due to driving briskly with 9-year-old performance tires, way past any valid lifespan for performance tires. Most people agree that was a factor in the crash. This was a brand new car, probably barely off the showroom floor - the tires should have been brand new, and probably way better tech than whatever shipped OEM in 2003 on the Carrera GT.

Lack of stability control with the Carrera GT is also a common explanation.

 

[BilTheGalacticHero]

Another case of someone driving too much car for their skill level on public roads. Take it to the damn race track and take some lessons.

 

[roman]

Passenger was not going to survive that accident no matter what. Questionable placement of NJ barriers also.

Looking at the crash video the end of the barrier appeared to be unprotected. Normally you'd have either a series of sand/water barrels or a telescoping crash arrester at the end of a concrete barrier to prevent someone from spearing their car like this.

I'm wondering if this location didn't have one for some reason, or if there was another recent accident that destroyed the end protection and it hadn't been replaced yet.

The road makes a sharp left after the tunnel. The barrier only keep you from hitting the side of the mountain (and going down it). There's a lot of dirt and debris on the side so when once you're off the road it's pretty much game over. In the 90's remembered a yellow arrow sign that said "30 mph", but it's no longer there. They should replace it and make it much larger-- possibly backlit, so it can be seen from the tunnel.

There's a 10 year old video of a Subaru going through that exact spot-- he had a lift-off oversteer incident, going over the left embankment (no barrier!).. he was probably going half the speed of that Ferrari. Luckily he landed upright only 30 feet below, on a ledge supporting a drain wash.

 

[OldFart69]

There's a 10 year old video of a Subaru going through that exact spot-- he had a lift-off oversteer incident, going over the left embankment (no barrier!).. he was probably going half the speed of that Ferrari. Luckily he landed upright only 30 feet below, on a ledge supporting a drain wash.

Wow. And that video tells us pretty much all there is about what the driver saw coming out of the tunnel with sun in their eyes and trying to quickly react to the need for a left turn at high speed.

Seeing that video and knowing someone just lost their life on that same segment of road is creepy.

 

[lslpp]

Man when i first heard about this, I assumed some clown hit them. Turns out, they were PURPOSEFULLY drive to death. Absolutely no sympathy for reckless drivers. Sorry, got what was deserved. Stop fucking putting peoples lives in goddamn danger.

 

[zAmboni]

Looking at the crash video the end of the barrier appeared to be unprotected. Normally you'd have either a series of sand/water barrels or a telescoping crash arrester at the end of a concrete barrier to prevent someone from spearing their car like this.

I'm wondering if this location didn't have one for some reason, or if there was another recent accident that destroyed the end protection and it hadn't been replaced yet.

The top image is from google street view of the area around the crash site. The site says that the image was taken in Feb. 2023.
Bottom images is from the satellite view and has a 2025 date stamp. My best guess is that someone else had crashed into that wall between the two images and damaged the wall. Then they put up the NJ barriers to cover the hole/damage in the wall. Have no idea how long that had been that way though. If there is an investigation into the crash I hope that they would be addressing the safety issue with having those barriers there.

In the video you'll see a LOT of tire prints from previous spinouts, etc.

I looked up and down that road a it on the satellite view and it in many of the scenic view points the tire marks are from donuts and other hooning around, not necessarily from cars that lost it going into curves.

 

[citpeks]

Lack of stability control with the Carrera GT is also a common explanation.

The CGT also has a reputation for being a latter day Widow Maker. Jay Leno had an underpants soiling incident when testing it. He may not be a competition-level driver, but he's probably driven more machinery than most people can conceive of.

A few years ago, Porsche initiated a service campaign for its rear suspension joints, which also included new bespoke tires to mitigate the condition of aged tires.

Not a machine to be taken lightly for any driver skill level.

Mistress Physics treats everyone equally.

Even mundane vehicles that don't cost hundreds of thousands are capable of levels of performance that most drivers can't handle when driven aggressively. The safety nannies that protect the uninitiated from themselves can only do so much, and the laws of physics will ultimately prevail.

 

[DanNeely]

View attachment 124855

View attachment 124854

The top image is from google street view of the area around the crash site. The site says that the image was taken in Feb. 2023.
Bottom images is from the satellite view and has a 2025 date stamp. My best guess is that someone else had crashed into that wall between the two images and damaged the wall. Then they put up the NJ barriers to cover the hole/damage in the wall. Have no idea how long that had been that way though. If there is an investigation into the crash I hope that they would be addressing the safety issue with having those barriers there.



I looked up and down that road a it on the satellite view and it in many of the scenic view points the tire marks are from donuts and other hooning around, not necessarily from cars that lost it going into curves.

The barriers being a temporary fix does help explain it; but if it was there for more than a few days I'm still surprised they didn't have something protecting the end of them: Crash barrels or even a section of guard rail that smoothly joined into the existing stone wall.

 

[Fuzzypiggy]

55 is no age to leave, that's just not right.

I'm 54 and just about retire from a 37 year tech career, I'm looking forward to finally being able to do things I want. Then you hear tragic stories like this it makes you realise that time is so damn precious and you never know how much you're going to get.

Make your time on this chunk of rock count, Vince did that with all the pleasure he's given to millions of players around the world.

 

[TigerAway]

Infinity Ward made some of the best console shooters ever.

Extremely tragic.

I’m also still sad about the loss of footballer Diogo Jota and his brother. They were in their twenties and Diogo had just gotten married and had three kids.

I wonder if they should require a special license to operate vehicles with >600 hp. Would be bragging rights to have one. These vehicles are crazy fast.

 

[AusPeter]

Infinity Ward made some of the best console shooters ever.

Extremely tragic.

I’m also still sad about the loss of footballer Diogo Jota and his brother. They were in their twenties and Diogo had just gotten married and had three kids.

I wonder if they should require a special license to operate vehicles with >600 hp. Would be bragging rights to have one. These vehicles are crazy fast.

HP limits mean nothing if the vehicle is driven dangerously.

As an example, in the early 80’s I used to borrow my parents Datsun 180B to drive to work. With the stock 1.8L engine, this car produced a little over 100 HP. The route I took was through a country/farming area along a set of straight dirt roads that were lined on both sides with old growth eucalyptus hardwoods (IE with trunks between 1/2 and 1 metre wide in diameter).

One night I decided to see if I could get the car to 160 mph (100 mph). Somewhere around 140 to 150 kph the rear end of the car started to slowly fish tail. I recovered by gently letting off on the accelerator. But one wrong move (or one cow on the road etc) and I would simply have been a stain on one of those trees.

 

[Flipper35]

Actually, very different. Paul Walker died (most likely) due to driving briskly with 9-year-old performance tires, way past any valid lifespan for performance tires. Most people agree that was a factor in the crash. This was a brand new car, probably barely off the showroom floor - the tires should have been brand new, and probably way better tech than whatever shipped OEM in 2003 on the Carrera GT.

Even if those tires were only two years old it would have been an issue because the car was rarely driven and the conditioners in the rubber don't remain properly distributed without regular driving.

 

[ICU81MI]

View attachment 124855

View attachment 124854

The top image is from google street view of the area around the crash site. The site says that the image was taken in Feb. 2023.
Bottom images is from the satellite view and has a 2025 date stamp. My best guess is that someone else had crashed into that wall between the two images and damaged the wall. Then they put up the NJ barriers to cover the hole/damage in the wall. Have no idea how long that had been that way though. If there is an investigation into the crash I hope that they would be addressing the safety issue with having those barriers there.



I looked up and down that road a it on the satellite view and it in many of the scenic view points the tire marks are from donuts and other hooning around, not necessarily from cars that lost it going into curves.

I was looking at the Maps images as well. I agree, had those barriers been placed just a little closer to the tunnel exit, the car would have had a very different collision. It did appear to hit the end of the barrier to some degree instead of the face of it. Which, had that happened it probably would have cartwheeled up the slope, and in a convertible wouldn't have been much of an improvement I suspect.

But zooming out, and tracing the trajectory back to the exit, the tires just could not add enough leftward vector between the time the car exited the tunnel and impact. Didn't help that it looks to me that both inside tires lifted as it passed in front of the spectator. Barrier placement was unlucky but I would think the road crew must not have worked the physics for 120mph Ferraris in the tunnel. Those tunnels look like almost the only straight section on that road and the driver opened it up.

Edit:
~260 ft / ~1.75s = 101mph (averaged)

 

[zAmboni]

~260 ft / ~1.75s = 101mph (averaged)

I think I screwed up when I calculated a couple of days ago. I may have counted frames of the video wrong. (I had come up with around 140mph for some reason).