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Vince Zampella, developer of Call of Duty and Battlefield has died
- journal 10mo ago"A passenger was ejected, and the driver died after being trapped in the burning vehicle"
- toomuchtodo 10mo ago2026 Ferrari 296 GTS https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-game-developer-vince-zampella-crash-call-of-duty/3819576/ https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-game-develope... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_296 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_296 (shared for context around vehicle power and dynamics likely leading or contributing to the event)
- tsunamifury 10mo ago[flagged]
- dragonwriter 10mo ago> Always funny to see how out of touch journalists describing a new 500k car as if it was priced like a family SUV (six figures, the running costs for most luxury SUVs) Always funny to see HN commenters treat "most luxury SUVs" as an equivalent class to "family SUVs" while making fun of “out of touch journalists” supposedly equating dissimilar vehicle classes.
- watwut 10mo agoThe article is not describing that car as a "family priced". And you are not describing family car either, you are describing luxury car. What does that have to do with inflation denial is a mystery.
- riazrizvi 10mo agoI‘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.
- vasco 10mo ago[flagged]
- riazrizvi 10mo agoI too used to believe reductive statements about the human condition like this, made some kind of valid point.
- vasco 10mo agoYou justified reckless driving because you have a desk job.
- darubedarob 10mo agoHe justified reckless driving by having a stressfull society that grinds you to paste during the day. And experiencing "danger" recalibrates that stress sensor stuck at 11. Thats why the project management crowd consistsof paragliders, riverrafters, pilots,rock-climbers and wingsuit flyers ir race car drivers. The danger is the one thing resetting body cortisol levels. Trying to educate that away is a foolish miss understanding of the human condition.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_hormone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_hormone One can only redirect the behaviour.
- vasco 9mo agoNo, you wrote that, he said sedentary intellectual work = desk job. Your argument is quite different and applies to everyone living today. Which doesn't mean its right but its very different than an argument that places desk jobs as more likely to do it than other people.
- __turbobrew__ 10mo agoNot sure why you are being downvoted. Dude crashed his Ferrari.
- lysace 10mo agoRealistic racing sim games have taught me not to want a supercar for daily drives. Way too easy to f up. Just one such example (1983): https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/10/business/corporate-triumph-then-death-in-a-ferrari.html https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/10/business/corporate-triump... https://archive.ph/gbrZv https://archive.ph/gbrZv > CORPORATE TRIUMPH, THEN DEATH IN A FERRARI > The young president of a successful new computer company died Wednesday afternoon in a car crash in California's Silicon Valley, hours after his company had sold its stock to the public for the first time and he had become a multimillionaire.
- joshu 10mo agosupercars from 1983 are very different than modern cars. they have traction control now and are much tamer.
- lysace 10mo agoBut of course there is a button to disable it. https://www.thedrive.com/news/37353/driver-turns-off-traction-control-in-a-ferrari-812-superfast-crashes-one-nanosecond-later https://www.thedrive.com/news/37353/driver-turns-off-tractio...
- anonzzzies 10mo agoI still rather drive (get driven) a modern tank like suv. Or truck/bus conversion. I see these young/hip people spend countless hours in the gym, spending 1000k+/mo on supplements etc to 'live forever' only to wrap themselves around a tree at a young age on some superbike or car.
- rob74 10mo ago...or getting run over by a tank like suv with limited vision around the car (it's tank like after all) while cycling.
- toomuchtodo 10mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Zampella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Zampella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Ward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Ward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respawn_Entertainment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respawn_Entertainment
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- firesteelrain 10mo agoWow! So sad, what a terrible way to go.
- dralley 10mo agoTitanfall 2 was spectacular, and BF6 is easily the best entry in the franchise in the past decade+. Apex Legends is great too. RIP.
- ViktorRay 10mo agoI 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 10mo agoI 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?
- esseph 10mo agoA lot of it is iterations upon iterations, so it can be hard to pick out precise moments. There are great games out there.
- Gracana 10mo agoTitanfall 2 is a really good one. Not something I expected to have such a strong emotional element. I didn't know Vince Zampella's name, but it is another project of his, so it seems fitting to recommend it here. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (the original, I haven't played the sequel) was crazy good. Gameplay-wise it's fine, but story wise it is one of the most emotionally intense games I have ever played. I recommend going into it spoiler-free. Look it up and see if it's something you're interested in, and if you want to play it, stop reading and play it.
- lukan 10mo agoI also highly recommend Hellblade, as a deep emotional journey (but not the sequel). If you are even slightly interested in celtic and germanic mythology and modern psychology, go for it.
- tapoxi 10mo agoTitanfall 1/2 and Apex Legends were all huge. He recently produced Battlefield 6 which was also released to acclaim.
- tsunamifury 10mo ago[flagged]
- klardotsh 10mo agoNothing in TFA or the NBC article linked by TFA provides enough information to conclude reckless homicide. All that is confirmed is a car leaving a roadway, crashing, and catching fire. What's your source for concluding reckless homicide?
- AlexandrB 10mo agoNone of the reporting even specifies who was driving.
- owlninja 10mo agoIf this is up to date he seemed more of a McLaren person: https://exclusivecarregistry.com/collection/zampella-collection https://exclusivecarregistry.com/collection/zampella-collect...
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- Polycryptus 10mo agoThere is video of the accident floating around. I recommend against going looking for it...
- tsunamifury 10mo agoVideo of the crash as he was stunting for the camera and killed himself and his passenger in the process. https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/1ptc7cw/removed_by_moderator/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/1ptc7c...
- thinkingtoilet 10mo agoThe article makes no mention of reckless driving. Perhaps you should wait for facts before making such statements.
- tsunamifury 10mo ago[flagged]
- AlexandrB 10mo agoIs there reporting that actually lists him as the driver? Because I can't find any.
- gesis 10mo agoThe news report linked in the article has this to say: > The driver, Zampella, was trapped in the ensuing car fire, the CHP said. He died at the scene and the passenger died at a hospital, authorities told NBC4 Investigates. Details about the passenger's identity were not immediately available.
- bhouston 10mo agoA lot of high end cars get wrecked because (1) their owners want to drive them fast to test out what they paid for, and (2) their owners are not trained to drive high performance cars and (3) their owners drive them on public roads where there are a lot of hazards. It isn't that different than the non-significant number of rich people that die in private aviation crashes (those that fly themselves, I think private jets are a lot safer.)
- tsunamifury 10mo agoThe fact that you can’t tell the difference between a driver and a passengers responsibility is shocking to me.
- junon 10mo agoYou've yet to provide a source for this. That's why the criticisms of your claims.
- tsunamifury 10mo ago
- hamza_q_ 10mo agoThanks for COD: MW2 (2009), Vince. The game of my childhood. Rest in Peace.
- bitwize 10mo agoI 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.
- tibbydudeza 10mo agoIndeed.
- tapoxi 10mo agoHe also produced Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the best game in that series. Call of Duty and Infinity Ward were born from that game.
- tetrisgm 10mo agoVery unfortunate. Thank you for the wonderful moments. You created so many.
- MDTHLN 10mo agoAbsolutely 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.
- metabagel 10mo agoRoad 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 10mo agoTechnically 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.
- randerson 10mo agoIf you do hit gravel/oil, tracks at least have runoff areas or soft barriers, and no oncoming traffic or cliffs to worry about. Every track day I've attended required the cars to have been inspected for leaks and loose components. And they were quick to clean up any debris or oil. Not that tracking cars is the safest hobby, but if someone is gonna drive like that regardless its far safer at a track than on public roads.
- arathis 10mo ago[flagged]
- spondyl 10mo agoRIP 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
- tibbydudeza 10mo agoCall Of Duty II was one of those games I will never forget in my life - it was like reading Lord Of The Rings.
- throwaway613745 10mo agoCall 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
- lofaszvanitt 10mo agoThey 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.
- EtienneK 10mo agoTitanfall 2 is a masterpiece. You have no idea what you are talking about.
- lofaszvanitt 10mo agoMaybe the multiplayer, but I'm talkin about the single player campaign, which was godawful.
- EtienneK 10mo agoThis is crazy talk. The single player campaign is considered as one of the best in FPS games ever.
- ErneX 10mo agoExactly.
- lofaszvanitt 9mo agoBy who? :D And on what grounds?
- cmehdy 10mo agoTitanfall 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?
- gguncth 10mo ago“has died” is one way of saying “crashed his Ferrari at a high rate of speed, killing his passenger as well as himself.”
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- ta9000 10mo ago[flagged]
- EtienneK 10mo agoNothing in that clip indicates he was driving recklessly. They even end it by saying the cause is still unknown.
- ta9000 10mo agoDid you see the speed he was going on a public road? LA drivers are tired of these assholes driving recklessly. It’s gotten incredibly dangerous to drive especially at night after COVID.
- asdff 10mo agoIt is pretty obvious the cause, they are just doing their investigation. There is a video of it out there. I will describe it for sensitive people who might not want to actually see it. The car was going probably 100 mph out of a tunnel and understeered into a jersey barrier. The passenger was ejected still in the seat and the car caught fire a few seconds after impact. Bystanders managed to pull the passenger away from the wreck, then the video cut off.
- moomoo11 10mo agoagree 100% he did this to himself, totally avoidable and completely reckless thing to speed and then kill himself and his passenger. PSA STOP RACING ON PUBLIC STREETS GO TO A TRACK.
- Popeyes 10mo agoWhat a genius, what an idiot.
- chakintosh 10mo agoWatched 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 10mo ago>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.
- chakintosh 10mo agoStill, I've seen crashes way worse but the chassis didn't disintegrate like that. I'm even inclined to say the speed with which they crashed was mid at best.
- xnx 10mo agoSad for their family and friends. Lucky that more weren't killed by his reckless driving.
- brador 10mo agoThe 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.
- AceyMan 10mo agoI 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]
- officeplant 10mo ago>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.
- AceyMan 10mo ago> That seems to be a more recent thing. There is now a concrete barrier in front of the rock face. Nodding thx for the correction. Understandably, I am not scanning the outside shoulder in this or any other technical section in the Angeles National Forest roadways. "Eyes on the road" is not just something your Dad would say when driving at speed on these (or any other) fast, twisty roads.