Modern Warfare 4 Beta Wraps With Fast Kills, a War Dogs Rivalry, and Charlie Intel's Identity Warning

The Modern Warfare beta concluded today, wrapping up weekend one of testing, and it has been what I'd call an up and down rollercoaster ride. The day it came out there was a ton of hype, and I think there was over a 100,000 people playing. Then something strange happened: another game called War Dogs ran its own beta the same weekend, and the internet basically turned it into War Dogs versus Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, which is wild because I don't think that's what the people over at War Dogs were expecting at all. It became a David versus Goliath story, the AAA juggernaut studio against a small team of developers, and that's kind of where things stand now.

Fans Flagged Fast Time to Kill, Lag, Loud Audio and Cramped Maps

Over X throughout the weekend there was feedback and criticism across the board. By day two, people swore the skill based matchmaking had been turned up and that open matchmaking didn't feel open at all. I made a video on Friday asking people to come back after 48 hours and tell me what's good and bad about the beta, and for the first time ever, the comments mostly flew right over the actual critiques. Most people just said they're done with Call of Duty or wouldn't even give Modern Warfare a chance, alongside a ton of requests for the next Call of Duty history video. I'm not mad about it, I'm just kind of waking up to the reality that we're in, not just here but across the board.

One commenter said that after playing weekend one and hitting max level, the time to kill is very fast, something everybody seems to be saying, and Infinity Ward has acknowledged it and said they're working on it. He described himself as mainly a hardcore player waiting for that mode, and said his current grievance is lag in matches, which he chalked up to overpopulated servers. He also said the audio is good but the game needs a jump cooldown effect like Call of Duty Ghosts had. Beyond that comment, I saw a lot of people complaining the audio overall is too loud, that the frangible perk was a big deal, that some of the Apex attachments were an issue, and that the maps feel claustrophobic and too tight. If they'd made huge maps instead, people would probably complain the other way, but that's the Call of Duty community for you.

A commenter called Good Times said they love the beta and think it's a solid game, though buggy, and specifically praised the body cam camera. They said Modern Warfare 4 could be the next big Call of Duty if it's done right, but called it a lot of heavy lifting, since the game itself is good but the system around it is not, with leveling guns too slow as the main critique. They also flagged spawning as too random, joked about someone flashbanging themselves off their own throw hitting a wall, and ultimately said they think Sledgehammer's next Call of Duty would be way better, wanting something that's actually new.

One X User's Post Says Some of the Beta's Design Flaws Cannot Be Fixed

I want to focus on a post from one Call of Duty commentator on X because there's a lot to unpack and it makes a lot of sense. He posted that it seems like Modern Warfare had a sentiment shift on day two of the beta. He came out of the gate super positive, and from following him he strikes me as a glasses half full kind of guy, so it's notable that even he said most of the issues are fixable, but suggested a few design decisions fall short of Modern Warfare 3's and cannot be changed.

He pointed to a lack of Pick 10 variation that Modern Warfare 3 solved, and said literally everyone throws smoke off spawn, which he doesn't like, a preference I get too since we've all been advocating for Pick 10 to come back without getting it. He said he still doesn't see the need for tactical sprint in Call of Duty even with visual improvements, and that skill based matchmaking is the hot topic again, having played both open and standard playlists without being able to tell the difference. Everyone shoots straight with combo footsteps and a permanent UAV and everyone is pre-aiming, so there's no variety in matches, and queues aren't especially fast either, which lines up with multiple people I saw on X saying open matchmaking felt cranked up on day two and didn't feel open at all.

He also said Gunsmith falls into the same tired formula where base guns are trash versions you have to level up to make usable, and that like Modern Warfare 2 the attachment drawbacks are far too heavy. People have complained about this over and over, having to grind a base gun up just to get it to act like a base gun, and people are tired of it and don't want to do it anymore. He noted independent field of view options are gone, which he thinks is strengthening something else in the process, and said he'll be watching how aggressive the daily patches are and what things look like for Warzone next week, plus whether there's any DMZ news at Gamescom.

Charlie Intel Reports the Beta Lost Half Its Steam Players

Charlie Intel reported that the Call of Duty Modern Warfare beta had lost 50 percent of its players, citing Steam numbers from 20 hours earlier. From there, the conversation online just kept looping back to the War Dogs versus Modern Warfare 4 debate, which is a wild place for the discourse to keep landing.

Infinity Ward's Day Three Note Addresses Spawns, Time to Kill and Attachments

I want to read directly from a note Infinity Ward posted. It said day three of the Modern Warfare early access beta had arrived on Sunday, bringing a new 6v6 map, weapon balance updates, audio tuning and bug fixes, and called it an exciting start to the beta before sharing insights on conversations happening in the community. On spawns, the note said the beta is critical for testing multiplayer spawns because it lets them find patterns across a huge volume of matches, and that based on what they're seeing they need to improve, with work ongoing to refine spawn placements and logic across all maps and modes ahead of launch.

On time to kill, the note said it remains a focus, with weapons that are killing too fast being identified and adjusted based on feedback and in-game data. It also said several attachments are being adjusted to be more viable, with penalties removed from some optics and underbarrels, and that many attachment drawbacks were displayed incorrectly in the menu and have now been corrected to reflect accurate behavior, something that will be even clearer once advanced weapon stats and Gunsmith arrive at launch. The note closed by mentioning a new map, a new mode, and a new playlist coming later that day.

Infinity Ward Is Communicating, But Not About Matchmaking

On the surface, that's what a beta is for: break the game, find the cracks, figure them out. And on the surface, Infinity Ward is addressing a lot of those cracks, clearly communicating fixes that are already in progress. The one thing they're not communicating about is skill based matchmaking. I'll say it plainly: until there's a point where Infinity Ward can actually be transparent about what's really happening with matchmaking, something that has basically never happened, including the whole debacle before the beta even came out, that topic is always going to rise back to the top on Call of Duty's X community. People are tired of it and they don't want it, so it isn't going away.

Charlie Intel Says Modern Warfare 4's Problem Seems to Be That It Has No Identity

I want to end with this. Charlie Intel, which is essentially the main source for Call of Duty news, posted that Modern Warfare 4's key issue seems to be that it has no identity, trying to be fast paced like the non Infinity Ward games while also incorporating Infinity Ward design, and ending up with a game that lacks something that makes it special.

I'd add to that: this isn't a hatefest, it's the fact that this is the seventh Modern Warfare iteration. It's not even necessarily that Modern Warfare 4 ends up being a bad game, they could fix everything and have a solid game at launch. The problem is franchise fatigue, specifically subseries fatigue, and once you get into the weeds it's Gunsmith fatigue and skill based matchmaking fatigue too. All of that brings people to a point where they're just tired and want something different.

We go through these cycles as a community, not wanting boots on the ground so we get jump packs and jet suits, then not wanting that so we go back to boots on the ground or World War II settings, and now we're in modern and people don't want that anymore either. That's just how it works. But if a franchise is always a year or two behind where the community's taste is, it never catches up, because by the time it does, the community has already shifted to wanting something else.

I want to know two things from anyone reading this. First, are you going to play the full game and enjoy it, or are you looking forward to Sledgehammer's next entry instead, or are you off Call of Duty completely? Second, and this one's a bit selfish: should coverage focus on this game, ranking the best and worst guns and maps, running through loadouts, secondaries and Easter eggs? I honestly don't have that answer, which is exactly why I'm asking.

So, are you going to play Modern Warfare 4 and enjoy it, or are you off Call of Duty completely?