Call of Duty Thread - Potential return to form? Or nothing but cope on the horizon? You decide!

Ground War, meaning the playlist from legacy CoDs for larger player counts for TDM and Domination. Not the Battlefield imitator from MW2019 onward.
Correct. However, you said it's the same thing as Ground War in current CODs, and it's not. It's basically the same as 10v10 Mosh Pit. Ground War in COD now is 32v32 with vehicles and squad spawning.

Especially with the lack of spotting/ping.

They added that to MWII, but it still sucks. Battlefield already isn't fun as a solo, and it's even less fun when snipers can quickscope you from 1000 yards.
 
Finally beat MW2019. (Will replay it on Veteran for completionist's sake, soon.) I believe the Going Dark mission would be an inspiration for MWIII's "open combat" missions. It was a fine campaign. Took itself a bit too seriously with its "straight from the headlines" marketing. More "edgy" than provocative, they just threw Zakhaev out of nowhere.
 
Tried the beta today for two matches.

It felt like it played better than MWII's beta, which doesn't mean all that much when I think about it and there is is no excuse to not have a more working version when its just a continuation of a previous game. The netcode seemed off but it wasn't all that noticeable. For example, I was shooting someone on the torso and constantly getting hits, and they just beamed me despite myself firing first and they weren't consistent on shots.

What's interesting is, for character voicelines, they were reusing the lines from Modern Warfare 2. Even at the end of the match, the scoreboard had Rangers vs Spetnaz despite changing the factions. They're using a lot of placeholder assets. It really looks like the best maps this game is going to have is all from Modern Warfare 2 and I don't have fond memories of that game so the nostalgia factor isn't there for me.* Doesn't bode well and sounds like sledgehammer is behind schedule to not have those things in place.

I'm glad I'm not falling for another pre-order. The magic of this series is long gone and all the good will MW2019 made has been squandered. There is some hope for the game to be solid but at the same time, I'm tired of going in lobbies with weird $24 skins that feel absolutely out of place and getting head-shotted by controller aim assist. I just want a grounded shooter without gimmicky movement and characters that look like what they should look like in real life and this series will not deliver that.


* I played Modern Warfare 2 on PC not Xbox so it was an unfun, fucking mess of a game with hackers everywhere. The maps weren't as good as 4 and the weapon balance was off. I'm sorry I ever bought it after I found out the dedicated servers and server browser was removed.
 
Since MS acquired Activision Blizzard, they said they could have CoD on Game Pass by next year or so. There's no reason for me to buy CoD since I have Game Pass Ultimate. I'll just have to wait. Fine by me.
 
Doesn't bode well and sounds like sledgehammer is behind schedule to not have those things in place.

FWIW, a public beta takes time to prepare, so you're looking at the state of things as of several months ago.

* I played Modern Warfare 2 on PC not Xbox so it was an unfun, fucking mess of a game with hackers everywhere. The maps weren't as good as 4 and the weapon balance was off. I'm sorry I ever bought it after I found out the dedicated servers and server browser was removed.

Every single COD game from COD4 through at least Ghosts has an exploit where a malicious attacker can deploy and execute code on your machine, which they have never fixed, despite continuing to sell them on Steam.
 
FWIW, a public beta takes time to prepare, so you're looking at the state of things as of several months ago.
A lack of even the most basic amount of polish for the publics first impression says a lot. The first MW2019 public alpha was literally one game with 2 maps and a small amount of guns, and yet it felt more cared for.

I did QA for a game a long time ago, and part way through the devs had us also check their demo. At least 60% of the bugs caused by a featured that was not integral to the demo were just straight up removed, and we were asked to check if it also occurred in the base game. It was more important that curious players get a limited taste of what they could expect than rush to fix some superfluous if they knew they could/already had fixed in the base game launching months later.
 
A lack of even the most basic amount of polish for the publics first impression says a lot.

You should have seen the Battlefield 3 public beta. People were shitting their pants in rage over bugs that were in the beta that, surprise, weren't in the launch product (which was still buggy af, because DICE). I had this exact same argument with people who, at the time, insisted that there was no way that the ostrich neck bug would be gone in time for release (it was), because NOBODY would release a public beta that still had such egregious bugs (they did) unless they were impossible to fix (they weren't).

I'm not going to be deeply concerned that placeholder assets will still be in the final release just because they're in a beta.
 
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You should have seen the Battlefield 3 public beta. People were shitting their pants in rage over bugs that were in the beta that, surprise, weren't in the launch product (which was still buggy af, because DICE). I had this exact same argument with people who, at the time, insisted that there was no way that the ostrich neck bug would be gone in time for release (it was), because NOBODY would release a public beta that still had such egregious bugs (they did) unless they were impossible to fix (they weren't).

I'm not going to be deeply concerned that placeholder assets will still be in the final release just because they're in a beta.
I think the problem is that betas are no longer betas. They're public demos to drum up hype. There's plenty of examples since then of known problems from a beta persisting during launch.
 
I think the problem is that betas are no longer betas. They're public demos to drum up hype.
People said the same exact thing about the BF3 beta, and that was 12 years ago. They were wrong then. IIRC, people said the same thing about the Quake III public beta, and that was 24 years ago (they were wrong about that one, too). Now, if the final release really is slapped together from 15-year-old assets, just lol, this series is done.
 
I just realized that the only reason they're remaking the original MW2 maps is because they cut out the multiplayer portion for the remake released a few years ago, AND because they have literally nothing else to show for it. The few unique maps that they created from scratch will likely be piecemealed season by season.
And we still have NO word on the MW3 remaster, even as MW3 2 Electric Boogaloo is about to release. How the fuck did they lose all momentum after MW2019 like this?
 
How the fuck did they lose all momentum after MW2019 like this?
On one hand, it feels like there was a domino effect caused by Sledgehammer completely fucking up their Vietnam game.

But on the other hand, it also kind of feels like they got a case of Rockstar Games syndrome when Warzone took off and they started making mountains of cash with little to no effort.
 
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But on the other hand, it also kind of feels like they got a case of Rockstar Games syndrome when Warzone took off and they started making mountains of cash with little to no effort.
That is precisely what made me stop playing. Once Warzone took over the game like a parasite, I just peaced out. Played MW2019 because it reminded me of Ghosts and COD4, not so I could play yet another battle royale. Funnily enough, I ended up playing COD Mobile for a little bit longer simply because the maps were familiar and the Battle Royale mode was it's own thing, what pissed me off was when they cancelled the zombies mode due to lack of ways to monetize it.

I can definitely see the "Rockstar Syndrome" kicking in here, but now I wouldn't even know what to call it since Warzone isn't even all that popular anymore.
 
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I tried the beta earlier today but gave up after a few matches. On paper I think it's a fine game and i think high rise is a pretty solid map and I get why people love it so much despite not playing OG MW2 when it was new. The reality is though is that the other players just are so sweaty that I was reminded why I quit MW2 22 after roughly a month or so of playing it.
 
I've played one match then went in the customization settings and saw that they made sure to have more LGBT emblems and playercards than stuff actually related to MWIII, even in a fucking beta/demo, LMAO
Great job SledgeHammer.
 
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I've played one match then went in the customization settings and saw that they made sure to have more LGBT emblems and playercards than stuff actually related to MWIII, even in a fucking beta/demo, LMAO
Great job SledgeHammer.
To be perfectly fair to MW3, MW2 did the exact same thing.
 
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It's sad to see Sledgehammer go super duper woke like this. Advanced Warfare was fine, it's stupid they made Irons the villain instead of letting you side with Atlas but the rest of the game was fine. I don't even remember it being woke at all, it was just good old fashioned fun.
I will say something else that will blow your mind: I actually preferred the jetpack mechanics in AW over BO3 and IW. I spend more hours in AW than I think any other COD aside from BO2 and maybe BO3, I got a grand master prestige and the royalty camos and everything. That game was just a blast, it took a bit of time to learn how to use Exo Suits effectively but once you mastered them, you could use them to skip large portions of each map via shortcuts and reverse-dropshot by jumping into the air and either squashing them real fast or filling them with lead. The "Star Wars" battles where everyone ran laser weapons were really fun, and I personally got a few nasty PMs when I ran my explosives + stun loadouts complete with that annoying recon drone that would constantly mark and stun enemies basically running 24/7.
 
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