All The Changes From The Beta

The Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II beta gave gamers on PlayStation, Xbox and PC a chance to check out the game’s multiplayer weeks before launch.

It was a fun introduction to the game—but also a way to weed out bugs and other issues, of which the CoD community found many. Some of the biggest problems gamers had with the beta (myself included) were:

• Poor visibility making it hard to spot enemy players especially in areas with low light or lots of busy colors.
• Footstep audio problems that made it difficult to identify enemies.
• Weird issues like extremely loud Dead Silence field upgrade volume when you’d activate—which is odd given it’s designed to make you dead silent.
• Some players were unhappy with the mini-map which doesn’t reveal quite as much intel about enemy player locations as it has in the past.
• Bugs and glitches galore, naturally.
• Extremely awful menus that were confusing to navigate and poorly designed, making it hard to figure out how to view lobbies, invite friends to play or access menu options.

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Of these, the poor visibility and UI were my biggest issues. I was less bothered by the footsteps and don’t have an issue with the way the mini-map works. Fortunately, it sounds like Infinity Ward has made changes to many—though not all—of player complaints. In the below patch notes, there’s nothing about the mini-map which sounds like it will remain the same.

One of the biggest changes is the addition of diamond icons above enemy heads to help with visibility. I’ll need to play and see how these work in practice. I was actually getting used to no enemy nameplates by the time the beta was over, but I can see how many players would find this frustrating.

Changes to audio, UI, movement, matchmaking and more have been made, all of which will hopefully make the game a smoother experience to play at launch than during the beta. We’ll know soon enough—Multiplayer goes live soon!

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Check out the patch notes below to see all the changes from the beta:

Enemy Visibility

• We have added diamond icons above the heads of enemies. This should make it easier for players to clearly identify opponents in the game.
• Additionally, we’ve continued to tweak lighting and contrast for improved enemy visibility.

Audio

• We’ve shortened the overall range of footstep audio which will allow enemy players to get closer to targets before they are able to detect footsteps. We have also continued to tweak teammate footstep audio, which will now be quieter following feedback from the Beta.
• The in-world activation sound effect volume range for the Dead Silence field upgrade has been drastically decreased.

Third Person

• Following feedback from Beta, aiming down sights will now stay in third person POV for low-zoom optics. Only high-zoom optics (beginning with the ACOG and higher) and special optics such as Hybrids and Thermals will revert to first person POV. We believe this will enhance the third person experience while keeping the gameplay balanced. The feedback on this mode has been very positive, and we will continue to explore its use as a modifier.

Weapons

• We have continued to tweak weapons across the game following both feedback from Beta players and game data. Players can expect more specifics on weapon tuning as we continue to support post-launch.

UI

• We have been working hard on numerous updates to our UI that make accessing and customizing your loadout more seamless. We’ve made improvements to navigation of menus and will continue to optimize our UX.

Movement

• Slide, ledge hang, and dive have been further refined. We’ve also addressed some movement exploits following Beta.

Matchmaking

• We have implemented some changes that aim to reduce lobby disbandment between matches. We look forward to testing this at a large scale and getting feedback.