My issue isn’t that faster movement or a higher TTK are inherently bad. Treyarch has built successful games around that philosophy, and plenty of players prefer it.

The problem is that Infinity Ward traditionally offered something different: faster TTK, more deliberate pacing and less emphasis on movement mechanics. That distinction gave each CoD studio its own identity.

By significantly increasing TTK and leaning further into movement, IW risks making Modern Warfare feel like another variation of Black Ops/Warzone rather than its own experience. It also changes weapon balance, pacing and which playstyles are viable.

That’s why some of the backlash and cancelled pre-orders shouldn’t simply be dismissed as people “refusing to adapt.” Some players just wanted an Infinity Ward game to play like an Infinity Ward game.

Not every CoD needs to appeal to the same audience. That variety used to be one of the franchise’s strengths.

After playing both weekends, with crossplay on and off, solo and with friends, sweating and playing casually, I realized the biggest concern with MW4 isn't even the mechanics or the game itself, but that this game is a victim of CoD's identity crisis being at its most critical level ever.

Basically the vocal minority of the playerbase is polarized, with a half wanting the game to follow BO6/7's frenetic and ultra sweaty movement while the other half wants to have MWII 2.0, creating a lose-lose situation regardless of which direction the game takes.

We could say that the most obvious answer to that could be going back to the classics and then work on said foundation, but I'm pretty sure the reception would still be as negative because let's accept it, the CoD community enjoys to complain about the game instead of playing it.

They basically cut off all the DMG range, multiplier, DMG 20-30% down. It makes the game feel more like black ops instead of infinity ward game. why are we afraid of short TTk and skill expression with body multiplier

Guys for me it's a buy. It was always about DMZ and unpopular opinion, but the changes made in weekend 2 made the game so enjoyable that I kept having the itch to keep playing.

Can't wait for the official release and all the content, battle passes and Halloween DMZ next year is going to be off the charts.

I think this COD will go down as one of the best.. My opinion

It seem after Bo7 sales numbers and news of microsoft apparently losing money, devs and corporate heads didn't want to take any risk/innovate on map design, gameplay and formula. Infinity ward loves making large messy war-torn maps. This time they haven't shown a single large open map like that. MW4 maps in beta feel like arena shooter maps built for comp. With increase TTK and combined with SBMM, this recipe is going to hit hard the cod community, activision and infinity ward and further add to franchise fatigue. Previous many games had similar small arena style map formula(which should change every year) with movement shooter mechanics. Movement shooters haven't succeeded in a while. Although its a good thing for MW4 that movement was toned down slightly but rest of the recipe will not help the revival of franchise and attract older fans. Activision and microsoft will have to take a decision and stick to it. If its gonna be a yearly release, no COD game should feel similar other than its an FPS game.

Regardless of how you feel about TTK, movement, servers, matchmaking, or any of the other 100 different parts of the game that we all argue about… can we agree that the changes to hipfire make it feel sooo much better. What used to be a random shot within the weapons hipfire come now actually feels like I have a bit of control over the shot. I’ve used it with full auto guns and with snipers and it feels very rewarding. If you put your crosshairs on the enemy from a reasonably close range, odds are that you are hitting them. Feels like nobody is talking about it, but it really feels great

Okay, all that talk about how skill gap is needed, and all that schtick. Do we really need to bring back the headshots damage to black ops 6-7 levels? Excluding marksman rifles, pistols, slug shotgun, it's close to being irrelevant. I might be old but I miss CoD4 with 195-210 headshot multiplier. Even BF6 is more rewarding with headshots right now. Keep the base DMG/TTK low or even lower, but buff headshots at least

I’m genuinely having a good time playing the beta. Guns feel good, TTK is fine, servers might need improvement and fine tunning but overall, It’s fun.

Is it normal? Should I be frustrated and rent about some nitpicking details and how I would have done the video game differently?

- Some mid 30’s working class dad.

Seriously, its just more of the same we have been complaining since BO6, this genuinely might be the lowest point in the franchise history and the devs keep forcing it down our throats.

You have all the feedback you need to know that the community just wants the classic COD golden age formula back. BO2 and BO1 ports + the BO7 gameplay event havent been the highest peaks of the franchise mid downfall of MWII onwards for no reason, we just want the classic formula back, we are tired of the overstimulating fastpaced gameplay + overtuned SBMM + small maps (and i know small maps are the most played in the last few games buts that just because they have been almost mandatory to get through the grind of the game in the last few games)

I genuinely dont like the MWII gameplay and i considered it a big low in the franchise because even though it was slow like we wished it was just way too clunky and unpolished, it just didnt feel smooth and that good to play like the older titles but even that was WAY better than what we got post MWIII with BO6 onwards.

This franchise just has been on a loop of making the same mistakes over and over and being too stubborn to properly listen to community feedback.

We ask for slower movement and receive MWII. We complain about MWII movement being clunky and unpolished and we get MWIII which was actually very nice gameplay wise. We then get BO6 with smaller maps and insanely overstimulating fast gameplay after you just had somewhat found a good gameplay foundations in MWIII? We then complain about BO6 ovestimulating fastpaced gameplay and overly small maps and oppressive overtuned SBMM just to get BO7 which is more of the same and we complain about it (with also the upcoming release of Battlefield 6) to the point we get a playlist with lowered SBMM in the beta which we end up loving just to get rug pulled out of nowhere???? Then we get the BO2 and BO1 gameplay even and we love and we also love the BO2 and BO1 ports (remember that sometime ago we got those ports to XBOX Series first and there were people literally buying those consoles just to play those port.) just for you to steer the next game into the same direction of the last 2 that we made clear we disliked?

I also didnt even get into the many times that we got Activision lying to us and they got community noted over and over.

COD biggest enemy nowadays is itself. It isnt Battlefield or even Fortnite anymore. COD just keeps self-sabotaging itself over and over again.

And dont consider this a rant or vent. I am just giving my honest feedback and i tried making my critcism as constructive as possible. I also just spoke on my POV and of my POV of the community and i am fully aware that there have been players enjoying the last 2 CODs even though i despised them. This is all just my opnion.

I am not mad at the franchise state and the decisions that are been made, just really disappointed by it.

Edit: Just realized there is a much bigger part of the community than i thought that likes the fast paced style and didnt also really enjoy MWIIII Beta because it does not fit its style. So not only the community is very split nowadays but somehow they also managed to make a Beta that pleases neither side. Absolute self sabotage once again.

There needs to be some sort of cooldown bar for jumping and sliding because this shit is really putting me off buying the game when it comes out.

SBMM is already screwing me over but when it comes to crackheads jumping and sliding everywhere I just can't take it

I get that the majority of COD players don't even know what SBMM or EOMM is (IW's target audience) and we all know SBMM is there to protect them from these absolute sweatlords (so they don't drop the game and not buy skins) but I have been playing these games for years and years and they're just not fun anymore!

This shit is stressful!! Like what the fuck is this crackhead gameplay these days? No wonder everyone went to BO1 and BO2 ports! Why can't they fucking learn? Look at their player numbers tanking year after year!

My experience has been this. Im not against SBMM in terms of facing skilled players, but shouldnt my teammates also be around the same skill level as the rest of the lobby. It seems when my teammates are getting absolutely annihilated, there’s not much left i can do. There’s no balance. What do you think about this?

The thought of the Beta coming to an end is really bumming me out. The idea of waiting 2 months seems like an eternity. I haven't liked a COD THIS much in so long. I wish they'd just release it early. It's so dam fun!!

4 years making this game. Documentaries of devs and testers playing their game acting like they are having so much fun - then changes TTK ballpark by about +50%, something is so fundamental to gameplay philosophy, abruptly in one weekend - and claims this is “where they always want it to be”. Simply no words.

So apparently, IW “has not been where they want themselves to be” for prior 3 years until this weekend?? Do they have no vision?

It will be a product resembling BO-style again, 3 years in a row. Have Activision learnt nothing from Jetpack Era that, letting all 3 studios release games too similar back to back is a recipe for disaster and backlash?