With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it feels like the monetisation lever pullers at publisher Activision have finally found a system that is both good for business and players. But there’s one aspect of the game that continues to frustrate me: rotating playlists.
With the launch of season three this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare got a new (and fun!) battle pass, new operators and three new maps free for everyone. It plopped the new maps in a playlist all of their own, and added a playlist just for team deathmatch and domination game modes. But in doing so it removed playlists that contained my favourite maps in the game. And now I can’t play them.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone – Season 3 Trailer Watch on YouTube
Some background: I’m not a fan of Modern Warfare’s larger maps. I outright hate some of them, especially when playing a 6v6 game mode. Infinity Ward’s map design for this soft reboot seemed to revolve around large play spaces meant for 20 and above players, with plenty of clutter, nooks and crannies and verticality. This promotes slower, more cautious play, and yes, it promotes camping. You can spend a lot of your time looking for the action, only to be sniped by a player who’s holed up on the second floor of a destroyed building. Again.
But Modern Warfare is a fantastic competitive multiplayer shooter on its smaller maps, where 6v6 game modes excel. I’ve already reported on the brilliance of Rust, but Shipment and Shoot House are fantastic close quarters maps, too. I like to play these maps. A lot. But now, I can’t, because they’re not in a dedicated playlist.