Episode 600. On August 21st the Modern Warfare 4 early access beta, the WARDOGS closed beta, and Call of Duty NEXT all land on the same day — and the two games are asking for wildly different amounts of money.
We go through everything Activision is cramming into the MW4 beta: a playable campaign mission called Entrenched, six multiplayer maps, the return of Ground War, and a brand new Warzone Resurgence map called Zodiac. Then we put odds on whether any of it actually works over a single weekend. Spoiler: 20%.
Omnimovement is gone. We get into what replaced it, whether removing it was a gameplay decision or a marketing one, and why "you can climb pipes now" is the funniest thing Infinity Ward has ever put in a press release.
On the WARDOGS side: $39.99 Early Access on September 10, over a million Steam wishlists, and a promise of no in-game monetization that came out of one very bad Reddit post. We argue that the promise is a mistake — and that the most consumer-friendly thing a game can do is just be good.
Plus DMZ2, aim assist, and why Infinity Ward is about to be spread way too thin.
0:00 - Intro — 600 episodes
2:09 - Patreon free trials all August
4:02 - Patron hangout: August 28th
5:30 - Two betas, one Friday
6:49 - MW4 beta dates and the pre-order wall
7:44 - A campaign mission in a beta — a CoD first
10:23 - The battle dad theory
13:24 - Discord Nitro gets you in free
15:28 - All six multiplayer maps
16:06 - Ground War is back
20:24 - Zodiac: a new Resurgence map in the beta
23:56 - Modes, and the ones held back
25:33 - 19 weapons and a fake pre-order camo
26:59 - "It's gonna be a buggy fucking disaster"
28:51 - Putting the odds at 20%
31:13 - Why I win either way
33:23 - No more omnimovement
33:48 - Climbing pipes is just a ladder
35:58 - Was omnimovement actually better?
40:22 - Mantling as the Warzone middle ground
43:06 - What actually makes you a casual?
51:12 - WARDOGS
51:50 - Closed beta August 21–23
53:30 - Three maps at launch? We're skeptical
55:14 - The one thing WARDOGS is missing
56:54 - $39.99 Early Access, September 10
58:34 - September is not summer
1:00:32 - No monetization in Early Access
1:00:48 - The Reddit post that caused it
1:05:19 - "Consumer friendly" doesn't mean this
1:09:25 - The upside of by-gamers-for-gamers
1:10:09 - When to tell your fans to fuck off
1:19:09 - Is $40 the right price?
1:21:21 - 800,000 Steam wishlists
1:22:38 - Make that a million
1:26:39 - This puts Bulkhead on the map
1:28:22 - MW4 vs WARDOGS, side by side
1:29:25 - Which beta are you actually excited for?
1:31:27 - DMZ2 is the real unknown
1:34:58 - A piece of toast and not enough butter
1:40:03 - Aim assist is why I don't play CoD
1:42:55 - In defence of shit-can lobbies
1:46:13 - The August 21st collision, revisited
1:49:42 - What we've been playing
1:49:51 - Overwatch: bronze 5 to gold 3
1:54:43 - They added a rank called Emerald
1:57:27 - First team kill of the wipe
1:59:44 - Cope shotguns Jake from ten feet
2:04:24 - Tarkov level 35 and the Lighthouse rework
2:06:14 - Outro
_Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._
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