Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s campaign has already been available in early access for a few days, but the game arrives in full tomorrow, and a launch patch is being rolled out for the game. The update promises stability and performance improvements for the CoD: MWIII campaign (which isn’t getting great reviews so far) and to fix issues with being able to play offline. You can also expect a variety of UI improvements, tweaks to various maps, and some control changes, including the ability to double-tap a button to go into Tac-Stance.
Here's a rundown of some of the major new features and changes included in the CoD: Modern Warfare III launch update…
Campaign Stability & Performance
Offline play will no longer be prevented after first setting up an Activision account.Save data integrity has been reviewed and checkpoint loading errors have been solved.Fixed multiple UI-related crashes that occurred while navigating menus.Resolved several crash bugs when loading into some missions.Fixed an issue in which some players experienced an excessive load time after the opening title splash.Fixed several graphical bugs that resulted in hitching after a melee kill.Fixed a graphical bug that resulted in assets loading in low quality.Multiplayer UIX
Visual Changes
Added a stroke to player nameplates to improve visibility.Adjusted font and contrast of the score event text on the HUD to be less obstructive.New Features
Added a HUD element that displays the player’s current streak after each kill.Match event popups now feature the respective player’s equipped Calling Card.Skillful player achievements, such as Kingslayer, Collateral, etc., will now display a Medal splash on the player’s HUD.Tac-Stance toggle state is now indicated by a widget in the lower-right area of the HUD, replacing the previous prompt while aiming down sights.Match Stats are now available during gameplay via a new tab in the Scoreboard, allowing the player to compare current performance to their career average.Detailed Statistics are now viewable while choosing an Attachment in the Gunsmith.Maps
Added spawn anchors to many maps in order to influence the flow of combat in the direction of each map’s intended design.In Team Deathmatch, team-owned areas are favored by spawn selection and resistant to enemy pressure.In Domination, spawn selection is now more resistant to enemy pressure on flags, improving consistency by favoring owned flags.Estate
Added frontline logic to prevent unintentionally frequent spawn flips.Favela
Decreased the priority of spawn points near the Shacks and Construction Site.Highrise
Decreased the priority of spawn points in the Actibase and Phonic Tunnels.Gameplay
Adjusted footstep volume to further distinguish enemy and friendly players.Added an option to double-tap the aim down sights button to activate Tac-Stance.Refreshed Default Loadout options with a widened range of content.Movement
Sprint input while sliding will now cancel the slide animation.Decreased aim down sights time penalty while jumping by 20%.Settings
Added an option to double-tap the aim down sights button to activate Tac-Stance.Added new options to Slide/Dive Behavior. Tap to slide, disables the dive. Tap to dive, disables the slide.The CoD: Modern Warfare III Day 1 update offers more minor tweaks and bug fixes than we can list here -- you can check out the full, unabridged patch notes here.
Activision has also detailed some of the new features coming to the CoD Ricochet Anti-Cheat tech, including advanced machine learning to identify new cheating behavior. Amusingly, Ricochet has also added to its list of in-game “mitigation” tactics – essentially pranks pulled on cheaters. The new one, called “Splat” will remove a cheater’s parachute mid-jump, causing them to go, well… splat.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launches in full on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 tomorrow (November 10).