Modern Warfare developers hinted at a new patch early yesterday on Twitter before releasing 1.08 at midnight PST. We expected some items discussed would make it into last night’s patch, and we were right about some. But other improvements apparently didn’t make the cut. However, what should be to the relief of many, the new patch once more nerfs the troublesome M4 and 725 shotgun. You can read the full patch notes here.
Weapon balance
The 725 and M4 have ran Modern Warfare multiplayer lobbies since launch, but have received their second nerf with patch 1.08. The M4 has been the best machine gun in the game by a large margin, even after 1.07. This patch, however, impacted the weapon much more harshly than the previous one. Spread from hip fire has been increased, while headshot damage has been lowered.
In fact, assault rifles across the board received a nerf to their hip spread. This increase to hip spread should positively impact gunfights for SMGs against ARs at close range. Theoretically, it should also make M4 feel more like an assault rifle rather than a do-it-all weapon. One thing you don’t see here though is a recoil adjustment. The M4 is a laser beam with the right attachments, and it appears it will remain that way for now.
The 725 has gained much notoriety since launch. Some players are even calling for it to be removed from the game. But Infinity Ward has stated that that is not an option. Developer, Joe Cecot, stated they are trying to “retain the soul of the 725” and not nerf it into the ground. Patch 1.08 nerfed the 725 range for the second time and fixed a rare occurrence where the gun could still one-shot at ranges it shouldn’t.
On the other hand, the FAL and EB-14 received some love in this patch. In the current Modern Warfare meta, semi-auto rifles like these aren’t seeing much usage. The other assault rifles and even marksman rifles seem to outperform these two on all fronts. This buff will hopefully increase their viability and we will see more of them in public matches and in our own loadouts.
Piccadilly
Piccadilly has received a massive amount of criticism since launch. The map is very different than what we are used to seeing in Call of Duty titles. A majority of criticism for the map is that it is very open in some areas while cluttered in others. Terrible spawns were a huge issue on this map, and they appear to be fixed in 1.08. Also for Domination, the B flag was moved from the center fountain to the buses in the middle of the map. The original B flag at center fountain favored the C side of the map. This change should make the map more fair regardless of spawn side.
Tip-toeing in my combat boots
Footsteps have been a large point of conversation in Modern Warfare. A substantial amount of the player base wants to see dead silence turned into a perk rather than a field upgrade. But, based off the changes made by Infinity Ward, it doesn’t look like that will happen. The wording in the patch notes is a little strange, but here is what we believe it means: Footsteps have two states of sound which are walking or running. Now in ADS and crouch, you will always get the expected walking sound. The team also increased how fast you can walk while maintaining the walking sound. The steps while walking, crouching or ADSing are quieter, but they are not silent.
Challenges are no longer impossible
A general fix was deployed to tackle the issues of challenges getting out of sync and to improve stability across all platforms. This general fix also patched the DEV ERROR 5476 that was causing Modern Warfare to crash unexpectedly. Players can get back to grinding out their challenges without having to complete them multiple times or running the risk of crashing their game.
What we didn’t see in 1.08
There are two major issues that remain in Modern Warfare that 1.08 doesn’t address. A glitch exists in Search and Destroy and Cyber Attack that allows a dead player to see the map from a raised camera angle and call out targets. This provides an extremely unfair advantage in these modes.
The second issue is EOD not preventing death to proximity mines. Claymores plagued public matches until 1.07 released, but proximity mines have taken their place. Even at full health with EOD, a proximity mine will kill the player. Cecot, confirmed that these issues are being worked on.
