Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and its Warzone component kicked off its Season 1 multiplayer today, marking its first major update since launch. The former gets three new maps as part of its 24/7 playlist, in addition to a 6v6 arena set in Rio, which will be available later in the season. As usual, there are some rewards for racking up kills without dying, granting players an EMP upon getting a 13 killstreak and the ability to summon mosquito swarms as cover on a 15 killstreak. There’s also a new perk called the Assassin Vest, which makes players immune to UAV scans and doesn’t pop skulls on the minimap upon performing an execution.
The three new maps take you to a coastal town in ‘Greece’, a blood-drenched close-quarters slaughterhouse called ‘Meat’, and a ‘Training Facility’ set in a warehouse that enables 2v2 gunfights. Building on that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III brings back two fan-favourite modes — the All or Nothing equips players with throwing knives and an empty pistol, taking them with slowly upgrading armaments via killstreaks and perk activations. Then there’s the standard round-based Gunfight with small teams. Ranked Play is expected to drop later in Season 1, alongside promotional skins for the upcoming Denis Villeneuve movie Dune: Part 2 — Paul Atredis and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen — and an in-game event titled ‘Trial of Power.’ There are no specifics of the event yet, but we can assume that the timing of the collaboration had to do with the film’s delay from November to March 2024 due to the Hollywood labour strikes. Still, a weird game to pick for promoting Dune 2.
Over on Warzone, Call of Duty’s long-running battle-royale mode, the brand-new Urzikstan map is now live, throwing you onto a greyish metropolis punctuated by lavish resorts, power mills, a military base, a luxurious mansion and more. Activision describes it as a point where the Middle East meets Europe — or to put it more bluntly in the game’s universe, it’s located on the ‘easter border of the Black Sea and bordering Al Mazrah.’ As previously reported, the map adds a few unique mechanics for traversal such as horizontal ziplines and a drivable train, whose speed can be controlled by players using dedicated levers. Of course, one could also flip the brakes by heading to the backside. With such major changes comes a new 1v1 Gulag called ‘Silo,’ which is entirely symmetrical but will be varied based on luck.
Season 1 also brings a new story mission to the Zombies mode, plopping a ‘massive gateway’ in the Exclusion Zone for players to investigate. Additionally, there’s a new battle pass, promising new weapon unlocks such as the XRX Stalker, RAM-7, and Stormender, which can be added to your loadout. The Call of Duty roadmap also reveals plans for Christmas-themed events and game modes, a skin for A-Train from the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, and more — you can check out the complete patch notes on the official website.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 1 is now live on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X.
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