Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III players around the world are experiencing a facepalm moment of frustration when trying to launch the new campaign. As reported by PC Gamer, the new Call of Duty HQ launcher, which is said to weigh in at a whopping 45-57 GB, is leading players down a convoluted rabbit hole in order to play the new game which releases next week on November 10. Originally introduced with MW II as an updated form of its main menu, the new launcher is intended to be an all-in-one place for players to access various COD features, games, etc., but its implementation seems to be anything but optimal. Meanwhile, the new campaign is receiving poor reviews for its quality and short time to complete.
Per PC Gamer:
“Here’s how it breaks down: if you have Warzone and HQ installed already, Modern Warfare 3 will add an additional 78GB, for a total of 149GB. The smallest possible configuration of MW3, with its campaign, co-op, and Warzone all removed, is 79GB (that’s CoD HQ’s 45GB plus multiplayer’s 34GB).”
As if having a launcher the size of a game using up precious space on their drive wasn’t bad enough, players are unable to play the new game unless they use it. The process to use the new HQ, just to get to start the game, is said to take between 70-90 seconds and is the only means to do so.
Per PC Gamer:
“Switching between Modern Warfares 2 and 3 from the HQ is not like switching modes. Once you’re on the main menu, you could jump immediately into Warzone or a multiplayer match of MW2. Clicking the Modern Warfare 3 button, however, closes the HQ app and launches an entirely different executable called Modern Warfare 3. There is no option to just launch Modern Warfare 3, because “Modern Warfare 3″ is not its own game. It’s buried, literally, inside CoD HQ as a piece of add-on content.”
It appears that PlayStation 5 owners found themselves experiencing another kind of annoyance in trying to launch the new game. A “disc required” error, not the new HQ launcher, popped up telling players they needed PS4 version of MW II in order to play. Clearly, even with errors, there seems to be some kind of intent in having the two games linked. An update correcting the issue has since been released.
From Bad to Worse …
Reviews for the campaign part of the game, which began its early access open-beta phase last month, have not been good either. It seems that having HQ treat the new game like DLC (which it was rumored to have begun as), may be closer to the truth than it seems.
VGC calls the new campaign “A LOW POINT WITH A THIN, MEANDERING MESS”, that clocks in under four hours of gameplay.
IGN says, “Modern Warfare 3 has perhaps the worst Call of Duty single-player campaign I’ve played. It’s shallow, dull, and plays less like the greatest hits and more like underbaked cover versions of missions past.”
Forbes is considerably more kind in saying:
“However, given the extremely short turnaround time between the two Modern Warfares, yes, it seems a quite few corners have been cut, and the campaign is getting criticized for both its quality and its extremely short length, even for a Call of Duty campaign.”
CoD’s strengths are usually its multiplayer mode and despite the poor reception for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III early access single-player campaign, it’s expected the game will fare better with that when it launches next week.