Episode 602: The MW4 Beta Broke Us — We're Done With Call of Duty

We played the Modern Warfare 4 beta this weekend — including Warzone and the new Zodiac Resurgence map — and it took about fifteen minutes to know it was over. Not "this year is mid" over. Over over. This is the episode where a podcast that ran on Call of Duty for 600+ episodes says out loud that it's done. Raz makes the case that nothing else in an FPS matters if you can't see or hear the enemy, and everything else — weapon levels, perks, pipe climbing, the spawns everyone's arguing about on X — is fixing a leaky bathtub while the house burns down. Jake breaks down why CoD only takes from him now, why the lobbies are nothing but sweat, and the exact point where min-maxing your controller, your router and your ZIP code stopped being worth it. Also in this one: the Zodiac verdict (better than Area 99, roughly Haven's Hollow), the weekend 2 nerf pass, the 60% negative Steam reviews, why Warzone was in the beta at all, and a DMZ 2 prediction we're standing behind. Then a palate cleanser — Star Wars Zero Company, permadeath, and a first playthrough Raz completely ruined — plus a brutal Tarkov week, the Tarkov roadmap, GTA 6's Netflix look, and WARDOGS. Jake wanted it to be good. Raz stopped wanting that years ago. This time they agree. 0:00 - Intro 1:10 - New patrons and the latest bonus episodes 3:26 - Our first patron Discord hangout (and Death by AI) 6:10 - "The MW4 Beta Broke Us" 6:22 - How fast did we know? 9:25 - "If I can't see the guy, nothing else matters" 10:17 - The raging inferno analogy 14:55 - "Call of Duty is dead" 15:10 - Jake: CoD only takes from me now 20:49 - Everyone is min-maxing (and moving for zero ping) 23:26 - SBMM, the missing casuals, and sweat-only lobbies 26:03 - Splitgate Reloaded and the death of 6v6 arcade shooters 27:40 - Warzone: the audio, the visibility, the haze 30:12 - Rolling the dice on what bullshit you get this year 31:28 - Bring back Caldera — at least it was different 37:28 - The first thing that felt wrong: audio 37:54 - Weekend 2's nerf pass: Tac Sprint, slides, TTK 40:44 - 60% negative Steam reviews and the player drop 41:52 - The Zodiac verdict vs. Area 99 and Haven's Hollow 42:50 - Why was Warzone in the beta at all? 47:16 - No custom loadouts, and the guns aren't fun to shoot 49:07 - "Activision devs do not play their own game" 50:18 - The one dev we ever ran into in Warzone 53:34 - The Quick Fix perk they "fixed" twice 57:07 - "Where does that put us? I give you Zodiac" 59:12 - Skipping a year, or actually done? 1:04:14 - What it would take to get us back 1:07:00 - Call of Duty is your old restaurant job 1:08:08 - "I want everyone that works there to suffer" 1:09:00 - It's a leadership problem — fire Infinity Ward 1:13:02 - Prediction: MW4 three months after launch 1:16:06 - The DMZ 2 prediction 1:24:17 - Palate cleanser: Star Wars Zero Company 1:32:45 - Permadeath, injuries, and squad bonds 1:34:36 - "This playthrough is fucked" 1:36:57 - Is it the Star Wars or the game underneath? 1:37:51 - Reviews, performance, and is it worth $50 1:38:50 - Eight classes, Overwatch combos, and base upgrades 1:44:46 - It should have been co-op 1:45:49 - Tarkov: best raid of the week 1:46:41 - The Customs transit raid that actually worked 1:50:02 - Worst raid: baited in the Reserve bunker 1:53:04 - The KS-23 rat that bled us out 1:54:39 - Camped at D2 twice in a row 1:59:49 - The bathroom extract death 2:02:34 - Why this wipe feels so much harder 2:05:18 - Tarkov roadmap: ranked, revives, simplified GPS 2:08:24 - GTA 6's Netflix extended look 2:10:31 - WARDOGS extraction and PvE prototypes 2:11:00 - Wrap-up _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices