Episode 600: Modern Warfare 4 Beta vs WARDOGS — Both Land August 21

Episode 600. On August 21st the Modern Warfare 4 early access beta, the WARDOGS closed beta, and Call of Duty NEXT all land on the same day — and the two games are asking for wildly different amounts of money. We go through everything Activision is cramming into the MW4 beta: a playable campaign mission called Entrenched, six multiplayer maps, the return of Ground War, and a brand new Warzone Resurgence map called Zodiac. Then we put odds on whether any of it actually works over a single weekend. Spoiler: 20%. Omnimovement is gone. We get into what replaced it, whether removing it was a gameplay decision or a marketing one, and why "you can climb pipes now" is the funniest thing Infinity Ward has ever put in a press release. On the WARDOGS side: $39.99 Early Access on September 10, over a million Steam wishlists, and a promise of no in-game monetization that came out of one very bad Reddit post. We argue that the promise is a mistake — and that the most consumer-friendly thing a game can do is just be good. Plus DMZ2, aim assist, and why Infinity Ward is about to be spread way too thin. 0:00 - Intro — 600 episodes 2:09 - Patreon free trials all August 4:02 - Patron hangout: August 28th 5:30 - Two betas, one Friday 6:49 - MW4 beta dates and the pre-order wall 7:44 - A campaign mission in a beta — a CoD first 10:23 - The battle dad theory 13:24 - Discord Nitro gets you in free 15:28 - All six multiplayer maps 16:06 - Ground War is back 20:24 - Zodiac: a new Resurgence map in the beta 23:56 - Modes, and the ones held back 25:33 - 19 weapons and a fake pre-order camo 26:59 - "It's gonna be a buggy fucking disaster" 28:51 - Putting the odds at 20% 31:13 - Why I win either way 33:23 - No more omnimovement 33:48 - Climbing pipes is just a ladder 35:58 - Was omnimovement actually better? 40:22 - Mantling as the Warzone middle ground 43:06 - What actually makes you a casual? 51:12 - WARDOGS 51:50 - Closed beta August 21–23 53:30 - Three maps at launch? We're skeptical 55:14 - The one thing WARDOGS is missing 56:54 - $39.99 Early Access, September 10 58:34 - September is not summer 1:00:32 - No monetization in Early Access 1:00:48 - The Reddit post that caused it 1:05:19 - "Consumer friendly" doesn't mean this 1:09:25 - The upside of by-gamers-for-gamers 1:10:09 - When to tell your fans to fuck off 1:19:09 - Is $40 the right price? 1:21:21 - 800,000 Steam wishlists 1:22:38 - Make that a million 1:26:39 - This puts Bulkhead on the map 1:28:22 - MW4 vs WARDOGS, side by side 1:29:25 - Which beta are you actually excited for? 1:31:27 - DMZ2 is the real unknown 1:34:58 - A piece of toast and not enough butter 1:40:03 - Aim assist is why I don't play CoD 1:42:55 - In defence of shit-can lobbies 1:46:13 - The August 21st collision, revisited 1:49:42 - What we've been playing 1:49:51 - Overwatch: bronze 5 to gold 3 1:54:43 - They added a rank called Emerald 1:57:27 - First team kill of the wipe 1:59:44 - Cope shotguns Jake from ten feet 2:04:24 - Tarkov level 35 and the Lighthouse rework 2:06:14 - Outro _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 #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #PodcastClips #ModernWarfare4 #MW4Beta #CallOfDuty #WARDOGS #Bulkhead #Warzone #GroundWar #Omnimovement #DMZ2 #CODNext #EarlyAccess #EscapeFromTarkov #Steam #GamingNews #HotTake #FPS #PCGaming Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices