Call of Duty | 3 Battle Passes In

Call of Duty for me is a love/hate relationship. On one hand it is my go to guilty pleasure. I enjoy playing it for the laughs, and the grinding. It gives me something to work towards, and with the latest installment there is so much more to earn, and unlock. With the battle pass being as generous as it is it gives even non-paying players a reason to grind. On the flip side of all that is the glaring problem that is the online multiplayer. That, and matchmaking. It is plagued by a handful of problems. These problems include the usual player mischief as well as decisions made, and implemented by the developer in such a way as to steer the player base towards a certain type of experience. With the latter I'm talking about the throttling of players' internet speed when they opt out of crossplay. They seem hellbent on forcing crossplay despite the community collectively calling it out as bad. I've personally known before the cross console play was a thing that going up against PC and mobile gamers was a major issue. With different controls, and netcode between the platforms there are both advantages, and disadvantages to some. This of course still has not been addressed by the developer.

Along with the issue that is crossplay there has been a rise in hacking, and cheating online in Call of Duty. To combat the problem Activision, and Infinity Ward thought it brilliant to create separate servers for the cheaters. The problem with this is that cheaters are still playing, and if they have a modded console or are playing from a PC they more than likely have server workarounds. This accompanied by routers that allow targeted connection based matchmaking, and you can bet your bottom dollar cheaters are still playing on non-cheater servers. Even further still is the fact that hackers are hacking lobbies, and players to make it look like others are cheating. This has happened to me on several occasions. From hackers voiding the initial match countdown on my side, or freezing everyone else but me they have made me look like the cheater. I've even seen it done to other teammates. Unless Activision or Infinity Ward can tell who a cheater is for sure they shouldn't even bother banning players or isolating them to the naughty servers.

Those things aside I still find some enjoyment from the game, and the series. As I've said it has it's fun factor. It offers busy work in the form of unlocks, and things like daily and weekly challenges. With the battle pass constantly being updated, and new content patched in the game is kept fresh. I think in the end it's mostly the players who make and/or break each new Call of Duty, but to some degree the developer could do better, especially in regards to Modern Warfare and Warzone. Particularly with matchmaking.

For now those are my thoughts on the latest game. Here at 3 battle passes in. I'm hoping to get some more quality time out of it until the next CoD drops later this year! On a side note thanks to my contact for Activision. They have made my initial review, and coverage possible. They went above, and beyond to see that I was given what I needed to continue covering the game as it went on. Thank you W!