Charlie Oscar Delta is your Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer (MP) BETA headquarters. Check it out! We've included all of the pertinent details for the sampling of MP action that you will experience in the COD4:MW Xbox 360 Public MP BETA. This is also where you will get an opportunity to join the COD4:MW MP BETA...and that opportunity will come sooner than you think.
 
Don't worry, we'll give you plenty of warning. Look for an update here in BETA headquarters. We'll also throw an announcement into SITREP and add a countdown clock on our homepage.
 
To be eligible for a token-you must be 18 years of age or older, punctual and capable of answering three trivia questions correctly. Yes, punctual. To be fair, we're doling out the tokens on a first come first serve basis. We're still finalizing plans for where the Beta will be available. Initially, in order to get underway we'll be rolling-out in the United States. As soon as we're able to confirm which other countries are good to go we'll be back to update everybody.

La version PC tournera evidemment a plus de 60 FPS, et Infinity Ward pense que le jeu tournera bien, même avec des PC un peu anciens. Pour le moment cela n'est pas confirmé.

One intrepid IGN editor traveled to the birthplace of mankind, Encino, California, to experience the upcoming Call of Duty 4 Xbox 360 multiplayer beta firsthand. Only by playing in IW's modern war setting could I possibly understand the decision to abandon World War II. Along my side were Will Tuttle (who takes up desk space for TeamXbox), and Gerald Villoria and Bryn Williams of GameSpy fame (two editors for the price of one!). It was immediately clear why a modern setting was the only option for IW. Modern Warfare offers far more fun toys than stodgy old World War II. Bigger guns, bigger explosions, and a far deeper multiplayer were just a few of the perks earned by switching settings.
 
Four hours, three fire alarms, and many deaths later, the four of us exited Infinity Ward in agreement: Call of Duty 4 kicks some serious ****ing ass.
 
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Of course, all of this set-up means nothing if the gameplay sucks. Don't worry, the gameplay does not suck. In fact, these were four of the best hours of online gameplay I've experienced on any console. By now you've likely seen the beautiful single-player game with rich details and intense action. While a few of the particle effects may have been dropped for multiplayer, it is almost as pretty in motion as the single-player. The game runs smoothly at 60fps without a single hiccup to the framerate. The texture work is spectacular, the maps large but not overwhelming, and the world thick with debris. There's been very little compromise in maintaining the visual fidelity of the single-player game. Best of all, it's a lot of fun.
 
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Unless Infinity Ward is pulling a fast one, the three maps I played give great hope to the overall multiplayer. According to IW, there are better maps to be found in the retail game. If so, then this may be the mother of all online shooters. The three maps offered (Overgrown, Vacant, and Crash) are all excellent. None of these are the type you'll want to veto prior to the launch of a game.
 
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COD4 is going to be one of the deepest online shooters of all time. The short-lived Halo 3 multiplayer beta was the talk of the gaming world this summer, and for good reason. But before we crown the gang at Bungie kings of online multiplayer, give Call of Duty 4 a chance. It may just be the multiplayer game that will have you hooked through the winter.

Last night Infinity Ward and Activision held an event in Hollywood, CA for Call of Duty 4's multiplayer. I was on hand to check out the game for myself and see if the multiplayer aspect of the game is worth the hype. What you'll find out playing Call of Duty 4 is that it's one the deepest and funnest MP games ever to grace gaming. Forget what you've seen in the videos or read on the net. Nothing compares to playing the game first hand. The quality of gameplay, visuals, and sound are so well done that Call of Duty 4's multiplayer on the field is going to define what next-gen multiplayer gameplay is all about.  
 
The first you'll do before loading into an online game of CoD4 is set up your class and choose your perks. You can choose the preset classes for you like sniper etc. but I think most everyone should go about making a custom class to meet their play style. What you'll notice instantly is how deep the player creation is. You'll start off at the bottom of the ladder without much weapons to choose from but all your favorites from real warfare are included including the AK47 (pictured above), MP5, M16 etc. As you gain levels you'll unlock more weapons to use and of course these weapons will become more powerful as your rank increases. If you're creating a custom class you'll have to first pick what weapons you want to use. I being unable to shake my CoD2 habits and answer a ton of questions about how a CoD4 game is going to be chose to be everyone's favorite, the sniper. Next, you can choose your perks. You can choose from various perks such as juggernaut to increase your health, or a perk to improve your aim, or a perk to do extra damage to your enemies. Of course there's a small concern that the perks will unbalance the game or make a certain combination more powerful and I'll talk about that in the gameplay portion.
 
Visuals of Modern Warfare
 
We got to play 3 maps. Each was incredibly well designed and a ton of fun. Even with a bunch of enemies on screen I noticed absolutely no hiccups in framerate. Here's a quick rundown of what you'll be playing if you're lucky enough to get into the beta.
 
Crash - This will definitely be the most played map on Xbox live during the beta. This reminds me a lot of Toujane, Tunisia from CoD2. it's an outdoor environment set in the middle east. You'll see enemies on the ground and on balconies in buildings. If you've watched the news lately you're pretty familiar with what its supposed to look like. It was sort of scary to see such places so well represented. Adding to the atmosphere, one side will be playing as soldiers and the other will be playing as insurgents. Another thing you'll notice is that some of the environments are destructible. Walking through the streets of Crash you'll come by destroyed cars. In once instance I was walking by one, an enemy must have lobbed a grenade at it, and boom the car blew up into flames right in front of my face (red car above in the pic). All 3 maps have an incredible sense of intensity but Crash was the one map of the three I played that hit me the most.  
 
Overgrowth - An outdoor map set in Russia. Reminds me a lot of France from Call of Duty 2 with the houses and stuff. There's a bridge in a portion of the map as well that gave me an eerie Saving Private Ryan flashback. Guns fights however were fierce on this map as gun fights happened across the bridge, from on the bridge to the ditch below, and from house to house. In this map you'll be able to hide in houses, go prone in the grass, probably the best map for sniping that I played. However, of the three maps I saw some textures that looked just a bit flat to me in compared to the other two maps especially up close were a bit disappointing. But it's a beta and I am sure Infinity Ward will polish the game a little more ahead of release in about two and a half months.
 
Vacant - Indoors and plenty of corridors. Whereas Crash was an outdoor urban warfare map, and Overgrowth was more a throwback of what we're used to in the CoD4 franchise, Vacant to me was very fresh. Though it does have some outdoor portions, they are few and far between as fighting occurs in abandoned warehouses, hallways, and buildings. It was easy in this map to sneak up on an entire group of enemies and take them down yourself. I think this map suited more of an 8 or 10 person game than the larger ones which in such a confined space may degrade to chaos but it was still a lot of fun. This is definitely my second favorite of the three maps for the same reason I pointed out earlier. I was able to successfully numerous times gun down an enemy then knife the guy he was sticking with in the back for double points.  
 
Gameplay
 
Where it all comes together for Call of Duty 4 is the gameplay. Where do I even begin to point all everything this game does right in multiplayer. For starters, it's going to be addicting, very addicting. Every time you kill someone, get an assist, or finish them off, you see the points in gold pile on your screen getting you closer to the next rank. It's going to be one of those "I know if I play one more game tonight I'll be able to get to that next rank" which then turns into 6 am the next morning before you've gone to bed.
 
The game itself is a blast to play. All the weapons feel and sound right. The MP5 which ended up being my favorite gun by the end of the night sounded just right and felt just right. A few bullets to the upper body and down went my opponents. Bullet piercing through environments I only noticed on a few occasions and that's probably because of the enviroment and people I was playing with. However, in some instances you knew where people were and you shot through the wall or people were pre-firing. Especially in realism mode, it's going to be a huge deal to shoot through objects before going in. We spent the night playing deathmatch, so I didn't get a chance to check out any of the other modes. But from what it seems, there should be something for everybody on xbox live to play when it comes to CoD4's multiplayer.
 
The biggest issue that plagued CoD2 was that every match turned into snipers because it was an overpowered gun. Let's put this to bed: the Sniper rifle is very well balanced in CoD4, no more one shot kills for a shot in the arm. Unless you put one in the chest or in the head your sniper shot just does damage but does not kill your opponent. Also, if your opponent has a gun with the proper attachment it's easy for guns that you would never typically use for sniping to snipe and counter a sniper. Sniping also seemed a bit harder as ala Splinter Cell holding your breath has been employed. So you need to zoom in with the left trigger and then push in the left thumb stick to hold your breath for a few seconds. If you hold too long you'll let go and your reticle will begin to sway again. Balance should not be an issue in CoD4 from what I saw.
 
Something gamers seem to be asking for in a variety of FPS games is the ability to put down your gun and run fast. Infinity Ward has listened. Press in the left thumb stick when not sniping and you'll lower weapon and gain a boost of speed. This will be ideal for those squad games where advancing on positions in realism mode is key.
 
Back to killing. Sneak up behind someone and press in the right thumb stick and you'll pull out your knife and stick it in their back for an instant kill. Face to face, you'll hit in the head with your rifle. Get 3 kills of any kind in a row and hit the d pad to bring in UAV helicopter support. A screen will pop up with the entire map with a large cursor, you then press A to bring in the helicopter and for a time it will hover the area and kill any enemies it sees giving you the credit for the points. Kill 5 enemies in a row and call in an airstrike. Again, the same menu and targeting mechanism will pop up. However, 2 fighter jets will fly over the map and drop bombs killing anything in their path. I saw double, triple, and quadruple kills happen with ease because of airstrikes. It's like a gamebreaker for CoD4. Someone's about to score your flag? Call in an airstrike over their base and take em out.