Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 chops much-disliked Weapon Tuning feature following community blowback
Sledgehammer take a sledgehammer to gun-tweaking option added by MW2 remake
This year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remake will no longer feature Weapon Tuning, a feature introduced by last year’s Modern Warfare 2 remake, which lots of people appear to despise. Unlocked by levelling up a weapon to the max, Weapon Tuning is an extra layer of the game’s Gunsmith weapon-building editor that lets you tweak individual attachment stats such as weight and length of grip, as displayed on a radar graph.
Sledgehammer Games – who are heading up this year’s helping of COD, in partnership with Infinity Ward – have nixed Weapon Tuning in response to rumbles of discontent from the fanbase. The removal applies to both the game's new guns and those recycled from last year. "Based on community feedback, Sledgehammer Games has removed the Weapon Tuning feature present in MWII and has made further improvements to make Gunsmith easier to use,” reads a statement scooped up by CharlieINTEL. “This change to Weapon Tuning applies to both MWII and MWIII weapons that utilize modifications.”
Call of Duty players have given various reasons for their dislike of Weapon Tuning. Some point out that when you pick up somebody else’s gun, you might find that it’s been tuned in unexpected ways, throwing you off. Others argue that it lets you cancel out differences between weapons, turning every gun into a "recoil-free laser".
Many players feel that Weapon Tuning is a gimmick that doesn’t give you as much control over a gun’s performance as you might guess, from the elaborate interface. Others suggest that it has simply led to more arguments about the long-serving shooter's competitive meta, with players rushing to adopt Weapon Tuning configurations popularised by streamers and Youtubers. There is much jubilation in the Xitterverse about the feature’s removal.
Modern Warfare 3 hits the trenches next week, and Ed Thorn has already eaten its lunch, pronouncing the game to be over-familiar even for a Call of Duty sequel.
A couple of weeks ago I tried comparing the original Modern Warfare 3 from 2011 with this year’s remake, and came away disconcerted and upset, suffused with thoughts about my own mortality. Still, at least there aren’t any radar graphs to worry about this year.