SMGs already nerfed in the Call of Duty: WWII open beta, more changes coming

The Call of Duty: WWII PC multiplayer beta got underway yesterday, a day in advance of its scheduled start date for reasons that remain a mystery. Regardless, Sledgehammer appears to be making good use of the extra time, as studio co-founder Michael Condrey took to Reddit to run down some of the "top observations" made so far, as well as the changes that are already on the way. 

"Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for our road to November. We look forward to a healthy and constructive dialog throughout the weekend on our forum," Condrey wrote optimistically. "This year, we made a renewed commitment to the PC community for Call of Duty: WWII, and it was great to see players rally to some of the PC focused features that are available in the Beta. Over the next few days look for us to continue to make adjustments as we uncover any new issues." 

Condrey said developers are aware of, and working to fix, problems with accessing the game "due to bad connections or blank loading screens," as well as "mid-match crashes" and "minor rendering issues." Changes to weapons have already been made: All SMGs have had their damage per second and falloff range reduced, the STG44 recoil has been "nerfed," and the fire rates of the M1A1, 1911, and P-08 have been increased slightly. 

The following fixes will be rolled out to the beta "shortly," Condrey said: 

  • Infinite level loads and time-outs when using shader pre-caching and letter-boxing
  • Crash fix on start-up for Windows 8.0
  • Fixes to the behavior of the Resolution/Render Resolution/T2X Resolution advanced video options
  • Fixes to the T2X Resolution setting not getting preserved after exiting the game

Condrey encouraged players to "keep grinding, streaming, commenting, and reaching out to us," and said that anyone experiencing problems with the beta should hit up the troubleshooting guide on Steam for help.

The Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer beta will run until October 2 (unless Sledgehammer screws around with that date too). The full game comes out on November 3.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.