COD4 patch hugs snipers

By Robert Purchese Published 7 December, 2007

Lag and text fixes, too.

Infinity Ward has rolled out a new patch for the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The biggest change that community members seem to be a little miffed about is improved accuracy when using sniper rifles. Apparently those with automatic machine guns and pistols are unevenly matched against them at range, now. Oh.

It also adds anti-lag features when you load a map, and catches files missing the client like the desert missed the rain, maybe.

Elsewhere those of you chatting should no longer be cut out between multiplayer rounds, and all previous fixes are included in the patch.

We're still waiting to hear from Activision as to when 360 and PS3 soldiers can expect it, and we will let you know as soon as we do.

Meanwhile you should pop over to our Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare review to see why it is thoroughly recommended for your Christmas stockings.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tonka #1 4 years ago

    Wesly

  • ProdigyBE_OPM #2 4 years ago

    Bring on the PS3 patch, pleazzze

  • rhinoxious #3 4 years ago

    Did we need more accurate sniper rifles?

    They should be an interesting variation for certain tactical situations, like shotguns. I've seen plenty of people using sniper rifles, so why did they need to be made more accurate?

    Maybe making the assault rifles a little less accurate at long range would have been a better solution, if any change was necessary at all.

  • richardiox #4 4 years ago

    Yeah rather than balancing by increasing the sniper accuracy over long range they should have just reduced the accuracy of the SMGs and LMGs. Got repeata-owned on Crash last night by a guy essentially sniping me from accross the map using the P90.

  • Inflatable #5 4 years ago

    The sniper tweak doesn't surprise me, because the sniperrifles did feel a bit fishy at times.. Not always hitting what you clearly aimed at, even when prone..

    And making the LMG's less accurate at long range also makes sense to me, because it was crazy to see sometimes people virtually 'sniping' with them..

    In the end time will tell if the tweaks are for the better, I'll have to play with them for a longer periode of time to really judge them.. But I'm not one of those gamers that starts dissing any chances in a game even before having played with them for longer then 5 minutes, like a lot of people always seem to do..

    Edit: they didn't make the LMG's less accurate at long range? Me bad..
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/07 @ 11:09

  • McLovin85 #6 4 years ago

    i wouldn't know about these imbalance issues as i haven't been able to fucking play online due to 'downloading game settings' issues. really bloody annoying, fix it IW!!!!!!

  • viper_h #7 4 years ago

    I suck at this game and hate it.

    Can't stop playing it though.

    BTW Shipment sucks.

  • beastmaster #8 4 years ago

    Never mind that. More maps please...and soon.

  • DrDamn #9 4 years ago

    The ACOG scope balance is good too. Most people are using the Red Dot over the ACOG as it's a hell of a lot easier to use, but the ACOG is meant to be an "upgrade".

    I see the patch note just says "an optimization for Sniper Rifle accuracy at certain distances". So accuracy could be reduced at close range and increased at long. Some of the Snipers can be used as semi-auto rifles at close range which is a bit silly.

    I have been having trouble with sniper accuracy at distance though, so some change in this area may actually see me use one.

  • tobsen #10 4 years ago

    At least on the PS3, I am pretty sure that there is an outright bug regarding the sniper rifles. I remember a lot of occassions where I had somebody right in my crosshairs at medium range (where you would easily hit even with the M16) and several consecutive shots didn't register at all.

  • Azmat #11 4 years ago

    Glad sniper rifle got some love. I've had weird stuff going on with them, where i had my crosshair steadily over a static target and not hitting at all. Hopefully this fixes it and makes sniping just a bit more viable than it is at the moment

  • rhinoxious #12 4 years ago

    There are always problems with realism and sniper rifles in these games.

    Many of the semi sniper rifles in COD4 would be perfectly effective at shorter ranges, you can fire them as fast as you can pull the trigger and if you've got the rifle at your shoulder it shouldn't be an issue to shoot close-up targets.

    However firing from the hip should be much less effective than with an automatic weapon, though both are desperate lunacy by military standards anyway.

    Finally if you were to run round with a sniper rifle, jump off high ledges, dive to ground and get involved in knife fights, the scope would inevitably get knocked and accuracy would go straight out the window.

    But that wouldn't be any fun in a game, now would it.

    Games like this always walk a fine line between keeping enough believability to immerse you in thescenario and make the various weapons act logically enough to be easy to understand (sniper-long range, silenced pistol-close up silent kills).

    But it's not worth taking this so far that it actually spoils the fun.

  • dudefella #13 4 years ago

    god fucking dammit, the 360 version of this needs a patch so badly to fix matchmaking and to switch host when host disconnects and to fix sniping. HURRY UP

  • stoopidgreg #14 4 years ago

    i for one welcome the improved sniper accuracy. i hardly ever use sniper rifles because they never seem to hit, especially people ducking behind a wall. it didn't seem like the rifles are inaccurate but that the collision detection on the models is bad. i could sometimes shoot 5 accurate shots at someone's head who's hiding behind cover and he wont die.

  • DemonCleaner #15 4 years ago

    If you're missing your target with the sniper rifle it's because you're not taking the wind and the coriolis effect into account ;)

  • stoopidgreg #16 4 years ago

    "And making the LMG's less accurate at long range also makes sense to me, because it was crazy to see sometimes people virtually 'sniping' with them.. "

    i'll let you into a secret. the m60 is actually 100% accurate at long range on the first shot, it's also very powerful. the recoil takes a bit longer to settle but you can get off 2 accurate shots within half a second which will kill anyone. no idea why the m60 is so bloody accurate but i like exploiting it :)

  • stoopidgreg #17 4 years ago

    "The ACOG scope balance is good too. Most people are using the Red Dot over the ACOG as it's a hell of a lot easier to use, but the ACOG is meant to be an "upgrade". "

    the ACOG scope increases the rifle's accuracy. it only zooms a little bit further than the red dot but unlike the red dot you can't see any of your periphery, making the gun much more sniper oriented.

  • UncleLou #18 4 years ago

    Unless I am terribly mistaken, the ACOG reduces accuracy, according to the bar diagram at the bottom of the screen.

  • stoopidgreg #19 4 years ago

    that's what i thought, but i'm pretty certain it increases it

  • DrDamn #20 4 years ago

    The red bar does indicate a reduction in accuracy. That would be balanced with your better view of what you are trying to shoot if it worked properly. I get the same sort issues I get with a sniper though. Hits which don't register, or hits which I don't move they don't move and which register well off centre of the scope. Makes me wonder where the hell I am meant to be aiming. Maybe there is a general problem with any zoomed view which is being addressed. Therefore affects both ACOG and Snipers.

    Nice tip on the M60 - had been using the RPD after ignoring the LMG's in favour of the Assault rifles initially, but this sounds good too. Does it take 3 and a half hours to reload like the RPD? :)

    Handy tip from me. Got 12 friends who want to play together? Have a party of two kick off a search for a Team Objective game - very unpopular one. Then bash out invites to everyone else. If you are all ready you will get 10+ of you in a ranked server. Invite the others as you lose the randoms who ended up with you and you then have a friends only game with XP to boot. The random selection of team type games is also nice.

  • stoopidgreg #21 4 years ago

    i dont even know 1 other person with the PC version let alone 12 :p slowly trying to convince people to get it though. the multiplayer is fantastic.

    my friend tells me once you get to level 54 you start over again but you can use nearly all the perks at the same time, and put all attachments on your gun. can anyone confirm this?

  • TagemandBagem #22 4 years ago

    The guns are pretty much a joke when it comes to accuracy/realism. You can spray on full auto with most of the assault rifles/submachine guns and get no recoil and stupidly good accuracy.
    The R700 sniper rifle is the one that is most bugged and the one I'm assuming they patched. You could line up a perfect headshot, breath for 2 seconds, fire and completely miss. Take a shot again at centre mass...completely miss.
    I guess COD was always spray and slay but it could be so much better if they made shooting more difficult. Also the PC needs some decent sized maps ASAP. The console maps we got are just silly with anything more than 20 people.

  • TagemandBagem #23 4 years ago

    -stoopidgreg

    Once you reach LVL55 that's it. There is not Prestige mode in the PC version.

  • stoopidgreg #24 4 years ago

    seriously? why is it in the console version and not PC?

  • gaselite #25 4 years ago

    The biggest change that community members seem to be a little miffed about is improved accuracy when using sniper rifles. Apparently those with automatic machine guns and pistols are unevenly matched against them at range, now. Oh.

    hahahaha

  • JYM60 #26 4 years ago

    I agree Killa. LMGs are for little girls.