You've got even less time than usual to blitz Modern Warfare 2's season 4 battle pass

Ana Vega from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

(Image credit: Activision)

Thermometers are peaking, birds are chirping, and the air outside is hot and thick. You know what that means, folks, a new season (of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) is here, and it's bringing all sorts of changes (to the maps and gameplay of the hit Activision-published FPS) with it. Bad news, though: If you've got dreams of completing Modern Warfare 2's season 4 battle pass, you've got about two fewer weeks than you had last season to do it. Chop chop.

MW2's season 4 patch dropped yesterday, introducing, well, too much to go through bit-by-bit. I'll link the full notes below, but the stuff that leaps out at me is the new maps, new operators, and the changes to the game's extraction shooter DMZ mode. Oh, and the fact that this season will only last 48 days, a big drop from the 63 days in season 3. That does mean you'll get to the new content in the mid-season update (and the next season) a little sooner, but you'll have to scurry if you wanna unlock everything in the battle pass.

So, new maps. MW2 season 4 adds Vondel—a vaguely Dutch mish-mash of bridges and waterways—to the game's line-up of battlegrounds. It's a "medium-sized map" that you'll be able to upset the Red Cross in across COD's Warzone 2 modes like DMZ and Resurgence. Over in the more traditional MW2 multiplayer modes, meanwhile, we've got "six new Multiplayer Maps, including new Core, Gunfight, and Battle Maps".

We're also getting new operator skins, just in time to replace the ones that got yanked from Modern Warfare 2 after a streamer one of them was based on couldn't help but say some incredibly dense stuff that many criticised as anti-LGBTQ+. Season 4 adds Nikto (hey, that means "No one" in Russian!) a former FSB agent who fears nothing and loves violence; Ana Vega, a special forces lady with a tragic past and a big gun; and yet another Blackcell guy, who looks like one of those villains from the start of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

DMZ has been reset to kick off season 4, so kiss goodbye to your contraband weapons and completed missions. Still, it's justified (kind of) by the new features being bolted onto the mode in this patch. You can now tend to a forward operating base, which you'll be able to upgrade by completing missions which will give you passive advantages in the field (new insured weapon slots and the like).

Aside from that, there's, well, lots of stuff actually. New weapons, various tweaks, and lots of fun pictures of gruff people doing army things. You can find the full list of details over at the official Call of Duty patch notes page.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.