Call of Duty now looks even better on PS5 and Xbox Series X — here’s why

Call of Duty Warzone patch news
(Image credit: Activision)

Activision has released a new high-resolution texture pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the free-to-play Battle Royale spinoff Warzone. 

The pack is available on both PS5 and PS4 Pro, as well as Xbox Series X. Weighing in at around 8GB, the upgrade promises to give the first-person shooter a visual sot in the arm.

“This pack supports the most detailed textures for weapons and Operator in Modern Warfare and Warzone,"  the listing on the PSN store reads. 

It’s also “recommended only for PS4 Pro and PS5 players with high-resolution displays.” So if you’re playing on a base PS4 or don't have your console plugged into a 4K display then you can give this optional pack a miss, though we imagine the latter category is quite small. 

Unfortunately for PlayStation players this patch is purely a texture resolution bump and doesn’t bring the much-demanded 120 frames per second upgrade that fans have been calling for. The Xbox Series X version of the game already supports 120 fps. 

It’s curious that Activision is upgrading 2019’s Modern Warfare when last year’s Black Ops Cold War is the most current iteration of the popular shooter series. Typically once a new Call of Duty is released the previous year’s game is considered complete and put out to pasture.  

Of course, as the still supported Warzone spinoff runs off Modern Warfare’s launcher and shares the same core mechanics, the two games have become almost twined. It’s likely that the developers were able to upgrade both simultaneously rather than having to put any additional work into upgrade Modern Warfare itself.  

They won’t be paired for much longer however as Activision has already confirmed that during the next season of play, Warzone will be moving from its original Verdansk map and transitioning to a new area that ties in with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

It’s likely that this texture pack is the last serious update we’ll see for the rebooted Modern Warfare, which is a great shame as it's a fantastic title in our opinion and retains a very dedicated community to this day. 

More Call of Duty patches to download might come as a nasty surprise for those still running the base PS4, as it was already seen that installing all of Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare and Warzone might be too much for an original PS4 to handle. At least this one is optional. 

Rory Mellon
Entertainment Editor (UK)

Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team.