Xbox Game Pass might have its best year yet in 2025. While Xbox as a whole has seen some major struggles regarding layoffs and game cancellations, with some even claiming that 2025 is Xbox’s worst year yet, it’s hard to deny that Game Pass has been excelling.
This year alone, there’s been The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, South of Midnight, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Avowed, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, Grounded 2, and future games like The Outer Worlds 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Xbox just re-released two other Call of Duty games — Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and Modern Warfare 3 (2023) — and now’s a better time than ever to experience them.
MW2 Has An Amazing Campaign
One Of The Best Of The Series
On July 29, Xbox released the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 as standalone games, separate from the Call of Duty HQ app. If you’re just looking to check them out without worrying about a massive installation, this is a huge improvement, and Game Pass especially needed a big win after the problems that plagued Call of Duty: WW2 on PC Game Pass. The 2022 MW2 is the worst game in the series for many, but the campaign proved to be a standout aspect.
Nicely continuing the story from Modern Warfare 2019, MW2 offers one of the most diverse Call of Duty campaigns. It has all sorts of gameplay, whether driving, sniping, or intense shootouts, but the stealth sections are where the campaign excels. There are many moments throughout the campaign where you’re completely stripped of guns and must rely on stealth and crafted tools to get by.
The intense final encounter might be my favorite ending section to a Call of Duty campaign, right up there with the ending to the original MW3. It’s a shame that the multiplayer was so bad that many forgot just how good the campaign was. Thankfully, you only need to complete the campaign and co-op to get all the achievements, so if you’re a Game Pass achievement hunter, you won’t even need to touch the multiplayer.
MW3 Offers The Best COD Multiplayer Experience Of The 2020s
Criminally Underrated
While the 2023 Modern Warfare 3 had an awful campaign, the multiplayer, on the other hand, was the best COD multiplayer in years, making it one of the best FPS games on Xbox Game Pass. It’s a shame Activision released MW3 as a full-priced game instead of a DLC as originally planned, because fans would have liked it much more.
MW3 continues the developer’s pedigree of post-launch content.
Modern Warfare 3 gives the fans exactly what they want, coming off the disastrous MW2. While MW2 was extremely slow, MW3 was exceptionally fast, and for me, it felt better to play than even the newest Call of Duty, Black Ops 6. The maps were also incredible, with most being returning favorites. However, over the course of the game’s life, many amazing new maps were added as well.
Speaking of the game’s life, Sledgehammer Games did a phenomenal job updating Modern Warfare 3 over the course of the year, with regular content updates that trump all the other newer Call of Duty titles. Sledgehammer always does a great job of this, as seen in Call of Duty: WW2, and MW3 continues the developer’s pedigree of post-launch content.
Ten years later, no other Call of Duty game has topped the multiplayer of Black Ops 3, but MW3 2023 is the closest to reaching the zenith of Treyarch’s FPS masterpiece. Even if the campaign leaves a lot to be desired, it’s at least short enough to avoid feeling like a chore.
Achievement Hunters Especially Must Check These Games Out
Double Achievements For The Same Progress
The newly released standalone versions of Modern Warfare 2 and MW3 brought significant changes to achievements/trophies. The standalone game apps for MW2 and MW3 now have their own achievement/trophy lists. It’s worth noting that these titles’ achievements were previously included within the Call of Duty HQ app. Your progress remains intact, so if you boot up these new versions, the achievements/trophies should auto-pop.
The achievement list change also applies to PlayStation. MW2 actually has two platinum trophies across Call of Duty HQ and its separate game app, so you can get two platinums by completing the list only once.
They will take a while, though, and they don’t all pop at once. Just leave the game sitting there on the main menu, and let the achievements pop one after another. However, Xbox did something incredible here, as the achievements/trophies carry over both ways.
Suppose you’re playing MW2 2022 for the first time through the separate game app and get all the achievements/trophies. In that case, you can simply boot up Black Ops 6, and those old Call of Duty HQ achievements will auto-pop. That’s amazing, and as a seasoned achievement hunter, I was shocked. This means for Game Pass subscribers who’ve never played MW2 and MW3, you can essentially get double achievements.
I was expecting that Xbox would discontinue the old Call of Duty HQ achievements, but this is a huge win for all achievement hunters alike. While Xbox certainly makes its mistakes, these newly separate Call of Duty titles were phenomenally executed. If you’ve never played these games before, it’s a great time to check them out on Xbox Game Pass.
Call of Duty
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Call of Duty: Classic, Call Of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Call of Duty: Black Ops II (dupe), Call of Duty Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: WWII, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Vanguard (dupe), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
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