Modern Warfare 2 pre-load begins today, Raids coming in December

We are a few days away from the launch of modern warfare 2, and things are starting to fall into place. Those who pre-order the game will be able to play the single-player campaign starting tomorrow, October 20.

In preparation, Infinity Ward revealed the preload times for all platforms, along with everything else you can expect between now and the end of the year, in terms of content and events.

For starters, the Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Early Access pre-load begins today at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST. This applies to all platforms and is also the full game preload time on Xbox.

PlayStation players, on the other hand, can pre-load the full game on October 20, starting from 4am pacific time and gradually unfolding in the different regions. The full game pre-load for PC starts last, as it starts just two days before launch.

On Steam and Battle.net, you’ll be able to preload on October 26 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST.

Regardless of which platform you choose, pre-ordering the game will unlock the campaign for you tomorrow, October 20 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST, so start with the preload from time to time. Of course, you can always pre-order anytime between October 20 and the full release to get early access to the campaign and unlock a host of rewards if you finish it.

The next big event is the release of the full game on October 28. The consoles will go first, between 4 a.m. PT and 9 p.m. PT, gradually unfolding in the different regions. The PC will launch at the same time worldwide, which is 9pm PT, 12am ET, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST.

Activision published this helpful map to help PC gamers with release times, which you can see below.

The preseason period begins at launch and runs through November 16; that’s when the first season will start, along with the launch of Warzone 2.0 and DMZ.

About a month later, on December 14, the mid-season update for the first season arrives. Season One Reloaded adds content for multiplayer, Warzone 2.0, as well as the first Raid to Modern Warfare 2’s Special Ops mode.

We still don’t know much about what a raid means in the context of Call of Duty, but it looks like it’s going to be a more challenging and involved spec ops mission. The blog post announcing the news says that players should level up their spec ops kits, which can be done by playing and replaying those missions, to have a better chance of surviving the raid.

More details on raids, as well as what to expect at launch in terms of multiplayer content, will be revealed in a few days.