Just as mornings are broken by the sound of Canadian geese migrating to warmer climates, the tranquility of my living room is interrupted each fall by the coming of the Call of Duty beta period.

There's something to be said about familiarity, and Modern Warfare II, in spite of its re-re-return to present-day shooting, is recognizable and comfortable from the first second you log in to play your first round of the multiplayer beta.

That being said, overall, I think Modern Warfare II feels better than last year's Vanguard did – both during its open beta and after launch.

The maps are great, I really like the operators and their available skins, and everything just feels a little quicker and tighter.

It’s filled me with optimism for launch, since last year's initial beta for Vanguard was not hitting for me, because last year, the early beta lacked polish and felt… well, it felt more like an alpha test.

It's highly unlikely my controller-based gameplay improved that rapidly, so for someone like me who just sucks at CoD on PS5, I definitely appreciate skill-based matchmaking, but I also get why it's so unpopular for more dedicated players.

Movement in Modern Warfare II is fast, and you can double-tap to sprint, but one thing that really stuck out to me about this year's Call of Duty is how the maps force me to slow down sometimes.

It's not in your best interest to just run around like a maniac the whole time.

Another thing I like about the maps is they encourage you to move around constantly and take advantage of the entire area, whereas with Vanguard I found myself sticking mostly to the perimeters, circling over and over in the course of each match and shooting at people in the middle like fish in a barrel.

If there's any negative feature of the maps and how they require you to keep moving it's that scoring executions is just a bit harder now because you're less likely to sneak up on a camper.

Once again, though, I have to say while I'm having a lot of fun with this year's Call of Duty beta so far, that’s exactly what I expected to happen and there's really not a lot that feels new or different despite leaping 80 years into the future.

Sure, the operators look awesome and there are a few familiar faces in there (would it really be a Modern Warfare game if it didn't include Soap MacTavish?), and it's nice to have actual modern guns instead of WW2-era weapons made to feel like modern guns, but so far the loop of multiplayer is exactly the same.

Overall, while I'm having more fun than I did even with the finished version of Vanguard (which I still liked!), I'm most excited to see what, if any, meaningful new additions might make their way into Modern Warfare II for the final release.

My favorite new mode from Vanguard was Champion Hill, and while I don't expect to see it return this year, something along those lines on these vastly superior maps would really thrill me.

In spite of the fact Modern Warfare II feels almost overwhelmingly familiar, I'm having a good time playing it, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we see some meaty, meaningful additions to shake things up a bit.