IW5 - Modern Warfare 3 Installation

IW5 (Modern Warfare 3)

I just want to update / I already have MW3 installed

If you already have the game installed from Steam or had a previous update of Plutonium then you can skip the below section and move onto the Installing the DLCs section.

Installing the base game (MW3)

Note: This section will cover downloading a FREE copy of MW3. Please skip this section if you already have a copy of the game.

Please note we highly recommend buying the game if you do not own it, if you enjoy a game you should support it's developers.

Open Steam, if you do not have Steam installed you can download it here: Steam

Go to LIBRARY and from the dropdown menu select TOOLS.

Locate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Dedicated Server, select it and then click the cog icon then Properties.

Navigate to the LANGUAGE tab and ensure the language is step to English this is very important as unfortunately the Steam MW3 Dedicated Server can not install all languages and would result in missing files / errors.

Tip

If you want the game in your native language we suggest purchasing the game and its DLCs on a key site or during a Steam sale.

Select INSTALL then Next then Finish.

Now simply wait for the download to complete, you can monitor progress by clicking the DOWNLOADS text at the bottom of Steam. Once the download completes you will have a copy of MW3.

Installing the DLCs (MW3)

The section will cover how to download and install the English DLC to get the complete MW3 experience. Note: this DLC will only work on an English copy of the game. You can either download them using the MEGA link or the torrent file. You do not need to download both, pick whichever option works best for you.

MEGA

Download the DLC zip archive via the following link.

Once the download completes open the zip MW3 DLC [EN].zip

Locate your MW3 game folder in file explorer. By default Steam will have installed it into the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 You can also find your folder through Steam if needed

Now go back to the MW3 DLC [EN].zip file and drag and drop the main & zone folders into your MW3 game folder. If prompted select Replace files in the destination.

Torrent

Download/open your favourite torrent software. qBittorent Windows x64 is recommended: https://www.fosshub.com/qBittorrent.html
Download the torrent file.
Open the torrent file iw5m_dlcs.torrent (from the previous step). It will open up your torrent client program and ask you where you'd like to save the DLCs. SELECT THE MODERN WARFARE 3 FOLDER

By default Steam will have installed it into the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 You can also find your folder through Steam if needed

Select "don't create subfolder" from the "content layout" dropdown menu (in older versions of qbitorrent this will be a checkbox called "create subfolder" or "keep top-level folder" which you have to untick)

Untick iw5m_dlcs and tick main and zone.

Start the download and wait till the download completes. You will know it's done when the progress changes to 100% and the status changes to Seeding.

Congratulations the DLC is now installed!

Setting up IW5 with the Plutonium Launcher

Navigate to Modern Warfare 3 and then hit SETUP and then select your Modern Warfare 3 game folder.
The folder you need to select will be called Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.
Do not select your Games folder or your Document folders. Select the folder with Modern Warfare 3 files in it!

If you have followed along with this guide it will be in this location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.

(If you ever need to reselect the game folder, simply click on Game Settings next to the PLAY button)

For those struggling to locate your game folder, this is what the contents of the game folder will look like:

Congratulations you have completed the installation guide.

To launch MW3 simply open the Plutonium launcher and select PLAY

Warning

It will crash the first time you start the game as it needs to delete a file, this is to be expected, so simply launch again and you won't get the error again!