Yearly Archives: 2018
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Battle Royale Mode Announced
Blackout is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, Treyarch announced at its Black Ops 4 reveal event.
The mode will be available in Black Ops 4 at launch and features a map 1,500 times bigger than an average Call of Duty map. Blackout brings the Black Ops universe together by integrating parts of different multiplayer maps into its own and playable characters from all Black Ops games, including Zombies characters.
Not many details were revealed about Blackout, but there will be sea, land, and air vehicles available in some capacity. Blackout challenges players to be the last person standing in an unspecified number of players, and they’ll have weapons and tools from Black Ops multiplayer and Zombies.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Doesn’t Have a Traditional Campaign
This year’s Call of Duty is forgoing a traditional campaign and instead features different kinds of solo experiences.
Revealed at the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 event, developer Treyarch is looking to expand the “multiplayer universe” with solo missions featuring both returning and new Specialist characters. These missions would not only serve as a place to learn tactics with the different Specialists but also learn the Specialist characters’ backstories. These stories take place between Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 3.
“These missions will be fun and fast-paced trials that give a hands-on introduction for these new and returning Specialists,” Dan Bunting, Treyarch’s co-studio head, said.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s PC Version Is Exclusively on Battle.net
Developer Treyarch is teaming up with Beenox to custom build a version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for PC, and it’ll be exclusively available on Blizzard’s Battle.net.
Revealed at the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 event, Treyarch showed a reel showcasing how it’s working with a team at Beenox to build its custom version of Black Ops 4 for PC. Black Ops 4 will have dedicated servers, supports 4K, and has an uncapped framerate.
Activision Blizzard President and COO Coddy Johnson mentioned the company was investing more resources into Black Ops 4 on PC earlier this month.
Zombies Maps, New Mode, Difficulty Levels Revealed for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Zombies mode is getting three maps at launch, difficulty levels, tutorials, custom modes, and much more, Treyarch announced at the Black Ops 4 reveal event. All three "experiences," as Treyarch calls them, will be available day-1.
This Zombies iteration features an entirely new storyline, world, characters, and enemies. During the event, three maps were revealed featuring four new characters in wildly different settings.
Call of Duty: Every IGN Review Score
Pop quiz: how many Call of Duty games have there been? With the all-over-the-place naming convention it's hard to figure out - four WW2 games, three four Modern Warfares, four Black Ops, a World at War, and a few futuristic one-offs in a pear tree. The good news is that IGN has been reviewing them since way back in 2003 when the first duty called, so below you can scroll through a gallery of the contemporaneous score and Verdict on every game in the series.
But before you do, a challenge:
1) How many Call of Duty games have received a 10 from IGN?
2) What's the highest-scoring Call of Duty game?
3) What's the lowest-scoring Call of Duty game?
Ubisoft Hints at ‘Unannounced Franchise Title’
A recent earnings report from Ubisoft references an "unannounced franchise title."
The report doesn't offer further information on what the game could be, but mentions it alongside known upcoming sequels The Crew 2 and The Division 2, which rules those out as possibilities. We also know it would be coming before March 31, 2019, which marks the end of Ubisoft's fiscal year.
While we don't know for sure which franchise the report is referring to, Ubisoft has several popular series to choose from.
Ubisoft usually releases new Assassin's Creed games in October or November – the most recent installment, Assassin's Creed Origins, launched last October. Far Cry's latest installment, Far Cry 5, launched earlier this year, with three pieces of DLC still on the way. Meanwhile, Watch Dogs 2 came out back in November 2016.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Multiplayer Features New Major Tactical Features, No Wall Running
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is bringing back its predecessor’s Specialist roles and other familiar features for multiplayer, but Black Ops 4 also sees major changes in movement, health regeneration, and game pacing, developer Treyarch announced at the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 reveal event.
Thrust jumps and wall running will not be in Black Ops 4, but Treyarch’s Studio Design Director David Vonderhaar said that with the studio’s philosophy of Guns Up, the action stays fluid. This practically translates to the player being able to have their gun out while throwing grenades or using Specialist equipment like a grappling gun.
“We all loved the feel that Black Ops 3 provided us in terms of the fluidity of movement and control, but we believe that a more grounded, tactical experience can happen without slowing down the player,” Vonderhaar said.
Fortnite Players Are Suggesting Ways to Change the Damage Trap Nerf
Ever since Fortnite's latest patch reduced the damage output of the Damage Trap from 125 to 75, fans have been searching for possible ways to reverse this surprising nerf.
The shocking change was revealed with little fanfare and fans were left wondering why such an adjustment was even put in place. Traps can be deadly, that's without question. If a player hasn't had the chance to use shields and fell into a trap, it would mean instant death or being knocked down if you're playing in a team. With this change, players with full health can still get away, albeit barely.
Fans have been brainstorming ideas on how to fix this new issue. Reddit user Glitch_Pig suggested that traps should come with rarity, with blue rare traps dealing 100 damage while the gold legendary traps give out 150. Another user KevinCrazzyGuy proposes that traps increase in damage over time. After three minutes, traps can increase to 100 damage and change to a more obvious color to make the powerful ones easier to spot.
What We Hope to See From Spider-Man at E3
It's that time of year again: E3 2018 is just on the horizon. From June 9-14, we'll be covering the biggest games and hardware announcements of 2018 and beyond. While you can check out our continually-updated Games of E3 List, we're now going to start diving deeper. Every day leading up to the show, we'll be highlight the stuff we want to see and play at E3 2018. Today's game: Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4.
When Did We Last See Spider-Man PS4?
We last heard from Insomniac's Spider-Man about a month ago when Sony announced that Spidey's suit from Avengers: Infinity War would be featured as a pre-order bonus/unlockable costume in the upcoming game.
Valve’s Steam Link Mobile App Has Problems, but It’s Also Crazy Cool
This week Valve is releasing a free Steam Link app that will let you stream your entire Steam library from your PC to any Android and iOS device, including Apple TVs. That’s a downright insane prospect, but only if it works properly. Thankfully I got a chance to try it out this week, and while it isn’t exactly what I was hoping it would be, it’s still a shockingly powerful piece of software.