Black Ops 6 Season 3 launches later today (April 2), adding new maps, some new weapons, as well as a set of iconic tie-in skins (this one's for Kevin Smith fans). This means that next week, players will have a whole host of new features to check out, whether that's in Zombies, Warzone, or core Multiplayer.

Even without extra Season Three, we're still having a blast with Black Ops 6, landing it a place on our list of the best FPS games to play in 2025. This upcoming refresh sees the return of Verdansk to Warzone, and it's looking very close to the original indeed.

Here's what we know about Black Ops Season 3 so far, including a closer look at Wednesday's confirmed release time, as well as what's set to be added. It's worth noting that times do vary depending on your time zone, so be sure to check out the information below for when Season 3 launches in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

Update (April 2, 2025): Now that we're just hours from launch, we're coming to you with the news that Black Ops 6 Season 3 will be free-to-play for 24 hours after it launches. This is while Warzone is down in preparation for the massive Verdansk update. Make sure you pre-load Black Ops 6 and make the most of the free trial!

Black Ops 6 Season 3 release time in your time zone

The Black Ops 6 Season 3 release time is April 2 at 9AM PST / 12PM EST / 5PM GMT. Here are some more specifics related to the release schedule per your timezone:

• 9AM PST: West Coast (US)
• 12PM EST: East Coast (US)
• 5PM BST: United Kingdom (UK)
• 6PM CET: Europe
• 2AM JST (Friday, February 21): Japan
• 4AM AEDT: (Friday, February 21): Australia

Black Ops 6 Season 3 - what's being added?

Activision has now announced what'll be added to Black Ops 6 as part of Season 3. This includes new maps, weapons, and modes, as well as big updates to Warzone. Here's a brief summary of what's being added:

• Maps: Barrage (6v6), Nomad (6v6, 2v2), Firing Range (6v6)
• Weapons: CR-56 AMAX Assault Rifle, HDR Sniper Rifle, Nail Gun Special Weapon, Kali Sticks (Melee)
• Attachments: Monolithic Suppressor, SWAT 5.56 Grau Conversion, C9 10MM Auto 30-Round Mags
• Modes: Sharpshooter, Demolition
• Perk: Close Shave - Automatically use your Dedicated Melee attack when you perform a weapon butt attack. Simply tap the Melee button to attack. Like the old days
• Bundle: Jay & Silent Bob, Digital Dreamin', United Force Tracer Pack
• Warzone: Return of Verdansk, back to basics gameplay tweaks. More in this blog.
• Zombies: Shattered Veil map, Double Tap Perk, Ray Gun Mark II & Wunderwaffle DG - 2 Wonder Weapons. Elder Disciple and Toxic Zombie enemies. New Gobblegums.
• Events: Black Ops Tribute
• Operators: Hudson, Mace, R0-Z3

For a full breakdown of Black Ops 6 Season 3, visit the Call of Duty blog. You'll be able to see the specifics on the new maps and modes that'll arrive soon.

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Verdansk will return to Call of Duty Warzone later today (April 3), allowing players to relive the glory days of the ongoing battle royale shooter. Activision has now fully lifted the lid, meaning we know what to expect during our first time back in a long old while.

It's now been five years since Verdansk first dropped, having arrived alongside the first iteration of Call of Duty Warzone. Since then, it's been removed, with new maps and modes taking its place. Regardless, "Warzone Verdansk" is still considered by many to have been one of the best FPS experiences of all time, so it's no wonder why many fans have been crying out for its return ever since it was taken away.

Update (April 3): Now that we're just hours away, and now that Warzone is down for maintenance, we're making use of the Black Ops 6 free trial. Make sure to have everything pre-loaded, so that you can get into Verdansk as quickly as possible. For now, here's what to expect from today's update.

Warzone Verdansk return release date and time for your timezone

Verdansk will return to Call of Duty Warzone on April 3 at 9 AM PT. For the Verdansk release time for your specific timezone, see below:

• 9AM PST: West Coast (US)
• 12PM EST: East Coast (US)
• 5PM GMT: United Kingdom (UK)
• 6PM CET: Europe
• 2AM JST (Friday, February 21): Japan
• 4AM AEDT: (Friday, February 21): Australia

Note that Call of Duty: Warzone will be going dark for 24 hours before Verdansk comes online April 3 at 9AM PT.

Everything we know about Verdansk 2025

Activision has now lifted the lid on Verdansk 2025, with an extensive and throughly detailed blog post. There's a heck of a lot to get through, so I've condensed the key points below. You'll also see that the image above features a condensed look at what's being added at launch, and beyond.

• Back-to-basics gameplay with the latest in fan-favorite mechanics, there’s a wide variety of features returning or incoming to the game.
• Fine-tuning has been made to bring movement more in line with what players experienced in the early days of Call of Duty: Warzone.
• 150 player lobbies
• Original Supply Boxes, Floating Loot, Armor Satchels and Buy Station menus, coupled with current Loadouts and Perks, with High Value Loot Zones across the map where some premium loot resides.
• In-game loot gets a retro refresh, Thermite is back, while Contracts, In-Match Public Events, Field Upgrades and Killstreaks are back to basics
• The return of the helicopter, and four ground vehicles all rebalanced to ensure steering and handling keeps to the spirit of the original iteration of the game.
• Circle Collapse mechanics are just how you remember them from five years ago with Loadout Drops at the second and fifth circles. So-called endgame “dead zones” have been minimized.
• A variety of quality-of-life updates also hits Call of Duty: Warzone, including Squad Redeploys at Buy Stations, Attachment description at Weapon Inspects, detailed Death recaps in game, and, coming later in the season, a HUD flag so you know exactly when your Loadout is available to buy.
• POIs will be added over time, like the Train Station metro line

In the Verdansk 2025 reveal trailer, we see various Operators fighting their way across the map. We see a wide shot of the overall map, with iconic POIs (points of interest) like Downtown, Stadium, and Storage Town all in view.

We now know what it'll look like, and it's looking very pretty indeed. In the video below, you'll find a breakdown by Beenox Studios, showcasing the new lighting systems and tech that's gone into recreating Verdansk. There's new lighting, making dark areas easier to move through. Hopefully this'll make Roze players easier to spot (sigh).

There's small tweaks to the landscape as well, including more long grass, low mud and puddles, that'll all react to light in dynamic ways. Perhaps the ghillie suit skins are the way to go at launch?

Warzone Verdansk 2025 hopes

Let's start off with my predictions for Verdansk 2025. I expect Verdansk to be a big deal for Activision moving forward, given that it's a huge opportunity to recapture players that have since left Warzone for other games like Fortnite, and more recently, Marvel Rivals.

If Activision wants to capitalize on the massive amounts of nostalgia associated with Verdansk, it needs to offer up a classic experience that's as close as possible to what players remember. This could mean adding in old meta weapons like the Grau 5.56, and the OG Bruen. We can see that Activision is considering this, with weapons like the HDR planned for the first season.

Hopefully, Verdansk 2025 will be kept as simple as possible, as I think that adding in too many new POIs and mechanics will quickly sour community opinion. We'll have to wait and see.

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• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 3 has been delayed two weeks
• The upcoming season will now be released on April 3 instead of March 20
• Activision says it's "taking the time to deliver a great experience"

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 3 have been delayed by two weeks.

The news comes from a post on the official Call of Duty X / Twitter account, where it was confirmed that Season 3 will now launch on April 3 instead of March 20.

"Season 03 is a big moment for Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops 6, and we’re taking the time to deliver a great experience starting on April 3," the post reads.

With Season 3 delayed by two weeks, this means that Season 2 could receive some sort of extension in the meantime, giving players more time to complete the current battle pass.

Activision also said that more details about the upcoming season will be revealed during Warzone's 5th anniversary next week on March 10.

Fans have speculated that Verdansk, the original Call of Duty: Warzone map from 2020, will make a return and be a highlight of the upcoming update to celebrate the game's 5th anniversary.

Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 2: Reloaded launched on February 20 and currently features an ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collaboration, complete with a themed map called Grind Ooze, as well as Operator skins designed after the four iconic brothers.

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• Diablo 4 is reportedly coming to Nintendo Switch 2
• YouTuber 'eXtas1s' said Halo and Microsoft's Flight Simulator "aren't the only" Microsoft games coming to Switch 2
• It's claimed that Call of Duty, Tekken 8, Fallout 4, Starfield, and Elden Ring could get a Switch 2 port

A Diablo 4 port is reportedly coming to Nintendo Switch 2, according to a new leak.

The claims come from YouTuber 'eXtas1s' (thanks VGC) who recently discussed the Switch 2 and its potential software in his latest video.

'EXtas1s', who has accurately revealed upcoming Xbox Game Pass titles in the past, touched on recent rumors that Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Microsoft's Flight Simulator will be coming to the Switch successor but then went on to claim that Diablo 4 will also be coming to the console as well.

"These are two of the video games Microsoft will port to Switch 2, but they aren’t the only ones," eXtas1s said on Halo and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

“In fact, here’s a little bit of an exclusive or scoop I can tell you about. According to what I’ve been told, Diablo 4 is already in the works for Nintendo Switch 2, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Diablo 4 was released in 2025 on Switch 2.”

It was also suggested that a Call of Duty title could be available on the handheld at some point, as well as more games like Elden Ring, Starfield, Tekken 8, and Fallout 4. However, 'eXtas1s' said discussions around these ports were more speculative, so take this with a pinch of salt for now.

Last week, it was reported that many more third-party games are coming to the Switch 2, including Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which according to leaker 'NatetheHate', will be among the first AAA titles to arrive on the console.

It was also suggested that Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will make their Switch 2 debut, though the latter is said to be launching in 2026.

Ubisoft also seemingly intends to bring support for two Assassin's Creed games to the handheld, including Assassin's Creed Mirage and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

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Xbox Cloud Gaming will welcome three Call of Duty games to its service this month.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced that Black Ops 6 will be playable in Beta with Xbox Cloud Gaming for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members at launch and will begin rolling out to players on October 25.

It also revealed that it will be bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming support to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone for Game Pass Ultimate members on the same day.

"This is a first for the Call of Duty franchise, and a win for the community," the company said.

"Players will be able to access multiple Call of Duty games with Xbox Cloud Gaming for the first time, and Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to enjoy Call of Duty in more places than ever before."

These places include consoles, like Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, PC, mobile devices, select Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TVs, and Meta Quest devices.

"This opens up even more ways to play Black Ops 6 starting on day one at launch," Microsoft added.

Microsoft announced earlier this year that Black Ops 6 would be a day one Xbox Game Pass release when it launches on October 25.

This makes the game the first new Call of Duty title in the series to be added to the subscription service following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is also coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS4, and Xbox One.

In other news, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to expand Xbox Cloud Gaming to allow users to stream owned games that are not part of Xbox Game Pass. The update is claimed to begin in November.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Season 4 has launched, introducing all-new content as well as numerous balance updates.

Activision revealed the patch notes alongside the season's release, which details everything players need to know before they jump in. That includes several new 6v6 multiplayer maps, six new modes, and a fresh battle pass with all-new rewards.

Just like for Season 3, the game has added two new maps at the launch of Season 4 - Tokyo and Paris - with two more expected to arrive later on in the season, Incline and Das Gross.

Players will be able to experience these maps with three new modes at launch, Demolition, Hyper Cranked, and Cache, with Mutation, Headshots Only, and Havoc set to release during the season.

There's also a bunch of new weapons up for grabs from this season's battle pass, including the return of the Kar98k marksman rifle, the Superi 46 submachine gun, the Reclaimer 18 shotgun, as well as the Sledgehammer melee weapon, the latter of which can be earned in weekly challenges mid-season.

Elsewhere, eight all-new Aftermarket Parts will arrive throughout Season 4, each of which is a fully-fledged conversion kit for fan-favorite weaponry. 

Some featured include the JAK Harbinger Kit M4 assault rifle, which is described as a quick-kill weapon with a slow-fire rate, the JAK Gunslinger Basilisk handgun, a revolver that holds eight rounds of .357 ammunition with an increase in rate of fire, and the JAK Thumper-656 RGL-80 launcher, which features improved range and recoil but also unlocks the use of a high-capacity drum mag for the FJX Horus.

Activision also highlighted the fixes for the latest patch, including stability and performance improvements and issues that were causing improper first-person animations. 

For customization, camos can now be equipped on the B.E.A.S.T. Glove Blueprint for the Gladiator, and equipping the Karaage skin on the MCW Assault Rifle should no longer result in an error. 

For more details on season 4 and other general adjustments to UIX and gameplay, you can check out the latest patch notes. 

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Activision has revealed new details and the release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 3 Reloaded.

Season 3 Reloaded will launch on May 1 at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 6pm CEST / 5pm BST for all platforms and will introduce even more multiplayer maps and modes, as well as the next story mission for Modern Warfare Zombies, called Dark Aether Rift.

For Modern Warfare 3, the game will receive two core 6v6 maps called Grime - set in an abandoned corner of London - and Checkpoint - set on Rebirth Island’s Stronghold, both of which will be medium-sized.

The game will also add the new multiplayer modes Minefield and Escort. Minefield is a variant where players will adhere to each mode’s basic ruleset, except all eliminated Operators will drop a Proximity Mine where they fall. 

This will add a new sense of danger to the mode, especially considering that mines can't be picked up and are deadly to the fallen Operator’s team, too.

As for Escort, teams will take turns escorting a MAW through the environment to hack three points across the map throughout two rounds, and the MAW will only move forward if an attacking Operator is nearby and will move in reverse if a defending Operator closes the distance - similar to Overwatch 2's payload.

The Vortex playlist will also be returning with Reloaded for a limited time in the mid-season, and a new mid-season Arcade playlist will be added that will support "a variety of maps and modes featuring powerups and special weapon pickups".

Warzone will once again see the return of Rebirth Island on May 1, which will feature variable weather conditions and aerial bombardments, as well as introduce the new Heavy Armor Public Event, which will raise the number of armor plates players can carry, increasing the total number of health points from 150 to 200 for the entire match.

For more on Season 3 Reloaded, including the details about new items, skins, and the latest perk changes, you can read the full blog post here.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Season 3 is officially live, introducing brand new battle pass content, gameplay improvements, and more.

The full patch notes revealed by Activision detail everything players can expect this season, with the first most notable feature being the addition of six 6v6 multiplayer maps.

Three of these maps are brand-new locales, while the remaining three are "fresh yet familiar experiences". The Emergency 24/7 playlist can be accessed immediately with the launch of Season 3, and includes the maps Emergency, 6 Star, Tanked, Growhouse, Grime (in-season), and Checkpoint (in-season). 

To accompany the new set of maps, players can also dive into four new classic modes, Capture the Flag, One in the Chamber, Minefield (in-season), and Escort (in-season) with more scheduled to arrive later in the season.

There are also a bunch of new weapons this season, four of which can be unlocked through the latest Battle Pass, such as the MORS and BAL-27 from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014). Alongside additional Aftermarket Parts and equipment, like the EMD Mine and Enhanced Vision Goggles, Sledgehammer Games has confirmed that it has also made some quality-of-life improvements for gunplay by making changes to aiming.

The developer highlighted the update in a separate post, saying that it has "improved clarity while firing MWII weapons and added Initial Aim Accuracy to heavy bolt Attachments on Snipers." It also noted that ADS Idle Swat is now a predictable motion, "raising the skill ceiling by eliminating randomness and encouraging weapon mastery."

Season 3 will also see the addition of six new Operators, including rapper Snoop Dogg who has an alternate skin that turns him into a literal dog, along with several new events with limited-time rewards. Zombies mode also has a brand-new story mission called Dark Aether Rift, as well as new challenges to take part in, while Call of Duty: Warzone welcomes the return of the fan-favorite Rebirth Island and a new training mode called Warzone Bootcamp, which can be played against real players and bots. 

For more details on Warzone's season 3 weapon updates and other general adjustments, you can check out the latest patch notes. 

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Warzone Mobile launches tomorrow, taking the battle royale action you know and love, and squeezing it down onto mobile devices. It's an impressive offering, allowing players to drop into Verdansk, Rebirth Island, and Multiplayer.

Whether you're new to Call of Duty Warzone, or looking for a new way to play, Warzone Mobile looks set to translate the main experience rather well. It's been in the works for a while now, and after a couple of delays, it'll launch later this month. Once it comes out, it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up against the best battle royale games in the genre.

Here's when to expect Warzone Mobile, as well as a breakdown of what'll be available at launch. As more info is announced, and as post-launch is detailed, this page will be updated. For now, here's what you need to know.

Warzone Mobile release date

Warzone Mobile launches on March 21, 2024, on iOS and Android. The game will come out worldwide, and players can pre-register at the Call of Duty website. In terms of specific timings, nothing has been announced. This is pretty par for the course with worldwide mobile releases, which often go live in a rolling nature, territory by territory.

Warzone Mobile maps

There are two main battle royale maps launching with Warzone Mobile. These are taken from the first game and offer wide-open battlegrounds to fight in. In addition, there's a handful of multiplayer maps available too. Below, you'll find a list of every Warzone Mobile map available at launch. It's likely that more will be added post-launch, so stay tuned for announcements and updates to this page.

• Verdansk (Battle Royale)
• Rebirth Island (Battle Royale)
• Shipment (Multiplayer)
• Shoot House (Multiplayer)
• Scrapyard (Multiplayer)

Warzone Mobile Pre-Registration Rewards

If you're wanting to play Warzone Mobile, you can pre-register right now to earn exclusive rewards. Here's what you'll get:

• The Ghost “Condemned” Operator Skin
• The M4 “Archfiend” and X12 “Prince of Hell” Weapon Blueprints
• The “Foe's Flame” Vinyl
• The “Dark Familiar” Emblem

Warzone Mobile FAQs

That's everything you need to know about Warzone Mobile. For more on Call of Duty, check out our Modern Warfare 3 review. Elsewhere, there's our picks for the best FPS games to play right now on console and PC.

Activision has shared a deeper look at three of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's upcoming multiplayer maps, set to drop with the launch of Season 2. 

Ahead of the launch of Modern Warfare 3 Season 2 on February 7, the publisher released a brand-new trailer showcasing the next trio of 6v6 maps set to join the multiplayer roster - Stash House, Vista, and Departures.

The teaser, which you can watch below, features a sweep of each map starting with Vista, a medium-sized modern seaside map set in the Brazilian mountaintop resort with an open exterior and interior to play in. 

Stash House is exactly as the name describes and is a small "compact" map featuring an abandoned house with a large back and front yard accessible to the player, while Departures takes - which is described as medium to large sized - is set in the Zakhaev International Airport, but is larger than Terminal.

The game will also introduce a remastered version of the 6v6 map Das Haus mid-season - an under-construction skyscraper near Highrise, which first appeared in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

"Whether you’re here to cause chaos or just for the XP, expect a much brighter, airier feel to this remastered iteration, as well as a lack of destructible cover for even quicker action," Activision says in its latest blog post.

There's more to look forward to with Season 2, two new map variants for Skidrow and Airborne, a new in-season story mission, and five new modes including Team Gun Game, Snipers Only, Bounty (in-season), and two limited-time modes Juggermosh (in-season) and Hordepoint.

Players can also expect a brand-new battle pass, which will feature a crossover with The Walking Dead: Fear the Living television series, and include Rick Grimes as a new character skin.

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Activision has revealed an inside look on how its Call of Duty multiplayer matchmaking works, revealing that skill is one of the least important factors.

In a recent blog post, the company kept its promise from last year to be more transparent in how it discusses matchmaking in its games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and offered a deep dive into how the system dubbed 'skill-based matchmaking' in the community. This explanation, it added, is specifically for Call of Duty multiplayer, not ranked play or Warzone.

However, although Call of Duty does consider skill as a variable, it's not the dominant one, and Activision prioritizes several factors to create lobbies, with "connection" being "the most critical and heavily weighted factor" in the process.

"Whether you're playing for fun with friends or looking to climb the leaderboards, connection is the most important part of the online Call of Duty experience," Activision explained. "Connection dictates the speed at which the game can transfer information from every player to and from our servers.

"Call of Duty's matchmaking process evaluates a metric we call 'Delta Ping', which is the difference in round trip time of the data between your best data center (almost always the one closest to you) and the data center onto which your lobby has been placed (based on all players in a lobby). To reiterate, we always try to maximize the time we place players in data centers that are closest to them."

The entire matchmaking process consists of eight variables, including connection, time to match, playlist diversity, recent maps/modes, skill/performance, input device, platform, and voice chat.

Time to match is the second most critical simply because it's better to not have to wait around when queuing for a match, while skill and performance is "used to give our players - a global community with a wide skill range - the opportunity to have an impact in every match." 

The post continued: "Every time a player begins matchmaking in Multiplayer, for example, the process needs to work through all these factors to find other players (all of which are also being analyzed) to quickly assemble a lobby that is stable and competitive."

Activision added that skill is also measured in matchmaking with teammates, as well as enemies after previous games have been calculated. That performance is used to ensure that there isn't a drastic gap between the most and least skilled player in the lobby, as data shows that lower-skilled players are more likely to quit matches when they're losing - which is bad for the overall ecosystem.

It's also been recognised that many high-skilled players want more variety, "but often feel like they only get the 'sweatiest' of lobbies," and Activision is going to continue testing and "actively explore ways to mitigate this concern."

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Raven Software, the developers of the standalone Call of Duty battle royale Warzone, has apologized for the issues that many players have been experiencing after the arrival of the game’s most recent update.

Titled Season 1 Reloaded, the update brings a whole host of new changes and perks to the popular free-to-play game. It also adds some new weapons, not to mention additional modes and quests for players to get to grips with. Unfortunately, some players have been experiencing some pretty significant problems since the update launched on January 17, 2024. 

This included a super frustrating bug that left players unable to get past the main menu. Things didn’t seem to fare much better for those who managed to actually get into a match, however, as there were also plenty of graphical problems with the game’s environments, like unpleasant visual flickering when players tried to equip loadouts.

Thankfully, the studio has stepped up to acknowledge these issues in a recent Twitter post that goes on to explain why some of the bugs occurred. “We’ve been laying the groundwork for the return of some fan-favorite features in upcoming seasons, which has required a degree of preemptive setup in our live environment,” the post reads. 

“Yesterday’s update shipped with some of that work, and we unfortunately encountered a conflict between live player data and our servers. Our teams were made immediately aware of the issues and began investigating shortly after the update went live. We rallied studio teams from around the world to get these issues resolved as swiftly as possible.”

The post also offers an apology for the disruption and says that the studio holds itself “to a high standard, and yesterday’s issues did not align with that.” You can read the full post below:

Although it’s obviously massively disappointing that a significant update has launched in such a sorry state, this level of transparency is greatly appreciated and sets a good precedent going forward.

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Call of Duty: Warzone’s Champion’s Quest feature, which was re-added to the free-to-play first-person-shooter in Season 1 Reloaded, has been temporarily removed as Raven Software says “the current state of the update does not meet our standards for quality and gameplay.”

Season 1 Reloaded launched yesterday (January 17), and shortly after, the official Call of Duty Updates Twitter / X account was filled with posts detailing issues that had been found in the update, and those which were being investigated. At the time of writing, a number of these have been fixed, but the Champion’s Quest feature, which was removed just hours after launch, is still missing. 

For those unfamiliar, the Champion’s Quest has been included in Warzone in the past. By winning 30 games in the season or five in a row, players are able to activate a quest that, if completed, allows them to use an enormous explosive weapon to destroy the map. Until yesterday, this wasn’t available in the Urzikstan map (which was first released last month), so it was a pretty exciting prospect to have it return. 

“Upon deliberation with our teams, we have decided to temporarily disable the new Champion’s Quest feature,” a post from Raven Software reads. “At the moment, the current state of the update does not meet our standards for quality and gameplay, and we are committed to addressing the issues promptly to ensure that all players can enjoy Warzone to the fullest extent possible. Our goal is always to provide a smooth and seamless experience.”

The developer clarified that the feature will be re-enabled “at the earliest possible opportunity,” and apologized to players “for the inconvenience.” No indication has been given as to when players can expect the feature to return.

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Call of Duty's anti-cheat software will now detect if a player is using aim assist on a keyboard and mouse and shut down their game. 

In a recent post shared on Twitter / X (via IGN), Activision announced that its anti-cheat technology, commonly known as 'Ricochet' to players, has been improved and now features the capability to catch cheaters in the act.

"Our security detection systems now target players using tools to activate aim assist while using a mouse and keyboard. The Call of Duty application will close if detected," the post reads.

"Repeated use of these tools may lead to further account action."

This new Ricochet update applies to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Warzone on PC. The console version of these games, however, features a built-in aim assist - which offers players some help when aiming with analog sticks, a topic of discussion in the community that some believe gives others an unfair advantage. 

Both PlayStation and Xbox consoles also allow users to plug in a keyboard and mouse via USB, allowing them to play games that way, but when done so with Call of Duty, the console aim assist will detect the new device and be turned off.

There are third-party controller emulators - like XIM and Cronus Zen - that can be used to combat this, making the game think the player is using a PlayStation or Xbox controller when they're not. This, for obvious reasons, isn't allowed.

Activision cracked down on cheaters last year by providing a host of new updates to its Ricochet technology over months, including the ability to detect third-party hardware and other security measures. 

In June 2023, it introduced "hallucinations" which spawns fake players to trick cheaters into exposing themselves using the anti-cheat software, and in November, added a measure that disables cheaters' parachutes. 

For more, here's our list of the best FPS games, as well as the best multiplayer PC games available to play in 2024. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone are getting the festive treatment with the latest 'Codmas' holiday event.

Starting today (December 19) through to January 3, players can jump into the shooter and experience a new set of seasonal maps and modes and be rewarded with a host of unique prizes and more.

"Let the festivities begin early with the upcoming CODMAS event!" the official blog post reads. "This year, the Halloween spirit has bled over into the winter holidays with the appearance of Santa Gnaws, here to spread horror and fear to the Operators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone."

First up is Santa's Slayground, an in-game event which requires players to complete eight challenges to earn rewards like consumable items and cosmetics, including the 'Christmas Skulls' Calling Card and 'Elfsecution' Finishing Move.

Two themed map reskins have been added - called Shipmas and Hangover - to reflect the holiday season, and to make things more festive, Activision has added Infectious Holiday and Snowfight, two new limited-time modes and a "twist on two fan-favorite party modes."

With Infectious Holiday, you can play Infected in a lobby of Santa Claus Operators and transform into the Zombie Santa Skin, while Snowfight - a Gunfight variation - will require the first two rounds to be decided by a snowball fight. 

"Capture the suspiciously yellow snowball in the center of the map for a one-hit elimination," the post explains. "After regular Loadouts return in the third round, players can still loot snowballs placed throughout the map."

New seasonal enemy models have also been added in Zombies, along with music and snowballs, the latter of which can be used for deadly attacks against foes.

As for Warzone, players will be treated to the limited-time Slay Ride Resurgence Playlist which will reward "high-quality loot" and a special Emblem for "decorating trees and taking on Santa in an ambush on the seasonal train" in Urzikstan.

There's also the "Face the Vortex" event - which begins on January 3 and ends on January 17 - and the first in-game event of 2024 after Codmas, where players must progress through 15 available rewards by playing in the Vortex-themed maps Tetanus, Satan’s Quarry, and Sporeyard. There's plenty to look forward to in the next month.

For even more, be sure to check out our list of the best FPS games as well as the best multiplayer PC games available right now.

The Call of Duty team has issued a statement regarding fans’ complaints with skill-based matchmaking, and has promised to make conversations around the topic “part of our ongoing discussions with the community.”

In a statement shared by CharlieINTEL on Twitter (which an Activision spokesperson verified with IGN stemmed from a conversation at an event), the team acknowledged that “there is a lot of interest in the matchmaking experience, especially around how skill contributes to how lobbies and matches are put together.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) is a system that is supposed to create lobbies of players with similar skill levels, so that they’re more evenly matched. However, complaints about the system have been raised by fans for multiple reasons. For one, it means that playing with friends at different skill levels can be difficult, as it can often mean that at least one person is put up against a lobby of players who are much more practiced at the game than them. Otherwise, it’s also worth noting that this system is applied to the Casual CoD playlists as well as the Ranked ones, which some feel makes what’s meant to be the supposedly easy-going experience more fraught than it should be.

The Call of Duty team elaborated on this: “Nothing is more important to us than the experience players have with the game, and matchmaking is a big part of that. We’ve been working on our matchmaking system for well over 10 years, and we continue to spend a ton of time and energy on improving the matchmaking process.”

It described the process as “a large effort” that involves input not only from the studio employees, but also the Demonware backend services teams and the Player Insights team. Furthermore, the statement adds that the overall approach to matchmaking combines “many other factors” as well as skill, latency, and search time in order to produce “the best match experience” for players. 

The team acknowledged that it hasn’t taken the time to show players its insights into skill-based matchmaking or the improvements made to it over the years, and said: “We're looking forward to doing that in the coming weeks after Season One launches, and we'll also make it a part of our ongoing discussions with the community.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Season One is set to launch on December 6, so there’s not long to wait for it. 

For more games like Call of Duty, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best FPS games, as well as the best multiplayer PC games.

One of the silliest Warzone glitches is back in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, much to the amusement and frustration of the game's player base.

The infamous 'snake glitch' allows players to sprint while crawling on their bellies, leading to bizarre scenes where soldiers zoom around the map while lying on their front (via GamesRadar+). 

The 'snake glitch' terrorized Warzone players back in 2022. However, it looks as though the bug is back with a vengeance in Modern Warfare 3.

Fortunately, the glitch has already appeared on the developer's radar. The official Call of Duty Updates Twitter page has confirmed that: "We're investigating an exploit that allows players to sprint while appearing in the prone animation." There's even a link to a Trello board allowing players to keep track of progress as the hunt for the source of the bug continues.

Despite being a source of annoyance for players in search of a fair fight, clips of the glitch have already emerged, making for some hilarious watching. Videos across social media show soldiers zipping about on their bellies, seemingly immune to such pedestrian forces as friction or gravity. 

It also seems like the bug is only exploitable by players using a mouse and keyboard. This means that console players can avoid the glitch by disabling cross-platform play. Unfortunately, it looks as though PC players are stuck with the issue for now. 

It's been a rocky period for Modern Warfare 3. The latest installment of the world-famous FPS series launched to mixed reviews. Our own Jake Tucker, TRG's editor-in-chief, said that even "a fun Zombies mode and the return of fan-favorite maps [...] can't save Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from its awful campaign and a multiplayer that feels like a step back."

Hopefully the upcoming Season One update on December 6 will spell a reversal of fortune for the game. It's clear that Modern Warfare 3 could use a little love.

Black Friday is nearly upon us. Save on these great Black Friday Xbox Series X deals and top-tier Black Friday PS5 deals.

While there’s no doubt that most Call of Duty fans will be laser-focused on the newly released Modern Warfare 3 today, the CoD dev team has issued an update on its RICOCHET: Anti-Cheat measures and has announced some “fun” new mitigation strategies for Warzone. 

In a blog post published yesterday (November 9), the latest, “obvious” anti-cheat trick was revealed, and it’s called “Splat.” This delivers quite literally what it says on the tin, and takes out verified cheaters quickly from matches, in one fell swoop.

“With Splat, if a cheater is discovered, we may randomly, and for fun, disable their parachute, sending them careening into the ground after they deploy,” the blog post reads. 

“But what if we catch them after they’ve deployed? Well, Splat can also adjust player velocity, which transforms a bunny hop into a 10,000-foot drop, taking them out instantly. This is one of many new tricks we’ve developed – and we’ll talk about more in the future.”

The blog post also reassures players that this silly mitigation measure can’t kick in for anyone who’s not been verified to be cheating - it can’t be activated by mistake, or as a direct result of player reports. 

“While it’s fun to annoy cheaters that make it into games, our aim is to prevent them from ever getting near a match,” the post continues. “Prevention is key to the continued evolution of RICOCHET: Anti-Cheat.”

It’s worth noting that the post didn’t say that these latest measures will be included in Modern Warfare 3. In the latest first-person shooter (FPS), cheaters in multiplayer can expect to be hit with pre-existing mitigation measures such as ‘Cloaking’ (which stops cheaters from being able to see opposing players) and 'Damage Shield' (which disables cheaters’ critical damage, making them vulnerable to other players). 

Looking for some amazing discounts on games? Be sure to check out our early Black Friday video game deals roundup, as well as our Black Friday gaming deals hub for even more.

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will launch in spring 2024.

During the CoD: Next event on October 5 where Sledgehammer Games revealed a brand-new insight into the highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, fans of the longtime series were also offered new details on the upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone port for mobile.

The game - which was announced in 2022 - was originally scheduled for a 2023 release, but the publisher has confirmed that it will now arrive early next year and will feature the Rebirth Island and Verdansk maps at launch.

"In celebration of the over 45 million fans who have already pre-registered for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, the team announced that in addition to Verdansk, Rebirth Island will make its mobile debut and be available on Day One of the game’s worldwide launch," the blog post reads.

"This fan-favorite Call of Duty: Warzone map that has been painstakingly and specially built for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile combines some of the best elements of Battle Royale and Multiplayer into one thrilling experience sure to provide fans with another dose of amazing, frenetic action."

Alongside Battle Royale, the mobile version will also include several multiplayer modes featuring maps like Shipment and Shoot House, although Activision hasn't revealed the specifics for these modes just yet. It's also been refined for performance and quality-of-life, with improvements to touch controls and menus, as well as customization options. 

Players can now pre-register for the game by heading over to the Warzone Mobile website.

Elsewhere, Sledgehammer Games revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will get ranked multiplayer in Season One that has been "modernized and enhanced" from Modern Warfare 2.

If you're looking for something new to play, check out our list of the best FPS games, as well as our essential guide to every upcoming game of the year.

The first details for Season Six of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and Warzone have been revealed, and iconic Diablo characters Lilith and Inarius will be joining the fray as playable operators, alongside the addition of a DOOM weapon bundle, and more.

As outlined in a new post on the Call of Duty blog, Season Six - ‘The Haunting’ - is set to launch on September 27 across all platforms. During the season, the two familiar Diablo faces will arrive alongside an operator bundle for Masters of the Universe’s Skeletor, who'll come with “evil sorcery–themed Blueprints and Emblems”. Meanwhile, the DOOM Tracer Weapon Bundle will include multiple weapons, including a DOOM-themed chainsaw and shotgun.

Other cosmetics coming in Season Six include an Evil Dead 2 bundle featuring Ash Williams, as well as a Hellsing bundle starring Alucard. There’ll also be a skin for Gaia (humanized Mother Nature, basically), 

Skins and weapons aside, in Warzone, The Haunting will see the return of the limited-time Zombie Royale and Lockdown modes, as well as some new events. Operation Nightmare will have players face off against “a host of monstrous targets” and “investigate eldritch anomalies” as they clear a Bounty board - that's set to kick off on October 17.

Additionally, mid-season, Vondel will become Vondead. The blog post reads: “A demonic incantation by a sorceress has unleashed a zombie outbreak, bringing nightmares to life as the canals of Vondead run red with blood.” It goes on to tease that players will be able to take on a mythical being known as ‘The Butcher’ in the underworld - doing so will reap currently unknown rewards. 

Meanwhile, in Modern Warfare 2 (2022), two new Core maps (La Casa and Koro Village) and two extra Gunfight maps (King and Fight) will be rolled out from the start of the season. Mid-season, El Asilo and Embassy will get into the spooky season spirit with some reskins, and Drop Zone, Infected, Domination, Grind, and Kill Confirmed will all be given Halloween-themed twists, too. 

If you’re looking for more games like Call of Duty, be sure to take a look at our list of the best FPS games. For something similar to Warzone specifically, you can read our recommendations for the best battle royale games.

It’s the end of an era - the original Call of Duty: Warzone (which was relaunched and renamed to Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera last year) is being shut down permanently today (September 21). 

The decision to close the game was announced back in June, when it was confirmed that all progress and inventories will expire along with the online services. Unfortunately, as was the case at Warzone 2’s launch, there’s no way to transfer progress from the original game to the sequel. However, purchased items in Caldera from Modern Warfare (2019), Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard will remain accessible in those games.

“We all have had incredible Warzone experiences across the Call of Duty franchise since its first launch, including those in Warzone Caldera,” a statement released in June said. It noted that, with the shutdown, the development teams will move to focus on “future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone free-to-play experience”.

At the time of writing, it’s not clear exactly what time Warzone Caldera will be shutting down - social media is still full of players squeezing in their final matches before the game is gone for good. Needless to say, if you want to do the same, it seems advisable to jump on that as soon as you can.

Warzone Caldera’s existence has been rather short-lived. While the original Warzone launched in 2020, it was taken offline temporarily when Warzone 2 released in November last year. After a couple of weeks, it rocked up with its new name at the end of the month, meaning that it’s been live in its current form for less than a year. 

Thankfully, it’s not all bad news for Call of Duty players since the release of Modern Warfare 3 (2023) is getting closer and closer. The direct sequel to 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 will launch on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One on November 10.

For more games like Call of Duty, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best FPS games. You can also find more titles to play for free with our roundup of the best free games.

Cheaters in Warzone and Vanguard are in for a rude awakening, as developer Activision rolls out a new update to the games’ anti-cheat software.

Anyone who’s caught cheating in Warzone or Call of Duty: Vanguard will now face the wrath of Activision’s latest ironic anti-cheating mitigation tactic, Disarm. As described in a blog post, the new system does exactly what its name suggests: removing cheaters’ weapons mid-match to leave them totally defenseless.

Cheaters won’t even be able to punch with their fists, as Activision says removing all their offensive capabilities it’s an effective way of putting them “in time out”. By letting cheaters remain in the match but making it virtually unplayable for them, the pesky hackers are given a taste of their own bitter medicine.

It also makes unscrupulous players easy targets for legitimate players, who can pick up an easy kill while the cheaters are running around confused and helpless. If you spot an enemy player who seems a little too skillful, before they suddenly lose all their weapons, there’s a good chance you’ve run across a casualty of the new Disarm system.

 Playful punishment 

Activision has rolled out a couple of other ironic anti-cheat measures in Call of Duty. Through a cloaking system, any player who’s found to be cheating will no longer be able to see their opponents, and enemy sounds will be totally undetectable. Honest players, meanwhile, will see the cheaters as normal, letting them nab a quick kill.

A Damage Shield system was also introduced earlier in the year. That technique dramatically reduces the damage of cheaters’ bullets and prevents them from inflicting critical damage to opposing players. Again, it’s been designed to confuse cheaters, while letting legitimate players get the better of them.

Activision says these anti-cheat systems haven’t only been developed because they’re funny. By allowing cheaters to remain in the game while crippling their impact, Activision can gather more data about the hacks. It also lets them ruin their fun.

“Cheaters, for some reason, feel superior using software to win games they have no business winning,” the blog post says. “Hitting them with mitigations transforms those euphoric feelings of being fake-best into glorious pangs of annoyance. We’ve seen the clips.”

The poetic justice will continue. Call of Duty’s Ricochet anti-cheat system will be making its way to Warzone 2 when it launches later in the year.

The next map coming to Call of Duty: Warzone has been revealed in a strangely appetizing way.

Fortune’s Keep will be making its way to Call of Duty: Warzone as part of the battle royale’s upcoming Season 4. Activision shared the island’s tactical map in a tweet, giving us a glimpse of what’s in store.

Smaller than Caldera but larger than Rebirth Island, it’ll be playable in Warzone’s Resurgence game mode, so expect to be fighting in smaller lobbies and faster-paced matches. A Winery, Bay, Graveyard, and Lighthouse are all present across the island, as well as a Keep that looks to be a grand stately home. There’s also a building perched atop a mountain called Overlook, which Stephen King fans might be hoping is a hotel.

The map’s far more verdant than Rebirth Island, better fitting Caldera’s tropical environment. It also looks to feature more open space – particularly on the right-hand side of the island – although there are plenty of tight corners and dense collections of buildings spread throughout.

Activision hasn’t confirmed when Warzone Season 4 will drop, but the update can’t be too far away if we’ve already got eyes on this new map. The battle royale’s sequel, Warzone 2, is also expected to release later this year shortly after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Warzone will stay live when the sequel’s up, but player progression won’t be shared across the games.

Cake delivery

Fortune’s Keep had a more edible reveal than most Warzone updates. Pieces of the map were gradually released throughout Monday, June 13, as streamers and content creators were sent individual sections of a 12-part puzzle to slowly piece together. 

Weirder, some creators were sent entire cakes that had a section of the new map printed on their icing. YouTuber JGOD shared a video of the cake they received, as did streamer BearPig, showing some pretty appetizing green piping.

The final pieces of the puzzle were tweeted directly by the Call of Duty and Raven Software Twitter accounts, before being assembled into the final reveal. Free cakes don’t make for a half-bad marketing stunt, although we’re a little disappointed Fortune’s Keep isn’t home to even one bakery.

Activision has shown its penchant for strange reveals lately. Last month, it revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s release date by painting a mural of Ghost on the deck of a container ship.

• These are the best FPS games you should play

It looks like the map for Call of Duty: Warzone 2, or at least a version of it, might have leaked. 

The leak comes by way of known industry insider and journalist, Tom Henderson, who has shared a drawing of the map on Try Hard Guides, highlighting its main features and some points of interest. 

As Henderson points out, the Warzone 2 map shown has plenty of water and that, he claims, is because Warzone 2 will introduce a swimming mechanic. Though swimming has been a mechanic in previous Call of Duty titles, this would be the first time we’d see it in the Warzone games. It’s just as well, really, given all the leaks recently. 

Henderson’s map reveal follows a minimap drawing reveal from TheMW2Ghost on Twitter earlier this month and he highlights just where on his map that the minimap fits. In terms of the overall map size, Henderson points out that “a basic map drawing does not give justice to the scale of the map, but from my impressions it does seem bigger than that of Verdansk and Caldera, especially considering if the grid reference is accurate.”

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In the report, Henderson also makes reference to another use for the map: the long-rumored-but-not-actually-officially-confirmed DMZ mode in Modern Warfare 2. According to the report, “It’s believed that both Warzone 2 and the DMZ will share the same map in some capacity”, with Henderson’s own sources suggesting “that the DMZ will indeed share the same map, with one source saying ‘why make more maps for two different modes when you can just build it in one’.”

The map won’t, he suggests, be playable all at once in DMZ, instead offering “portions” of the map to be playable as “sub-levels”. 

Though we now have a release date of October 28 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, we’re still waiting on one for Warzone 2. Just last month, however, Activision revealed in a financial report that the game is being “built from the ground-up alongside the premium game” and that it “features groundbreaking innovations to be revealed later this year” so it might be that we don’t have to wait too long to find out more official details. 

Analysis: Not the first leak

As leaks go, a map is a pretty significant one. As Henderson himself points out, however, things are in active development and are therefore “subject to change”. 

That said, there’s been no shortage of leaks around the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2. Not too long ago we saw a Warzone 2 leak which suggested the aim is to make the game “more like Blackout”, with satchels being required to equip armor and mentions of a new inventory system. 

Henderson addresses this leak in this latest report to say that developer Infinity Ward is “already reviewing the bag system” after it was heavily scrutinised in playtests and by the community after the leaks. 

Even after the official reveal of Modern Warfare 2’s release date earlier this week, a leak sprung around the game’s editions and beta (via CharlieIntel), with dataminers finding files in Call of Duty: Vanguard that they suggest point to plans for three editions and a potentially PlayStation-first open beta.  

Activision and Infinity Ward are keeping fairly quiet around the leaks and in the steady drip of information it can be hard to get a grasp on what might be accurate and what’s highly unlikely. As it is, it’s worth taking everything with a sizeable pinch of salt as the best way to know for sure what to expect from Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 is to wait for official announcements. 

• Six months after Call of Duty: Vanguard flopped, Activision has worked out why

Warzone crossplay has been a feature in the game for a while now, having been added shortly after launch. It was highly anticipated by fans at the time, who wanted to squad up with their pals across all platforms. It's a win-win really, allowing for open matchmaking between PlayStation, Xbox and PC, and follows the new trend of crossplay being included for larger multiplayer games.

The process of setting up and playing crossplay Warzone missions is relatively easy - however, there are some technicalities to bear in mind. Crossplay is a great feature but it does have its limitations, including the implications of KBM and controller players sharing the same lobbies. 

To help you get into a game of Warzone with all of your friends in tow, you'll find everything you need to know about Warzone crossplay in this guide. There's info on how to set it up, as well as some potential problems you will want to look out for. Worry not, because whether you’re on console or PC, there’s a way for you to play with your friends on other platforms.

Warzone crossplay

Warzone crossplay: how to enable it

Call of Duty: Warzone has cross-platform support, with it even activated by default. If you go to play, you'll be matched with players across the world who are using both controllers, and mouse and keyboard.

To turn this off or just check out how online settings work, go to the menu. From here, slide over to the right until you get to the "Account" tab. Crossplay will be enabled but can be turned off, ensuring you only get matched with players on your platform of choice. Underneath that, you can find "Crossplay Communication", which allows you to stop any communication from outside your gaming ecosystem. This means if you don't feel comfortable talking to PC or Xbox Series X players while on PS5, you have that option.

There are a few reasons you may want to do this. If you play with a controller, communicating via text with those using a keyboard can leave your chat feeling a little lopsided. The same can be said for those using a keyboard. If you don't want to wait half a minute for a response, you can make sure you're only seen by players with a keyboard. 

Warzone Crossplay: controller versus KBM

There is a difference between playing with a keyboard and mouse (aka KBM)and using a controller. If you play with a controller, you'll have help from aim assist. Aim assist makes your reticule "stick" on people, making it a bit easier to efficiently aim. This often means that controllers have the advantage at close range where the aim assist will do the most work.

This is far less effective at range, however, making mouse the dominant choice. Essentially, for most high-level players, the difference is one of playstyle. Controller players tend to be slightly more defensive and can leverage short draw time and tight controls in close quarters combat. Mouse and keyboard give you more available buttons and a more precise aim at the expense of a lack of button reaction time due to the size and scope of a keyboard. 

It's worth keeping in mind that hackers are a bit more common on PC, leaving you with a slightly higher chance of having a worse time. All this being said, playing against players with different play styles and techniques is the fun of a battle royale. If you can stomach learning how to interact with other input players, it can be a rewarding experience. 

• Enjoying Warzone? Check out our list of the best FPS games.

Warzone's Operation Monarch skins are here, allowing players to show off their love of the big movie monsters King Kong, Godzilla, and Mechagodzilla.

Call of Duty: Warzone is no stranger to crossovers. The game has seen Rambo and Die Hard's John McClaine skins before, and just recently, we got an impressive Snoop Dogg operator pack. 

However, this Godzilla vs Kong crossover feels a little different. Operation Monarch comes with a whole new game mode that'll have you brawling with other players while being amongst the two monsters. It's easily Warzone's most ambitious tie-in yet, and it's awesome that it has more going on than just being a cosmetic pack.

That said, who's going to sniff at some awesome Godzilla, King Kong, and Mechagodzilla skins? What's more, if you end up opening your wallet to pick up all of the packs, you can get an exclusive blueprint for a unique SMG. Each of the Tracer Packs costs 2400 CP, which runs you $19.99/£16.79/AU$29.94.

Now, here's everything you need to know about all the Operation Monarch skins. 

Operation Monarch skins

Operation Monarch Skins: Tracer Pack Godzilla

Looking like the King of the Monsters on the battlefield is certainly a strong flex. While the skin's blue glow will do no favors to your stealth, it's a powerful look. Pair it with the Breath of Godzilla Assault Rifle and Awakened Alpha LMG, and you're going to have full confidence going into any engagement.

The Tracer Pack: Godzilla bundle includes:

• Godzilla Ghillie skin for Shigenori
• Breath of Godzilla Assault Rifle blueprint
• Awakened Alpha LMG blueprint
• Big Mistake operator MVP highlight
• Gojira Stomp finisher
• Godzilla Heat Ray emblem
• Titan Destruction spray
• Fabled Beast spray
• Protector of Earth calling card

Operation Monarch Skins: Tracer Pack King Kong

King Kong has one of the most storied legacies in American film, and you can now rock that prestige in Warzone. You also get the added bonus of looking mean as hell. Along with the operator skin, you get blueprints for the Jungle Juggernaut Sniper Rifle and Skull Island Shaker SMG. On top of that, you also get a useable replica of Kong's Scepter. 

The Tracer Pack: King Kong bundle includes:

• Kong skin for Wade Jackson
• Jungle Juggernaut Sniper Rifle blueprint
• Skull Island Shaker SMG blueprint
• Kong's Scepter  Melee blueprint
• Watch Your Back highlight intro
• Gravity Inversion finisher
• Kong Roar emblem
• Primal Power spray
• Jia's Doll weapon charm

Operation Monarch Skins: Tracer Pack Mechagodzilla

Maybe it's time to cut these massive Titans down to size. If you like to live a little more on the evil side of things, why not take up the mantle of King Ghidorah's mind implanted in a massive Godzilla robot by putting on the Mechagodzilla operator skin.

With this, you get the blueprints for the Cybernetic Destroyer Assault Rifle, Neural Uplink SMG, and also a katana replacement with the Nanometal Tail Blade.

The Tracer Pack: Mechagodzilla bundle includes:

• Mechagodzilla skin for Constanze
• Cybernetic Destroyer Assault Rifle blueprint
• Neural Uplink SMG blueprint
• Nanometal Tail Blade melee blueprint
• Machine Learning MVP highlight
• Rival Protocol highlight intro
• Neural Link Active calling card
• Evolving Together emblem
• Mechagodzilla Head weapon charm

How to get the Apex Phase Rifle SMG blueprint

While each skin pack is expensive, there are some goodies to nab by buying multiple Tracer packs. You'll rack up a lot of Monsterverse skins and weapons, but it's good to know there are plenty of benefits for going all in on the crossover. 

If you buy two of the Tracer packs, you'll get an exclusive weapon sticker and 'Superspieces' Player title. If you're both eager and have the money to spare to buy all three packs, you'll get an exclusive "Apex Phase Rifle" Owen Gun SMG blueprint.

In order to unlock these rewards, you need to buy the packs before June 13. The rewards may take until Season 3 Reloaded to appear, though, so keep that in mind. 

• Want more shooting action? Check out our best FPS games list.

Godzilla in video games has always sucked. As a life-long fan of the films, I’ve always wanted a great game featuring the King of the Monsters, but that’s not come to pass. The closest we've gotten was probably Natsume-Atari's Godzilla back in 2014, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who'd say it’s a great game. 

What Godzilla games get wrong is that they put you in the shoes of the Kaiju. Worse still, most of them are quasi-fighting games where you can choose classic monsters from the Toho films, and have them duke it out in a city. But that doesn't capture what makes the movies great.

Warzone: Operation Monarch is the latest Warzone update, and it gets Godzilla right. It makes me feel small in the face of the wrath of an unstoppable force. Godzilla works best when its scale is intact, its intentions are unknown, and we can do nothing but watch and try to avoid getting stepped on.

In Operation Monarch, both Godzilla and King Kong stalk the map of Caldera, making their presence known, even if they don't interact with the game too much. At various points through a regular game of Battle Royale they will go into a Titan Frenzy mode, charging up and attacking players on the map. At that point, you can desperately try to fight back or you can do the sensible thing and flee before them.

It's a shame that King Kong and Godzilla don't fight each other as that would be a spectacle to behold. But it's enough for me to see King Kong leaping from one side of Caldera to the other, or Godzilla charging up a heat-ray before letting loose its iconic scream. 

In one game, the gas was circling around me on a beach and Godzilla sat offshore, screaming at the closing moments of the battle. Even though it and King Kong didn’t play major roles in the end game, you can feel them there, hanging over the conflict. We are but ants in the face of gods, and it’s fun to not feel like the biggest, baddest thing in the vicinity. 

Godzilla feels tacked on

At the same time, Operation Monarch also feels like it’s holding back the Godzilla vs. Kong concept a little by still needing to be a Warzone game. The action, while chaotic, has to be legible, and the monsters' impact has to be controlled. In a competitive mode like Warzone, having the NPCs kill skilled players in attacks, stomps, or collateral damage won't be fun. There still has to be logic to the monsters so players can succeed. 

If anything, Operation Monarch has merely whetted my appetite for a great Godzilla game. One can be made, and this is the closest we’ve been, simply by changing our perspective. It's now easier to envision a game that puts you in the shoes of a civilian trying to make it through an extended Godzilla attack or to survive on the fringe of its battle with another massive monster. 

Video games are so often about making you feel powerful so you can live out that fantasy. But, monsters like Godzilla aren't part of that fantasy, they make you feel small and insignificant. Godzilla isn't about action, it's about horror and powerlessness. 

• Want more shooting action? Check out our best FPS games list.

Warzone Operation Monarch is here and players are running around Caldera with two of the most iconic monsters causing extra havoc. This is one of Warzone's most ambitious crossover events in history, with plenty to interact with to get your Kaiju fix. 

We’ve known about Operation Monarch in Warzone Season 3 for a little while now, but the exact details of what it actually is were vague. Was it a big, Fortnite-like live event? A game mode? Or just a cosmetic push?

Well, we now have the answer. While it does come with a lot of cosmetics and in-game items tied to the Legendary Monsterverse, it's a playable game mode where players fight on a battlefield alongside (and against) King Kong and Godzilla. 

However, there are still questions you undoubtedly have, such as how does the Operation Monarch game mode work, what do Godzilla and King Kong do, and how do you control them? Because yeah, that is something you can do. Here’s everything you need to know about the Operation Monarch game mode. 

Warzone Operation Monarch

How to fight alongside Godzilla and King Kong

Operation Monarch’s big selling point is, of course, King Kong and Godzilla. While the cosmetics are nice, most people are going to be lining up to see the King of Monsters and the Eighth Wonder of the World go at it. 

To see the two monsters do battle – and try to get a win in the middle of it – you'll have to play the Operation Monarch limited-time mode. It runs from May 11 to May 25 and is a 60-player game, with squads made up of four players. For the most part, it'll function like any other game of Warzone – only, there are two massive monsters causing havoc around you. 

On the field, players will find Monarch Intel in supply boxes, supply drops, by killing enemies and doing damage to both Godzilla and King Kong. You can then use this intel to unlock Killstreaks and Loadout Drops. 

The game ends, like any other Warzone game – when one team is left standing. 

How do you control King Kong or Godzilla?

For the most part, King Kong and Godzilla will not be overly active in the heat of battle… that is until they go into a Titan Frenzy. This happens at the start of a match, and once more during its duration. This sees the Titans fly into a fury and start attacking players. 

During this time, you can deal damage to both creatures directly. The team that deals the most damage will receive a special S.C.R.E.A.M device. That’s where the real fun begins. 

Once you have your hands on the device, you can use it like a Killstreak, and it allows you to direct one attack from either Titan. You get to choose from a ground pound from King Kong, or a heat-ray from Godzilla, as well as choose where the attack will hit on the map. You can have the best loadout in the meta, but I don’t think that will help you against having a 337-foot Gorilla stomp on your head.

That's everything you need to know about Operation Monarch game mode. In essence, it's a normal Warzone game, only now you have two of the most iconic creatures in all of pop culture towering above you, which is kind of awesome.

• Want more games like Warzone? Check out our list of the Best FPS Games.

Familiarizing yourself with the Warzone meta after the launch of the newest battle pass is essential to your success on the battlefield, the relaunched game will be no exception

Knowing which guns to cop is an important aspect of securing wins, and we’re about to make that a piece of cake.

Grabbing any floor loot you find as you race through Caldera will only get you so far, and the same goes for calling in the default loadouts. Whether you’re new to Warzone or just returning to catch a glimpse of Warzone Rebirth before it vanishes from the playlist again, the armory of guns is absolutely mind-boggling. 

There is a ton of choice, and it’s not always clear which guns are any good - especially without getting your hands on the weapons first. Your trusty pistol is only going to be a one-way ticket to the gulag, and even old favorites may have changed following the release of Warzone 2.

You aren’t alone if you have trouble telling a Kar98k from an M1916. With well over 100 guns available, figuring out where to start is a nightmare. While you start to develop personal favorites at the gun buffet, we’re here to give you a good place to start. 

After scouring the battlefield for answers, these are the best Warzone guns we’ve found across the latest Warzone seasons, guaranteed to have you locked, loaded, and ready to step into the fray.

Warzone meta: breaking down the guns

Warzone meta: long range picks

Engagements at medium to long range are common on Caldera, and being able to dominate from a distance will put you in a great position to succeed. While this is less of a priority on the smaller Rebirth mode map, don’t overlook the need to engage distant opponents early in rounds. 

Autoamaton

• Description: Easy-to-control automatic rifle
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Assault Rifle
• Unlocked: Player level 8

The Automaton is an excellent choice if you struggle with controlling your automatic fire. It's got extremely manageable recoil and great accuracy, which lets you hit more shots consistently at any range, and the fire rate earns it the fully justified ‘laser’ nickname. 

XM4

• Description: Heavy recoil automatic rifle
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Assault Rifle
• Unlocked: Player level 4

On the other end of the spectrum, the XM4’s recoil is difficult to conquer. But hidden behind the skill required is an excellent and versatile gun. Just don’t take it lightly, because the XM4 requires practice to master. If you expect to just pick it up, you’ll find the erratic recoil pattern will leave you embarrassed by someone with a simpler gun. 

Bren

• Description: Powerful light machine gun
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: LMG
• Unlocked: Player level 53

The Bren is a powerhouse at mid-range, as long as you don’t mind toting around such a heavy weapon. Focus your upgrades on handling recoil and increasing accuracy and it will be an even more reliable way to mow down entire squads. Just don’t neglect a weapon to pair it with when it gets unwieldy close up. 

CW AK47

• Description: Lethal automatic rifle
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Assault Rifle
• Unlocked: Player level 7

Another gun with a lot of kick in the recoil, the CW AK47 is a high damage weapon that can secure fast kills. Unlike the XM4, its recoil pattern is a bit easier to manage, and you’ll find it feels more like throwing boulders than lobbing rocks at your opponent. The damage makes the CW AK47 excel at midrange while still being able to hit shots at long range. 

Swiss K31

• Description: Accurate and powerful bolt-action rifle
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Sniper Rifle
• Unlocked: Get at least two headshot kills with a Sniper Rifle in 15 different completed matches 

Powerful and fast-firing, the K31 is an excellent pick for sharpshooters who want to be able to dominate from range. The changes in Season 3 brought increased accuracy and damage and reduced the time to aim-down-sights, while the more popular kar98 saw a parallel set of nerfs, leaving the K31 in a great spot near the top. 

Warzone meta: short range picks

As the circles tighten and opponents close in, encounters with other squads become deadly close-range fights. Long range becomes far less important than a powerful brawling weapon, or a gun with the versatility to engage at both short and medium ranges. Don’t hesitate to prepare for this part of the round, especially on Rebirth Island or if you plan to drop in hotly contested areas. 

JAK 12

• Description: Devastating full-auto shotgun
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Shotgun
• Unlocked:  Get 3 hip-fire kills using a Shotguns in seven different matches 

Spraying down enemies with full-auto shotgun fire is both satisfying and effective in close range duels, and the JAK 12 is the right gun for the job. While the close range power is formidable, the JAK 12 is even more useful for the fact that it can be kitted out to increase its range and tighten its spread – making it a medium range threat as well.  

MP40

• Description:  Versatile full-auto SMG 
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: SMG
• Unlocked:  Player level 16

While it isn’t as rapid firing as other SMG's, the MP40 does great damage and makes it easy to manage your recoil. If you aren’t sure what to choose, this is a safe choice and it will always have your back when the circle closes. It also makes a great support weapon for your sniper loadouts and can even reach out to medium range. 

Owen Gun

• Description:  Fast firing full-auto SMG 
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: SMG
• Unlocked:  Player level 29

With a weird top-mounted magazine sticking into your field of vision, the Owen Gun can take getting used to. If you persevere, you’ll find the Owen Gun brings a higher rate of fire than the MP40, and competes with it in every other category – save for range. Pick it if you want an even faster time to kill than the MP40 offers. 

Cooper Carbine

• Description:  Rapid fire automatic rifle
• Type: Primary weapon
• Class: Assault Rifle
• Unlocked: Get 5 or more headshots using Assault Rifles in 15 different completed matches 

As an excellent short-range pick, the Cooper Carbine brings a fast rate of fire and the potential for high accuracy. If you enjoy weapons that help you tighten your fire to pick off targets with ease, upgrading the Cooper will dial in a great choice. 

• Love Warzone? Take a look at our list of the best FPS games.

How to change your name in Warzone: Quick steps

• Launch Warzone on your PC or console
• At the main menu, select Options in the bottom left
• From the tabs across the top, select the Account tab
• Select Activision Account from the menu on the left
• In the popup window, choose Change Display Name
• Enter your new name and then click confirm

Whether you created your Warzone account during a more embarrassing time in life or just want to spice things up, now's the perfect time to change your player name. With the fresh season 3 here and a huge Warzone update, getting logged in might take a minute, but it's where you'll find the options menu to get started.

Tools and Requirements

• Patience to wait out any outstanding Warzone downloads
• An existing account with Activision

Steps

Whether you're on console or PC, the steps are the same, and thankfully it's a pretty easy process. Just remember that you earn a rename token once every six months and can hold only two, so you won't be able to change your name willy nilly.

• Open up Warzone and then consider getting a hot dog while you wait, if there's an update.

• Near the bottom left, select the options menu. It's kind of small, but you've probably needed it before to change controls or adjust the sound

• Along the top there will be tabs, select Account on the far right. This is where all your account options live.

• Pick Activision Account from the new menu page. This should pop open a window showing your current name and account info.
• In the new window choose Change Display Name. This will load another window that tells you how many tokens you have currently for name change.

• Enter your new name in the blank and then click Confirm. Should be as easy as that.

Final thoughts

There's nothing worse than being stuck with something like Xx_tHa_sNiPa_xX when you've decided you're really more of an assault rifle player. Thankfully, as your tastes change, you can swap things around and lock down a new gamertag that fits the new you.

While you're at it, secure yourself a better shot at your first win of the new season with our Warzone tips.

So what exactly is Warzone Rebirth Island? The simple answer is that Rebirth Island is a special mode in Warzone that, after the game relaunches as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, will once again be vanishing from the playlist/

First removed at the end of Warzone Season 4 to make room for Season 5's new map, Fortune's Keep, massive fan outcry meant that the map was quickly reinstated.

Sadly, both of these maps are going to be removed from the playlist. The game servers will go offline on November 16 until Warzone Caldera relaunches on November 28, following the release of Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2's first in-game seasons.

First appearing back in Call Of Dury Black Ops: Cold War as a season one update in the mission entitled Rebirth, Rebirth Island is a 40-player battle royale mode on a much smaller map.

Parachuting straight into a Soviet-era chemical weapons testing facility, Rebirth Island feels like a standard day at Warzone - with some major twists. It shares its core DNA with regular Warzone map offerings, allowing you to chase contracts, stockpile cash, scoop up floor loot, and make for a loadout drop as soon as you can. 

You can even make use of most of our standard Warzone tips as you prepare to drop into Warzone Rebirth Island, but be sure to come prepared; it's a different world out there.

Here’s everything you need to know about this unique battle mode, from maps to codes and more, so that you can dominate on the field next time the dead rise.

Warzone Rebirth Island: everything you need to know

Warzone Rebirth Island: can you still play?

For the relaunch of Warzone Caldera on November 28, both Rebirth Island and Fortune's Keep will not be available to play.

You can play Warzone's Rebirth as a Limited Time Mode as and when it becomes available as part of the game's regular playlist rotation.

With Season 5 being the latest and final installment of Warzone before Warzone 2 lands, you'll be able to play the spooky undead island intermittently from the main menu.

Warzone Rebirth Island: what is different about its gameplay?

Rebirth Island is essentially a condensed version of Warzone's 150-player battle royale, since it is for 40 players only.

 There are some key differences you should be aware of before you climb aboard the plane.

• You have a shorter window to completed contracts, and their objectives will be closer to you
• Killing an enemy will ping you and your squad with the location of the team they were part of
• Loadouts only cost $7,500 instead of the normal $10,000, so you and your team will be able to grab yours much faster
• There are only 40 players, instead of the usual 150
• There is no gulag, and as long as you've got at least one squadmate alive you can redeploy after a delay
• You start with a self-revive in every new game, but it does go away if you have to spawn back in
• Green-colored weapon trading stations will spawn around the island. These allow you to trade in your gun for a lower quality gun and get a bunch of other items and cash in return
• Communications towers are located around the island. You can use these for $1,500 to send out a one time ping similar to a UAV to locate nearby players

Warzone Rebirth Island: what is the map like?

Rebirth Island is the little sibling of Warzone's Caldera, and has its own collection of hot spots to be aware of. Thankfully, they're not too numerous, and you'll get used to them quickly. That's one of the real perks of Rebirth mode - with a smaller map it's much easier to learn the ins and outs of the environment. 

Here are some of the key features of the map:

• Stronghold – Reworked in the Reinforced update, Stronghold now has several outbuildings with roof areas, numerous areas of crates and low-cover, and the massive radar dish tower to give you a wide view of the approaches. It's also got a Redeploy Balloon if you need to get out in a hurry
• Dock – Replacing the Shore point of interest, Dock has become a concrete area full of crates, along with one of the two ships added to the island. The masts on the ship are a bit risky to get up, but they've got a great vantage point
• Factory – Factory got the smaller of the two ships, and a staircase to access it. The masts are still tall enough to give you good sightlines, though
• Prison Block – The massive Prison Block area got a refresh, adding covered walkways to the courtyard, some tents in the courtyard itself, so there's a bit more cover in the approach (or when running from a fight). You'll also find some TV remotes in the prison cells that can get you into the golden vaults, but more about that below

Warzone Rebirth Island: how to access bunkers

How do you get into Warzone Rebirth Island bunkers? What are the Golden Vaults? Unlike so many of life's mysteries, we have hard answers. 

As part of a community challenge, the golden vaults were opened to players on April 11 and now can be accessed by anyone – if they go through the right steps.

Breaking into the bunkers and their vaults starts in one of the most dangerous places on the island: Prison Block. 

Follow the steps below exactly to get your shot to break in. Just watch out, because you won't be the only person going for them. And do remember, the codes are different for each match, so you can't just carry them over to the next one.

1. Locate six TV remotes with red lights on the back of the toilets in Prison Block
2. Press the Interact button on each one to get the lights to go off
3. A phone should start ringing in the middle of Prison Block
4. Answer the phone and listen to the code that the voice reads off
5. Trek over to one of the three locations of the Golden Vaults and enter the code

Once you do, you'll be able to grab yourself some high-tier loot to either use or trade-in with one of the Trading Stations.

• Love Warzone? Why not take a look at our list of the best FPS games?

Developer Raven Software has announced it’s investigating a bug in Call of Duty Warzone that’s currently preventing some players from logging into the game after the release of its third season of content.

Following the rollout of Warzone Season 3, some Xbox players have reportedly been unable to log into the battle royale without an active Xbox Live Gold membership. When they try to join a multiplayer game, they are met with an error screen, informing them they can't play the multiplayer game without an active Xbox Live subscription.

Like other free-to-play games on Xbox, the Call to Duty title didn’t previously require players to have an active Xbox Live Gold membership to access its multiplayer side.

Developer Raven Software has now acknowledged it is working to fix the Warzone Season 3 issue. “We are investigating an issue where Xbox Live Silver users are unable to play Warzone,” the developer tweeted, linking to a post in its public Trello board that collects the various issues it’s currently working to resolve.

Xbox Live Silver – sometimes called Xbox Live Free – is the lite version of Xbox’s premium subscription service. If you’re struggling to log into Warzone and being told your profile can’t connect without an Xbox Live membership, you’re likely an Xbox Live Silver member who’s bearing the unfortunate end of this glitch.

Raven hasn’t said when it suspects the bug will be resolved, but its acknowledgment of the issue is a good sign the devs are actively working to fix the problem.

Weapon nerfs

Warzone Season 3's rollout has thrown up a couple of other issues, too. According to Raven’s Trello board, equipping the Legendary Ancestral Spirit Daniel Skin will cause players' “vision to be obscured in-game”. Contracts have also been temporarily disabled for solo players as the developer investigates an unnamed issue.

The update has introduced some big changes to the free-to-play battle royale. Chief among them is a nerf to sniper rifles, which drastically reduces their effectiveness. While the weapons could previously one-shot virtually any target, many sniper rifles will now only do so up to a maximum distance of 90 meters, and others won’t be able to at all. Raven said the nerf has been applied to create some diversity among the weapons. 

“Snipers may now use damage ranges as a defining characteristic of their one-shot potential,” the developer said. “This not only brings more identity to each weapon but means attachments that provide the lighter and quicker sniper rifles the Damage Range stat will increase their ability to one-shot at increased distances.

“Our ultimate goal is to enable a wider range of viable playstyles and really push the potential of each weapon.”

• Forget Warzone, Overwatch 2 has stormed the Twitch charts

Update: Raven Software has acknowledged the Warzone Xbox Live bug and is working on a fix.

“We are investigating an issue where Xbox Live Silver users are unable to play Warzone.”

Original story: A new season has dropped in the free-to-play battle royale Warzone, but some players are reporting that they can't play without an Xbox Live Gold membership.

As covered in our live blog for Warzone Season 3, Twitter users started logging the issue and were pretty ticked off about it. Not only is Call of Duty: Warzone free-to-play, but Microsoft's rolled out an Xbox Live Gold policy change to ensure f2p titles wouldn't need a paid membership for their online multiplayer.  

So the sudden requirement for a paid subscription has, rightfully, got players up in arms.      

"The new Warzone update broke my game," lamented one player, posting a screenshot showing the issue. 

"I haven’t had Xbox live gold or any subscription for months now and I’ve been able to play free to play games including Warzone. Microsoft instituted that policy last year. please fix."

A number of other users are running into the same problem, but at the time of writing, neither the devs nor the publisher has acknowledged or responded to the complaints. 

This isn't the first time this has happened; at the tail end of last year, a Warzone update rolled out that did this exact same thing. The @charlieINTEL Twitter account noted the error at the time, tweeting:

"For those Xbox players who are getting 'A network service failed' alert when trying to play Warzone, it appears the update overnight has made Xbox Live Gold a requirement to play Warzone again, even though free to play games don't need it anymore on Xbox."

It was obviously resolved, but it's not ideal to force players to deal with this again. This is one of a handful of issues that popped up when the update went live. It's frustrating that there's no official response or idea of when it'll be fixed. 

Raven Software is already dealing with a 'Corrupted Loadout Data' error that some players have bumped up against. It said it would tweet out an update when it was resolved, but there's been nothing since. Undoubtedly, this problem will be sorted out eventually, but it's got to be annoying for fans who've weathered the giant update, ranked play not working, error messages, and now this. 

• If you get desperate, here are the cheapest Xbox Live Gold deals this April

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 3 is here and Activision has dropped a hefty slate of patch notes outlining all the changes we can expect in the battle royale’s next season of content.

Coming in Warzone Season 3 is the return of a fan-favorite game mode, a couple of new Caldera locations, two new weapons, and an additional operator. There’s no sign of Godzilla or King Kong yet, but it won’t be long before the megafauna begin stomping about the place.

Scroll down to read the patch notes in full, or read about the highlights right here.

Caldera Iron Trials returns as a bonus game mode. Pitched as a more brutal experience, it reduces the rate of health regeneration, makes legendary weapons harder to find, and doesn’t include any free loadout drops. Plus, buy station prices are increased, although you’ll keep your cash after dying.

There are a couple of new areas on Caldera to explore. The Dig Site is an abandoned excavation zone littered with the ancient remains of massive gorilla-esque and lizard-like monsters. The Peak, Runway, and Lagoon areas have also been updated with new buildings, hangers, and pathways, so they’ll look a little different from what you’re used to.

The Gulag has changed, too. When you kick the bucket, you’ll now be transported to the interior of a ship moored just off the coast of the island.

A nerf to snipers

Two new weapons have been introduced: the M1916 semi-auto rifle and the Nikita AVT assault rifle. A bunch of handling tweaks have also been made to several existing weapons, while sniper rifles have been nerfed. Several snipers will now only one-shot players when fired up to a maximum of 90 meters from their target, and several won’t do so at all.

“The long-standing ‘one-shot rule’ [has] unfortunately diluted the Sniper class into one important metric, speed to click heads,” the patch notes read.

“Snipers may now use damage ranges as a defining characteristic of their one-shot potential. This not only brings more identity to each weapon but means attachments that provide the lighter and quicker sniper rifles the Damage Range stat will increase their ability to one-shot at increased distances.”

A new Operator – Mateo Hernandez – has been introduced, too. He’s available instantly to anyone who purchases the Warzone Season 3 battle pass

On top of that, there are a bunch of new gameplay features to dig into, including a bunch of new contracts, quality-of-life adjustments to deployable gadgets, and some tweaks to the loot that spawns across Caldera. Buy Stations will also no longer ask you to confirm your purchase, which should make buying weapons while the bullets are flying a little smoother.

Finally, Operation Monarch is a limited-time event that will feature Godzilla and King Kong. The monster bash will feature a new Quads game mode and go live May 11 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT, which is 2am AEST on May 12.

Read on for the full patch notes, or check out how Activision’s new anti-cheat software is targeting hackers by trolling them.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: events

New Event: Operation Monarch

Operation Monarch, a special limited-time event featuring the iconic Titans of the Monsterverse - Godzilla and Kong, will introduce a new game mode for Quads inspired by several of Warzone’s best experiences to date. 

Operation Monarch will go live at 9 AM PT May 11. More information to come soon.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: modes

New Mode: Caldera Iron Trials

The fan-favorite mode, Iron Trials, is back. This time on Caldera. Here’s a recap of the Iron Trials experience:

• General
  • No free Loadout Drops
  • ATVs, Tac Rovers, and Squad Transports only
  • Buy Station prices are increased
  • Cash retained on death increased
  • Melee Finisher Damage capped at 150
• Operators
  • Base Health increased
  • Health Regeneration
    • Regeneration amount decreased
    • Delay timer increased
  • Starting equipment adjusted
• Loot
  • Epic and Legendary Weapons are harder to find
  • Killstreak drop rates are reduced
  • Large Cash piles are harder to find
  • Removed Field Upgrades
    • Stopping Power
    • Dead Silence
• Equipment
  • Sniper Rifle single shots only down Players up to a maximum of 90 meters
    • These ranges vary considerably between Sniper Rifles
  • Stun Grenade stun duration decreased
  • Medical Syringe regeneration rate decreased
• Gulag
  • Exclusive Gulag Loadouts
    • No Akimbo
    • No Semi-Auto or Fully-Auto Shotguns
  • Limited Tactical Equipment
  • Players redeploy with remaining equipment

Plunder Adjustments

• Increased Carrying Limit

Players had a hard limit in Plunder of carrying a maximum of $1.6 million. Whilst this is an extremely unlikely scenario, we wanted to make the system more robust for the minority of Players that achieve such a feat.

Rebirth Resurgence Adjustments

• Players no longer spawn with Handgun Charlie (BOCW) as a starting Weapon

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: maps

New Gulag: Hold

A roughly symmetrical arena is based in the belly of a ship moored just off the coast of Caldera, with identical hallways on the perimeter of an otherwise open space.

New Location: Dig Site

Located between the Mine and the Ruins, Dig Site provides Operators the opportunity to rummage through abandoned excavation equipment, tents, and massive skeletons for Supply Boxes and other items.

New Skybox

A dark storm approaches...

Updated Locations

Peak

New Constructs, Supply Boxes, Contracts, ascenders, and a fresh coat of paint.

Runway

New barracks, hangars, and other structural additions.

Lagoon

New sandbar, paths, and cover.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: general

• Private Matches
  • Added Rebirth Resurgence Solos
  • Added Rebirth Iron Trials
  • Added support for new Rebirth Island features (Comms Towers and Weapon Trade Stations) in some Modes
• XP Token Accessibility
  • XP Tokens can now be activated from in-game through the menu.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: gameplay

New Features

• “Sabotage” Contract
  • Players will be given a vehicle target somewhere on the map. Destruction of the target will be rewarded with an Armored Truck Deployment via plane. Be warned, this Armored Truck can just as easily become someone else’s…
     
• High Value Loot Zones (In-Season)
  • These zones are represented on the Tac Map by a very appropriate “$” sign and will provide the best looting opportunities. These zones will be complimented by Rebirth Supply Boxes that will provide recurring loot opportunities.

With Season One, we introduced Public Events, like Cash Drops, during Infil to draw Players towards new loot locations. We have been happy with the results of these ‘honeypot’ opportunities but we want to take it a step further. Starting with Operation Monarch, we will be introducing “High Value Loot Zones” to provide new, fruitful opportunities for Players willing to take the risk.

General Adjustments

• Gas Mask
  • Will no longer interrupt a falling Player, thus allowing them to still be able to pull their parachute when falling to preserve their life.
  • Won’t play animation when the Player is ADS and affected by the gas from Nebula V Rounds

The Gas Mask remains a continued focus for our Quality of Life efforts. It plays an important role both in gameplay and the visceral Call of Duty feeling, but we felt that we had seen one too many videos of Players jumping from high heights into the Gas and the game incorrectly prioritizing the Gas Mask animation over the parachute… and we all know how that scenario ends.

• “Most Wanted” Contract
  • Timer reduction via the following…
    • Eliminating opponents reduces the timer by 20 seconds
    • Opening Supply Boxes reduces the timer by 5 seconds
    • We want this to be a Contract that both promotes and rewards aggressive play.
  • Players can no longer use the Tac Map to ping an enemy Most Wanted target directly.
    • We felt this method was unfairly punishing and provided too great a degree of accuracy that was almost impossible to be countered by the target.
  • The refresh rate of the Most Wanted target on the Tac Map has been increased, to counterbalance the removal of the above ping.
    • This brings balance and still allows tracking of the approximate location of the target.

We reviewed the data for the Most Wanted Contract and we felt that improvements needed to be made to increase its engagement and success rate, whilst still retaining the all important risk/reward that it offers.

• “Bounty” Contract
  • Speed increase to Tac Map refresh rate
    • This is especially noticeable when a target is in a vehicle to better inform Players that a vehicle chase may be required.
• Deployable Buy Stations
  • When a Player pings a Deployable Buy Station, there will now be dedicated audio/narration to better inform squad mates of the Players’ intentions.
• Redeploy Positioning Improvements
  • Players who redeploy via Gulag victory or are bought back will now spawn in close proximity to their squad or Loadout.

Caldera Adjustments

Loot that spawns across Caldera have been adjusted...

• Added Perks
  • Battle Hardened
  • Engineer
  • High Alert
  • Restock
  • Tempered
  • Quick Fix
  • Scavenger
  • Pointman (Plunder Exclusive)
• Notes:
  • Only one of each Perk can be equipped at any one time.
  • Lootable Perks can be pinged to communicate to your squad.
  • Lootable Perks are additive to Loadout Perks.
  • All Perks are unequipped on death but do not drop.

We want to further increase the value and rewards of looting during the mid-game. It’s important for both pacing and movement in Battle Royale that there are always new rewards to be found for Players who rotate through locations for greater loot advantages, and our first step on this path is to bring single Perks into loot. From our internal testing, this change has brought a wealth of new Player stories and we will continue to roll out additional Perks in this manner as we review player feedback and data on how it improves the pacing and experience of Battle Royale. These lootable perks will launch first in Caldera, and then to Rebirth Island at a later date.

Rebirth Island Adjustments

• Spawn Protection Improvements
  • Removed the damage reduction scaling system that was based on ground distance
  • System is disabled if a Player is near the ground or an opponent
  • Players who have the shield icon will only take a flat 25% of the damage received
  • Spawn protection will no longer reduce gas circle damage

Whilst Spawn Protection plays an important role in any multi-life game mode, we felt it needed some extra refinement to make sure it cannot be exploited by Players. We will continue to monitor Player behavior in this area and make further changes throughout the season if required.

• Weapon Trade Station Adjustments
• Reduced Specialist Token drop rate
  • We’ve enjoyed the engagement Players have been having with the Weapon Trade Station and the Specialist Token reward, but felt it was slightly on the high side so have made a reduction.
• The station will now look for empty space to drop your rewards
  • We found it a bit annoying to pick up loot after you traded your weapon so we’ve polished this moment. The system will now always look for an empty space when dropping your rewards

Later this season…

• Footstep Audio Improvements
  • We are looking to bring in additional audio improvements to footsteps during the season as a priority.
• Slide Camera Lock Improvement
  • We have heard from our community that the camera lock that can occasionally happen while sliding down a vertical descent can be frustrating and lead to a negative outcome in a combat encounter. We are pleased to announce that this will be addressed soon.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: UI/UX

• Buy Stations
  • No longer require confirmation when making a purchase

The confirmation box when making a Buy Station purchase had good intentions, but we felt that the muscle memory had become so ingrained in Players to double-tap twice in succession. This was causing unnecessary friction in a potentially hostile combat situation, versus the unlikelihood of mistakes being made. We plan to make additional refinements to the Buy Station experience during the Season.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: bug fixes

• Fixed an issue causing incorrect Ping positioning when used on the Tac Map near Redeploy Balloons.
• Fixed an issue that caused Players to get stuck in AA turrets if they interacted with it at the same time it was destroyed.
• Fixed an issue that prevented carriable gasoline from being picked up while Dead Silence is active.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to glitch-carry carriable gasoline up ladders.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing skyhook balloons from receiving damage from certain explosives and thermite-based sources.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to have unlimited gas immunity when entering the area of effect of a PDS as it ends.
• Fixed an issue that caused Vehicles to receive less damage than intended.
• Fixed an issue that caused Players to be kicked back to the Main Menu when attempting to preview Vanguard Charms.
• Fixed an issue that caused Buy Station UI selections to reset to the top when attempting to scroll up.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Armaguerra 43 (VG) to have the same codename as another Weapon.
• Fixed an issue that caused Helicopters flying near Capital to be pulled towards the ground.
• Fixed an issue that caused the “Fenrir Unchained” Finisher to not be available in the Finishing Moves menu.
• Fixed an issue that caused Blueprint-specific Attachments for the “Purgatory Lost” Blueprint to not be available in the Gunsmith Customs menu.
• Fixed an issue that caused the "Mod. 3 10.0x Telescopic" Optic on the M1 Garand (VG) to appear blacked out when a Player would ADS.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Player’s view to be obstructed when using Park’s “Petal Pusher” Operator Skin.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to clip into stairs in a certain area of the map.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in the Armaguerra’s Botti DA Stock not receiving a bonus to flinch like intended. 

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: known issues

• Private Matches are temporarily disabled due to stability issues.

For a list of other known #Warzone issues, please check out our dedicated Trello Board.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: weapons

• M1916: Marksman Rifle (VG)
  • A semi-automatic rifle with a deadly combination of power and fire rate. Lethal at any range in the hands of a capable marksman.
•  Nikita AVT: Assault Rifle (VG)
  • Heavy, powerful, and fast firing. This Assault Rifle can be outfitted to excel in both CQC and mid range combat.

New Unlock Challenge Missions

• KG M40 (VG)
  • Earn 3 double kill medals with an AR in a single match 15 times.
• Whitley (VG)
  • Destroy 3 killstreaks with an LMG in a single match 15 times.

Weapon Adjustments

» Assault Rifles «

• Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
  
  • .30 Russian Short 45 Round Mags
    • Damage Range decreased to 10%, down from 20%
    • Horizontal Recoil Control penalty decreased to -23%, down from -25%
    • Vertical Recoil Control penalty decreased to -18%, down from 20%
    • Visual Recoil decreased
      
  • 7.62 Gorenko 50 Round Mags
    • Damage Range penalty removed
    • Bullet Velocity penalty removed
      
  • Krausnick 620mm Precision
    • Bullet Velocity increased to 40%, up from 30%
    • Now increases Damage Range by 20% 
      
  • VDD 320mm 02B
    • Bullet Velocity increased to 30%, up from -12%
    • Damage Range increased to 10%, up from -10%
    • Horizontal Recoil Control penalty decreased to -18%, down from -25%
    • Initial Firing Recoil penalty decreased to -10%, down from -20%
      
  • VDD 760mm 05B
    • Damage Range increased to 35%, up from 15%
    • Bullet Velocity increased to 50%, up from 40%
       
• Assault Rifle Bravo (VG)
  
  • .303 British Round Mags 
    • Capacity increased to 36, up from 32 
       
  • 6.5 Sakura Round Mags
    • Capacity increased to 28, up from 24
       
  • 8mm Klauser Round Fast Mags
    • Capacity increased to 24, up from 20
       
  • 8mm Klauser 38 Round Drum Mags
    • Capacity increased to 42, up from 38
      • Attachment name will be corrected in a future update
• The Assault Rifle Bravo (VG) has considerable close to mid-range potential–however, as a fast-firing burst Weapon, it would often burn through its magazine capacity rather quickly, leaving the wielder outgunned in longer distance or larger-scale engagements. With this change we are aiming to minimize one of the Weapon’s more obvious disadvantages and inch it ever closer to viability.
• Volkssturmgewehr (VG)
  
  • 7.62 Gorenko 30 Round Mags
    • Bullet Velocity penalty removed
    • Damage Range penalty removed
       
  • 7.62 Gorenko 40 Round Mags
    • Bullet Velocity penalty removed
    • Damage Range penalty removed
       
  • Krausnick 428mm 05V
    • Bullet Velocity increased to 50%, up from 40%
       
  • Reisdorf 407mm Custom
    • Now increases Bullet Velocity by 30%
    • Now increases Damage Range by 26% 
       
  • VDD 287mm
    • Bullet Velocity increased to -10%, up from -12%
    • Horizontal Recoil Control penalty decreased to -21%, down from -25%
    • Vertical Recoil Control penalty decreased to -12%, down from -50%
       
• Vargo 52 (BOCW)
  
  • 17.1” VDV Reinforced Barrel
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 2.5%, down from 4%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 2.5%, down from 4%
       
  • 17.9” Takedown Barrel
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 7%, down from 8%
       
  • 18.6” Task Force Barrel
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 5%, down from 8%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 5%, down from 8%
       
  • 19.8” Liberator Barrel
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 7%, down from 8%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 7%, down from 8%
       
  • Foregrip
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 5%, down from 10%
       
  • Spetsnaz Grip
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 5%, down from 20%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 5%, down from 6%
       
• XM4 (BOCW)
  • Minimum Damage decreased to 26, down from 27
  • Maximum Damage Range increased to 880, up from 850

» Handguns «

• Top Break (VG)
  • Max Damage increased to 46, up from 45
  • Mid Damage increased to 38, up from 34
  • Min Damage increased to 28, up from 26
     
• Handgun Charlie (BOCW)
  • Head Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.49

Handgun Charlie (BOCW) has been a truly dominant Secondary Weapon. Due to its substantial headshot multiplier, Handgun Charlie (VG) was able to achieve Primary Weapon TTKs with little downside. We will be closely monitoring the Weapon’s performance and make further adjustments if necessary.

» Light Machine Guns «

• Light Machine Gun Charlie (VG)
  • Max Damage decreased to 32, down from 34
  • Min Damage decreased to 28, down from 30
    
  • 6.5 Sakura 40 Round Mags
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 14%, down from 20%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 14%, down from 18%
      
  • Queen’s 775m Scepter
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 23%, down from 40%
    • Vertical Recoil Control decreased to 20%, down from 40%
      
  • Queen’s 705mm Royal
    • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased to 31%, down from 38%
      
  • Tight Grip
    • Recoil Control greatly decreased

Light Machine Gun Charlie (VG) has overstayed its welcome as the go-to long range choice. Its high damage profile paired with the ability to load it out to remove most recoil made for a nasty combination. By addressing some of the major outliers of the weapon, we’re left with a strong choice for those that can control it effectively.  

• Whitley (VG)
  • Min Damage increased to 31, up from 30
  • ADS Speed decreased to 0.460, down from 0.475
    
  • .303 British 45 Round Mags
    • Fire Rate increased to 18%, up from 15%
      
  • 28" Gracy MK. 9 Barrel
    • ADS Speed penalty decreased to -11%, down from -18%

» Sniper Rifles «

The adoption of 150 health in Battle Royale resulted in a huge boon to the Sniper category - While all other weapons require an additional shot or two, Snipers remained as they did previously. The long-standing “one shot rule” unfortunately diluted the Sniper class into one important metric, speed to click heads. 

As mentioned above Snipers may now use damage ranges as a defining characteristic of their one-shot potential. This not only brings more identity to each weapon but means Attachments that provide the lighter and quicker sniper rifles the Damage Range stat will increase their ability to one shot at increased distances. 

Our ultimate goal is to enable a wider range of viable playstyles and really push the potential of each weapon. Keep an eye out as we expect further adjustments to Sniper Rifles as we hone in on the best all-round experience. 

The following Weapons will one-shot to the head only while inside of their Max Damage Range: 

• Marksman Rifle Charlie (MW)
• SP-R 208 (MW)
• Pelington 703 (BOCW)
• Swiss K31 (BOCW)
• Type 99 (VG)
• Kar98k (VG)

The following Weapons will one-shot to the head at any Range: 

• HDR (MW)
• Sniper Rifle Charlie (MW)
• ZRG 20mm (BOCW) 
• 3-Line Rifle (VG)
• Gorenko Anti-Tank Rifle (VG)

The following Weapons do not have one-shot potential to the head:

• Rytec AMR (MW)
• Sniper Rifle Alpha (MW)
• Sniper Rifle Charlie (BOCW)

Please see below for the full list of changes to Snipers, and keep in mind that attachments that provide Range Bonuses can drastically change the Base Weapons Max Range:

• Sniper Rifle Charlie (MW)
  • Can one-shot to the head at any range 
  • Max Damage Range increased to 3400, up from 3072
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.2
• Sniper Rifle Alpha (MW)
  • Cannot one shot 
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1375, down from 2500
  • Min Damage increased to 60, up from 50
  • Max Damage increased to 80, up from 70
• HDR (MW)
  • Can one-shot to the head at any range 
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 3400, down from 4000
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.2
• Marksman Rifle Charlie (MW)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1425, down from 2400
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.2
  • Min Damage increased to 75, up from 50
  • Max Damage increased to 95, up from 86
• SP-R 208 (MW)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range increased to 1300, up from 900
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.2
  • Max Damage increased to 94, up from 93
• Swiss K31 (BOCW)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range increased to 1650, up from 900
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 2.31
  • Max Damage increased to 130, up from 95
• ZRG 20mm (BOCW)
  • Can one-shot to the head at any range
  • Max Damage Range increased to 4000, up from 3072
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.2
• Sniper Rifle Charlie (BOCW)
  • Cannot one shot
  • Max Damage Range increased to 2675, up from 2600
  • Min Damage decreased to 96, down from 99
• Pelington 703 (BOCW)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1900, down from 2000
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 2.4
  • Min Damage decreased to 95, up from 99
  • Max Damage increased to 125, up from 102
• LW3 - Tundra (BOCW)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1675, down from 4000
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 2.5
  • Max Damage increased to 120, up from 102
• Rytec AMR (MW)
  • Cannot one shot
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 2650, down from 2800
  • Min Damage decreased to 96, down from 99
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 2.1
• Type 99 (VG)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1350, down from 4092
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 2.4
  • ADS Transition In Speed decreased to 0.45, down from 0.48
  • ADS Transition Out Speed decreased to 0.42, down from 0.5
• Kar98k (VG)
  • Can one-shot to the head within max damage range  
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 1850, down from 3800
  • Max Damage increased to 100, up from 92
  • ADS Transition In Speed decreased to 0.43, down from 0.455
  • ADS Transition Out Speed decreased to 0.4, down from 0.476
• 3-Line Rifle (VG)
  • Can one-shot to the head at any range
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 3225, down from 4092
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.15
  • Max Damage increased to 115, up from 95
  • Min Damage increased to 96, up from 79
  • ADS Transition In Speed increased to 0.532, up from 0.517
  • ADS Transition Out Speed increased to 0.54, up from 0.52
  • Movement speed scaler decreased to 0.80, down from 0.83
• Gorenko Anti-Tank Rifle (VG)
  • Can one-shot to the head at any range 
  • Max Damage Range decreased to 3700, down from 4092
  • Head Damage Multiplier increased to 3.0
  • Upper Torso Multiplier increased to 1.2
  • Upper Torso Multiplier increased to 1.1
  • ADS Transition Out Speed decreased to 0.5, down from 0.66
  • Now Has Access to Lengthened, Armor Piercing, Subsonic, Frangible and Hollow Point Ammunition. 

» Submachine Guns «

• Armaguerra 43 (VG) 
  
  • 8mm Kurz 72 Round Mags
    • Fire Rate decreased to 10%, down from 15%
    • Now increases Damage by 5%
    • The 8mm Kurz 72 Round Mags simply didn't have a fair pro for con trade. We've slowed its rate of fire down some while providing a damage increase that results in targets being eliminated 1 bullet faster.
  • Imerito 180mm Short Barrel
    • Bullet Velocity penalty decreased to -10%, down from -12% 
    • Recoil Control penalty decreased to -10%, down from -15% 
    • Visual Recoil decreased.
       
• Type 100 (VG)
  • Visual Recoil decreased
    
  • 8mm Kurz 48 Round Drums
    • Damage Multiplier decreased to 6.5%, down from 14%
    • Movement Speed decreased to -4%, down from -3%
• The 8mm Kurz 48 Round Drums were holding too much of the Type 100’s overall damage potential. We’ll be monitoring the Type 100 this update and make adjustments to the base weapon if any are required. This Magazine is still very powerful with the increased rate of fire it provides and the damage bonus still results in one less bullet to kill.
• Owen Gun (VG)
  
  • 7.62 Gorenko 33 Round Mags
    • Neck Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.17, down from 1.3 
  • 7.62 Gorenko 72 Round Drums
    • Head Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.47, down from 1.5
    • Neck Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.17, down from 1.3
  • Hockenson 142mm Rapid
    • Fire Rate decreased to 16%, down from 19%
      
• Submachine Gun Charlie (VG)
  
  • VDD 189mm Short Barrel
    • Min Damage decreased to 23, down from 24
    • Upper and Lower Torso Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.04, down from 1.1

The VDD 189mm short barrel has been a huge boon for the Submachine Gun Charlie (VG) and would often shred the target's Upper Body far outside of its maximum damage range. The VDD still provides a large bonus against extremities and still increases both the min damage and optimal damage range of the MP40. We expect continued use of this attachment, even with these adjustments.

» Marksman Rifles «

• M1 Garand (VG)
  • Lower Limb Damage Multipliers increased to .8, from .7

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: attachments

» Ammunition «

• Subsonic
  • Bullet Velocity penalty removed

» Muzzles «

• Mercury Silencer
  • Damage Range penalty removed
• MX Silencer
  • Now Decreases Sprint to Fire Speed by 2% 
  • Now Increases Damage Range by 10%

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: operators

New Operator: Mateo Hernandez

Purchasing the Battle Pass instantly unlocks Mateo Hernandez with two Legendary Operator Skins: the all-black “Chingon” outfit featuring a hooded skull mask and knee-length coat, and the blue and orange “Madcap” Skin for the eccentric fighter rushing madly toward victor

Equip his Favorite Weapon, the new M1916, and level him up to unlock thousands of Player XP and Weapon XP for the M1916, two additional Operator Skins, two Quips, the “No Escape” Finishing Move, and more.

Warzone Season 3 patch notes: downloads

The Season Three update will have a download size of approximately 40 GB for those who own the free-to-play console version of Warzone and are currently on the latest updates.

• Warzone Update Sizes
• PlayStation 5:
  • 43.2 GB
    
• PlayStation 4:
  • 43.2 GB
    
• Xbox One Series X / S:
  • 40.9 GB
    
• Xbox One:
  • 40.9 GB
    
• PC:
  • 38.3 GB (Warzone Only)
  • 98.3 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare®) 

Note: PC users will also need 13 GB of additional space on their hard drive for the patch copying process; this is only temporary space that is reclaimed upon completion of the patch installation and is not an additional download.

Remember, the Vanguard download is not necessary if you are only playing Warzone, and vice versa.

Furthermore, for a smaller overall file size, Players can choose to uninstall/remove other data packs if they are no longer needed.

The Warzone update with season 5 sadly marks the game's finale. However, Warzone's going out with a bang as Activision's packed a lot into this one, bringing a new mode, new items, new weapons, important changes to the Caldera map and, of course, a fresh Battle Pass.

Warzone Season 5 also launched across all of Call of Duty: Vanguard's core pillars. New content is here for the multiplayer and zombie modes, too, so if you play the other modes alongside Warzone, there's a ton of new stuff to get into.

Warzone 2.0 launched in November, and it made some major changes, but for now, let’s look at the challenges Warzone Season 5 has in store.

Warzone update: cut to the chase

• What is it? Season 5 of the Call of Duty battle royale
• When can I play it? The season has ended
• What can I play it on? PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC

Warzone update: release date and platforms

Season 5 is available now, having launched on August 24 at 9am PST/12pm EST/5pm BST (or August 25 at 1am AEST) on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC simultaneously. As ever, it's open for cross-play across all platforms. 

Warzone update: trailers

More trailers

To see what's in the new Warzone update take a look at the cinematic trailer, as it gives a real flavour of everything in the Last Stand update, there are helicopters, volcanoes, and importantly a whole lot of guns. 

Want to see more content for the Warzone update for season 5? Then check out Activision's Call of Duty official YouTube channel.

Warzone update: new content

New weapons

It wouldn't be a Warzone update without new weapons, and season 5 came loaded with new gear. You can bet that the Warzone meta will shift to match. Activision has revealed four new weapons will be added to the popular battle royale, and two of them are available at season 5's launch:

• EX1 
• RA 225 

Three further weapons arrive in-season. One of these, the Valois Revolver, can be obtained by purchasing it in a special Season Five Bundle or by completing one of two in-game challenges which are to get 15 melee kills in multiplayer or getting 1000 Eliminations using pistols that have been Pack-a-Punched in Zombies.

Two more weapons will launch as part of the mid-season update: the BP50 and the Lienna 57 Assault Rifles.

New oprator

The new Warzone update brought four new Warzone operators, and they’re the franchise’s most infamous antagonists who will form Special Operations Task Force Tyrants.

Two of the operators are available at the season launch: Raul Menendez from Black Ops 2 and Khaled Al-Asad from Modern Warfare. Menendez can be unlocked immediately through the purchase of the Battle Pass, while Al-Asad's operator bundle can be found in the in-game store.

The other two operators, Gabriel T. Rorke from Ghosts and He 'Seraph' Zhen-Zhen from Black Ops 3, came later in the season, with the Bundles dropping in the store.

Map changes

Warzone’s fifth and final season makes some changes to the Caldera map, with “ominous seismic activity” taking place at the Peak and a new Gulag themed around that. 

There are a few notable changes to the map for Season 5 and we’ve outlined them below:

• The Peak – some seismic activity on Caldera has impacted the map, with a volcanic eruption taking place at the start of season 5. Activision invites you to “battle around a transformed Peak as lava runs down the mountainside in all modes”.
• Task Force Tyrants HQ – with Task Force Tyrants claiming the Peak, they've also built an evil lair. Expect "an interior creek with flowing lava, basalt columns and stepping stones, a giant, colorful, ornate crest for their secret organization, and a beautiful vista looking out over a wartorn Caldera."
• New Caldera Gulag: Boiler Room – there’s a brand new Gulag on the Caldera map, themed around the recent volcanic activity. Activision has called it “a love letter to the original” and says the new Gulag will be “immediately familiar to veteran Call of Duty: Warzone players who have been competing from the beginning.”
• New weather – As well as changes on the ground, there are notable changes to Caldera’s skies and its lighting. Activision has said we’ll now see “sunlight peeking through the volcano’s billowing smoke”. Rebirth Island will also get some lighting changes, with “a warm and lush sunset casting a vibrant hue over the map.”

New event

Season 5 brought a brand new community event: Heroes vs. Villains. In this event, you’ll choose which side you want to support. Across the event, you’ll score points for your faction by collecting either Villain or Hero tokens depending on which side you’ve picked, either by eliminating your opponents or scavenging supply boxes. 

At the end of the event, every participant receives a unique Weapon Blueprint themed around the winning team. Activision has also highlighted that players will also “have the chance to earn other exclusive rewards like the Legendary animated ‘One vs. One’ Calling Card, the Hero’s or Villain’s Weapon Charm, the ‘Conflict Spike’ Melee Weapon Blueprint, the ‘Time Duality’ Watch, and more.”

New mode

Season 5 is bringing a brand new mode to Warzone called Operation: Last Call. It’s a limited-time, full-map mode that was available at launch, which is “inspired by Search and Destroy”. It invites you to “choose to defend Caldera by defusing bombs around the island, or sabotage it by detonating the explosives at designated bomb sites.” 

Depending on what you choose and your success, you’ll get to see two different outcomes.

Warzone: patch notes

Mid-season patch notes
Now that we're well into Season 5 of Warzone, Activision has release more patch notes. You can read them here.

Season 5 launch patch notes
The big season 5 update patch notes detail new operators, weapons, balances and bug fixes in detail. The download size for the updates comes in between 9.9-12.6GB, depending on your platform.

If you're curious to see the full breakdown, check the full Warzone patch notes out for yourself.

• Looking for more? Activision has finally started talking about Warzone 2.0

So, where is Call of Duty: Warzone ranked mode? While fighting your way back from the gulag is satisfying, it's so much sweeter if you can show off your rank to your friends later.

Nearly every major shooter and battle royale has a ranked mode. For example, Apex Legends has had its version for years, leaving many players asking the question, why doesn't Call of Duty: Warzone have its own? Developers can be hard to get comment from when it comes to unannounced features, so it's difficult to pin down anything concrete.

That being said, there is some information out there, and we've collected it all in one place. Here's everything we know about the prospect of Warzone ranked. 

Warzone ranked

Warzone ranked: is there a competitive mode?

Warzone does not currently have ranked and it's been without a competitive mode since launch, to the frustration of many. However, in an interview with GDC, ex-Senior Systems Designer Josh Menke confirmed that Warzone does use skill-based matchmaking, along with other Call of Duty titles. 

However, while there is no dedicated competitive mode, it's something that Raven Software has indicated it's interested in.

Warzone ranked: When will there be ranked?

The short answer is that there are no immediate plans for ranked mode. In a recent DiazBiffle Twitch stream, a developer on Warzone confirmed it isn't on the coming horizon, but that it remained a high priority. With that, don't expect the feature in Season 3 or even 4 or 5.

On the stream, they said ranked was something they are focused on for the future, which could suggest that it might not make an appearance until Warzone 2, however, that is purely speculation. It's clear that Raven Software is seriously considering it, but don't hold your breath waiting as you're likely to be disappointed.

With other battle royales, ranked costs points to enter, and you progress based on points earned. Apex Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG all follow similar philosophies, dividing you up into ranks based on your total accumulated points. Apex Legends also includes divisions that you can rise or fall to based on your performance

It's easy to imagine Warzone will follow a similar line, with points-based results for each match, but there's no telling if it will use tiers or entry fees, or even go in a totally new direction.

• Love Warzone? Why not check out our list of the best FPS games?

Snoop Dogg is now a playable character in Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard alongside a new bundle that comes with three legendary blueprints.

The rapper, who is a notorious first-person shooter player, has joined the game via the Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle. This bundle comes with a playable version of the man, which includes voice lines, progression path, a biography, as well as three legendary weapon blueprints.

The timing on this bundle is conspicuous, and the Call of Duty team isn’t shy about linking to April 20. In their blog post on the Call of Duty website, it says: “It’s no coincidence that he’s joining the fight right before a certain unofficial April holiday.”

The bundle is littered with references to marijuana, especially in the three weapons, and Snoop Dogg’s progression path. The ‘Bong Ripper' sniper rifle, 'West Coast Bling' assault rifle, and ‘Tha Shiznit’ SMG make up Snoop Dogg’s arsenal, and each comes with Green Weed tracer rounds, which turn the muzzle flashes into marijuana leaves. 

This is all alongside tons of sprays, weapon charms, and a killcam theme that all very clearly sport similar leaves. While Snoop Dogg isn’t seen partaking in the drug in any of his flashy highlight intros, finishing moves, or MVP highlights, he is seen smoking a cigar in all of them. 

While in previous years, you might expect Activision to be more coy with its references to drugs, this is quite blatant. While Snoop Dogg is never seen smoking weed, there are pictures of joints in the sprays and the killcam theme. 

This pack makes Snoop Dogg playable in Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer, zombies, as well as Warzone. So, no matter where you get your Call of Duty fix, you can do it as Snoop Dogg on the battlefield. 

This is not Snoop Dogg’s first appearance in the series, as the rapper once lent his voice to Call of Duty: Ghosts as a multiplayer voice pack. However, this is the first time he is playable, and it's all good fun. If you’re a fan, this is a no-brainer. 

The bundle is available for 2,400 CoD points, which is £16.79 / $19.99 / AU$29,95.

• Want more shooters? Check out or list of the best FPS games out there. 

A new cinematic trailer for Call of Duty Warzone Season 3 includes several easter eggs that suggest prehistoric kaiju Godzilla is coming to the battle royale, and confirms the content’s release date.

The trailer, which was shared by the Call of Duty Twitter account, confirmed that Call of Duty: Warzone's third season of content will be called Classified Arms and will release on April 27. The video sees a group of soldiers fight waves of Nazis to stop the detonation of a Nebula bomb, before uncovering a mysterious device that broadcasts a garbled audio signal.

The signal is fairly distorted but sounds close to a roar – the kind of immense roar that a humungous nuclear sea monster like Godzilla would make.

The Call of Duty Twitter account later shared the individual audio file, prompting fans to download and perform “further spectral analysis”.

As IGN spotted, YouTuber PresigeIsKey ran the file through audio edition software Audacity and found the message “Monsters are real” hidden within its spectrogram, as did another Twitter user. Elsewhere, a Twitter user separately pointed out that the audio clip sounds almost identical to a sound used in the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

On top of that, the trailer’s final narration strongly suggests something akin to Godzilla will be making an appearance. “None of us knew that a storm was on the horizon,” the narrator says. “With Nebula, the Nazis had unwittingly shaken something awake”. 

“Something far more powerful and fearsome than anything we could ever hope to comprehend”.

The idea of accidentally awakening a powerful monster outside the realms of ordinary nature strongly matches Godzilla’s classic origin story, in which he’s nudged awake by nuclear experiments in the pacific ocean.

Following Fortnite

If Godzilla does rear his scaly head in Warzone, it won’t be the first time the Call of Duty battle royale has incorporated licensed characters. Rambo and Die Hard’s John McClane were added as playable Operators in May last year, while Texas Chainsaw Massacre and SAW cosmetics were added for Halloween 2020.

Adding Godzilla, however, would be a larger tonal departure. While previous crossovers have tended to feature human characters, albeit ones with Hollywood-level action flair, Godzilla is a step above. As an ancient prehistoric sea monster, it somewhat shifts to boundaries of what is possible in the Call of Duty Warzone mythos.

It also follows the trend of Fortnite, which has seen much success by partnering with huge pop culture brands such as Marvel, Disney, Uncharted, and Dune. Activision Blizzard may well be trying to replicate that by expanding the scale of Warzone’s crossover events.

• Fight to survive in the best battle royale games

Call of Duty’s online battle royale Warzone is coming to mobile phones, publisher Activision has announced.

The game is described as “an all-new, AAA mobile experience that will bring the thrilling, fluid and large-scale action of Call of Duty: Warzone to players on the go.”

Activision says the mobile port of the multiplayer shooter will be a “large-scale, battle royale experience” that is “being built natively for mobile with cutting-edge technology designed to entertain gamers around the world for many years to come.”

The game was revealed alongside a series of job posts, advertising for new hires to work on the port. They include roles in production, engineering, design, and art.

Activation has given no estimated release window, but the number of job openings, the mention of a couple of senior roles, and the absence of any screenshots or gameplay videos suggest the mobile port is a good way from release.

The Warzone mobile port is being developed by several internal studios at Activision Blizzard, including mobile games developer Digital Legends that previously released a mobile adaptation of console shooter Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Beenox, which worked in conjunction with Activision on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, and other mainline titles in the series.

Digital Legend’s Bad Company 2 port was released back in 2010, only a few months after the games’ main console and PC launch. It featured a single-player campaign and two multiplayer gamemodes (deathmatch and squad deathmatch), but differed greatly from the main release. It’s since been removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Analysis: will Warzone kick out Call of Duty: Mobile?

This upcoming Warzone port won’t be the only Call of Duty game on mobile. Activision brought the series’ brand of military shooting to smartphones back in 2019 with Call of Duty: Mobile. That game, which features a mix of multiplayer, battle royale, and zombies game modes, has been a huge success, generating 250 million downloads only eight months after its initial release. With this new port, Activision will be hoping to replicate that success, banking on the Warzone brand and the battle royale craze to reel back players and attract many more besides.

It will also, however, leave Activision in the strange position of simultaneously hosting two official Call of Duty games for mobile. That raises the question of whether the older Call of Duty: Mobile app will be retired and replaced by this upcoming Warzone port. 

We reckon that's unlikely. While Warzone caters solely to battle royale, Call of Duty: Mobile features a broader selection of game modes. There's some overlap between them, but many players will be attracted to features of Mobile that aren't provided in Warzone. Add to that the seasonal updates and substantive content changes that Warzone enjoys throughout the year, and it's likely Mobile's battle royale mode will be gradually reduced or closed wholesale when Warzone hits mobile.

Regardless, it'll face stiff competition from other battle royales. The biggest of them already have mobile ports, including Apex Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG. But the sheer popularity of Warzone on PC and consoles will likely ensure this mobile adaptation succeeds in all the right commercial areas. The question now is how far that success will reach.

A few key questions remain, including how this mobile version of Warzone will differ from the main game, which phones will be able to run it, and how it will integrate with PC and console users. The mobile ports of Apex Legends and PUBG don’t allow for mobile crossplay, so those playing on their smartphones aren’t able to hop into the same matches as their PC or PS5 and Xbox Series X buddies. Fortnite, however, does give the option for Android users.

• Best gaming headsets for Call of Duty

The best crossplay games make it easy to play with all of your friends, regardless of where or on what machine they're playing. They also help with picking up your game on a different platform without having to start over, and they show that playing together doesn’t have to be restricted to your setup.

The term crossplay, or cross-platform-play, describes a feature that lets you play a game with someone who owns a different gaming platform from you. This is great new particularly for people who play games like Battle Royales, games that people used to predominantly play on PC but that are now available on every platform imaginable. No need for console wars – as you can play Fortnite with friends on Xbox Series X even if you have a PS5, for example.

Crossplay isn’t easy for developers to implement, but more and more games come with crossplay, especially large multiplayer games. Not all games on this list may offer crossplay across all platforms (yet), but we have picked games that allow crossplay on at least two platforms.

Best crossplay games

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Arc Raiders is a very potent mix of extraction shooter and social experiment. As you go on Raids, either solo or in a squad, you'll encounter other Raiders and have to decide what to do with them. You could avoid them completely, take them out on sight, or negotiate trades and possibly a Team Up. It's this tension that makes Arc Raiders so damned compelling.

The PvE element is just as good, with intelligent and versatile enemies in the ARC. These will detect you from afar, alert others, and move in for the kill. Even the smallest and weakest of ARC enemies can kill you, so deciding when and how to engage is key to survival. Of course, more powerful enemies drop essential loot, so sooner or later you have to gear up and attempt to take them down. It's a wonderful balancing act of risk and reward, and one that makes Arc Raiders very difficult to put down.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

EA Sports FC 26 once again iterates on a winning formula, though this year's changes definitely feel better than many in recent memory. Our FIFA reviewer Alex Metz said in their EA Sports FC 25 review: “it feels like we’ve reached a point where the overall FC experience is so good that it’s hard to chastise EA for making small improvements to an already excellent foundation." pointing to another solid follow up here.

Generally, EA Sports FC 26 has folded in improvements that directly answer some of the common criticisms leveled at the series by fans. Gameplay is better than ever, with reduced bounce-backs, better dribbling, and improved headers. As always, you can play EA Sports FC 26 crossplay with a wide range of players. Be aware that while the game is also available on Switch 2, there's no crossplay.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Borderlands 4 is something of a course correction after the muted reception around Borderlands 3. It pairs back the meme-heavy humor, and dials up the focus on looting and shooting. This decision has turned out to be exactly what the series needed, and Borderlands 4 is the best the series has ever felt. Gunplay is tight, missions are varied, and characters stand out without overstepping. Through crossplay, you can play with friends on any platform, too.

The biggest divergence in Borderlands 4 is its move to an open world. Outside of dedicated instances like vaults and end-of-chapter fortresses, the map is almost entirely seamless - the planet Kairos’s three major biomes connected in circular fashion. It's seriously impressive, and well worth exploring with your friends.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Street Fighter 6 is now on Switch 2, and it's all crossplay with other consoles and PC. We absolutely love SF6, and still spend countless hours loading in to battle players online. It's possibly the best fighting game released in the last 10 years, and that's really saying something considering just how many great fighting games there have been recently.

There's been a bunch of post-launch updates too, including new fighters to master. If you're more of a solo player, World Tour is surprisingly fun, and has just the right amount of Street Fighter wackiness. One of the things I've enjoyed is being able to fight with friends of all levels. Street Fighter 6 is a very accessible game, meaning even new players can dial in certain settings and level the playing field.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Split Fiction is a fantastic crossplay game that offers a Friend Pass, allowing a friend ton join you on any platform, without a copy of the game. Much like It Takes Two and A Way Out, Hazelight's Split Fiction is designed as a two-player experience from the ground up. It's the studio's best game yet, blending futuristic sci-fi with fantasy epic-stylings as part of a surprisingly emotional story.

Whether you're playing on console or PC, you can play Split Fiction online with pals. It's a brilliant multiplayer game, and one that offers something quite unique in the genre. This is a fully co-op campaign with each player taking control of a character for the duration. It's a real standout, and completely unlike any other game on this list.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC

Diablo 4 takes a bold step forward for the long-running action RPG series. This time, there's an open world to explore, one that unfolds and changes as you slowly chip away at it. The core Diablo loop remains true, however, and you'll be spending most of your time slaying hordes of enemies to earn skill points and upgrade materials. From there, it's all about specializing your character, with a huge amount of variety on offer.

Now, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is out, a huge expansion that we liked a lot. All of this is available in crossplay between all platforms, meaning you can squad up and dungeon dive alongside your pals.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC

Monster Hunter Wilds is another huge step forward for the long-running action series. This time around, players can enjoy a wide open-world to explore, comprised of interconnected hub areas. you can now ride out, spot a monster, hunt them and then set out again without having to stop and manage your way through a sea of menus. In many ways, this makes Monster Hunter Wilds the most approachable entry yet.

One big change in Monster Hunter Wilds is the fact that you can now bring in two weapons, and switch between them quickly. This encourages experimentation in a way that's been previously difficult, and is what finally convinced me to try out some new weapons. The campaign is streamlined and slight, but manages to feature hunt after hunt of banger monster fights.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC

Marvel Rivals has taken over the globe since it launched late last year, proving itself to be much more than just an Overwatch clone. There's 35 heroes to play as, each with their own set of unique abilities and play style. Bec cause of this wide variety of characters, Marvel Rivals is easy to recommend for everyone, whether you want to play as a shooter like The Punisher, or a melee-focused brawler like Iron Fist.

Modes are simple, primarily focusing on push the payload, and domination, but thanks to a selection of vibrant and well-designed maps, there's plenty of fun to be had in Marvel Rivals. As you level up, you'll earn currency that can be spent on skins, sprays and other cosmetics, and each character has its own progression to work through. It's still fairly early days, but Marvel Rivals is looking like a new contender in the multiplayer space, and is a great game to play along with friends.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (PS4 and Xbox One through backwards compatibility)

Black Ops 6 is a real return to form for the long-running shooter series. It's the best it has felt in a while, with a truly balanced suite of weapons ranging from fast-firing SMGs to tactical marksman rifles. The real fun comes courtesy of the new Omnimovement mechanics, which will have you diving around corners, off of rooftops, and down staircases in search of the wildest trickshots.

Multiplayer is crossplay in Black Ops 6, as is Zombies, which means you can squad up with pals regardless of where you're all playing. Zombies is particularly fun, with two maps and main missions to play through. Soon, we'll see Warzone getting some Black Ops 6 integration, so there'll be even more to try out.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, PS4, XSX|S, XBO, PC and Nintendo Switch

Fall Guys has been out for a while now, but it's still one of the best crossplay games you can play with your pals. Inspired by the likes of Total Wipeout and Takeshi's Castle, Fall Guys is a unique battle royale game where players compete for survival, and ultimately, a shiny crown. You'll jump, dive, and vault your way through courses, pushing your opponents around to get ahead. It's a very fun time

While the game is indeed free to play, you can spend real-world money on costumes and other cosmetic items. Fall Guys can be played on a wide range of consoles too, and thanks to crossplay, you'll be able to squad up with your pals regardless of where they're playing.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (PS4 and Xbox One through backwards compatibility)

Call of Duty: Warzone has taken on a life of its own since it became a standalone battle royale game, giving the likes of Fortnite and PUBG a run for their money – one of the best FPS games turned into one of the best battle royale games.

Warzone's shooting is satisfying, its map rewarding to explore, and it offers more than enough interesting concepts like the Gulag and Contracts to make each match feel wholly unique, wherever you land. With the launch of 6, it's set to add changes to movement, speeding up gameplay and introducing Omnimovement.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5, PS4, XSX|S, XBO, PC and Nintendo Switch

No Man's Sky has come a heck of a long way since it launched nearly eight years ago. In that time, Hello Games has added major update after major update, all for free for those that own the game. Now, it's more of a multiplayer affair, with players able to squad up and explore the universe together.

Whether you want to smuggle illegal goods as a space scoundrel, make alien friends, or study the fauna and flora of distant planets, No Man's Sky will likely have something for you. You'll start off fairly limited, but after upgrading your ship's flight and weapon capacities, you can reach more distant planets, and claim more valuable rewards. If you'd rather start with a bit more in your inventory, No Man's Sky's ongoing Expeditions will lead you through short narratives that guide you from place to place, beginning with different ship and item combinations.

Base building, fleet management and a bounty system are all well worth your time, as is simply jumping from planet to planet to see the sights. The game is now free to play as well, making 2024 a great time to jump in and see what the universe has in store for you.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS5 and PC.

Helldivers 2 is one of the newest games on this list, having arrived in early 2024. It's been a global phenomenon since it came out, and after a shaky launch in terms of server struggles and bugs, it's now one of the most popular games going right now. This is mostly down to its hilariously difficult gameplay, the way it engages its community, and the fact that it can be picked up for around $40.

You'll drop down onto a variety of planets filled with either the Terminds (Bugs) or Automatons (Robots). As you fight to complete objectives you'll need to make use of special weapons, sheer luck and brute force to make it to the extraction zone. Make it out alive and you'll earn currency and XP which is used to unlock bigger and better weapons and Stratagems. Helldivers 2 is great with friends, but does feature a Quickplay function that'll throw you in with other players at the drop of a hat.

Give Helldivers 2 a go if you like your games action packed, with your friends in tow, and full to the brim with heaps of personality. While it can be difficult to get into at first, that's sort of the point, and you'll soon find yourself jumping in over and over again to push the war effort forward, and to see your friends go flying as they're hit by wayward grenades and projectiles.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Apex Legends is another contender vying for the battle royale crown. Developed by Respawn Entertainment and set in the Titanfall universe, Apex Legends is a squad-based battle royale shooter where teams of three go up against 57 other players to try to gather loot and be the last person (or squad) standing.

However, unlike Fortnite and PUBG, Apex Legends sees players take on a class, each represented by a unique character (imagine Fortnite mixed with Overwatch 2 and you’ll be on the right track.)

This is the perfect battle royale game for those who enjoy the genre's premise but can't get on board with Call of Duty's slower speed or PUBG's hyper-competitiveness – and it's free-to-play. Plus, different classes, abilities and limited-time events make for a dynamic experience overall.

Apex Legends has crossplay across all platforms, easily earning it a spot among the best crossplay games. Given it's available on pretty much every modern platform, that means you can play with friends (for free) no matter what hardware they own.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5 and PC

Destiny 2 may have released several years ago but Bungie's online-multiplayer shooter is still going strong. This is a shooter that is constantly evolving, thanks to regular (and sometimes quite drastic) updates.

Getting started can be a bit of a pain, but once you get into it (and we strongly advise to play with a group of friends) you'll find yourself hooked – Destiny 2 has a really strong and active community that's a joy to be part of.

Like Apex Legends, Destiny 2 is not only one of the best FPS games, it's one of the best crossplay games right now, allowing players across all platforms to play together that it's available on.

Platforms that support crossplay: PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC

Looking for an online horror to have you and your friends on tenterhooks (and literal hooks)? Then Dead by Daylight may be for you. This asymmetric survival horror has a pretty simple premise: if you're a survivor then you want to repair all the generators and escape the killer, if you're the killer then you want to hunt down all the survivors and sacrifice them all to the Entity by hanging them on hooks.

The variety of killers and survivors on offer, all with different playstyles, makes Dead by Daylight such fun. Additionally you have the option to purchase licensed horror movie characters like Ghostface and Pinhead. The added variety of items, perks, and add-ons ultimately makes Dead by Daylight one of the best horror games out there.

It's also one of the best crossplay games available, with cross-platform play supported on all platforms. Mobile versions of the game on Android and iOS also exist, but these are only compatible for crossplay with each other.

Platforms that support crossplay: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Rocket League, the incomparable physics-based rocket-car soccer game, remains one of the most popular online games – and it's not hard to see why.

Rocket League's basic premise is simple (knock the ball into the goal), making it easy for anyone to pick up, while the ability to crossplay with friends means that youc an team up no matter what platform your friend is playing on.

Matches range from 1-v-1 to 4-v-4, so there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to gathering your friends to play together. Rocket League is definitely better with friends – trying to coordinate your team between goalkeeping, defending and attacking takes coordination but can also devolve into frantic fun. There’s also a league-based system online, so you get a nice sense of progression as your team grows from a fumbling mess into a well-oiled machine.

Platforms that support crossplay: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices

Fortnite has had a meteoric rise since its release in 2017, and it's not hard to see why. The free-to-play battle royale game offers players an energetic and enjoyable online multiplayer experience, throwing in some building mechanics to set it off from its competitors.

Fortnite is in many ways responsible for the popularity of the battle royale genre, even though it didn't invent it. When it comes to platforms covered, Fortnite takes the top spot on this list of best crossplay games – not only does it support cross-platform play on consoles and PC, but on mobile devices too.

Platforms that support crossplay: Xbox One, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility)

Minecraft released quite a few years ago, but the core experience is as magical as ever. The sandbox survival game allows players to build with blocks in a 3D-generated world, providing a perfect creative outlet for those who enjoy building impressive digital creations.

Even if building castles and secret hideouts isn't your strenth, Minecraft offers you plenty of things to do – explore its world, bring back valuable loot and take on monsters that can lurk anywhere.

While Minecraft Bedrock Edition does support crossplay, the Java Edition does not. So if you and your friends want to play together across platforms, you both need the Bedrock Edition.

Best crossplay games: FAQ

Will GTA 6 have crossplay or be cross-platform?

This is going to be a question on everybody's lips throughout 2026 - as long as GTA 6 continues to have a a 2026 release date that is.

Grand Theft Autro 6 itself will be a single player game so we're not expecting the main meat of it to have any form of crossplay. However, for a hint and a guess we could look to GTA Online as it is now for a clue: and that clue is not good news for crossplay fans as there is currently no crossplay between any platform for GTA Online.

Could Rockstar look to break that mould given the seismic impact of GTA 6 and its partner online facet (that we're assuming is coming)? Maybe - it might be simpler now to implement, and also might be rather lucrative to ensure that GTA Online can be enjoyed by even more people together on even more platforms. We'll have to wait and see though...

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will be released as a standalone sequel next year on Xbox Series X, PC, and PS5, despite Microsoft’s planned acquisition of series publisher Activision Blizzard.

That’s according to a recent report from Bloomberg, which claims that at least the next three games in the Call of Duty franchise will be distributed on PlayStation platforms. Those games are expected to be Modern Warfare 2, due to release later this year, another game from Black Ops Cold War developer Treyarch, which is planned for 2023, and Warzone 2.

Following the announcement of Microsoft’s agreed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many suspected that Microsoft would quickly make future Call of Duty titles exclusive to its Xbox consoles. 

Xbox boss Phill Spencer addressed the issue, suggesting that upcoming titles would still release on PlayStation to abide by “existing agreements” made between Activision Blizzard and Sony.

Beyond these next three Call of Duty releases, however, the future of the series is unclear. 

Sony’s contractual agreements with Activision Blizzard will reportedly wrap up by the time the acquisition is finalized by the middle of next year. If Microsoft chooses to deprive Sony of future Call of Duty games, Warzone 2 could be the final game of the series to release on PlayStation.

Analysis: multiplatform for now, but it won’t last

Both Sony and Microsoft made clear last week that the next few Call of Duty games won’t be Xbox exclusives. In its first public response to the acquisition deal, Sony said it “expect[s] that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform,” while Spencer said he didn’t want to “pull communities away” from PlayStation.

That means PlayStation fans can rest easy for now, but the future may not be so bright. Once those contractual agreements have run their course, it would be prudent to expect future Call of Duty titles to move to Xbox, and only Xbox. Microsoft will be keen to deprive Sony of one of gaming’s best-selling franchises, so it can claim all Call of Duty sales revenue for itself and place its platform above Sony’s.

That exclusivity could be rolled out partially over time. Call of Duty games may release on both platforms, with specific content – such as DLC, game modes, and maps – reserved for Xbox, similar to the exclusive content that PlayStation has enjoyed for the past several years. Or, Microsoft may be willing to take the immediate sales hit and make every ounce of Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox all at once, much like it’s doing for Starfield.

As for Warzone 2, there are no details on what the game will look like, but we can be pretty certain of a few features. First of all, it would be more than a little surprising if it wasn’t free to play. Warzone launched in the free-to-play model, which has quickly become the standard for the genre. Even PUBG Battlegrounds recently went free-to-play, and saw tremendous growth in its player base because of it. 

Other than that, the fact that the game is described as a standalone sequel suggests it will bear little content connection to its predecessor, so don’t expect to carry over any of your skins or unlocks to this next game.

• Take a look at the best FPS games

The Call of Duty team has announced that there will be a delay to its upcoming Season 2. The content drop is now slated to land two weeks later.

What was initially set to be an early February 2 launch is now a slightly more romantic affair with a February 14 release. Season 2 will go live across Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Call of Duty: Vanguard.

The news of the delay was shared in a blog post, where the current state of the game and ongoing fixes were cited as reasons for the delay. The post opened with the acknowledgment over recent technical issues, saying: "We feel your frustrations and hear you loud and clear."

The developers continued with their explanation saying: "To date, we’ve deployed a number of updates, but more needs to be done. For this reason, we have decided to reschedule the start of Season Two across Warzone Pacific and Vanguard to February 14.

"We will use this additional development time to deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay, game balancing (including weapon and equipment balancing), to fix game stability and bugs, and to ensure an overall level of polish to improve the experience for players across Vanguard, Warzone Pacific, Black Ops Cold War, and Modern Warfare."

Call of Duty: Vanguard's troubled start

Call of Duty has seen a decent amount of ire pointed at it by players of late, with frequent crashing plaguing the experience. The delay will hopefully be used to bring the polish and finish that the series is generally known for. 

If you are experiencing crashes, especially on the PS5, there are some lengths you can go to mitigate the risk, including lowering the game's frame rate cap from 120 to 60 as well as disabling on-demand texture streaming.  

The Call of Duty team also acknowledged that they've not been communicating enough in the blog post too, and added that it intends to open up more frequent communication on issues.

"Going forward, you can expect to hear from us more often regarding Call of Duty’s state of play. Studios remain focused on continuously improving your game experience, and we greatly value our community feedback. More frequent and detailed communication updates will be posted here and across Call of Duty social channels."

Hopefully, this delay allows Season 2 to launch in a better state than Season 1 is finishing. This commitment to better communication should also go a long way, as even when issues arise, a more timely heads-up about the developers' plans will go a long way.

The Vanguard era of Call of Duty hasn't had the easiest start to life. However, a polished and well-received launch of Season 2 will go a long way to getting the game on the right track. Here's hoping. 

• Want to jump into Call of Duty: Warzone youtself? Here's how you can join the action.

Why does Call of Duty: Warzone keep crashing on PS5? Players have begun reporting that their PS5 experiences with the free-to-play shooter are being marred by crashing issues that are preventing them from having smooth online experiences. Here’s what you need to know to try and get back into the action. 

The PS5 version of Call of Duty: Warzone seems to be a particular problem currently, with more and more reported crashes coming in from frustrated players. It’s not entirely clear what the cause of this is, but it is something that Raven Software is aware of. Thankfully, it seems like help is on the way too. 

In recent tweets, Raven has said that a mid-season patch is imminent. The developer states that this should alleviate issues like crashing, and other problems encountered by players not just on PS5, but on Xbox consoles too. 

Raven Software posted on Twitter: "We'd like to provide an update regarding #Warzone performance on console platforms. With the mid-season patch tomorrow, we will be shipping initial fixes in order to help alleviate a number of different issues encountered on both Xbox and PlayStation."

This patch should help alleviate some of the issues plaguing players, and get the game running smoother. Here’s hoping that will indeed be the case, as crashing out of a game you were doing well in is exceptionally annoying, to say the least.  

What can you do to stop Call of Duty: Warzone from crashing? 

You don't have to wait for the upcoming patch and hope it fixes the issues you may be encountering, though. Raven Software has offered some advice on how to get the game running in a more stable state on PS5. 

Help comes on the developer’s official Trello, where it outlines what is being worked on currently. A card titled “[PlayStation] PlayStation Performance: We are investigating various performance-related issues on the PlayStation platform” comes with a couple of tips.

It seems higher framerates could be one of the key culprits of the issue. In order to fix this, you will have to disable 120Hz mode in the menus. This will knock the game down from 120 frames per second down to 60. It might be an annoying concession for many, but if the alternative is the game crashing, this seems to be the best fix. 

Elsewhere, disabling on-demand texture streaming will also supposedly help with crashing errors. This option allows Call of Duty: Warzone to download high-quality textures on the fly, making the game look better. However, it seems like some issues have been tied to this. 

Again, there is a patch expected soon, so here’s hoping that it tackles the lion’s share of the issues. Then players can hopefully get back to taking over servers, or… dying without any kills off the drop. But who’s counting? 

• An infamous Call of Duty invisibility glitch has reared its head again.

Call of Duty: Warzone players have discovered that a glitch that renders you mostly invisible is still plaguing the game, less than a week after Raven Software issued a patch to fix it.

Footage of the glitch in action was shared on Reddit (via VGC). While the player's head was visible and they could take damage and be killed, most of their body was invisible. It's also not entirely clear which skin they were wearing at the time.

Originally, this glitch seemed to only affect the "Awoken" Francis skin, which Raven Software says was fixed in a patch that came out on January 5.

Raven is aware that the glitch has persisted and has acknowledged it on its Trello page. It doesn't mention which skins are affected, only saying "Players are reporting that certain skins are appearing as invisible when encountered in-game."

Lack of support

Raven Software is no doubt struggling to keep on top of any technical issues with Call of Duty: Warzone, as its entire QA department, alongside other Activision Blizzard employees, are currently on strike to protest against the studio's decision to lay off members of the team (via Kotaku).

Employees were told that their dismissal was not a result of underperformance or for committing any sackable offences, and despite Call of Duty: Warzone continuing to turn a handsome profit.

The QA team is now on its fifth week of strikes. In a statement to Gamesindustry.biz on January 6, Activision said that "Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company's overall investment in development resources." However, the striking workers say that no such thing had happened.

Fortnite has received some major content with Chapter 3 - after a pretty spectacular chapter 2 finale -  that brings a whole new map to the popular battle royale game. This includes fan-favorite locations that have been brought back from chapter 1, alongside new locations, plus new gameplay mechanics and secrets.

Jump into Fortnite right now and you’ll find the Daily Bugle office building from Spider-Man and a bunch of spider webs spread out across the island. Plus there’s another new area called the Sanctuary that acts as the base for the Seven - the weird and secret organization behind the bigger Fortnite narrative. Oh, and also there’s a huge statue of Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson right near the base.

Along with the new locations are some welcome gameplay changes. You can now slide across Fortnite by holding the crouch button on your respective gaming platform, and doing this downhill will increase your speed. Spider-Man’s presence has also ushered in new gameplay features, and from December 11, players will be able to swing from high places with Spider-Man’s web-shooters.

The ability to set up camps in Chapter 3 has been added to the game - this is where you and your squad can heal, store items and plan your next attack. A new heap of weapons have been added to the game, including shotguns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. Thunderstorms, lightning, and tornadoes have also made their way onto Fortnite - but beware of getting too close to tornados as they’ll suck you in and spit you back out.

To get the full rundown on everything that’s been added to Fortnite, check out Epic Games' full ‘What’s new’ post.

Opinion: Battle Royales can get stale quick, so a constant flow of new content is needed 

It's great to see a constant flow of new content get added to Battle Royales like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Whether it’s new maps, new guns, stories or new gameplay mechanics, there’s always something there to keep the game interesting.

However, this isn’t quite the same case for Call of Duty: Warzone, which is now only just getting a whole new map on December 9 after more than a year since its release.

Verdansk has been Warzone’s main map for over a year now - it’s seen some changes but they weren’t substantial. A much smaller map called Rebirth Island was added to bring some new life to the game, but that was released in December 2020 - so it’s pretty safe to say that has gotten stale too. And the staleness of the game is shown in its player count. According to playercounter.com estimations, Warzone consistently has dramatically lower player counts compared to Fortnite and Apex Legends.

But it’s looking like the new Warzone map called ‘Caldera’ will bring some much-needed content and changes to the Call of Duty Battle Royale.

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I’m not very good at Call of Duty games. Put me in the campaign mode and I’ll shoot the AI soldier drones like fish in a barrel – I’ll watch the flashy set-pieces, giggle at the preposterous stakes and question the overall morality of it all (War? Huh? Yeah, what is it good for?). But then I’ll pass onto something else.

I’m just not cut out for Call of Duty multiplayer. Which is a shame as, for pretty much everyone else, Call of Duty multiplayer is Call of Duty. But getting your arse handed to you time and time again just isn’t that fun.

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Which left me hopeful at new efforts coming out of the Call of Duty publisher Activision / Blizzard. It’s introducing Ricochet, a "multi-faceted" software mechanism designed to combat cheating, including "new server-side tools which monitor analytics to identify cheating, enhanced investigation processes to stamp out cheaters, updates to strengthen account security, and more."

It made me feel a bit like Principal Skinner from The Simpsons, if justified in his “No, it is the children who are wrong” monologue. Perhaps I could be good at Call of Duty, if these damn kids stopped cheating! Perhaps it’s not my ageing, slowing motor skills, but a load of jumped-up ne’er do-wells artificially inflating their frag counts with aimbots and add-ons! Perhaps, finally, the playing field will be levelled for the casual player like me.

How Ricochet works

The key component of Ricochet is a kernel-level driver for PC, meaning that it gets high privileges to monitor what happens on your computer. It’ll sit in the background while you play a Call of Duty game on computers, and keep an eye out for dodgy applications that attempt to interact and manipulate Call of Duty" to give players an unfair advantage. With crossplay now supported in Call of Duty titles, it’s something that will benefit console players too.

There will be no getting around the feature either. “Once the kernel-level driver is deployed; it will be required to play Warzone,” reads the announcement post. Machine learning will also play a part in Ricochet – over time the system will be able to spot new emerging patterns that identify cheating behaviors, and stamp it out.

In addition, Ricochet will encourage players to enable two-factor authentication security on their accounts, as hacked accounts tend to be those where cheaters run rampant, without fear of facing a ban on their own legitimate logins. Activision Blizzard is also encouraging players to continue to report cheaters, further bolstering its efforts to crack down on bad-faith players.

Privacy concerns

With such high-level access to your computer, you may rightfully be wary of Activision Blizzard being able to monitor other elements of your computer activities. The developers believe kernel-level access has become important, though, as cheats use ever advancing techniques to bend the rules of the game.

“Cheating software has become more sophisticated, allowing cheaters to circumvent traditional approaches to security,” reads Activision Blizzard’s FAQ. 

“A kernel-level driver allows for the monitoring of applications that may attempt to manipulate Call of Duty: Warzone game code, while it is running.

“User-mode applications have limitations on access and monitoring, making it more likely for unauthorized software to manipulate game code or to circumvent security features.”

Those looking for reassurance though will find comfort in the fact that the monitoring tool is only active while the associated Call of Duty games are running. They’ll power down when the game is closed, and monitoring will cease. It’s not “always-on”, and the data collected is only in relation to the Call of Duty experience. But it’s a like-it-or-lump it launch – there’s no separating Ricochet from Call of Duty, going forwards.

Still, if it gives me a fighting chance, it’ll be worth it. I may never return to my FPS multiplayer glory days of Facility on Goldeneye, but perhaps I won’t be laboring over the respawn screen every five seconds, either.

Ricochet Anti-Cheat will be coming to both Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone when it launches later this year alongside the Pacific update for Warzone. The PC kernel-level driver will hit Warzone first before rolling out to Call of Duty: Vanguard “at a later date.”

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When Warzone launched in early 2020, few could have predicted just how successful it would be. Call of Duty’s second attempt at the Battle Royale genre after the mildly popular Blackout mode, Warzone’s eventual domination of not only the Battle Royale genre but shooters, in general, wasn’t guaranteed. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the sudden abundance of time on people's hands, and the developer’s constant trickle of new content, Warzone actually released at the perfect time. 

In the 18 months since, the iconic Verdansk map has undergone many changes, from an invasion of the living dead, to an 80s throwback, to even the inclusion of Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard. However, it hasn’t been without its issues. Hacking is rampant and it feels like every few days there’s a new bug that completely destroys the balance of the game. In July 2021, players even found themselves able to begin games with a full, end-game loadout. Some players are getting sick of it, and they’re looking for an alternative. 

As sentiment in the Warzone community reaches an all-time low, Battlefield 2042, EA Dice’s futuristic, multiplayer-only revival of the Battlefield series finds itself with an opportunity. But what does 2042 need to do to secure long-term multiplayer success? How can it convert players that might pick up the game for a break from Warzone into loyal fans? Well, in order to do that, it has to learn from Warzone itself. 

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The best map in shooter history

While those who’ve played Warzone every day for 18 months may be tired of it, at launch, Verdansk was simply the most diverse, expansive and engaging map in the history of the genre. This was achieved by essentially stitching 10 regular Call of Duty multiplayer maps together, but in doing so it ensures that no matter where the final circle ends, there’s always a dynamic battle to be had, not a random shootout in the middle of a field. 

While Battlefield 2042’s maps have already been shown off to be sprawling behemoths bigger than even the sizable maps in Battlefield 1, 2042 must ensure that they’re not simply big for the sake of being big, but engaging. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you need to commute through a boring part of the map to get to the action. 

One more match

The key to the success of any multiplayer shooter is engendering the player into the loop of “One More Match”. We’ve all done it. Those late nights where you feel like you’re on the precipice of a win, then you look over at your phone and realize it’s 2am. 

Warzone succeeded in this by having the time to load into a subsequent match be so short, that before you even think about getting off for the night, you’re dropping back in. Battlefield 2042 emulating that addictive quality will go a long way in building a player base. Sure, you may have just lost a match, but if you’re straight back into the next one, on a whole new map, you’re far more likely to keep playing than if there’s a protracted period of down-time between games. 

Hack to the Future

The hacking situation in Warzone seems to get worse by the week. While Activision has banned plenty of players, and works to disable the mountain of different hacks that are easily added to the game, it’s still not enough. Playing Warzone on PC is like being in a slasher film where all you can do is run away from the player who’s downing you in two shots with a pistol, while you’re in a different zip code. A lot of this stems from the fact that although Activision can ban accounts, Warzone being free to play means the barrier for a bad actor to get into a game and ruin it for everyone else is slim. 

With Battlefield 2042 being a full-priced retail game, hopefully, that will dissuade players from risking their accounts but, even still, although the game isn’t out yet, some of the biggest Warzone cheat developers are saying they’ll be able to use their tools in 2042. If Dice doesn’t make it a priority to make the game an even playing field, then Battlefield 2042 on PC could quickly become a ghost town. 

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be 

One of the biggest issues in Warzone, the constant battle for weapon balance, is an issue of Activision’s own making. After committing to integrate multiple generations of Call of Duty weapons all under the Warzone umbrella, this left the developer with hundreds of weapons to balance. Combine this with the regular release of new guns every season and new blueprints to the shop, balancing Warzone has become like trying to balance a fighting game with 2000 characters. 

Each season, a community-wide effort is launched to find the most “OP” or “meta” guns, and after the consensus is reached, the whole community attaches itself to that loadout, only to change it when the next patch comes out. This becomes extremely boring. What’s the point of having so many weapons in your game if only less than five of them are viable? Why would a player willingly choose a weapon they know isn’t “broken” this season?

To counter these issues, Dice needs to do two things with Battlefield 2042. Firstly, it needs to make sure that balance patches are issued at a much faster rate than the absolutely glacial Warzone patches. And it needs to make its pool of weapons much more viable in high-level play. It would make the game far more interesting to have no idea what creative new combination of attachments and scopes your enemy has, rather than the current Warzone situation of knowing exactly what gun they’re using, because you’re using it too. 

Publisher Activision Blizzard, responsible for Call of Duty Warzone, is currently embroiled in ongoing litigation in regards to claims reporting a workplace culture that allegedly enabled acts of sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination. Read our Activision Blizzard lawsuit timeline of events for ongoing coverage of the events. 

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Call of Duty: Warzone is set to receive a new map, developer Raven Software has revealed.

The map was teased during Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer reveal stream and will take players to the Pacific. Like the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard, it’ll be inspired by World War II.

The official Call of Duty Twitter account shared a brief glimpse of the new Pacific Warzone map, and it certainly looks like a drastic departure from Verdansk, the game’s current map.

Creative director Amos Hedge said: “We are going to the Pacific, featuring an entirely new play space, complete with all-new points of interest. Players will get to traverse the lush landscapes of the island and make their way through a variety of extremely cool locations while battling it out alongside friends and foes.

“Our goal was to create a fresh, new experience for Call of Duty players by breaking out of the war-torn world of Verdansk to create an atmosphere that is vibrant, alive, and really opens the doors to how we can craft the narratives and events.”

The new Warzone map will use the same tech and engine as Call of Duty: Vanguard (thanks, VGC), which means the massively popular free-to-play multiplayer mode will look and feel a bit different from what players are used to. 

“Our teams have worked hard on this, and much more, will continue to do so,” Hodge said. “We know how much it means to everyone. We will be continuing to offer a massive calendar of free post-launch content featuring new modes, playlists, limited-time events and seasonal events, as well as community celebrations and much more.”

Get in the zone

Publisher Activision has also confirmed that the new Warzone map won’t affect any player progression or loadouts.

“Warzone will continue to support weapons and content earned with a Battle Pass or purchased via Store Bundle from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War," Activision said. "This is all built on the same tech and engine as Call of Duty: Vanguard for seamless weapon integration and play balance, and it all arrives with fully optimized crossplay, cross-progression, and cross-gen support."

The Pacific map is set to be slightly larger than Verdansk, Warzone’s current map, and will include new vehicles to help players traverse the landscape more efficiently. The Warzone Pacific map is set to launch shortly after Call of Duty: Vanguard’s release, which is scheduled to be on November 5.

The release of the Pacific Warzone map will also coincide with a new anti-cheat system, something which will be welcomed by most players. The new system is currently being tested, and will hopefully help protect legitimate players from those who rely on hacks, cheats and glitches to win.

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It’s official: the next Call of Duty game is called Vanguard, and will see players whisked back to the battlegrounds of World War II. 

While we were all-but certain of both those facts in the run-up to the game’s official reveal, a teaser trailer shared to Call of Duty’s official social channels confirmed a little more of what to expect when Vanguard releases – and I, for one, am excited. 

But that excitement doesn’t come from what Vanguard might introduce into the storied franchise by way of new features. Instead, I’m keen to see just how much the game harks back to the gritty realism of fan-favorite entry Call of Duty: World at War, released by developer Treyarch some 13 years ago. 

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It’s worth noting that I am no huge Call of Duty fan. I’m much more of a story-driven gamer, with less of an interest in massive multiplayer modes like Warzone and more time for immersive narrative experiences à la Red Dead Redemption or The Last of Us.

And that’s why Call of Duty: World at War sticks in the mind. For all of Activision’s success in milking the first-person multiplayer machine over the last decade, 2008’s entry delivered what is still, for my money, the best Call of Duty campaign of them all, and the most accomplished realisation of WWII and its horrors ever seen in a video game. 

Vanguard, then, would do well to lean on the successes of its forefather – in terms of authenticity, especially, but also in the way it conveys that authenticity into the game’s inevitably more popular multiplayer components.

It’s likely we’ll hear more about Vanguard’s premise during the game’s more substantial release on August 19, but for now, here’s why Sledgehammer should take inspiration from World at War with its next shoot-em-up.

Pacific promises

There is, of course, an elephant in the room. Since World at War, there’s already been a newer Call of Duty game set during World War II – the imaginatively-named Call of Duty: WW2.

Also developed by Sledgehammer games, WW2 was, in fairness, an authentic and visceral experience that placed story at the forefront of its single-player campaign. But its decision to focus entirely on the European theater of war, taking players through wintery forests and bombed-out cities, meant WW2 never boasted the scope of World at War, nor its sense of variety. 

Some of the best campaign missions in Call of Duty history took place in World at War’s chaotic Pacific battlegrounds. Little Resistance, Burn 'em Out and Breaking Point saw players traverse the beaches and palm trees of Peleliu and Okinawa with frightening realism. Kiefer Sutherland’s Sergeant Roebuck barked orders as Japanese soldiers descended from above and behind, while an unconventional soundtrack scored the mayhem to provide an altogether different experience to the game’s equally-good European missions.

How many times are we going to play through an increasingly-pretty version of the D-Day landings? As mentioned, Call of Duty: WW2 delivered a competent campaign awash with camaraderie and typically-bombastic Hollywood set-pieces, but it all felt a little, well, samey.

That sense of monotony seeped into the game’s multiplayer, too. WW2’s maps were either plucked straight from its Europe-based campaign or were re-hashed versions of modern sandboxes (an ever-so-slightly-changed version of Gibraltar, for instance, seems to appear in every Call of Duty game), which resulted in a complete absence of the open beaches and makeshift tunnel systems that World at War’s multiplayer, in comparison, so expertly adapted from its single-player.

Thankfully, judging by Vanguard’s first teaser trailer, proceedings are once again set to switch between hemispheres in the upcoming game, with some all-new desert combat also thrown in for good measure.

With any luck, Sledgehammer will also opt for World at War’s split-narrative approach to the game’s campaign, rather than having us fill the boots of a single soldier unrealistically globe-trotting their way through the Second World War's very different conflicts. 

If they could bring Kiefer Sutherland back, too, that’d be great.

True grit

Another feather in World at War’s cap – and a surprising one, given its lack of graphical fidelity – was its reluctance to shy away from the horrors of war.

Again, Call of Duty: WW2 wasn’t exactly lacking in the violence department, but it never quite captured the sense of terror experienced by soldiers on the ground in the same way as its 2008 counterpart.

Of course, the question of whether that level of realism belongs in a video game is altogether larger, but World at War’s campaign is remembered for its shock value and commitment to faithfully portraying the bullet-laden chaos. 

Who could forget that Stalingrad mission, for instance? Or storming the Reichstag with an expletive-toting Gary Oldman (Viktor Reznov) at your side?

Call of Duty: Vanguard, especially, can utilize the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X to create a truly visceral battlefield experience – and judging by the rumors we’ve heard so far surrounding the game's graphics, it looks primed to deliver just that.

A forgotten hero

To be completely honest, I’m just bummed out that World at War didn’t get the next-gen (or old-gen, now) remaster it deserved, especially after the special treatment received by the entries either side of it (both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 have been remastered in recent years).

Whether that’s because Activision considers World at War a black sheep of the franchise or because it doubts the game’s enduring commercial appeal, we’ll never know, but the studio now has a chance to make Call of Duty: Vanguard a worthy successor to one of the best first-person-shooters of the noughties. 

Just no jetpacks, please...

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Whenever I see the GeForce RTX 3060 discussed online, it isn't uncommon to see folk dissuaded from upgrading to it from their current GPU, often from an older (but still capable) GTX series. The most common reasons for this are that without features like DLSS and Nvidia Reflex, the RTX 3060 is fairly on par with the GTX 1070 Ti, which leads people to believe that this wouldn't be an 'upgrade' at all.

Discrediting DLSS is a grievous mistake however, and by overlooking it in favor of beefier GPUs you might actually be overspending, especially if first-person-shooters are your bread and butter.

Call of Duty: Warzone is one of many popular battle royale games to support the feature, and my benchmark of choice given how pleasant it can look at a higher resolution to test just how much a difference DLSS and other features like Nvidia Reflex can make on Team Green's latest entry-level GPU.

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Fun with new and old hardware

According to the Steam Hardware survey, the most popular GPU for gamers is still the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, holding almost 10% of the entire market share. This isn't surprising given how hard newer, more powerful GPUs have been to find over the last year, but we're slowly getting to the stage where new games are increasing their recommended specifications beyond the most common hardware on the market.

That means a lot of people will still be looking to upgrade to a recent GPU model in the coming months, but you don't need to overspend if the majority of titles you play support DLSS 2.0, even if you're aiming for 4K quality.

Owning a 4K monitor is still a luxury for most, but surpassing 4K (or even 8K when testing the RTX 3090) is a fairly good measure of how much abuse you can throw at a GPU. When I was using the RTX 3060 with my 27-inch Acer Predator XB271HK 4K monitor I found very few issues when the AI-upscaling tool was enabled, and it actually achieved higher framerates than the 60Hz display could actually output.

Something to bear in mind with FPS vs refresh rate is that even if your monitor or TV can't actually display more than X amount of frames per second (120FPS on a 60Hz monitor will only display 60FPS), any additional frames will still reduce input latency, but at the risk of a higher chance of screen tearing. The risk vs reward is a personal preference, but you won't visually see those additional frames.

I was lucky enough to use something a little more substantial in order to actually see the difference in framerate though, using an Asus ROG Strix XG43UQ. This behemoth 43-inch gaming monitor has an output of 4K at 144Hz and is capable of HDMI 2.1 connectivity – a significant step up from my own 60Hz display, but I'm by no means suggesting you need something quite so luxurious to enjoy the game yourself. Testing the DLSS capabilities at 4K is more for illustrative purposes than a necessity.

In fact, I purposely installed the RTX 3060 GPU into an older rig to prove you can get some fairly impressive results without splashing the cash to upgrade your entire system. The PC was rocking an Intel Core i7-5820K CPU that had been installed back in 2015, as well as 12GB of temperamental RAM in need of replacement. When the PC had been purchased six years ago it was capable of playing almost everything you threw at it, but as games got bigger and more demanding it's certainly seen better days.

Watching the numbers

After I re-downloaded Warzone onto the system, I jumped into a few matches after playing around with the settings. All tests had the resolution set to 3840 x 2160, and prior to removing the GTX 1070 Ti that was already in the PC I was getting an average of 51 FPS. This isn't too dissimilar to what I saw when I got the RTX 3060 all hooked up, which achieved an average of 52 FPS with DLSS, raytracing and Nvidia Reflex disabled, though this tanked to around 30 FPS during heavy gunfire and some cutscenes.

Given this is a raytracing capable GPU, I tried a match with the lighting feature enabled and while I certainly wouldn't recommend using anything that tanks your framerate in competitive titles unless you have the frames to spare, the results did fascinate me. I was expecting a jittery, unplayable mess, but the result was a fairly consistent 48 FPS average, with some admittedly terrible dips during cutscenes to 21 FPS. While that put me at a disadvantage, it ran a great deal more smoothly than I was anticipating.

And then I enabled DLSS. You'd think i'd get sick of seeing the framerate fly but it really is incredible to see how much of a difference the AI-upscaling feature can make, especially on a display that wasn't limited to 60Hz. Without raytracing I was getting a buttery smooth 96 FPS, though the highest consistent number I recorded during that game was 107 FPS.

But then with raytracing I was still getting between 98-89FPS, averaging around 92FPS when just running around the map. I was so suspicious of the framerate that I had to check the settings after the first match to make sure I had actually enabled everything correctly, despite seeing the funky lighting effects during gameplay.

Naturally, none of this made me any better at the game but I never excelled at battle royales anyway. For someone who plays Warzone or similar titles daily, the smoother framerate and lower latency achieved by enabling Nvidia features like Reflex and DLSS would certainly give you an advantage over opponents.

And for folk like myself who will suck at the game regardless, it just made the experience of playing so much more enjoyable. The gloriously high resolution paired with RTX and higher than expected framerates made me feel like I had just put on my first pair of correctional glasses for the first time, seeing everything in a quality that my brain hadn't previously comprehended possible.

Worth saving your cash?

There will be some among you that won't find these results impressive, but given this is the latest entry-level GPU from Nvidia I'm excited about the prospect of accessibility. Introducing DLSS to more titles will open doors for folk with lower-powered machines to play more demanding titles at an enjoyable, even competitive quality that was previously only achieved if you had some cash to drop on powerful hardware.

Not everyone can afford the best graphics cards on the market, and results like these have rekindled an excitement that had been previously burnt out from months of watching the state of the GPU market. With Cryptominers buying up available hardware for mining currencies like Ethereum and scalpers taking advantage of stock shortage, PC gaming was almost impossible to access for anyone who didn't have existing hardware.

Things are, thankfully, starting to improve, and it seems that with China imposing greater restrictions on cryptomining we might start to see some affordable graphics cards appearing on the shelves again. With that in mind, you can invest in something that sits more comfortably into a lower budget without worrying that it won't have the juice to play your favorite titles, provided they support DLSS.

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