I'm not really a Call of Duty player for the most part. Sure, I've played the hits like anyone who enjoys a good shooter, and have fond memories of the first, second, and third, plus the Modern Warfare games and the original Black Ops, but besides those, modern CoD has mostly alienated me. Or at least it did until 2022 when I found myself putting hundreds of hours into a new Warzone mode: DMZ.

To this day, I genuinely think DMZ is one of the most underrated extraction shooters around, plus one of the best things modern Call of Duty has ever produced. It's not necessarily for the hardcore crowd, but for those who prefer more PvE-centric play. Back before DMZ, I felt alienated by the genre. I personally love extraction shooters like Hunt: Showdown—it's a fantastic concept, but for me its world and setting (which I wanted to explore) were hampered by the fact I'd get sniped whenever I attempted to do that.

I love PvP, but more as an interlude, as a tasty little morsel of encounter that occurs between exploration and PvE. And this is one of the reasons DMZ was so good. The giant city-wide map of Al Mazrah, flush with locked buildings to explore, loot rooms to raid, vehicles, events, and even boss-type enemies felt so liberating. Sometimes you'd encounter other players, sometimes you wouldn't, but when you did, its team-based mechanics made these encounters all the better.

Not just proximity chat, but the ability to gamble on betraying your team to join another, or even recruit other teams you'd just wiped, giving you a better chance at clearing harder areas. And to clarify, I'm not talking about an unofficial alliance Marathon-style, you could literally join other teams to tackle harder content. Stuff like the Koschei Complex—an entire indoor mode with loot vaults and bosses you could only matchmake for in Al Mazrah itself.

Building 21 was a fantastic concept, too, channeling many of the same ideas as Marathon's Cryo Archive years before. To enter this hardcore mode, you required a special keycard loot item you could only find in Al Mazrah, which would give you a single run when the mode was periodically active. This was a great way to incentivise players to bring their best gear, especially as the building was filled with puzzles, dangerous enemies, valuable loot, and bosses like the grenade launcher-wielding Velikan.

Defeating him was the only way to get this extremely powerful gun in DMZ and my proudest moment in the mode might be when I managed to kill him and snatch it. All of this is to say, DMZ was filled with really smart ideas, and for me, it was my Arc Raiders before Arc Raiders.

Sure, it wasn't perfect, and sometimes a match would devolve into teams of six riding around ganking everyone in sight. DMZ has also progressively gotten more sweaty since its release (as shooters generally do), but especially after Activision stopped supporting the mode in 2023. That's why I'm excited for a fresh start. As you've probably seen, DMZ 2.0 is set to arrive with Modern Warfare 4, and not as a beta like the previous iteration, but a fully-fledged mode.

You can watch the reveal trailer above, plus a developer deep dive on the COD Podcast where they discuss DMZ 2.0's development, but it sounds pretty great. There's a new stealth system, dynamic weather, the option to bring vehicles into the mode, but the biggest green flag for me is that they're talking about accessibility and accommodating all the different player experiences they observed in the original DMZ.

There are also new deployment options that allow you to matchmake with people who want to do similar stuff, avoiding that classic DMZ experience of one player running off in a completely different direction. The story missions also sound much cooler. No more picking up three bandages and exfiling—one of the missions they describe involves robbing a casino vault.

Perhaps my favorite addition is the "star system", an almost GTA-style escalation as you're discovered and continue to loudly kill enemies. The higher your stars, the more enemies will be drawn to you, including "deathstalkers" and "hunt squads" neither of which sound particularly friendly. In general, though, it sounds like DMZ 2.0 will be much more reactive towards your team's playstyle.

When I first watched the trailer, I was a little nervous that Infinity Ward was pushing the experience purely towards PvP, but from what I've read and what's been said by the developer, it genuinely seems like it's building on what makes the original DMZ such a fantastic extraction shooter. Essentially upgrading every part of the experience as it becomes a fully-fledged mode versus its beta predecessor.

Either way, if you're an Arc Raiders player who loves its PvE-focused elements, but maybe want to try your hand at a little more PvP, I think DMZ 2.0 is set to be pretty special. Especially if it manages to retain DNA of the original when it releases in October.

Season 4 of Black Ops 7 brings the FPS equivalent of an easy chair into the game: a gun that essentially aims for you.

The update bolsters Black Ops 7's arsenal with several new weapons, including the rapid-fire VX Compact Assault Rifle, and the battle pass exclusive CBRS-3 SMG and KRS-7.62 Marksman Rifle. But it's Grimhawk that stands out. Available as a weekly challenge reward, this fully automatic rifle fires low-velocity rounds that home in on targets firing at you. Activision stresses that these are "light" homing rounds, so they won't do all the work for you. Nonetheless, supercharged aim assist is a pretty big advantage in a multiplayer FPS.

Alongside this, Season 4 adds a new mode called 'Black Ops Classic' which removes the Omnimovement system first added in Black Ops 6 while also featuring "streamlined" loadouts and a "throwback" map roster. That means no wall jumping, no sliding, no acrobatics of any kind.

Basically, it's Black Ops for FPS pensioners—old fashioned, sensible deathmatch with no larking about. You don't even have to aim properly if you've got the Grimhawk equipped.

On the subject of scorestreaks, season 4 adds a new one called "Iron Rain", basically a big drone that lets you track enemies on the ground and then pummel them with aerial artillery. It also adds a new 6v6 map called Primetime, brings back another Black Ops 2 map called Vertigo, and sees the return of the Gunfight game mode in 6v6 form.

Black Ops 7, Season 4 is available to play now. Personally though, my eyes have turned to the next entry in Call of Duty. Microsoft has formally raised the curtain on Modern Warfare 4, which heralds the return of Infinity Ward and has been cooking for four years—a long time in Call of Duty terms. Morgan Park got hands on with it last month, and while he wasn't sold on its map roster, he thought the gunplay was sublime. "In terms of raw FPS craft, this is immediately head and shoulders above the previous pair of Black Ops—games that look and sound fine. It really does matter who makes Call of Duty."

"We actually made a proper DMZ this time," said Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer creative director Geoff Smith to a room of press in May.

Last month I visited Infinity Ward to play Modern Warfare 4, the first Call of Duty in four years made by the studio that started it all. I had a fun time with what could be the best Call of Duty multiplayer this decade, but what I really wanted to try was DMZ, the new extraction mode that Infinity Ward talked up a lot throughout the day.

This is the studio's second try at extraction. The first DMZ, a mode within Modern Warfare 2 (2022), was an accessible but shallow take on the Escape From Tarkov-style extraction loop. It received updates throughout 2023 before getting placed on a shelf with innumerable other Call of Duty experiments. Now DMZ is back, and Infinity Ward ain't calling this one a beta.

DMZ quick facts:

• The map: Haijin, a war-torn nuclear exclusion zone on the border of North and South Korea with several towns and settlements
• You play as an off-the-books CIA asset, self-funded and tasked with finding valuable military technology
• Persistent gear: Loot extracted from Haijin can be sold or used for upgrades and crafting
• FOB: A hub that players upgrade over time with work stations and benches
• Story missions: DMZ will have story missions that take place during live matches
• Dynamic operations & Free roam: The other two ways to play DMZ. These sounded like repeatable missions with randomized steps that you can either commit to before a match or pick up during free roam.
• Loadouts: Gunsmith designs can be carried over from Multiplayer, but attachments have be purchased

"We've learned a lot about what resonates with players and what we were lacking in our beta. All of that knowledge and those action items became this foundation for us as we're shaping this new vision of DMZ from the ground up," Smith said.

"DMZ offers a rich standbox with escalating AI threats, dangerous bosses, environmental puzzles, raid-like operations, and narrative-driven story missions. It's really more than just a third mode. It's a full-featured game inside Modern Warfare."

To that end, DMZ has its own progression systems and inventories that don't touch 6v6 multiplayer. Operators that function purely as skins within 6v6 have distinct inventories in DMZ. Your Gunsmith setups do carry over, but you have to buy the necessary attachments to actually build them.

Another interesting tidbit from the presentation: DMZ will have a bounty system that takes your reputation into account. Killing a lot of players over time will eventually place a bounty on your head that other players within your match can take on. Global leaderboards will memorialize the top 50 killers and top 50 bounty hunters each week.

It sounds pretty substantial for what will likely be the third option on Modern Warfare 4's main menu. I didn't get to play DMZ, sadly, so jury's out on if it can find a place within my diet of Arc Raiders and Marathon.

DMZ will launch as part of Modern Warfare 4 on October 23. It will not be free-to-play.

Infinity Ward has once again promised that it will keep its skins and cosmetics thematic and grounded in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, a commitment that it has repeatedly asserted as part of the rollout for this anticipated return of Infinity Ward CoD.

The promise came as part of an exchange on X, The Everything App. User Hellz Broadcast Network shared an AI-generated image contrasting the speculative buttoned up, tacticool operator types of Modern Warfare 4's first season with the rainbow-colored, Nerf-armored counterparts players feel are all but inevitable from season 2 onward. The post garnered 23 thousand likes, prompting a response from the official Call of Duty account.

"We got the feedback. No BS," the official Call of Duty account replied. "This is all about staying true to Modern Warfare. No clowny skins for launch and seasons beyond." This echoes a similar statement from the official Call of Duty account just a few days ago.

The only problem? Activision said the same thing about last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 before introducing premium Fallout TV show skins. The Fortnitification of everything has been getting to us for a long time: Features producer Mollie Taylor wrote about it last August, but news writer Morgan Park has been banging this drum since 2023.

It's become a popular gripe among CoD's most vocal fans, and one has to wonder if that's been accompanied by declining skin sales. Odds are strong that there are well-meaning developers pushing for anti-wack skin promises before a sales or marketing department immediately makes them look like chumps, but the fact remains: Trust is low, and we'll believe it when we see it.

The frequency and vociferousness of the promises this time around has me optimistic, at least: Activision risks damaging its precious brand to renege at this stage. If you're gonna let people be the epic chicken from Family Guy or something anyway, the smart play would be to not say anything.

This is a big moment for the CoD empire: Modern Warfare 3 and back-to-back Black Ops entries have proven critical flops, and while they've still sold enough to make any other studio's wildest dreams come true, they've underperformed for the juggernaut series, and fan morale seems to be at a real low.

This all comes as Microsoft's been eager to see strong profits come from its historic Activision Blizzard purchase, and taking it out on beloved studios when they fail to materialize.

Modern Warfare 4 also faces a non-trivial obstacle in Xbox's continued status as a target of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS has called for consumers to boycott all Microsoft gaming products⁠—including Game Pass and Call of Duty⁠—in response to Microsoft's business relationship with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Microsoft has instituted a leadership shakeup at its Israeli subsidiary and canceled a major contract offering cloud service support in the surveillance of Palestinians, but the company is reportedly still keen to renew its other contracts with the IDF.

In recent years, Call of Duty has been suffering from what I lamented last year to be a severe case of Fortnitification—you know, just about every game you know and love amalgamating and morphing into a multimedia glob where some bozo from a TV show can gun down a real-life celebrity and then proceed to be revived by their teammate donning the skin of some anime protagonist.

While I don't exactly mind it in Fortnite, it always felt that little bit off in Call of Duty. Something doesn't sit right with me about setting up my loadout on Nicki Minaj, or a frighteningly realistic Levi Ackerman doing a 360 no-scope. I certainly cannot grasp what the hell Skeletor is doing there.

Well, it looks like Infinity Ward wants to walk back some of that baffling incoherence with Modern Warfare 4, which was revealed earlier this week. "Every aspect of Modern Warfare 4 is anchored in the game's narrative," a post from the Infinity Ward X account reads. "Every feature, every decision needs to feel authentic to what Modern Warfare is, and that includes cosmetics and collabs. We're committed to keeping it grounded and transparent, and we want to hear from you on what you'd like to see in our game."

That sounds like it's not ruling out collaborations entirely, mind. There's still room for some of that delicious crossover money to be made. But it seems like Infinity Ward is being more mindful about ensuring that whatever makes its way into the game is more tonally appropriate. Rather than, you know, Beavis and Butthead sniping you. For what reason? I don't know, man. I love Beavis and Butthead but I am perfectly okay with them not being Cornholio or needing TP for their bungholes anywhere near my shooters.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've heard this. Activision said essentially the same thing about Black Ops 7 in 2025, acknowledging complaints about Call of Duty skins and promising that skins will "be crafted to fit in the Black Ops identity." Five months later, Fallout arrived.

You'll be able to enjoy this more modern, transparent entry into the Call of Duty series when Modern Warfare drops on October 23 later this year. Our very own FPS fanatic Morgan Park got some time with the multiplayer mode recently, and while he's "not convinced it's a major leap forward" for the series, he's "confident that Modern Warfare 4 will be the best-playing Call of Duty in years."

It's the fall of 2022, and everyone is reacting to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 open beta. Infinity Ward's reboot sequel made a lot of movement changes that seemed subtle, but angered a lot of folks. The idea was to make Call of Duty more deliberate and consistent by slowing down the action: unintended movement techniques were stifled, silenced weapons were hidden from minimap pings, and red nametags were gone.

I liked it. Most people didn't have a strong opinion about it. But Call of Duty's most active players resoundingly rejected it. Infinity Ward would eventually reverse some of these changes before launch, and the next year's Modern Warfare 3 (developed by a different team) scored points by moving in the opposite direction.

Speaking to PC Gamer in Los Angeles last week, Infinity Ward devs reflected on the gameplay changes that have come to define Modern Warfare 2's reputation.

"In Modern Warfare 2, we made some changes that were maybe healthier for the game and the way it played, but created friction and removed fun for some players," said multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot.

"What we had pushed on was to make the game feel more tactical," added multiplayer design lead Jack Reynolds, "but I think it came at the cost of some of the feel and some of the fun."

It's those learnings that informed Modern Warfare 4's revamped movement. Infinity Ward isn't bringing over wall bouncing or omnimovement from the last two Black Ops games, but it is embracing fluidity in sprinting, sliding, climbing, and mantling. Traditional mechanics, like red dot spotting on the minimap, are back. It's about refinement, not reinvention.

"What we tried to do when building [Modern Warfare 4] is take these points of friction that make the game feel off or sluggish and improve on them—rebuild them from the ground up so that you get that fluidity and that feel back, while also maintaining the kind of grit, the groundedness, and the tactical play that we are known for," said Reynolds.

Some of those changes, according to Cecot, were the result of Modern Warfare 3.

"I think that some of the changes that Modern Warfare 3 made actually felt good, and so we took a step back, looked at where we had gone from MW2019 to MW2 and said we really want to make mantle feel good, not just faster. So we rewrote the mantle system and made sure that, one: Now it maintains your momentum, two: You can now strafe in it, and three: You can now mantle right into slide. We pushed hard toward making it feel like an extension of movement—like you never lost control."

I tried Modern Warfare 4's rebuilt movement for myself, and while a handful of matches wasn't enough to fully judge the results, I did notice an emphasis on momentum. Getting around is effortless and cool. But my crowd was undeniably casual—the true test will be that inevitable open beta later this year, when the actual movement sickos enter the ring.

This year's Call of Duty is, officially, Modern Warfare 4. It takes place primarily in South Korea, it'll have a regular campaign, and they're bringing back the DMZ extraction mode. But for many, Modern Warfare 4 is significant for one big reason: This is the first Infinity Ward game in four years.

That's the longest that the original Call of Duty makers have gone without making their mark on the series, and a lot has happened in the years between: Activision became an organ of Microsoft, which has been hard at work destroying its reputation with full-breathed AI mania and cooperation with Israel's genocide in Gaza. All the while, Call of Duty has fallen into another rut: Modern Warfare 3 was an unpopular, rushed sequel made by a different team. That was followed by Black Ops 6, which was well-liked, but its own quick followup Black Ops 7 immediately squandered that goodwill.

Those factors leave Infinity Ward in a similar situation as it was in 2019, when Call of Duty's relevance was waning and its Modern Warfare reboot singlehandedly revitalized the series. Will Modern Warfare 4 do it again? After 90 minutes with its multiplayer, I'm not convinced it's a major leap forward, but I am confident that Modern Warfare 4 will be the best-playing Call of Duty in years. A few quickfire topics from my demo:

Gunplay: Sublime

When it comes to the little things that are important to longtime fans, they're nailing it. Modern Warfare 4's audio, animations, and feedback are exceptional. I shot a revolver that was so loud that I flinched in my seat. Later, I test drove a bolt-action rifle so bassy and powerful that I temporarily became a sniper guy. Sometimes the yearly Call of Duty grind can get boring. I don't care about camos or stickers or even prestige, so for me, it's the fundamentals that elevate an FPS and keep things interesting for dozens of hours. I'm going to max out the revolver because it's exciting to shoot, not because of a checklist.

In terms of raw FPS craft, this is immediately head and shoulders above the previous pair of Black Ops—games that look and sound fine. It really does matter who makes Call of Duty.

Apex attachments: Very cool

Modern Warfare is finally embracing attachments that actually change a gun's identity. Similar to Black Ops 7's prestige attachments, apex attachments are sidegrades unique to each gun that unlock when it's fully leveled up. Each gun has at least one apex attachment, but some have two.

They're kinda wild. Examples include:

• A shotgun with explosive rounds
• A revolver with a grip that lets you fan the hammer
• A sniper rifle with side-mounted throwing knives that you "flick" at players
• A prototype North Korean silenced SMG that's quieter than anything else in the game
• An airburst launcher for the AK that can kill behind cover
• An SMG conversion mod for the M4 that brings back the P90-style magazine from MW2
• Ammo that spots enemies

Anything, literally anything, that makes attachments more meaningful than moving sliders up and down is a positive change, though I'm bummed that unlocking even one of these requires using a gun for a long time. They were all unlocked in the demo build and it was a blast to goof around with the airburst AK and the cowboy-style revolver. I also love that these attachments are designed for the specific weapons they were made for—a choice that could give guns a role beyond their weapon class. Apex attachments use their own slot in Gunsmith, so you won't have to sacrifice your favorite stock or sight unless there's an unavoidable conflict (like the attachment is itself a sight).

Movement: Fluid but maybe too fast

Infinity Ward talked a lot about movement. It feels so long ago now that we were all arguing about sprint speeds and slide cancelling in Modern Warfare 2, and the studio has been reckoning with that feedback behind the scenes for years. The result is a faster and less restrictive movement system than its last game—something closer to Sledgehammer's adjustments in Modern Warfare 3—but nothing as drastic or athletic as Treyarch's omnimovement.

Mantling is now extremely fast and fluid, so toppling over cars or climbing low walls now barely slows you down. Sprinting out of slides is smoother, and Modern Warfare 4 should be kinder to those who've gotten used to jumping or sliding around corners. That all sounds like a step in the wrong direction, personally—Call of Duty's map design and heavy aim assist make these techniques more annoying than expressive—but they weren't on display in my room of mostly press.

Maps: Meh

Pretty, but otherwise exactly what you'd expect. We played a handful of the 6v6 maps launching with Modern Warfare 4 plus one special Gunfight map with sections that change from round to round (more on that below). The standard maps followed Call of Duty's tired three-lane formula with only glimpses of verticality. Still, they at least feel closer to real places than Treyarch's maps tend to.

10v10 Gunfight: 👍

Like it says on the tin, it's Gunfight with bigger teams on bigger maps. Teams spawn with identical loadouts for single-life elimination rounds—clear the other team or capture a flag at the center to win. Gunfight might be the single best side mode Call of Duty has produced in a decade and it scales up well.

This is where we got to try Kill Block, a map broken up into one-third chunks that change between rounds. Many of these map chunks are based on classic Modern Warfare maps, so you never know when the center of the battlefield will suddenly be Crash from Call of Duty 4, or Killhouse, or a bunch of World War 1 trenches. It's a neat idea, and it apparently supports over 500 combinations. Infinity Ward mentioned that Kill Block will be used for more than just Gunfight.

Details: FOV, depth of field, muzzle smoke, hipfire

A surprisingly large stretch of Infinity Ward's presentation was focused on relatively small quality-of-life updates that were possible because of Modern Warfare 4's extra dev time. If they hadn't pointed this stuff out specifically, I'm not sure I would've noticed:

Enhanced FOV: This wasn't in the demo, but apparently Modern Warfare 4 will pull some camera trickery so players will benefit from the spatial awareness of a high FOV without making targets smaller on screen as a result.

Depth of field: Infinity Ward admitted that most CoD players turn off depth of field because the blurring effect on iron sights can also obscure targets. No longer: They've adjusted the effect so it doesn't do that, which sounds more like a bug fix to me.

Muzzle smoke/flash: Folks complained that Modern Warfare's muzzle flashes and smoke are too big and get in the way of accuracy, so now muzzle flash and smoke will subtly disappear at the center of the view to keep sightlines clear.

Hipfire: This one was a bit confusing. Infinity Ward says Modern Warfare 4 won't have recoil bloom. Bullets will always go where the gun is pointing. That made me think that maybe hipfire will be more accurate overall, but in practice, this seems to be largely a visual change: hipfire is as inaccurate as ever (subject to attachments), but your on-screen model will now always match where the bullets end up. Essentially, your gun shakes wildly to better communicate what's happening with recoil, which does make underbarrel lasers more useful.

Loadouts: One change I love

In Modern Warfare fashion, loadouts have been simplified since last year. Guns take five attachments, all of which have positives and negatives. It's a standard three perk system with no combo abilities or wildcards.

The only change worth calling out is one I'm surprised hasn't happened until now: both killstreaks and operator skins are equipped per-class. That means you can design a loadout around stealth, support play, or whatever, and then pick skin that matches it. It's a minor thing, but I can see the personalization making my classes feel more custom.

It's that time of year again. The sun is out, air conditioners are on, and the next Call of Duty is public knowledge. Activision announced that this year's game is, as we suspected, Modern Warfare 4. This is the first Infinity Ward-led Call of Duty in four years—a fact that matters to longtime fans who prefer the studio's approach to military shooters.

In a room full of press at the Infinity Ward offices last week, studio heads Mark Grigsby and Jack O'Hara introduced Modern Warfare 4's primary settings: North and South Korea. The campaign follows a squad of South Korean marines (plus one embedded American) in a "zero to hero" story in the wake of a North Korean invasion of Seoul. Grigsby and O'Hara were influenced by their love of Korean rap (featured prominently in trailers), and more broadly the spread of Korean culture, citing the popularity of Korean cinema and music in the West.

"Our cultures are melding and there's a lot of references there for all of us," O'Hara said. "But the curious thing about North Korea and South Korea is they have been deadlocked since the Korean War."

The next slide showed a map of the North/South Korean border illustrating the dozens of artillery batteries pointed at the city of Seoul at all times. This is the next iteration of Infinity Ward's "ripped from the headlines" approach to campaigns. That has often proven a double-edged sword for Infinity Ward, whose fast-and-loose depictions of reality once led it to recast blame for an American war crime. Perhaps in an attempt to temper Modern Warfare's edgy reputation, O'Hara expanded further on the mantra:

"We want to make sure that we live in this pocket that we call 'ripped from the headlines' when it comes to our universe. What that means is, when you see our game, you should feel like it could be in the headlines, not necessarily that it came from the headlines, but it could be."

It also wouldn't be Modern Warfare without Captain Price, who reenters the story on the run after executing a general at the end of Modern Warfare 3. I wouldn't blame you for forgetting or never seeing that major plot development, as Modern Warfare 3 was widely considered a low point for the series.

During the campaign presentation, some talking points seemed indirectly aimed at the unpopular 2023 sequel Infinity Ward did not make (it was actually developed primarily by Sledgehammer Games), as well as Black Ops 7's co-op campaign that was criticized for playing more like a series of Zombies arenas than a traditional Call of Duty adventure. O'Hara walked us through the premise of each of its dozen-plus campaign missions (including several spoilers), as if to communicate that Modern Warfare 4 will have a normal, linear story mode.

I also played around 90 minutes of Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer, which you can read about in full. Long story short: Infinity Ward is picking up where it left off in 2022. Ominimovement is gone. Wall-jumps are out. The audio is unbelievable, animation is top-notch, and they've sped up mantling and sliding to make twitchy players happy (boo). It's fun, but not at all surprising.

The third big mode of Modern Warfare 4 is a proper sequel to DMZ, Call of Duty's extraction mode that debuted in Modern Warfare 2 (2022). Activision is staying tight-lipped on details for now, but describes the mode as a "living combat sandbox" with "changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces moving throughout the zone."

Modern Warfare 4 is out on October 23. That's a perfectly normal week to release Call of Duty, though this year it has the added significance of being a full month before the release of Grand Theft Auto 6.

DMZ is coming back.

The Call of Duty extraction mode, which debuted in Modern Warfare 2 (2022), will have another go-around when Modern Warfare 4 releases in October. DMZ was among the first big-budget attempts at the extraction genre—three years before Arc Raiders became a phenomenon.

Activision is not talking in detail about the new DMZ, but provided a top level description to press:

"DMZ is the definitive Call of Duty extraction experience, a living combat sandbox where every deployment is a new story. Deploy solo or with a squad into a volatile conflict zone as an off-the-books asset tasked with recovering advanced military technology left in the wake of war. The conditions in the exclusion zone are always shifting, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces moving throughout the zone. 

"Loot, fight, negotiate, betray, and extract with whatever you can carry. The harder you push, the harder the world pushes back. Every run is a risk, every encounter is a choice, and no two deployments play out the same way."

Not much to be gleaned from that other than "yep, sounds like an extraction shooter," though talk of being an "off the books asset" does make it sound thematically consistent with Escape From Tarkov.

The original DMZ had familiar elements of extraction shooters—gear fear, proximity chat, backpacks, contracts—but was criticized for lacking depth. It was casual, but bland, and you could tell it was more of an offshoot of Warzone than its own game. Infinity Ward supported DMZ with updates throughout 2023, but ultimately retired the mode, calling it a successful beta.

We do know a bit more about Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer, which I played at the Infinity Ward offices last week. It's not surprising, but Infinity Ward still makes the best Call of Duty guns.

The Call of Duty movie in development at Paramount will be directed by Peter Berg, one of the guys that studios call when it's time to portray the US military as big screen heroes.

Adapting the most popular military shooter in the world to film is seemingly the perfect gig for Berg, whose past work includes Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, and the adaptation of grandpa-approved board game Battleship. But the last time Call of Duty came up in his presence, before he'd been cut a significant check, he made it clear that videogames are a waste of time, and that those who play them often are "pathetic" and "weak."

That's according to a 2013 interview Berg did with Esquire, which was recently unearthed by a ResetEra thread and subsequently shared by GamesRadar.

In the Q&A-style interview, Esquire's Julian Sancton picked Berg's brain about masculinity, sports, and videogames (at the time, Berg was promoting his Navy SEALs movie Lone Survivor and had just released Battleship the previous year). When military games and Call of Duty came up, Berg didn't hold back:

ESQ: As a guy who's become a public advocate of American manhood, what's your take on war video games?

PB: Pathetic. Pathetic. Keyboard courage. Can't stand it. The only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military. They're out there serving and they're bored and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe. Kids? Uh-uh.

ESQ: Navy SEALs have a standing invitation to your house in Montana, and you've spent a lot of time with them. Do they play those games?

PB: Some of them do. But I tell them I think it's pathetic. I think anyone that sits around playing video games for four hours... It's weak. Get out, do something.

Tell us how you really feel, Pete!

As Call of Duty isn't Berg's first adaptation, surely he knows how to set aside his feelings about the hobby to make a good movie, but it does suggest the co-writer and director probably isn't approaching the project with Call of Duty affection.

But hey, 13 years was a long time ago. Maybe he's eased up on games since, or even played a round of Warzone in the 2020 lockdown. If so, we could bury this beef once and for all with a 1v1 on Rust. Intervention snipers. Quick-scopes only.

Never in my life have I felt like the screenshots I take while playing games are worth printing out and displaying on the wall. They're barely good enough to stick under a magnet on the fridge, mostly because they're things like map locations or places I promise myself I'll come back to and never do. But occasionally I'll take a snap of a pretty in-game landscape, or the odd cute critter (the most recent example being the shrimp from RuneScape: Dragonwilds—don't ask) to shake things up. Again, these don't breach the containment of my Steam account, but at least they're more visually appealing.

I never really considered a screenshot of a game to be aesthetically pleasing, which is where the wonderful work of Erika Epperly (available under the website ArtbyEri) comes in to prove me wrong. In fact, this artist specialises in bringing screenshots to life through oil painting, which sounds obscene on paper I'm sure, but when you see them, you'll see just how impressive they really are.

The vast majority of paintings by Epperly are from first person shooters, which I think is a hilarious decision to make. Screenshots from games like Valorant, and Call of Duty have been taken and turned into genuinely impressive works of art, including a brighter colour palette and some girlypop additions like weapon charms and decals, or the odd sprinkle of glitter. This in turn has made me question if maybe I do want to display what is essentially a videogame screenshot around my house.

If you'd rather not have these pretty in pink versions, you've still got the option to have more authentic screens too. For example, Epperly has recreated areas from both Halo 3 and Halo Reach in their standard colours and appearances without all the additions. If first person shooters aren't your style at all, fret not. Epperly has ventured into recreating screenshots from games like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, specifically inside of Hello Kitty's cafe after baking a strawberry shortcake, or a character amongst the blossom trees in Animal Crossing New Horizons as well.

My favourite piece, however, is an oil painting based on The Sims 4 listed under the name "Just 5 more minutes" on their shop. Unlike the other pieces, I'm not sure if this was directly based on a screenshot from the game or if Epperly took some creative liberties with the overall design, but it shows a Sim hunched over their keyboard playing Minecraft on their PC which is something I relate to a little bit too closely to, especially with the yellow Plumbob above their head suggesting that their needs aren't quite met for them to be comfortable.

This is definitely one of the more subtle paintings, since the only giveaway that it's based on The Sims is the colourful Plumbob, which is probably why it's my favourite of the bunch. I already mentioned how much I love more subtle videogame art when I shared the work of Holly Sweet Illustration with you, and this painting definitely fits into that category. It certainly helps that I can see a bit of myself in the character within the painting too, through the messy desk, Hatsune Miku drawing, and Rilakkuma plushie tucked away.

Epperly shares the entire process of bringing these paintings together through Tiktok videos too, under the username @eazyeri which I've spent far more time than I like to admit scrolling through. When you see the colours on a palette, it's hard to picture what they'll turn out to be, but it's certainly never disappointing. Maybe I have been too quick to judge my screenshots, and all I needed was an artist's perspective to make something more displayable. Or a load of adorable decals and charms on my weapons—that might also help.

New Xbox boss Asha Sharma had some good and bad news for Game Pass subscribers yesterday: the service is now cheaper, but new Call of Duty games will no longer be included with the service at release. They'll now arrive a year later, around the time that they're inevitably replaced by the next Call of Duty.

The change is one of the first major shakeups from Sharma, who takes up Phil Spencer's mantle following a truly shameful year for Microsoft in which Xbox was the least of its fumbles.

Xbox's two-year run of giving away its single biggest money-maker to subscribers is over, which Activision seems keen to move on from, as Call of Duty's wider availability reportedly dealt a huge blow to the profitability of Black Ops 6 in 2024 and Black Ops 7 in 2025.

Reactions to the news among fans swung between disappointment and understanding, but among them was a specific request: "They should release all legacy Call of Duty games on game pass like today," wrote Stallion83 on X.

Perhaps not every Call of Duty, but a source at Activision told PC Gamer it plans to add more of Call of Duty's back catalog to Game Pass this year.

Currently, only the last handful of entries are available on the service's Ultimate tier—the oldest being 2017's Call of Duty: WW2. The availability of classics like Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops would be a genuine draw, especially because as the console and PC versions of many older games still go for $30 to $60 (and a few never came to PC at all):

• Call of Duty (2003)
• Call of Duty 2 (2005)
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005)
• Call of Duty 3 (2006)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
• Call of Duty: World at War (2008)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)

I had to double check, but yes, 2021's oft-forgotten Vanguard has also been forgotten by Game Pass. Maybe Treyarch's Big Red One (the even more forgotten version of Call of Duty 2 for the original Xbox/PS2) will finally gets its day in the sun.

Besides the moment-to-moment shooting, what's the one thing that's made Call of Duty the success that it is today? If you ask me, it's the progression. You level up your account, unlocking new guns as you go, which pulls you into the camo grind, all for you to prestige and do it all over again. It's a dopamine rush that worms its way deep into your brain. I still remember the incredibly obnoxious (but admittedly cool) level-up sounds from the original Modern Warfare trilogy era.

Point is, you don't mess with the bones of Call of Duty's finely-tuned progression system. A slice of advice that I wished 2014's Advanced Warfare would have heeded. But instead it threw the progression system out of balance. A sin so heinous, I'd clearly expunged it from my mind at some point in the decade since for my own sanity, only to be reminded of it watching YouTuber Replay Mode's retrospective videos.

Advanced Warfare introduced the short-lived weapon variants feature. Basically, you'd unlock weapons like you normally would by leveling up, but each gun also had a handful of tiered variants that significantly tweaked their performance. They were similar to today's cosmetic-only weapon blueprints but with a very real impact on their stats and performance.

For example, the MP11 Goliath variant gave this SMG bonus damage at the cost of handling, which resulted in a bafflingly quick time-to-kill in close range. Likewise, the Bal-27 Obsidian Steed gained bonus damage and mobility but reduced accuracy, handling, and rate of fire compared to its base counterpart. And no variant was more iconic (or infamous) than the ASM1 Speakeasy, which turned this SMG into a Tommy Gun that absolutely ripped.

It was an interesting idea, in all honesty. If you didn't like a base weapon, perhaps you would like one of its variants instead. And it also led to some pretty cool designs, like the aforementioned Speakeasy. The only issue was that weapon variants were inextricably linked to gacha mechanics.

One of Advanced Warfare's biggest contributions to Call of Duty history was Supply Drops. A brand-new way to monetise the series known for being the best-selling shooter every year, because releasing paid map packs, and the ill-fated Elite subscription just weren't cutting it anymore.

Supply Drops would hand out purely cosmetic clothing items (this is still my favourite customisation system the series has seen), and most importantly, weapon variants.

Everyone wanted the ASM1 Speakeasy variant, but it wasn't down to you, it was all on RNG's shoulders. Maybe you'd get lucky and snag the Speakeasy on your first Supply Drop and be set for life, or maybe you'd get it 100 Supply Drops down the line. Or if you were me, you'd never get it while your friends were having a blast shoving it in your face.

You'd earn Supply Drops every 45 minutes of in-game time, but surprise, surprise, you could purchase Advanced Supply Drops from the store which had better odds. All the best weapon variants were the rarest, of course. Try your luck in the free Supply Drops, or pay a few bucks to still try your luck at getting some of the strongest guns. Hell, you could even get duplicates, which were worthless.

That's gacha mechanics right there, complete with power creep as legendary elite weapon variants were basically always better (and cooler-looking) than lower quality ones. You could buy one crate for just $1.99, or upwards of $39.99 for 28 boxes, which is tame by today's standards but was still quite outlandish for 2014.

Supply Drops were tweaked in subsequent titles—Black Ops 3's handed out exclusive weapons, Infinite Warfare's returned to variants but this time they had unique perks instead of stat changes, and WWII even gave you a hub area to open loot boxes in front of other players. Revolutionary, really. The system was eventually removed in favour of a battle pass in Modern Warfare 2019, reflecting a shift in monetisation strategies across the gaming landscape.

Looking back on this system over a decade later, it's still infuriating that Activision made such a drastic, obviously-in-game-gambling decision with Advanced Warfare—dragging down one of the best Call of Duty games in the name of monetisation. If only Advanced Warfare was a blip or cautionary tale. But let's be honest, little's changed when it comes to excessive monetisation in Call of Duty games.

When I heard Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 was back in the limelight thanks to an unusually steep $6 sale on Steam, I wasn't too surprised. Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare reboot was extremely popular in its day, reinvigorating a series that tread water through the mid-2010s and ushering in an era of followups that'd build on its reimagined progression and class systems.

MW2019 was the best these games had ever played, looked, or sounded at the time. Coming back to it now, it's obvious Call of Duty hasn't been meaningfully better since.

The first thing I noticed jumping into a match in 2026 (which only took a few seconds, as it's still popular) is how knockout gorgeous this thing still is. Like seriously, look at this seven-year-old videogame next to 2025's Black Ops 7:

Both look good, but Modern Warfare immediately wins on atmosphere. The cracks in the asphalt, the way those tree leaves are catching the light, the wildly detailed texture work on the aging buildings—what black magic was Infinity Ward up to making this work on an Xbox One?

Sound is still a standout, too. Assault rifles erupt with ear-splitting explosions followed by steel-on-steel cycling, and my kitted out revolver from launch sounds more powerful than its equivalent in BO7. Guns are appropriately loud in the sound mix—so loud that they can drown out the barks of the in-match announcer or interrupt the level-up guitar riff. Last night a teammate firing a Kar-98 rifle from behind caused me to violently flinch in my chair.

I'm reminded that this was Call of Duty redoubling down on grounded "realism" after years of wallrunning and jetpacks. Infinity Ward harnessed the immersive presentational qualities of a milsim within the confines of an arcadey shooter, and it's just as effective now as it was then. It's worth pointing out that this past streak of games helmed by Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven just do not sound or look like this, even when it's clear they're trying to get close.

When folks say Infinity Ward's games are better made than Treyarch's, this is the stuff they're talking about. This game really checked all the boxes—excellent gunplay, memorable maps, sticky progression, and a campaign that doesn't suck (though that Highway of Death mission sure does).

Playing the last few nights, I'm taken by Modern Warfare's subdued Create-a-Class. You only get the basics—three perks, grenades, and two guns with five attachments. It's a bit limiting compared to the Swiss-army-knife-like monstrosities you can throw together in BO7, but that's appealing in its own way. When I can only modify a gun in so many aspects, I'm forced to embrace its intended strengths and weaknesses.

There's this observable pattern in competitive shooters with customizable guns, but especially Call of Duty, where everybody wants to create the same laserbeam. Whatever combination of grips, stocks, or barrels that lower recoil while juicing velocity or fire rate makes that gun objectively better, and therefore the most popular configuration. Modern Warfare's attachments are designed so that you can't boost those key stats without accepting tradeoffs in other areas like movement speed or ADS time.

Treyarch and Sledgehammer have loosened those restrictions on attachments in recent years, allowing up to 10 slots on each gun and mostly eliminating the downsides of making a laserbeam. The result is that every gun in Black Ops is pretty much the same. Modern Warfare isn't perfect in this regard either, but its launch lineup of weapons at least have standout qualities, like the M4A1's balanced damage and range offset by jittery visual recoil.

It's also nice to play Call of Duty from a time before it became a clown show of ugly skins. Modern Warfare still mostly looks like Modern Warfare, and it may be the last Call of Duty we'll ever be able to say that about. Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6 will be forever besmirched by Nicki Minaj, American Dad, TMNT, and The Boys collaborations. Even after committing to chilling out on the tacky crap in Black Ops 7, Activision has proven this was a flat-out lie, with recent collaborations including Fallout and Dave Chappelle (yikes).

The irony is that MW2019 is both the last great Call of Duty and the one that kicked off its new worst era. Back in 2020, just a few months after it launched, Warzone hit the scene. A year later, the reboot was forcibly gobbled up by the battle royale behemoth that Infinity Ward co-created before giving the keys to Raven and saying "see ya."

We're still in this period where "premium" Call of Duty multiplayer is intertwined with Warzone—sharing weapons, classes, and roadmaps—in ways that are frequently a detriment to both games. The ultimate example of this is the modern Call of Duty launcher: a slow, grating layer of annoyware that inflicts extra steps upon those seeking to play it.

The only mercy today is that MW2019 was eventually decoupled from Warzone back into its own standalone product, though for some reason you still have to select it from a smaller launcher that also includes Modern Warfare 2 (2022), even if you don't own it or want it.

It speaks volumes of this particular chapter of Modern Warfare that it's worth the launcher hurdle. Seven years later, this is still the Call of Duty to beat (in retrospect, even better than the sequel I gave a higher score).

I imagine this is the sort of rekindled excitement Activision was angling for with the big discount, as 2026 is Infinity Ward's chance yet again to drag the series it created back to the forefront.

When a casual FPS enjoyer expresses a preference for a particular feature of Call of Duty, they are unknowingly picking a side. The way soldiers run, how attachments work, the shape of the maps—seemingly minor details are live ammo in a 20 year war between factions of gaming's strangest fandom.

A normal long-running game series is likely to have a singular direction—a continuity or consensus that determines what present and future iterations will look like. When Assassin's Creed shifted from stealth action games to lite RPGs in 2017, that became the direction for all of Ubisoft's studios making Assassin's Creed games. Not Call of Duty: it has a coalition of 11 studios working around the clock to produce a $70 videogame every 12 months, and those studios are rarely on the same page. Activision's fiefdoms collaborate to varying degrees to get the job done, but its two lead studios have very different, often opposing ideas of how Call of Duty should look, play, and evolve.

As Call of Duty attempts to rebound from its weakest year in a decade, it's worth examining this unusual arrangement. Activision's stringent schedule and widening creative differences, now spanning two decades, have created a splintered series mirrored in its increasingly tribalistic players. It's the Call of Duty schism, and it's fascinating.

The divide

Generally speaking, there are two studios steering Call of Duty's creative direction: Infinity Ward, the OG creators of the series and Modern Warfare, and Treyarch, the creators of Black Ops. The pair have taken turns with their takes on the bestselling military shooter since 2006, when Treyarch was tapped to make Call of Duty 3 (as well as 2005's Big Red One) while Infinity Ward took extra time on the first Modern Warfare (2007).

While it's fair to say Treyarch was the "secondary" Call of Duty studio in those early days, Black Ops (2010) changed that. With its campy Cold War spy story, non-traditional guns, and party modes, Black Ops established Treyarch as the "fun" Call of Duty studio. Maybe it couldn't match Infinity Ward in terms of raw craft, but the first Black Ops was an even bigger sales hit than Modern Warfare, and distinguished itself by loosening restraints and not taking these silly blockbuster shooters so seriously.

I didn't know it at the time (being 14 and all), but this was the beginning of the schism. Black Ops is the first time I can remember heated arguments at school over whether this Call of Duty was better than the previous year's Modern Warfare 2—a talking point that defines Call of Duty discourse in 2026.

The specific design choices that folks argue over have changed alongside the FPS genre as a whole, but the core of the studio debate remains remarkably consistent. There's nuance to these perspectives, of course, and there are some who don't really care either way, but there's a much louder contingent of fans who firmly believe one studio is killing Call of Duty and the other is its savior. Let's talk about the two camps.

The Infinity Ward argument

Fans of Modern Warfare believe Infinity Ward's games:

• Look better
• Sound better
• Move Call of Duty forward
• Are more grounded and mature
• Produce standout campaigns

Those who prefer Infinity Ward's take on Call of Duty are likely to cite a higher qualitative bar. The Modern Warfare series tends to be less flashy and adventurous than Treyarch's Black Ops, but what you get in return are the best-looking and -playing versions of Call of Duty. Infinity Ward excels at the "little" things—weapon sounds, reload animations, bullet feedback—that make Call of Duty a fundamentally satisfying shooter. The Modern Warfare "level up" stinger is the iconic example:

This sticking point goes all the way back to the early 2010s, when a new Black Ops would arrive looking less impressive than the Modern Warfare that came before it, with the exception of Treyarch's superior fire tech. While Treyarch has narrowed the gap on sound and animations over the years (especially after it switched to Infinity Ward's engine in 2024) the difference is still plain enough to see that most Treyarch fans won't argue this point.

Modern Warfare enjoyers may also prefer the way Infinity Ward does a campaign, a style marked by international task forces, NATO alphabet barks, and Captain Price's dependable mustache. These, too, aren't as ostentatious as a Black Ops romp where characters hallucinate a zombie horde or infiltrate a Clinton rally, but deliver more grounded, often jingohistic fantasies—stealthy sniper missions, AC-130 bombardments, night vision raids in foreign countries, etc.

There's also no denying that Infinity Ward still sets the tone for Call of Duty's future. The first Modern Warfare established the series' blueprint in 2007, and even at the peak of Black Ops, you could argue Treyarch's games are largely variations on Infinity Ward's designs. When Call of Duty's relevance waned between 2016 and 2018, it was the technical advancements and excellent gunplay of the Modern Warfare reboot that reinvigorated the series.

Does Infinity Ward only achieve these leaps because Activision gives it a longer leash and more time?A fair question, but it nevertheless contributes to the perception that a new Infinity Ward game is a special occasion.

The Treyarch argument

Fans of Black Ops enjoy that Treyarch's games have:

• Faster movement
• Longer time-to-kill
• 3-lane multiplayer maps
• Better campaigns
• Zombies

The Treyarch crowd undeniably skews hardcore. Many are especially active Call of Duty players, streamers, or content creators who take the competition seriously and are hungry for evolution specific to their interests. Treyarch has recognized these interests throughout the Black Ops series, designing and marketing its games around gameplay adjustments for high-skill players: fast movement, expressive sliding techniques, double jumping, jetpacks, and most recently non-skill-based matchmaking.

A Black Ops enjoyer might believe the Modern Warfare games are too slow, low skill, or less balanced while championing the strides Treyarch makes toward consistent and competitive Call of Duty multiplayer: less visual recoil, standardized 3-lane maps, and detailed weapon stats.

In recent years Treyarch has also distinguished itself by taking Infinity Ward's Gunsmith customization system and expanding on it with "prestige attachments" that dramatically change a gun's behavior. Revolvers can become sniper rifles. ARs can have underbarrel flamethrowers. There are few rules.

The casual Treyarch diehard also appreciates the Black Ops series' playful playlists—Modern Warfare will sometimes indulge in offbeat modes, but it's got nothing on Black Ops mainstays like Prop Hunt, One in the Chamber, Sticks and Stones, and Gun Game. Then there's Zombies: the beloved co-op mode of Treyarch's creation that's ballooned in scope over time to have its own lore and dedicated fans, all of which has no equal in Modern Warfare.

It doesn't go unnoticed by Treyarch fans that when the Black Ops series makes universally popular changes, Infinity Ward might ignore or drop them in its next game. This contributes to the perception that Treyarch makes games "for the fans" while Infinity Ward only listens to itself.

What about Sledgehammer and Raven?

Sledgehammer Games also makes its own Call of Duty games. Or at least, it used to: For a time, it was the "third" Call of Duty studio slotted into the rotation to accommodate ballooning development times across the industry. Its first standalone project, 2014's Advanced Warfare, was popular, but its two World War 2-themed followups were not. Since Call of Duty: Vanguard, Sledgehammer has seemingly been demoted to support studio, assisting on and co-developing yearly releases.

Recently, Sledgehammer stepped in to co-develop Modern Warfare 3 (2023), a rushed sequel to Modern Warfare 2 (2022) that Infinity Ward wasn't involved with. It reviewed poorly and didn't sell much better, but it was popular with hardcore players for the ways it backtracked on Infinity Ward's decision to slow Call of Duty back down a year prior.

Raven Software is the other major series contributor. The storied FPS developer behind classics like Hexen and Star Wars: Jedi Knight was conscripted to full-time Call of Duty work in the 2010s, serving as co-developers on all of Treyarch's recent Black Ops games and battle royale spinoff Warzone. The studio has never gotten the chance to lead a project, but the influence of Warzone and its integration into "premium" Call of Duty has catapulted the series into a free-to-play juggernaut.

The studio imbalance

Sledgehammer's fate is emblematic of an imbalance within Activision's Call of Duty factory. What used to be a predictable two-to-three year cycle with clean handoffs between studios has become a mad dash to make whatever is possible by a deadline—a workload that has disproportionately fallen to Treyarch, Raven, and Sledgehammer in the 2020s.

Look at the last six years of Call of Duty and you'll see what I mean:

• Black Ops Cold War: Treyarch (lead), Raven Software (Campaign), Sledgehammer (assisting)
• Vanguard: Sledgehammer (lead), Raven Software (assisting)
• Modern Warfare 2: Infinity Ward (lead), Sledgehammer/Raven (assisting)
• Modern Warfare 3: Sledgehammer (lead), Raven/Treyarch/Infinity Ward (assisting)
• Black Ops 6: Treyarch (lead), Raven (Campaign), Sledgehammer (assisting)
• Black Ops 7: Treyarch and Raven (co-lead), Sledgehammer/Infinity Ward (assisting)

So far this decade, Infinity Ward has made exactly one Modern Warfare sequel while Treyarch, Raven, and Sledgehammer have upped their pace. This is not how it used to work and, I imagine, not ideal to the frontline developers.

When I zoom out, I see that Call of Duty has actually been on two cycles all along: once a year there's a new Call of Duty, and once a decade there's a point where that unrealistic pace catches up to Activision, and the series adopts a posture of desperation—new features are less new, old maps are added to new games to pad out a many-boxed roadmap, and player sentiment tanks. We've been at that point since Modern Warfare 3.

From the outside, it's an arrangement that seemingly casts Infinity Ward as the flagship studio afforded as many years as it needs to make the next evolutionary Modern Warfare, while Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven are tasked with keeping the lights on with quickly-made sequels that suffer diminishing returns.

This setup may work for Activision, which gets to sell boatloads of $70 boxes every Fall without fail, but it further fuels the schism. Nobody can agree on what "peak" Call of Duty is, and what used to be fun changings of the guard are now treated like existential threats—Modern Warfare loyalists can't wait for Infinity Ward to be back in control, while the loudest Treyarch fans believe Call of Duty has been better off without them.

That makes 2026 a big year for all involved. Four years since Modern Warfare 2, it's finally Infinity Ward's turn again. This year's Call of Duty will presumably have had the longest development period in series history, and it's coming on the heels of a Black Ops sequel that not even the Treyarch crowd is playing. That sets expectations sky high: Will Infinity Ward revive Call of Duty once more, or prove that Treyarch has become its new masters?

New weapons are always exciting in a Call of Duty game, but sometimes the new stuff ends up being a little too strong. The EGRT-17 assault rifle in Black Ops 7 is the latest example of this, and it's the best weapon you can use right now across all game modes.

This assault rifle combines the firing rate of the Peacekeeper with the damage and range of the AK-27, cementing its place at the top of its class. It's already a monster without any attachments, but with the right loadout, you can basically eliminate all of its weaknesses.

Best EGRT-17 Loadout in Black Ops 7

• Muzzle: Redwell Shade-X Suppressor
• Barrel: 17.9" EAM Planar Barrel
• Underbarrel: Bowen Sentry Foregrip
• Magazine: Verto Flip Mag
• Rear Grip: EAM Capacitor Grip
• Stock: Frigate Control Stock
• Laser: 3MW Motion Strike Laser
• Fire Mods: Buffer Springs

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: A07-BMVTZ-R5L31. Just open the loadout menu, select the Carbon 57, and select the little gun icon next to the "create new build" button.

This build focuses on improving the EGRT-17's accuracy at long range without sacrificing too much handling or close range performance. With these attachments, this gun will shred anything you put in front of it while still being capable of nailing long-distance eliminations.

The Redwell Shade-X Suppressor kicks things off in the Muzzle slot, stabilizing the gun's recoil and keeping you hidden from the minimap. Combined with the 17.9" EAM Planar Barrel, which boosts damage range and bullet velocity, you'll already see an improvement at range with the EGRT-17.

To keep things steady, the Bowen Sentry Foregrip reduces horizontal recoil so you'll have an easier time staying on target. The Frigate Control Stock increases both vertical and horizontal recoil control as well, further improving the EGRT-17's stability.

You don't want to ignore the weapon's innate close-range strengths though, which is why the Verto Flip Mag boosts this build's reload speed so you don't get caught in a bad spot. The EAM Capacitor Grip also reduces overall ADS speed, which is always a nice touch.

To cap things off, the 3MW Motion Strike Laser greatly improves recoil stabilization and damage range. The laser will be visible in ADS, but this thing has such a fast time-to-kill that it really doesn't matter. Finally, Buffer Springs will seriously smooth out your recoil, serving as the cherry on top for this build.

If you don't want a laser on your weapon, feel free to add an Optic of your choice. The EGRT-17's iron sights are fine enough on their own, so this loadout skips a scope. You can also swap out the Buffer Spring for MFS Heated Echo Rounds, which are the EGRT-17's prestige attachment. They make the gun's bullets ricochet three times while also boosting range and bullet velocity at the cost of recoil.

Black Ops 7 Best EGRT-17 Class Setup

• Wildcard: Gunfighter
• Field Upgrade: Scrambler
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex
• Perk 1: Ghost
• Perk 2: Fast Hands
• Perk 3: Cold-Blooded

Gunfighter is one of BO7's best Wildcards, and it's a necessity in this build so you can trick out the EGRT-17 with the best attachments. You can also run whatever Field Upgrade you like with this build, but the Scrambler is best for aggressive play on small maps.

As for equipment, the Stim Shot should be your Tactical of choice. Since you'll be constantly pushing with the EGRT-17, that health boost can save your life. You can use whatever Lethal you like, but Semtex is a solid all-around choice.

For perks, start with Ghost in the first slot so you can stay hidden from enemies. Fast Hands in the Perk 2 slot will offset the EGRT-17's slow reload time, but you can swap it out for something else if needed. Finally, Cold-Blooded rounds things out, keeping you off the grid and protected from streaks.

New guns are always going to be powerful when a new Call of Duty season drops, but some of the new weapons introduced in Black Ops 7 Season 2 are crazy strong.

Black Ops 7 Season 2 is filled with all-new maps and modes plus returning fan favorites like Safeguard and Slums, but the new guns available at the launch of the season are easily the stars of the show. The REV-46 SMG and EGRT-17 assault rifle are dominating lobbies right now, and upcoming changes could make them even more impactful to the BO7 meta.

Moving Away from the Maddox

If you played Black Ops 7 last season, then you've probably seen the Maddox RFB assault rifle in most of your matches. A returning weapon from Black Ops 4, the Maddox dominated BO7 with its close-range power and long-range accuracy.

The Maddox got nerfed during Season 1, but it's still one of the best assault rifles in the game. Now, Season 2's new weapons have taken its spot at the top of the food chain. With Season 2 balance changes coming later than usual so the development team can monitor weapon performance in the live game, the REV-46 and EGRT-17 are the best of the best for the foreseeable future.

Explaining the EGRT-17

The problem weapon last season was the Maddox, an assault rifle that shredded at close-range and could have basically zero recoil at long-range. This season, Treyarch added the EGRT-17, an assault rifle that shreds at close-range and can have basically zero recoil at long-range. See the problem there?

Granted, the EGRT-17 isn't as accurate as the Maddox at long distances. However, it's significantly stronger up close, so it just trades one thing for another.

The EGRT-17 boasts the second-highest fire rate in its class—losing only to the rapid-fire Peacekeeper—but it still has an easily controllable recoil pattern despite being a certified bullet hose. With the right attachments, it becomes a laser beam. The only thing holding it back is a slower-than-average reload speed, but that can easily be offset with attachments as well.

As if the weapon couldn't get any stronger, its bullets also ricochet off surfaces. If you prestige the EGRT-17, you then unlock an attachment that makes the bullets ricochet three times. That attachment also offers a huge improvement to both damage range and bullet velocity, which makes the gun even easier to control.

The Stock-Switching SMG

This season's new SMG is just as strong. The REV-46 is the fastest-firing SMG in Black Ops 7 by a wide margin, and that's just one reason why this gun is so popular in BO7 right now.

A weapon that can shred enemies at close range is already going to be strong in any Call of Duty game just by virtue of its fire rate, but the REV-46 has a unique trick up its sleeve: a folding stock. It's the only weapon in the game with a folding stock mechanic, and its stats change drastically depending on the configuration.

Using the typical fire-select button, you can retract or deploy the REV-46's stock at any time. With the stock folded, the REV-46 has unmatched handling with blazing fast ADS and sprint-to-fire speeds. Once you unfold the stock, the gun gains reduced recoil and a significantly tighter hipfire reticle.

It's the best of both worlds for SMG lovers, and the REV-46's prestige attachment sweetens the deal even further. Once equipped, the stock dramatically boosts movement and ADS speed while extended at the cost of some additional recoil. It's really not that harsh of a tradeoff, though, and it makes the REV-46 capable of both hipfire shreds and room-clearing strafes simultaneously.

Bringing Back Blackout

These weapons are already strong in their current state—and things could easily change once balance patches start to roll out— but the EGRT-17 and REV-46 make me really excited for something else on Season 2's roadmap.

Both guns are already proving popular with the Warzone crowd, but Black Ops 7 Season 2 is bringing back the fan-favorite Blackout mode introduced in Black Ops 4. Blackout beat Warzone to the punch by a full year, and it was a much more enjoyable experience for casual sessions.

Blackout was fast-paced and designed with fast-paced action in mind, so I can see the EGRT-17 and REV-46 sitting comfortably at the top of the new Blackout meta. It may not be a one-to-one translation of BO4's battle royale since this is being touted as a "new battle royale experience" that "draws inspiration" from Blackout, but if the core mechanics are the same, finding these two guns will be like finding a gold SCAR in OG Fortnite.

Blackout won't be coming back until Season 2 Reloaded, so there's still plenty of time for these guns to get nerfed into the ground. For now, the EGRT-17 and REV-46 are very much worth grinding the battle pass for.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 isn't shy about its inspirations. It's no secret that the game pulls a lot from the Black Ops golden age, and the launch of Season 2 brings back an all timer in the form of Safeguard.

Originally introduced in Black Ops 3, Safeguard tasks two teams with escorting a robot across the map. It's one of the best modes in that game and its sequel, but it shines like never before in Black Ops 7.

Safeguard feels right at home in Black Ops 7, so much so that it feels like it should've been a launch mode. It's nonstop action—like a never-ending Hardpoint—and it's perfect for casual players and camo grinders alike. Plus, with Black Ops 7's less restrictive open matchmaking, this new iteration of Safeguard takes me right back to the good old days.

Black Ops 7's fancy movement techniques let you get back into the action faster, preventing either side from controlling the robot for too long. Plus, BO7's high-tech gadgets like explosive Needle Drones and defensive Point Turrets can easily dislocate campers and push a dominant team off of the objective. Victory never feels out of reach.

It also helps that Black Ops 7 features some of the most refined gunplay the series has ever seen. Safeguard hasn't been around since Black Ops 4, so we haven't seen it in roughly eight years (not counting COD Mobile). COD's gameplay has come a long way since then, and battling over that bot has never felt so good.

The feel of Safeguard has always varied from map to map, but I think the mode feels great on pretty much every Black Ops 7 map. Season 2 also added some Black Ops 2 nostalgia by bringing back the classic Slums map, and it feels perfect for Safeguard. One of BO3's best modes, one of BO2's best maps, and BO7's satisfying gunplay are a match made in heaven. Black Ops 2's Yemen is also returning mid-season (renamed Cliff Town), and I'm stoked to see what Safeguard plays like there.

Black Ops 7 is at its best when you're playing objective-based game modes. The maps flow incredibly well, and being able to predict spawns and keep track of enemy movement is a core part of the game. Sometimes, you just want to kick back with a fast-paced mode like TDM, though.

Safeguard is the best of both worlds. It gives you something to focus on, a place where the action always concentrates. Despite that, there's no need to worry about the other team spawn trapping you like in Domination or a sweaty six-stack constantly rotating to the next Hardpoint. Safeguard is the ultimate mode to chill with your friends or work on your camo grind.

With Season 2, Black Ops 7 continues a trend of bringing back classic Black Ops maps and modes, but unlike some other recent COD games, there's also no shortage of original stuff. The returning content isn't just a crutch to fill a checklist, and they really feel like bonus goodies instead of seasonal filler. It's the difference between "oh, Safeguard is back…" and "oh, Safeguard is back!"

There's still more exciting stuff on the horizon for Black Ops 7, including a reimagined Blackout battle royale experience, and I highly recommend giving the new season a chance.

Even after a dozen new additions to its arsenal, one gun still stands at the top of Black Ops 7 Zombies. No matter the map, no matter the Cursed Relics, and no matter the squad size, the M34 Novaline is the weapon to wield in BO7 Zombies.

As a humble marksman rifle, the M34 Novaline tends to get overlooked by plenty of casual Zombies players in favor of rapid-fire SMGs and reliable assault rifles, especially since people have gotten used to custom Zombies loadouts after their introduction in Black Ops 4. The Novaline still easily outclasses just about everything in BO7's armory, however.

Marksman rifles have high critical damage—making them perfect for attacking bosses and special enemies with high health pools—but their slow fire rates and low ammo capacity make them impractical for large hordes at first glance.

After all, it's COD Zombies. You're going to spend your time running in circles and turning around every now and then to shoot at the horde trailing behind you. Something like an SMG is better suited for that. Marksman rifles and other situational weapons just don't feel right outside of your secondary slot (or tertiary with Mule Kick).

The M34 Novaline already has a leg up on other marksman rifles because of its two-round burst and decent handling, but sticking with it rewards you with something even greater. When you Pack-a-Punch the M34 Novaline, it becomes fully automatic.

That's where everything clicks. You basically get an assault rifle with the damage output of a marksman rifle, and if you add attachments to your Novaline loadout with that in mind, it'll handle so smoothly that you'll forget it's a marksman rifle in the first place. It doesn't have any weaknesses, and you'll be hard pressed to find something stronger that's not a Wonder Weapon.

To make the deal even sweeter, the M34 Novaline is available as a pretty common Mystery Box weapon if you're playing Cursed or you'd rather just start with another weapon. It's also a Wall Buy on both Ashes of the Damned and Astra Malorum if you're using a Cursed Relic that disables the Mystery Box. It'll also probably be a Wall Buy on any future BO7 Zombies maps, too, so you'll never have to worry about missing it.

Even with the fully-automatic upgrade, the M34 Novaline still packs quite a punch (pun not intended). Renamed to the Desecrated Dualist, the Novaline doesn't lose any stopping power. Every bullet still hits just as hard as you'd expect for a marksman rifle. You can even switch it back to semi-auto if you need some accuracy in a pinch.

Keeping a Pack-a-Punched sniper or something similar in your back pocket isn't unheard of for Zombies players, especially if you want a specialized tool to take out Elites like Manglers, Doppelghasts, or Zursas.

With the Novaline, there's no need. It shreds Uber Klaus' shoulder shields, destroys Mangler cannons and armor, and even embarrasses main bosses like Veytharion and Caltheris.

There are some things to consider, however. Firstly, the M34 Novaline really needs the Cyclops-03 Barrel attachment to maximize its damage. Without it, headshots and critical shots won't deal nearly as much damage.

There's also a new contender on the block: the M8A1. This four-round burst rifle is a returning favorite from Black Ops 2, and with a new Conversion Kit, it can become fully automatic just like the Novaline. It won't deal as much damage, but the better handling and larger magazine size can make it a better choice in some situations.

Still, even with new weapons, attachments, and Conversion Kits constantly dropping, the M34 Novaline remains the king of Black Ops 7 Zombies. Try it out in your next game and see for yourself.

Season 2 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 brings a ton of new stuff across multiplayer, Zombies, and Endgame, including fan-favorite maps and weapons from classic Black Ops games.

There's a lot to keep track of this season, and not everything is releasing all at once. To make things easier to follow, here's a breakdown of everything that's arrived in this season in Black Ops 7.

Seven new weapons are coming to Black Ops 7 during Season 2.

• REV-46 SMG
• ERGT-17 Assault Rifle
• H311-SAW Melee
• GDL Havoc Launcher
• SG-12 Shotgun
• Voyak KT-3 Assault Rifle
• Swordfish A1 Marksman Rifle

At launch, you can expect two brand-new normal guns and two special weapons. The REV-46 has the fastest fire rate of any BO7 SMG, and it looks like it'll absolutely shred anything you put in front of it.

The ERGT-17 is another fast-firing weapon—only beaten by the Peacekeeper in fire rate— and its superheated rounds ricochet off walls for stylish kills.

The H311-SAW is the season's new melee weapon, a deadly rotating saw that has longer range than the standard knife.

For people with more explosive taste, the GDL Havoc grenade launcher shoots sticky bombs that can be remotely detonated. Perfect for holding objectives.

Later in Season 2, the SG-12 shotgun will deliver rapid-fire semi-auto blasts with the longest damage range in its class.

It'll be followed by the Voyak KT-3, a mix between the AK-27 and Peacekeeper that boasts impressive stopping power at close range.

Finally, the four-round burst Swordfish is returning from Black Ops 4 later this season. It's like the M8A1's more lethal cousin, dealing more damage with a longer delay between bursts.

Multiplayer

• Maps
  • Torment
  • Sake
  • Nexus
  • Slums
  • Torque
  • Cliff Town
  • Grind
  • Firing Range
  • Mission: Peak

• Modes
  • Safeguard
  • Overdrive
  • Luck Confirmed
  • Solo Hearts Moshpit
  • Third Wheel Gunfight
  • Gauntlet
  • Infected

So many Black Ops 2 maps are coming back this season, and I'm stoked to see Slums, Grind, and Cliff Town (Yemen) on the list! Firing Range is another classic that no Black Ops game would be complete without, and the new maps like Torment and Sake look like they'll be just as good as Black Ops 7's other original maps.

As for modes, Overdrive places a stylish twist on Team Deathmatch, rewarding you with buffs for scoring sweet kills. Safeguard also returns this season for the first time since Black Ops 4! Escorting the robot on Slums is going to take me straight back to 2012.

This season also features limited-time modes for Lunar New Year like Luck Confirmed, which replaces dog tags with Lucky Pouches that reward bonus points. On Valentine's Day, you can queue up for the 3v3 Third Wheel Gunfight or the solo-only Solo Hearts Moshpit playlists as well.

Gauntlet is a brand-new mode coming sometime mid-season, and it's similar to Black Ops 6's Pentathlon mode. Secure the W by outperforming the same team in five different back-to-back game modes that change every few minutes.

Finally, Infected will make its return to Black Ops 7 in a mid-season update. The Fallout-themed Ghoul playlist was just a test run! Infected will be a permanent playlist, so you don't have to worry about it leaving this time.

To top things off, Season 2 will add a new Scorestreak called the Lockshot. It's a smart pistol that can lock onto and kill multiple enemies with a single pull of the trigger, and it already looks like a ton of fun.

Season 2 will also introduce a new set of multiplayer events, rewarding new camo patterns and weapon blueprints. Some of these are just leaderboard events, but the Escalation Direction event will let you grind for eight universal camos by completing challenges across all game modes.

Zombies

• Mars Survival Map
• Cursed Survival Mode
• Starting Room Mode
• Paradox Junction Map
• Turncoat Gobblegum

At launch, the Mars section of Astra Malorum will be released as a standalone Survival map. Survival maps aren't super exciting, but it's better than nothing. A fully-fledged new map is coming sometime during the season, though!

To tide you over until then, Cursed mode will be available on Survival maps starting with Season 2, letting you make things even harder. There's also a new Starting Room mode that limits you to the spawn area of either Ashes of the Damned or Astra Malorum, basically turning it into a little Survival map.

Later in the season, the Turncoat Gobblegum will also be added to the Zombies rewards pool. This one charms nearby Zombies and makes them fight on your behalf, buying you some breathing room in tough situations.

Season 2 kicks up the intensity of Black Ops 7's co-op Endgame mode with a new level of difficulty above Tier IV, new Skill Tracks to earn, and more.

• Guild Strikes
• Eagle Eye Skill Track
• Sentinel Protocol Ability
• Blood Burner Ability
• Glitches
• Exotic Fabricator

Guild Strikes are the big new feature for Endgame in Season 2. These can happen at any time during a match, transforming a part of the map into a Nightmare Zone that's even deadlier than Tier IV areas.

Later in the season, Nightmare Zones will become even more dangerous with the addition of Glitches. After defeating the Strike Boss at the heart of a Nightmare Zone, you can deploy to an off-map zone and survive against waves of enemies. Killing the Glitch Boss in the final wave will reward you with new Nightmare Skills that can be equipped in a new slot alongside Exotic Skills.

If you're still leveling up your operators, then you can keep an eye out for the new Eagle Eye Skill Track. As the name suggests, this one is all about sniping and landing headshots. You'll get better critical damage, increased damage after rapid killstreaks, and more.

You can also customize your loadout with two new operator Abilities this season. The Sentinel Protocol Major Ability lets you call in a Guild robot for backup, and the Blood Burner Minor Ability lets you summon a motorcycle to help you get around the map (or run over enemies). The bike can even ride on water!

Lastly, Avalon is getting Exotic Fabricators mid-season. You can use these stations to upgrade your loadout with new Exotic weapons or even upgrade your existing Exotics to roll for new effects. Fabricators will be rewarded for taking down Strike Bosses in Nightmare Zones, so you'll need a kitted out character to reach them!

The Russian government is prepared to support the development of a homegrown military shooter akin to Call of Duty through measures including reduced corporate tax rates and insurance premiums for developers who make it. Confirmation of those potential incentives comes a month after a Russian lawmaker called for a ban on the Call of Duty series in the country, accusing Western nations of using it to spread "Russophobic propaganda."

The commitment comes from a Gazeta.ru report (Google translated, via Insider Gaming), which quotes the Ministry of Digital Development as saying, "if the [government] receives an application for funding for the development of a game on the topic specified in your letter, it will be reviewed in accordance with the established procedure and within the framework of existing competitive mechanisms."

The Ministry cited existing government support for IT companies and game developers including "a reduced corporate income tax rate of 5%, reduced insurance premium rates, and a partial VAT exemption in certain cases."

This is all extremely normal and unremarkable. Canada's videogame industry is a powerhouse largely because provincial governments throw generous tax breaks and funding options to game studios: Ubisoft has more offices in Canada than it does in France (or the US) and it's not because Yves Guillemot is a big fan of poutine.

And of course it's not just the game industry that rolls this way. Despite the self-professed genius and self-reliance of their leaders and structures, most corporations rely on government largesse to some extent. It's just how things are done, and the fact that Russia plays essentially the same game ranks alongside green grass and blue sky.

What makes this case interesting is what prompted the comment in the first place. Shortly after Russia banned Roblox in December 2025 over extremist content and "LGBT propaganda," Mikhail Delyagin, deputy head of the State Duma’s economic policy committee, requested that Roskomnadzor—the agency that monitors and controls mass media in the country—review the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series and, if warranted, ban them as well.

Delyagin "was absolutely horrified," according to a separate Gazeta report. "You're almost always shooting at Russian soldiers. It's a very unpleasant experience for any citizen of our country, a kind of horrific masochism.

"The only positive Russians in the story are those who collaborate with American and British saboteurs. In the current context, when we're in a proxy war with these countries, this is especially horrific."

Delyagin, who said his request to investigate Call of Duty was initially sparked by complaints from Russian citizens—something we've seen in the past—also sent a letter to Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, according to a since-removed report that remains available via the Wayback Machine (you're going to have to translate the text yourself, sorry, we've gone too deep here), He asked that it develop a comparable big-budget shooter in which the player is a member of the Russian military or intelligent, "and the antagonists and targets are representatives of unfriendly countries (Ukraine, Great Britain, the United States, France, and others)."

He said the massive budgets of such projects—the Gazeta report estimated the cost of developing a Russian Call of Duty equivalent could be as much as 10 billion rubles, which works out to nearly $130 million—would likely put it out of the reach of domestic developers without "additional support" from the Russian government.

Which brings us to now: Nobody has stepped forward to say they're working on a Russian Call of Duty, but if someone does, they'll enjoy the same sort of benefits that Activision, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and all the rest get from Western governments.

Delyagin is correct in saying that Russians are the traditional enemies of the West in the post-World War 2 world (and not just in videogames), only stepping out of that role when covertly collaborating with Western forces—typically against Russian or Russian-aligned enemies. And US cultural hegemony means that if Russian gamers want to play the biggest and most popular military shooters in the world, well, they're probably going to be shooting at their own boys.

Russia has made similar game-related noises in the past: In 2022, for instance, an exodus of Western tech companies following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted the country to explore the possibility of making a "national game engine." That idea was eventually dropped over the expense involved, although an unnamed private investor reportedly stepped in to keep the project moving forward.

Whether Russia can actually pull off a credible Call of Duty competitor is another question entirely, but it certainly isn't alone in wanting to portray its military forces in a more flattering light. If anything, it's late to the party: In 2013, the Chinese military released a military shooter called Glorious Mission, which was apparently a big hit in the country.

Dark Ops are a Black Ops staple, and they return in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with free rewards for multiplayer, zombies, and the co-op campaign.

By completing these secret challenges across all three game modes, you'll unlock special Calling Cards to show off your accomplishments. Some Dark Ops challenges are fun little easter eggs, but most of them require you to put in some serious work.

While some of the challenges are still to be determined, here are the ones we know for know.

BO7 Multiplayer Dark Ops Challenges

BO7 Zombies Dark Ops Challenges

BO7 Co-Op Campaign Dark Ops Challenges

As rivalries go, you don't get much bigger than Call of Duty versus Battlefield. Two of the largest, most expensive series around, both of them covering wars both past, present and future—of course there's going to be some competition.

David Goldfarb, who served as lead designer at DICE for Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2, even found ways to throw some punches in the script.

"Even lines I wrote in Bad Company 2, they're in a chopper and Sweetwater says, “He’ll just send some special ops douchebags with pussy-ass heartbeat monitors on their guns instead of us.” Something that directly references Modern Warfare. I did take the piss out of those guys, more than once. Not because I didn't like them, but because I did."

Goldfarb tells us that DICE pushed itself "to do stuff maybe you wouldn't do if they were not there". Particularly during the days of the first Modern Warfares, which he calls "tremendous games".

"I haven't ever seen that kind of shooter executed at that level," he says, "and I probably won't ever again. They were works of art, almost. We couldn't compete with that, so we had to do our own thing."

Call of Duty was looming over things even as Goldfarb joined DICE, too. "I came on to work on Bad Company 2 as lead designer, but that actually isn't what happened. What happened was Bad Company 1 got pushed back because COD 4 was as good as it was. So we spent more time working on BC1. And then I think I worked on Mirrors Edge at the end."

There was a negative side to the rivalry too, however, but that mostly took the form of pressure for the higher ups. "The negatives are usually, 'Well, we need to sell X units, and they're going to sell Y.'" And the competition meant that EA wanted DICE to do things "that maybe aren't the best things for the game."

Goldfarb is no longer at DICE, but the rivalry continues. This time, it looks like Battlefield 6 is in the lead, revitalising the long-running series while Call of Duty flounders a bit.

The soft response to Call of Duty's latest release, Black Ops 7, continues to affect change in the long-running series. As announced on the official CoD blog today, Activision will no longer make back-to-back Call of Duty games in the same series.

The news comes off the back of a weaker than usual year for the franchise, which saw the release of Black Ops 7 just a year after Black Ops 6. Before that, it made a reboot of Modern Warfare 3 in 2023 just a year after its reboot of Modern Warfare 2 (2022). The repetition has created a strong sense of fatigue among parts of the player base, which Activision cited (indirectly) as a factor of today's decision.

"We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games. The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.

We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right," the blog reads.

"To be clear, the future of Call of Duty is very strong and we believe our best days are ahead of us given the depth and talent of our development teams. We have been building the next era of Call of Duty, and it will deliver precisely on what you want along with some surprises that push the Franchise and the genre forward. We look forward to welcoming you in, listening to you, and moving forward together."

While the company reinforced that it's fully committed to supporting Black Ops 7 with seasonal updates, the first of which is already underway, the tone of the announcement is in keeping with past acknowledgements that Activision got it wrong with Black Ops 7 and wants to win people back.

That process began before Black Ops 7's actual launch, when beta feedback led the developer to loosen skill-based matchmaking for the first time ever, as well as cancel planned crossover cosmetics plans to address CoD's ugliness epidemic. Committing to "unique" games every year is a positive step, but it stops short of confronting the real source of CoD fatigue: annual releases. As of now, we assume Call of Duty 23 is planned for 2026.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is one giant love letter to Black Ops 2, and that extends to its multiplayer arsenal. The Carbon 57 is an advanced version of the classic PDW-57 SMG from Black Ops 2, and it's just as satisfying to use over a decade later.

The Carbon 57 boasts a gigantic ammo count with respectable range and recoil, bringing it more in line with assault rifles than Black Ops 7's other SMGs. Its damage is a bit low compared to other weapons in its class, but the best Carbon 57 build still shreds enemies up close.

Best Carbon 57 loadout in Black Ops 7

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: S05-DJPLK-6KAB5-1. Just open the loadout menu, select the Carbon 57, and select the little gun icon next to the "create new build" button.

This build focuses on improving the Carbon 57's handling and accuracy, transforming it into one of the most versatile SMGs in the game.

The 11" Greaves Repose Barrel increases the weapon's effective damage range and bullet velocity so you'll be able to hit far away targets easier. The EMT3 Agile Laser also provides a huge boost to damage range (and recoil stabilization), but you'll have a visible laser when aiming down sights.

To make the Carbon 57 easier to control, the K&S Compensator reduces vertical recoil and keeps your aim steady during firefights. The Dulcet Control Grip handles horizontal recoil control, and it also adds an extra bit of recoil stabilization to make the recoil pattern easier to master.

The Carbon 57 is still an SMG, though, so a few of these attachments boost its handling. The Sapper Guard increases your overall movement speed so you'll have an easier time dodging damage, and its small boost to horizontal recoil control is just the cherry on top.

The Hammer Platoon Pad increases your aim walking movement speed as well, letting you strafe around corners and prefire enemies to take advantage of the Carbon 57's large magazine.

Finally, the Accelerated Recoil System rounds out this build with even more recoil control. It's a must-have for most weapons in Black Ops 7, and the Carbon 57 is no exception. If you want a more close-range spin on this build, you can swap this out for the Enhanced Cycle System that boosts fire rate. Just watch out for the recoil.

Black Ops 7 Carbon 57 Class Setup

Gunfighter is one of the best Wildcards in Black Ops 7, and it's a necessity for this Carbon 57 loadout so you can fill all those attachment slots. You can run whatever Field Upgrade you like with this class setup, but the Assault Pack will help you keep your ammo reserves filled.

Stun Grenades fill the Tactical slot in this class setup. Stunning enemies will give you the opportunity to quickly finish them off around corners. If you get caught reloading, then a quick Combat Axe can save your life and score an easy kill.

Ghost is the best perk to run in the first slot since it hides you from UAVs, Scout Pulses, and other recon streaks, helping you remain undetected behind enemy lines. Lightweight or Ninja can also work in its place.

Fast Hands is also a must-have for this build since the Carbon 57's big magazine takes a while to reload. Finally, Dexterity will help you control your weapon while jumping and sliding around, a necessity with Black Ops 7's fast-paced movement.

Marksman rifles have always been a popular choice in Call of Duty, and Black Ops 7 has some really fun ones. The Warden 308 may not be as strong as the DMRs that gave Warzone players nightmares over the years, but it's still super satisfying to use.

It's equipped with a revolving cylinder that gives it a lengthy reload time, but it makes up for that with incredible damage and range. It can one-shot to the chest at surprising distances, and you can start grinding for its best attachments early since you unlock the Warden 308 at level 25.

Best Warden 308 loadout in Black Ops 7

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: M02-66F1N-NJ753-1. Just open the loadout menu, select the Warden 308, and select the little gun icon next to the "create new build" button.

This build focuses on maximizing the Warden 308's mobility and handling, giving it faster ADS speed and sprint to fire speed so you can compete with everyone running around with SMGs.

To succeed with the Warden 308, you'll need a clear sight picture. You can use whatever optic you like, but the Lethal Tools ELO is one of the cleanest in the game. You can run something with more magnification like a holographic sight if you need more range, but the Warden is surprisingly capable with just a reflex sight.

For the barrel attachment, this build uses the 18" Invictus Barrel. It greatly enhances the Warden 308's damage range, saving you from those "how did I not kill him?" moments when the enemy is just a little too far away.

In case you miss your first shot, the LTI-LM Brake attachment in the muzzle slot will smooth your recoil. It primarily affects first shot recoil and kick reset speed, both of which are perfect for semi-automatic rifles like the Warden 308.

To further reduce recoil, this build uses the Baron Riser comb and Buffer Spring in the fire mods slot. The Baron Riser also slightly improves movement speed so you can keep up with Black Ops 7's fast-paced movement.

The 3MW Motion Strike Laser also helps control recoil while also boosting range even further. It's only visible when aiming down sights, so it shouldn't give away your position very often.

The Speed Latch Cylinder magazine reduces your overall magazine size, but it improves reload speed and enhances ADS speed and sprint to fire speed. Paired with the LTI Tyrannis Grip—which greatly increases ADS speed—the Warden 308 becomes a quickscoper's dream.

These attachments allow you to sprint around the map and score one-shot kills with the perfect balance between mobility and accuracy.

Black Ops 7 Warden 308 class setup

This class relies on split-second reactions to land one-shot kills on enemies with the Warden 308 before they start shooting back at you, and the equipment and perks will help distract your foes so you have more time to line up shots.

Gunfighter is a must-have for this build in order to use all the attachments for the Warden 308. You can make it work without Gunfighter, but it's really not worth the tradeoff for another Wildcard.

The Echo Unit is the perfect Field Upgrade for the Warden 308 since it can distract enemies and force them to shoot first, giving away their position so you can secure the kill.

The same goes for the equipment. The Point Turret serves the same purpose, giving enemies something else to shoot at so you can aim without interruptions. The Pinpoint Grenade also gives you valuable intel so you can line up shots before enemies come around the corner.

Lightweight is a great perk for this class since it boosts your overall movement speed and lets you recover from sliding and diving faster. You'll still be able to use all of Black Ops 7's fancy movement tricks without sacrificing accuracy for the Warden 308.

Fast Hands solves the reload time problem for the Warden 308. With the Speed Latch Cylinder Attachment, Fast Hands will be even more effective. Plus, you can swap to your sidearm much faster in a pinch.

Finally, Dexterity rounds out the perk selection by reducing weapon motion during jumps, slides, and other techniques. Just like Lightweight, it'll let you wall jump and slide around corners without sacrificing the accuracy needed to score those satisfying one-shot kills.

You've no doubt seen the buzzwords thrown around by Activision already that Black Ops 7 Season 1 is the biggest Black Ops season ever, and they're not lying: it's a massive first update, not helped by the fact that it also doubles up with Warzone's integration. It's so big that the Season 1 roadmap infographic is almost illegible without a magnifying glass.

So that you don't need to dig up a magnifying glass, I've already done the hard work for you. Below, I'll go over the Season 1 release time for both Black Ops 7 and Warzone, and the new content you can expect in each mode.

Black Ops 7 Season 1 release date

BO7 Season 1 launches today, Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm GMT across all platforms. This coincides with Black Ops 7's Warzone integration too, so the battle royale mode will also be getting a big overhaul on December 4.

Keep in mind that Black Ops 7 continues the tradition of seasonal updates effectively coming in two halves, as the Season 1 mid-season update arrives "in the new year".

Black Ops 7 Season 1 roadmap

Season 1 brings the following content to all Black Ops 7 and Warzone modes:

• Seven new guns
  • Maddox RFB assault rifle (battle pass)
  • Kogot-7 SMG (battle pass)
  • Sokol 545 LMG (in-season event)
  • Sturmwolf 45 SMG (in-season event)
  • Hawker HX sniper (in-season event)
  • NX Ravager special (in-season)
  • Ballistic Knife melee (weekly challenges)
• Six new attachments
  • Akita Scorchlink Akimbo
  • MPC-25 Contrabloom Laser
  • M8A1 Autostrike-X8 Conversion
  • CODA 9 Adaptive Discharge Mod
  • AK-27 Battle-Scar Conversion
  • Redwell Shade-X Suppressor
• Two new operators
  • Dorne
  • Scorn
• Six events (only three revealed so far)
  • Rally Point community event
  • Naughty & Nice CODMAS challenges event
  • Astra Malorum Zombies leaderboard event
• New bundles

That's already a lot of stuff available in all Black Ops 7 has to offer, but it gets even more ridiculous when you see what's coming to each specific mode.

Multiplayer

The following is only available in BO7 multiplayer:

• Nine maps
  • Fate (new)
  • Utopia (new)
  • Odysseus (new)
  • Standoff (remastered)
  • Sleighjacked (map variant, in-season)
  • Meltdown (remaster, mid-season)
  • Yakei (new, mid-season)
  • Fringe (returning, mid-season)
  • Unknown map variant arriving mid-season)
• Nine game modes
  • Prop Hunt
  • One in the Chamber
  • Sharpshooter
  • Sticks and Stones (in-season)
  • Gun Game (in-season)
  • CODMAS: Holiday Havoc limited-time event (in-season)
  • CODMAS: Snowfight limited-time event (in-season)
  • Takeover (mid-season)
  • Unknown game mode arriving in-season

Zombies

Here's everything coming to Zombies in Season 1:

• Three new maps
  • Astra Malorum (round-based)
  • Exit 115 (survival)
  • Zarya Cosmodrome (survival)
• Four modes
  • Ashes of the Damned directed mode
  • Astra Malorum director mode (mid-season)
  • CODMAS: Jingle Hells limited-time mode (in-season)
  • CODMAS: List Keeper's Challenge limited-time mode (in-season)
• New O.S.C.A.R enemy
• New LGM-1 Wonder Weapon
• Light Mend and Shatter Blast ammo mods
• Frost Blast, Tesla Storm, and Mister Peeks field upgrades
• Mule Kick Perk-A-Cola
• Elemental Exposure and Slaylist Gobblegums

Warzone

With Warzone's Black Ops 7 integration finally arriving, here's all the new content and big changes being made:

• New Haven's Hollow map
• Verdansk reworks with new Signal Station POI and remastered Factory POI
• Six new modes
  • Battle Royale casual
  • Resurgence casual
  • Weekend limited-time modes
  • Holiday Rush limited-time mode (in-season)
  • High Octane (mid-season)
  • Unknown mode arriving in-season
• Loadout overhauls
  • Access to all existing and future Black Ops 7 weapons
  • Max five attachments
  • Overkill enabled by default, so you can automatically equip two primary weapons
  • Wildcards are removed
  • Weapon build sharing carries over into Warzone
  • Improved perks and categories
  • New Adaptive perk
• Needle Drone, Pinpoint Grenades, Phantom Signal, and Echo Unit equipment available in Warzone
• Movement overhauls
  • Default Tac-Sprint removed
  • Increased base sprint speed
  • You can combat roll with the Mountaineer perk
• New win streak rewards available in-season

Endgame

Black Ops 7's unique repeatable PvE activity, Endgame, is also receiving new content in Season 1:

• Four new world events
  • Colossus of Avalon
  • Toxic Tyrant
  • Wraith Wing (mid-season)
  • Unknown fourth event
• Eight new exotic skills from completing world events
  • Mega Punch: Replaces your weapon butt with a deadly punch that knocks back enemies and deals more damage.
  • Conjuration: Kill enough enemies to summon Toxin Butterflies that harass and damage enemies.
  • Echo Shell: Significantly reduces damage taken from behind.
  • Celebration: Enemies damaged or affected by equipment have a chance to trigger mortar rounds that target enemies.
  • Frost Cloud: Enemies damaged or affected by equipment have a chance to trigger a frost cloud that slows enemies.
  • Resurrection: On fatal damage, become temporarily invulnerable instead of dying. Available once per match.
  • Shattered Shield: Stun and damage nearby enemies when armour plates break.
  • Graviton Reaction: Taking melee hits can spawn a black hole that damages and displaces enemies.
• Phantom Skill Track (in-season)
  • Ambush: Critical hits from behind on unaware enemies deal more damage.
  • Fast Melee: Faster melee speed.
  • Trap Avoidance: Traps and mines take longer to detect you. Undetectable when fully upgraded.
  • Silent Movement: Quiets movement and reduces enemy detection distance.
  • Elusive Target: Reduces the accuracy of enemies shooting at you.
  • Decoy: Taking significant damage deploys an Echo Unit that distracts enemies.
• CODMAS festive items, including snowballs and gift-wrapped supply boxes

Activision's camo-clad cash cow Call of Duty has ruled the shooter roost for almost 20 years in the US, consistently topping the charts for games involving guns since 2006. But according to games industry analyst Mat Piscatella, that might just change in 2025.

Sharing some insights on Bluesky, (via GameSpot) Piscatella pointed out "the last shooter game to outsell Call of Duty in the US market over a full year was Gears of War, in 2006" according to data from the retail tracking service of his company Circana. He also noted that "The last FPS to do so was Star Wars: Battlefront 2" a year prior" and that Call of Duty "has been the US market's best-seller in 13 of the past 16 years" beaten only by Grand Theft Auto V, Hogwarts Legacy, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

This year, however, things might turn out differently. While Piscatella says we "still have some big weeks of potential sales to come," he observes that "this part of the market hasn't been this competitive in 20 years."

Indeed, the competition for Call of Duty's crown this year is particularly stiff. After a multi-year hiatus, Battlefield 6 has come back swinging by focussing on most of what originally made the series great, leading to 'the biggest launch in franchise history' as it sold more than 7 million copies in three days. This gave it better initial sales than both Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

While the competition is squarely between Call of Duty and Battlefield, complicating matters is the surprise success of Arc Raiders. While not sharing quite the same scale of success as Battlefield 6, Embark Studios' extraction shooter nonetheless proved hugely popular, selling 4 million copies in its first two weeks of launch. The fact that it landed between Battlefield and Call of Duty has likely split the pack somewhat.

Call of Duty, meanwhile, has thoroughly biffed it this year. Black Ops 7 slumped to mostly negative Steam reviews thanks to a truly abominable campaign, all-too familiar multiplayer, and ongoing blowback due to its use of generative AI (something which didn't affect Arc Raiders in the same way, though it received similar criticisms). Nova Smith lambasted Black Ops 7 as "equal parts obnoxious and exhausting" in their Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review, awarding it a score of just 40%.

There are, however, numerous complicating factors here. Circana's data reflects only retail sales, and does not factor in digital sales or players who might be playing Call of Duty on Game Pass. We already know that Call of Duty's presence on Game Pass impacts its raw sales figures, with Microsoft revealing in October that releasing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on the service led to $300 million in lost sales.

What we don't know, for sure, is how many people signed up to Game Pass to play Call of Duty. The most recent figure available for Game Pass subscribers is 35 million as of July 2025, but that was sourced from a LinkedIn post of a Microsoft project manager. The previous confirmed figure was from February 2024, where Microsoft reported that Game Pass had 34 million subscribers. If Game Pass has only grown by 1 million subs since Call of Duty was added to the service, that doesn't seem great, and unlikely to compensate for $300 million in lost sales. But we just don't know how accurate those figures are.

That said, there are other clues that Call of Duty has reaped a poor harvest this year. Normally, Activision shares some stats from Call of Duty's launch weekend on social media, such as last year's post the publisher bragged about having "the biggest Call of Duty three-day opening weekend ever". But hard numbers were conspicuously absent from this year's post. Instead, Activision simply thanked its fans, stated that it had seen "a great response to the quality and depth of gameplay in Black Ops 7", and stressed that "this is only the start".

Either way, seeing Black Ops 7 get trounced by critics and players alike cannot be reassuring for Microsoft, which, given the average time it takes to develop a game (4-5 years) hasn't had a chance to make its mark on the series yet since it acquired Activision. The company has held ludicrous expectations of a 30% profit margin from the Xbox division since 2023, which goes a long way to explain the company's mass layoffs, studio closures and game cancellations, as well as its desperation to get Xbox games on as many platforms as possible. Microsoft surely expected Call of Duty to contribute a big chunk of that, and if it isn't, I shudder to think about how the company might react.

With the rapid-fire pacing of Black Ops 7, fully-automatic weapons have been hogging the spotlight. It's time to accept the truth: You've all been sleeping on the X9 Maverick, and the best X9 Maverick loadout in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will help you dominate lobbies from a safe distance.

This three-round burst assault rifle needs a little bit of love since it starts out fairly weak without attachments, but it rewards dedication with incredible recoil control and solid damage. You can even start grinding for this X9 Maverick loadout early on since the gun is unlocked at level 28.

Best X9 Maverick loadout in Black Ops 7

• Optic: Lethal Tools ELO
• Muzzle: Novaburst Brake
• Barrel: 16" OS-Density Barrel
• Underbarrel: EAM Steady-90 Grip
• Rear Grip: Granulated OM1 Grip
• Stock: Specter-X Guard Stock
• Laser: 3MW Motion Strike Laser
• Fire Mods: Bolt Carrier Group

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: A04-B6JJB-9EM33-1. Just open the loadout menu, select the X9 Maverick, and select the little gun icon next to the "create new build" button.

I know what you're thinking—that's a lot of attachments. You're right, because the X9 Maverick goes crazy with the Gunfighter Wildcard. Zero recoil, excellent range, you want it, you got it.

The 16" OS-Density Barrel is the cornerstone of this build. It increases the magazine capacity to a whopping 51 bullets while also reducing vertical recoil. The gun reloads a bit slower, but with over 50 bullets, you'll have more than enough rounds to buy time until you get a safe moment.

Paired with the Novaburst Brake and Granulated OM1 Grip, both of which reduce first shot recoil, the X9 Maverick becomes a bonafide laser beam. To completely eliminate the chances of recoil, the Specter-X Guard Stock boosts stability even further.

The EAM Steady-90 Grip helps out with recoil too, but it's really there to give you a bit more mobility and movement speed to compensate for the other attachments' tradeoffs.

All those stability improvements are necessary to offset the penalties of the Bolt Carrier Group, another key part of this build. This attachment boosts the X9 Maverick's fire rate, reducing the odds of you getting killed in between bursts.

Honestly, you can ignore the 3MW Motion Strike Laser if you really don't want to broadcast your position to enemies, but the boost to range and recoil stabilization is so nice to have. At least the laser is only visible in ADS. Just don't hold angles for too long and you'll be fine.

If you'd rather go for something stealthier, then swap out the Novaburst Brake for the Monolithic Suppressor. This attachment still reigns supreme in Black Ops 7, and the penalties to ADS speed and aim walking steadiness don't affect that much in the greater scheme of things.

Black Ops 7 X9 Maverick class setup

You should rock these grenades, perks, and equipment with this X9 Maverick loadout:

• Wildcard: Gunfighter
• Field Upgrade: Squad Link
• Tactical: EMP Grenade
• Lethal: Point Turret
• Perk 1: Ghost
• Perk 2: Fast Hands
• Perk 3: Bankroll

This class is ridiculously strong for objective-based game modes like Domination and Hardpoint, and the equipment and perks double down on that.

EMP Grenades completely shut down pesky streaks like DAWGs, and Point Turrets are great for scoring bonus damage against enemies who aren't paying attention. Toss a Squad Link down every now and then to keep the bonus points rolling in, too.

The Ghost perk will keep you hidden while you reposition. It's a popular perk for a reason, and with the abundance of Scout Pulses in every lobby, you'll have the upper hand against enemies who think they have all the intel they need.

Fast Hands pairs perfectly with the big magazine in this X9 Maverick build, letting you reload faster or swap to your sidearm more quickly in a pinch.

Finally, Bankroll is essential for this class setup. It gives you +150 score toward Scorestreaks at the start of each life. With Squad Link and all the other support items in this loadout, you'll be showered in points for streaks.

Pair that with low cost Scorestreaks like the UAV and Care Package—both of which have the Dispatcher Overclock that reduces point requirements—and you'll have a nonstop supply of streaks.

It only takes a single mission in Black Ops 7's atrocious co-op campaign to figure out what the scheme with this year's entry is: welding together the campaign, multiplayer, Warzone, and Zombies modes, so as to streamline the asset generation pipeline and drastically cut down on the requirement for one-off assets and complex scripting.

This drive for efficiency is felt across the whole of Black Ops 7, but nowhere more so than the campaign, a grinding slog through the forthcoming Warzone map update and the occasional multiplayer map retooled for wave defense against mindless AI hordes.

The premise of the campaign itself is complete nonsense: after being dosed with the Cradle bio-weapon from Black Ops 6, Alex Mason's son has to retread the memories of his father (and, confusingly, his father's squadmates) through shared hallucinations. When Black Ops 7 does wander back onto a somewhat familiar path, it does so to retread the lives of series arch-protagonists Woods and Mason, remixing iconic locales and series highlights in the way that Disturbed covered "Sound of Silence".

Identity crisis

If Black Ops 7 has any identity of its own, it's from these setpiece moments, and they are far and away the worst parts of not only Black Ops 7, but the series as a whole. From Woods getting transformed into a Little Shop of Horrors-esque Venus flytrap to Harper getting blown up to kaiju-size to throw down easily dodgable shockwave attacks onto the deck of Black Ops 2's "USS Barack Obama", these gaudy Excision visuals-turned-boss fights are monstrously tedious, barnacle scum dredged up from the lowest rungs of the Destiny 2 barrel: shoot the weak points, wait until the boss deploys a shield, kill the adds as they filter into the arena, and then shoot the glowing weak point a million times more.

Black Ops 7's campaign awkwardly transplants most of its mechanics straight from Warzone: armor plates, weapon rarities, and a bafflingly long time-to-kill that degrades most encounters into a straight DPS race. Encounter design is particularly poor, and most often I was racing towards enemies hoping that their AI would bug out or get distracted so that I could mag-dump the contents of my light machine into their face.

I was no fan of Black Ops 6's campaign, but only a few hours with Black Ops 7 had me begging for the forced stealth sections and helicopter boss fights of old. Filling in for bygone campaign conventions like the classic helicopter door turret section is the ability to pick up and deploy multiplayer killstreaks, sporadic acts of mercy scattered around combat arenas that see fights end that much quicker. While cutting the tedium of these miserable encounters short is an appreciated relief, the result is a campaign that feels, more than anything, cheap.

Bereft of any unique encounters and devoid of the series' staple production value, Black Ops 7's gaudy hallucinogenic death march marks a brutal franchise low—one that other modes don't make up for. I played this in co-op across two monstrous sessions, streaming it for friends while playing with some randoms, and the silver lining here is that there is almost a "so bad its good" factor at play here.

My online co-op partners were all mic'd up and equally dedicated to putting this beast to bed as fast as possible, and the frequent moments of shared frustration, bafflement, and genuine shock that they could release something this bad led to more sanity-unravelling screaming than anything Alex Mason was subjected to vis-à-vis the Numbers Program.

The aesthetic weaknesses of the campaign aren't a compromise that allows for a boldly stylish multiplayer—across the board, Black Ops 7 is hideous. The near-future Call of Dutys have never been my favorites in the series, but one doesn't have to look too far back to find levels and maps that feel leagues more inspired than anything Treyarch is offering now.

Black Ops 7 is Call of Duty at its loudest and most obnoxious, made all the worse by sweeping usage of generative AI. The taint of this stuff is across the whole of the game—victory screens, calling cards, weapon skins, and even textures occasionally have that smeary Grok look placed front and center. For a game that already feels like a barebones production compared to the usual CoD spectacle, having to look at assets that resemble straight Grok outputs with zero cleanup makes the whole package feel shockingly cheap.

Never be game over

Upon wrapping the campaign, Black Ops 7 unlocks the endgame mode, a co-operative PvE exploration mode that takes place on what is absolutely the newest iteration of Warzone's map update. Dropping into the Mediterranean township of Avalon, you're left to awkwardly meander between PvE objectives, opening crates, looting gear, and choosing perks to up your odds against the increasingly difficult (read: tedious) combat encounters.

What really undermines Endgame is some brutal weapon and enemy tuning that leaves anything short of Legendary gear drops feeling all but unbearable in the hand. The campaign's issues with enemy AI and positioning are massively exacerbated in an open world space, and to compensate for how quickly enemy AI will break upon the exertion of the slightest pressure, the lowliest grunt to the most frail zombie has been given boosts to damage and health, requiring sustained full-auto fire to the head to put down. It's beyond exhausting, and with a map that fails to string together any of its zones in an interesting way, I can't see myself ever returning to Endgame.

Endgame's casual competitive counterpart, Skirmish, also failed to hold my attention. Even the sweatiest 20 vs 20 gunfights fail to evoke a fraction of the chaos of the most casual 16 vs 16 Battlefield 6 lobbies, mostly due to the decision to again jam Warzone's armor plating system somewhere it does not belong. The essence of Call of Duty is dead sprinting straight out of spawn and going on an insane kill or death spree. Where Warzone's high time serves as a safety net, Skirmish just feels like a waste of time, demanding greater precision and accuracy with a whatever arsenal of laser accurate recoilless weapons.

I'll cop to being a bit of a military otaku with an eye for accuracy, so this year's near-future arsenal update was already fighting an uphill battle for my approval. Even still, there was nothing here that gripped me—I appreciated the handling parallels between the AK-27 and the AK-47 of earlier entries, even down to the slim profile of the iron sights, but otherwise, BO7's arsenal feels like a real step back from last year's, nearly indistinguishable slabs of iridescent electronics and polished gunmetal. It's a dry roster in contrast to BO6. Even after twenty odd hours and fifty plus levels, the only gun I could name is the AK-27.

Better off alone

BO7 doesn't shore up its singleplayer deficiencies with a strong competitive offering, either. New mobility options in the form of wall jumps do little to complement maps that seem fundamentally at odds with an increase of vertical mobility. After 40-plus levels grinding out the mosh pit playlist, the only real utility I could identify for wall jumps was in some clever lane-switching to get up to the solar panels on the map "Raid".

Moreover, despite promises to reign it in, BO7's aesthetics are already compromised by the baffling decision to marry together the cosmetics of the Zombies mode and the regular multiplayer. At present, there are robots running around draped in human flesh and zombie hunting time travellers swan diving onto the decks of futuristic mining platforms—it looks nakedly ridiculous, and I was constantly gawking at how gaudy BO7's overall presentation is.

Zombies, is, near as I can tell, very nearly the same as it ever was. The addition of driveable vehicles is cool, but it feels like little more than a way to awkwardly transit from one overlong gunfight where you kite bullet sponges to another—and really, that description feels like it fits most of BO7.

Equal parts obnoxious and exhausting: All I could think while playing was, "God, was it really always like this?" And even if it feels like it sometimes, after years of these games hammering both your wallet and your senses, it's worth remembering that it wasn't. And with that perspective, BO7 becomes all the more irritating, and entrenches itself as a content ecosystem I desperately want to escape from.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 is only a couple of weeks away, but as we creep closer, the devs are still fine-tuning the multiplayer and campaign experience to ensure they're both as smooth as possible.

We've had plenty of patch notes and changes to this end. Treyarch has even changed the requirements for players to get into Endgame, opening it up to everyone. But now Matt Scronce, design director at Treyarch, has decided to go through some of the big changes in a dev diary, starting with aim assist.

"Aim assist is a big conversation and we have been closely monitoring that conversation, and of course, looking at our internal data, we're fairly happy with where we're at," Scronce says. "But we will be making some very nuanced changes and slightly increasing aim assist's strength over range ahead of Season 1."

The goal is apparently "to create a more balanced and competitive experience" by increasing the range of rotational aim assist. Although this comes with a new requirement: a player's right stick movement has to track an enemy for rotational aim assist to activate at its full strength. Which may work to balance out the aim assist strength buff, although the tweaks and changes with these features are usually so small that it's hard to tell whether it's even changed.

Scronce also touches upon other sore spots with Black Ops 7's multiplayer: "With spawns, we are always closely monitoring our spawn system and spawn logic across the board. We've got some big changes coming in Season 1. And then ahead of that, we're looking very closely at hardpoint free-for-all and team deathmatch spawns specifically."

Another big change will come in the form of a drone pod nerf. But, don't get your hopes up too high, as it doesn't sound like Treyarch has figured out all the kinks yet: "We have a ton of knobs and levers there, so we're still trying to figure out exactly how we're going to approach that. It may come down to reducing the number of drones or their flight speed, but rest assured, we are taking a close look at that one."

Other changes coming ahead of Season 1 include an increased visible range for the default minimap in multiplayer, weapon balances, and crash and stability updates.

Ashes of the Damned is the first Zombies map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and it's the largest round-based map the series has ever seen. It also features a lengthy main questline to follow with a ton of other easter eggs you can discover along the way.

The Ashes of the Damned main quest revolves around Ol' Tessie, your trusty truck that gets you around the map. There are a bunch of parts you need to find at every major location in Ashes of the Damned, and this easter egg is a doozy even for the most experienced Zombies players.

How to unlock Pack-a-Punch in Ashes of the Damned

As always, this Zombies easter egg starts with the Pack-a-Punch machine. In a new twist, Pack-a-Punch follows you around Ashes of the Damned on the back of Ol' Tessie.

Before you can do anything, you need to get Ol' Tessie up and running. Head into the Server Room at Janus Towers Plaza and melee the round circular grate on the floor to reveal T.E.D.D.'s Head.

Take the head outside and install it on the old pickup truck. That's Ol' Tessie. Make sure you treat her right.

On the Road Again

Now that Ol' Tessie is mobile, hop in and drive southwest to Blackwater Lake. With the truck's help, you can smash through the wooden barricades blocking the road.

While traveling between every point of interest on Ashes of the Damned, you'll be hounded by aggressive special zombies that'll latch onto the truck and attack. The roads are also lined with red explosive pods that'll deal serious damage to poor Ol' Tessie.

Getting stranded on foot is a death sentence, so keep a close eye on Ol' Tessie's health. You can repair the truck by driving over the green pods along the road. If there are too many zombies on the truck, you can lean out of the window and shoot them off before driving on.

Blackwater Lake

Once you arrive at Blackwater Lake, it's safe to hop out of the truck and continue on foot. Ol' Tessie will slowly recover HP while you're away as well.

Stop me if you've heard this one before—you need to get the power back online here. To do so, shoot all the glowing orange pods off the metal Power Pump outside the cabin. Once the infestation is cleared, a final pod will appear on top of the pump. Destroy that and the pump will start working again.

There's a time limit before the infestation regrows, so focus your fire on the pods and ignore the zombies unless you want to start over again. Don't be afraid to pick up a new weapon if you require some additional firepower.

Once the pump is back online, you can enter the cabin and flip the power switch on the upper floor. That'll open the metal gate blocking the road.

Ashwood

Once you're ready to move on, climb into the truck and drive south to Ashwood.

When you get there, you'll find a zipline leading to an elevated area. Zip up there and purchase your way through all the doors to reach another Power Pump atop the wooden bridge.

This Power Pump is identical to the last one, so shoot the orange pods to clear the infestation. Once the pump gets pumping again, flip the nearby power switch to bring the lights back on.

With the power restored, a garage will open up on the ground level. Drop back down and park Ol' Tessie inside. Grab the Pack-a-Punch machine from the workbench, then install it onto the back of Ol' Tessie.

Now, you can Pack-a-Punch your weapons anywhere on the map. This upgrade also gives Ol' Tessie a nitro boost that you can activate to slam through zombies or just get to your next destination faster.

Upgrading Ol' Tessie with the Abomination Beam

The next part of this easter egg involves upgrading Ol' Tessie even further. You'll have to make a few pit stops around the map, but you'll end up with a sweet new weapon called the Abomination Beam.

To get it, drive to Exit 115 at the southern tip of the map. There, you'll find Reba's Diner. Head inside and kill zombies until one of them drops the Freezer Key. The kills only count inside the diner, so don't stray too far!

When you finally get the Freezer Key, take it to the kitchen and use it to open the freezer in the southwest corner of the room by the back door. There's an Abomination Carcass inside.

Grab the Abomination Carcass and drive back to Ashwood where you install the Pack-a-Punch machine onto Ol' Tessie. Park in the garage and you'll be able to upgrade her yet again, this time with the Abomination Beam.

How to get the Necrofluid Gauntlet Wonder Weapon

Every Zombies map has a Wonder Weapon to discover, and Ashes of the Damned's new toy is called the Necrofluid Gauntlet.

Uber Klaus

To get this bad boy, you're going to have to defeat a miniboss, run some errands across the whole map, and solve a strange symbol puzzle to cap things off. It sounds complicated, but it's really not that bad once you get a practice run under your belt.

To start, you need to defeat Uber Klaus at Janus Towers Plaza. He'll only spawn from Round 8 onwards, but you should be just about there by this point in the run. Approach the shipping container in the northwest corner of Janus Towers Plaza and Uber Klaus will jump out and attack.

Like most Zombies minibosses, Uber Klaus is a menace if you're not prepared. He has both melee and ranged attacks, so keep moving to avoid damage. Target his purple weak spots for easy damage.

When Uber Klaus is defeated, he'll drop the Stabilizer Chip. Pick it up and drive to Ashwood. There, use the zipline and enter the Market Square area. Go into the jail in the northeast corner to find Klaus sitting inside a cell.

Install the Stabilizer Chip on the keypad by the cell door, then toss three Stun Grenades at Klaus and make sure he actually gets hit by the blast.

If done correctly, Klaus will spring to life and follow whoever threw the grenades. You can control him and direct him to specific locations by pressing your Tactical equipment key.

Aether Barrel

With Klaus in tow, drive to Zarya Cosmodrome and bring him underground to the Support Systems room. Direct him to the control panel on the western wall and he'll turn it on with an electric shock. You can then interact with the control panel, before defending it against waves of zombies.

As long as you stay in the designated area for long enough, the scan will complete and the glass display case will open up. Take the Aether Barrel for the next step of the easter egg. Also, grab the Wisp Tea perk while you're here. You'll be using it in a few minutes.

You'll need to take the Aether Barrel to each of the power pumps at Blackwater Lake, Ashwood, and Vandorn Farm. Just bring it to the pumps and you'll see a prompt to insert it. Defend against the waves of incoming zombies to fill up the Aether Barrel. You only have a limited time before the energy decays and you have to start over, so act fast.

Save Vandorn Farm for last. That's where you'll bring the filled Aether Barrel. Don't use Jump Pads to get from place to place, either. They'll make you drop the barrel..

Cube symbols puzzle

Once you've visited all three pumps, head into the barn cellar at Vandorn Farm. There's a strange cube in the middle of the cellar. Interact with it and it'll start to glow with strange symbols on each side.

Head back outside and use the Jump Pad to launch yourself toward Janus Towers Plaza. If you look down during your ascension, you'll notice some glowing red symbols on the rooftops of Vandorn Farm. Memorize these or write them down. Jump back to Vandorn Farm and go back downstairs to the cube once you've learned the three rooftop symbols.

Back at the cube, swap the symbols inside each of the green circles to match the symbols you saw on the rooftops. After picking the right symbols, interact with the front of the cube to finally get the Necrofluid Gauntlet.

The game immediately gives you a chance to test it out with a little trial. Zombies will rush the basement and green orbs will appear around the room. Use the Necrofluid Gauntlet to destroy each of the orbs, then escape the cellar and return to Ol' Tessie.

Gathering the serum ingredients

Now that you finally have the Wonder Weapon, it's time to start gathering ingredients to make the special serum needed for the easter egg. There are six things you need to retrieve in total.

• Powder of the Forgotten
• Widow's Lantern
• Human Bones
• Ravager Eyes
• Hoard Husk Chunks
• Mysterious Limb

Powder of the Forgotten

The first item you need is the Powder of the Forgotten. You need the Wisp Tea perk from Zarya Cosmodrome for this step, so drive over there and buy it if you didn't earlier.

Now, head over to Ashwood and enter the Tailor Shop east of the power pump. Inside, you'll find a spooky mirror with the words "her lullaby woke the dead" painted on the wall next to it. How quaint.

Odd interior design decisions aside, you need to shoot zombies to activate Wisp Tea. The Wisp will then enter the mirror and reveal a weird cube on the other side. Shoot it with the Necrofluid Gauntlet to get the Powder of the Forgotten.

Widow's Lantern

Next up is the Widow's Lantern. Before you can get it, you need to swing by Blackwater Lake and pick up a special item called the Jar of Spores, located by the kitchen sink.

Once you have the Jar of Spores, drive over to Vandorn Farm where you'll find a horse carcass on the main road before entering the property. Use the Jar of Spores on the horse and come back in three rounds to collect the Widow's Lantern.

Since this step takes three rounds, you can work on other parts of the easter egg in the meantime. On subsequent runs, you can also pick up the Jar of Spores and kickstart the Widow's Lantern growth earlier in the session to save time.

Human Bones

The Serum also requires a set of Human Bones, which you can find without leaving Vandorn Farm.

Head inside the barn and check the bodies hanging from the ceiling. One of the zombies suspended in the middle of the room is dripping blood from its leg. Throw a Combat Axe at the leg to sever its foot, then burn the fallen foot with a Molotov to get the Human Bones.

Ravager Eyes

You can also stay in Vandorn Farm for the next Serum ingredient: Ravager Eyes.

To get this item, wait for a Ravager to spawn. These are the special enemies that appear every five rounds. When they show up, activate a Saw Trap and lure a Ravager close enough to it. It'll get chopped to bits, leaving you with a pair of Ravager Eyes as a keepsake.

Hoard Husk Chunks

The next item on your apocalyptic shopping list is a set of Hoard Husk Chunks. You'll need Ol' Tessie's help to get this part.

Take Ol' Tessie out onto any of the roads between the points of interest. Keep an eye on the side of the road for big glowing purple pods. Use the Abomination Beam to destroy them and find the Hoard Husk Chunks.

Mysterious Limb

The final piece of the puzzle is the Mysterious Limb, which you can only obtain after reaching Round 16. That's because you need to kill a Zursa, a massive infected bear that only appears from then on.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to get the Mysterious Limb. Once a Zursa spawns, kill it with Ol' Tessie's Abomination Beam. As long as the beam lands the killing blow, the bear will drop a Mysterious Limb.

Making the Serum

Once you have all six ingredients, it's time to combine them into a special Serum. Drive over to Zarya Cosmodrome and enter Yuri's Lab in the southwestern corner of the area.

All of the Serum ingredients are already laid out for you on the table in the back corner of Yuri's Lab. Interact with the Powder of the Forgotten and a cloud of smoke will fill the air, revealing a strange cipher on the chalkboard behind the table.

This part is tricky since the solution is different for everyone. Basically, you need to interact with three ingredients in a specific order. The cipher tells you the correct items. To save you the hassle, I've translated the names of every ingredient in the table below.

Interact with the three listed ingredients from top to bottom. If you choose the right ones, you'll see a prompt to add blood to the flask on the table. Whoever adds blood to the flask will have their HP permanently reduced to 75 for the remainder of the session, which can't be reversed.

After blood is added, you'll be locked in the lab while waves of zombies attack. After about two minutes, you'll finally be free to go.

Finding the keys

Brewing the Serum results in some changes at each major point of interest, so it's time for another roadtrip. You need to track down three keys to unlock a box in Ashwood:

• Terrapin Key
• Bruin Key
• Nightbird Key

Each of these keys is located on the roads between locations, and you'll need to use the Necrofluid Gauntlet to grab them from afar. When you get a key, you'll have to bring it to the locked box in Rabbit Alley on the western side of Ashwood.

Terrapin Key

The Terrapin Key is located on the Grounded Ship between Ashwood and Vandorn Farm. This key glows bright green.

There are three different spawn locations for the green key. You can find it in a blue shipping container on the deck, in the bottom part of the ship by a well-lit staircase, or inside a zombie-spawning window on the southern side of the deck.

Collecting the Terrapin Key will prevent you from sprinting, so use Ol' Tessie to safely make it back to Ashwood.

Bruin Key

You can find the Bruin Key on the road between Ashwood and Zarya Cosmodrome. It's bright yellow, making it easy to spot in the fog.

This key can spawn in three distinct locations. You'll either find it inside the fallen radio tower above the road, on the edge of a Zarya Cosmodrome building with a spinning radar dish, or on the cliff by the Ashwood gate.

When you grab the Bruin Key, you'll be forced to switch to your melee weapon. You won't be able to use your guns, and you'll have to run all the way to Ashwood on foot.

Nightbird Key

The Nightbird Key is located on the road between Ashwood and Exit 115. It glows bright red.

This key also has three possible spawn locations. You'll find it in the mouth of the T-Rex skull on the western wall, inside the southern T-Rex skull on the ground, or by the Project Janus trucks near Exit 115.

Picking up the Nightbird Key will completely disable health regeneration, so get into Ol' Tessie as fast as possible and floor it all the way back to Ashwood.

DG-2 Turret Barrel

With all three keys, you'll unlock the box in Ashwood and kick off the mid-game cutscene. You're getting closer to the final boss! There's still a lot of work left to do, though.

You'll be rewarded with the DG-2 Turret Barrel at this stage. It's a key upgrade for Ol' Tessie that you'll need to finish the main quest. Install it at the Ashwood garage.

You'll also notice that a huge clock tower is floating over the center of Ashwood now. If you shoot that clock tower with the DG-2, it'll start to glow purple. You can then shoot any of the four clock faces with the Necrofluid Gauntlet to give it a matching purple glow effect. The gauntlet's purple power will let you complete four more puzzles in each of the map's major points of interest.

Vandorn Farm puzzle

The easiest of the four easter egg steps at this point is Vandorn Farm, so hop in the truck and drive on over.

Enter the Farmhouse and look at the clock on the wall above the TV. Make a note of the time, then examine the floorboards surrounding the dinner table.

There are Roman numerals etched into the floor in a clock pattern. Stand on the Roman numeral that matches the time on the clock on the wall. Once you're standing on the right time, the father's corpse will turn to look at you. When you see his eyes glow red, shoot him with the Necrofluid Gauntlet.

Next, you need to collect four items around Vandorn Farm.

1. Tasty Face teddy bear on the bunk beds on the second floor of the Farmhouse.
2. Junior's Fun-Face mask in the corner of the Barn's upper floor.
3. Ma's Chalice by the bathtub in the cellar.
4. Pa's Pigticker on the workbench in the Garage.

Once you've collected all four items, four red circles will appear outside. Place all four items in their corresponding circle, then defend against the incoming horde of zombies.

How to solve the Exit 115 Puzzle

The next puzzle takes place at Exit 115, but you can only complete it on an even-numbered round. Remember to go and shoot the clock tower in Ashwood if you haven't already!

To kick things off, climb onto the roof of the Service Station and shoot the big clock with the Necrofluid Gauntlet. This will start a 60-second timer. To complete this puzzle, you have to wake up three special zombies and lead them to one of three colored lightning strikes before the time runs out:

• To summon the trucker zombie, use Ol' Tessie's Abomination Beam to attack the red shipping container next to the diner.
• To summon the waitress zombie, melee the cash register inside the diner.
• To summon the mechanic zombie, summon Klaus and order him to stomp the lifted car.

To complete this puzzle, each of these special zombies needs to be led to one of the three lightning strikes around Exit 115.

• The trucker zombie needs to go to the red lightning strike on top of the gas station.
• The waitress zombie needs to go to the purple lightning strike on top of the diner.
• The mechanic zombie needs to go to the yellow lightning strike on top of the service station.

You don't need to do all three in the same 60-second window. If you run out of time, come back again and repeat the process with the remaining zombies.

How to solve the Zarya Cosmodrome puzzle

Over at Zarya Cosmodrome, you'll be solving another cipher puzzle. Before you start, use the Necrofluid Gauntlet to shoot the two rapidly-spinning rooftop arrays.

Once the arrays are slowed, head into the Control Room by the Wisp Tea machine. There are two sets of monitors inside. Four monitors on the back wall will repeatedly flash with different numbers, while another pair of monitors flashes between cipher symbols.

To solve the puzzle, you need to figure out what word the cipher monitors are spelling out. Then, you need to stop the number monitors on the numbers that correspond to the letters in that word. For example, 0 is A, 1 is B, 2 is C, 3 is D, and so on.

There are four words that the cipher symbols can spell out. To save you some time, use this conversation key.

Observe the symbol monitors to see which of the four words they're spelling, then shoot the red buttons on the other monitors to lock in a number. If you get everything right, the rocket outside will launch.

How to solve the Blackwater Lake puzzle

The final section of the easter egg before the boss fight takes place at Blackwater Lake. Go and shoot the Ashwood clock tower to power up your Wonder Weapon, then drive over to the cabin.

To solve this puzzle, you need to find and shoot four hidden film reels scattered around the cabin area. Start things off by interacting with the wisp on the dock, then go inside and shoot the projector in the cabin's screening room with the Necrofluid Gauntlet.

The projector will show you the location of four film reels in a random order. You have to find and shoot them in that order, and it's different every time. If you get the order wrong, the game will reward you with a jump scare.

Cabin Front Film Reel

For the image of the front of the cabin, you can find the film reel on a shelf on the second floor by the power switch.

Cabin Rear Film Reel

For the image of the back of the cabin, you can find the film reel underneath the porch stairs.

Tool Shed Film Reel

For the image of the tool shed, you can find the film reel on a shelf in the side room.

Boat House Film Reel

For the image of the boat house, you can find the film reel in the rafters above you.

Once you've shot all four film reels, head up to the bedroom on the second floor of the cabin. Interact with the wisp, then call in Klaus and bring him up to the bedroom. He'll grab an item from the box by the bed and walk down to the docks.

At this point, you're at the final stage of the easter egg. You can talk to Klaus at the pier to initiate the Ashes of the Damned final boss.

Final Road Trip

In order to enter the final boss arena, you need to drive around the map one last time with Ol' Tessie. There are wisps located along the roads between each major point of interest, and you have to collect all of them to teleport to the final boss.

Each road has three wisps to collect. Thankfully, they're not hidden, but this step is timed, so you'll have to move quickly unless you want to restart the process in the next round.

There are 12 wisps to grab in total. To get them all:

1. Start at Blackwater Lake and drive to Janus Towers Plaza.
2. From there, go to Vandorn Farm.
3. Then, drive to Ashwood before circling back to Blackwater Lake

Each road has three wisps to collect. Once you've grabbed the last one, you'll be instantly teleported to the boss arena.

How to Beat Veytharion

Veytharion is a massive floating boss that you'll have to defeat with the help of Ol' Tessie. It's hard to pull off solo, but not impossible. Just keep driving and watch out for Zursas and other elite zombies.

Veytharion will constantly bombard you with explosive attacks marked by red circles on the ground. It also has a devastating beam attack that can down you in seconds. Take cover behind the pillars to avoid it.

The boss will also periodically grab Ol' Tessie and chuck it across the arena like a toy truck. The damage will force you out of the truck, and you'll have to spend some Salvage to get it up and running again. Decoy grenades or other distractions are a godsend here.

Finally, Veytharion will become invulnerable at certain points during the fight. To break its shield, you have to drive around the arena and collect energy with Ol' Tessie. Once you've collected enough, you can boost off the ramps and slam into Veytharion to weaken it. You can also use the ramps like this throughout the fight to deal big damage as well.

Once Veytharion finally goes down, you'll have completed the main quest for Ashes of the Damned! Now that you've finished the easter egg once, you can use Relics in Cursed mode to make the game even harder.

Treyarch has taken some big swings with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this year, and while not all of them have landed (what the hell is that giant dude doing in the campaign?), one has done a better job than the rest: the extraction shooter-style Endgame mode.

After finishing the campaign, players get access to a new mode, Endgame, where they can complete objectives, gain experience and loot and then exfil at designated points. The addition of extraction to the usual COD multiplayer blueprint is certainly interesting, but the only problem was that unless you complete the campaign or have a friend who has, you couldn't check it out.

That was until Treyarch made the recent change of opening Endgame up to everyone, no matter if they'd finished the campaign or not. "We've seen an awesome response to Endgame from players who've already been dropping in, so we're making it available to everyone in Black Ops 7 starting Friday, November 21," Treyarch says in an official social media post.

Soon, everyone will be allowed into Avalon to earn "unique weapon camos, and take on new threats". You and your squad can fight in escalating zones of difficulty and then can exfil to maintain your combat rating and loot.

But what if you've already grinded the campaign and got into Endgame before this? Don't worry if you have, you'll be compensated. "If you've already completed the co-op campaign to unlock Endgame, we're sending additional rewards your way," the post says. These include the following:

• 3x 1-hour double level XP tokens
• 3x 1-hour double weapon XP tokens
• 3x 1-hour double battle pass XP tokens
• 3x Perkaholic Gobblegums

Meanwhile, those who dive straight into Endgame will also get a few co-op campaign unique rewards as well a global XP and a dedicated camo track:

• Irides One M15 MOD 0 Blueprint
• Phantom Shadow SK Blueprint
• Razorfire Vertex Ryden 45K Blueprint
• Grounded Mason Operator Skin
• 55,000 XP

While I can't say I've particularly enjoyed the campaign so far, I am happy to hear that Endgame will soon be unlocked for all. This mode is by far the most interesting part of Black Ops 7 and one that I've wanted to check out for some time now, so for better or worse, I'll be checking it out when tomorrow rolls around.

It's hard to put down the M15 loadout in Black Ops 7, I'll admit, but if you can, you'll find what is potentially an even better assault rifle in the AK-27. Plus, since it unlocks at level 4, which is also when you unlock custom classes, you can get cracking with the best BO7 AK-27 loadout almost immediately.

That's great news because there's nothing that makes the arduous Mastery Camos grind more palatable than using one of the best guns in the BO7 meta. It really is a blast to use.

Below, I'll go over all the attachments I recommend using on the AK-27 assault rifle, so take notes, though it's a nice and simple build, truth be told.

Best AK-27 loadout in Black Ops 7

The best AK-27 build in BO7 is as follows:

• Muzzle: SWF Tishina-11
• Barrel: 14" Prism Light Barrel
• Underbarrel: Lateral Precision Grip
• Rear Grip: Dictum Light Grip
• Fire Mods: Buffer Spring

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: A02-73YVR-NY51. To do this, just open the loadout menu, select the AK-27, and click the small gun icon to the right of the 'create new build' option.

It's worth pointing out that this is a five-attachment build, as I don't think you really need any more. However, if you'd like to run the Gunfighter Wildcard for three bonus attachments, I'd suggest an optic, a larger magazine, and a 1mW Instinct Laser Array.

As is typical of Call of Duty, I can't recommend a suppressor enough to hide you from the mini-map while firing. The Monolithic Suppressor isn't a bad option, but I prefer the simple SWF Tishina-11 since it has no downsides. If you don't care about staying stealthy, then you can use the EMT3 Ported-70 muzzle instead.

The AK-27 has more recoil than the laser-like M15 MOD 0, so you'll actually need some added stabilisation. That's where the Lateral Precision Grip and Buffer Springs come in. The former significantly reduces horizontal recoil, which is harder to control than vertical recoil, while the latter improves both types. The Flowguard Foregrip is a good underbarrel alternative, but I'd rather have even more horizontal recoil control than slightly more movement speed.

With recoil tidied up, it's time to amp up the AK's mobility, and that's achieved with the 14" Prism Light Barrel and Dictum Light Grip. These combine to improve aim down sight speed and sprint to fire speed, including while jumping, so they're very useful to have given BO7's close-quarters maps. If you slide and dive more than you jump, swap the Dictum Light Grip for the Garin Advanced Grip.

Black Ops 7 AK-27 class setup

I suggest using the following items in your AK-27 class:

• Wildcard: Perk Greed
• Field Upgrade: Drone Pod (Quick Launcher)
• Tactical: Stun Grenade (Longer Stun)
• Lethal: Semtex (High-Density Explosives)
• Perk 1: Lightweight
• Perk 2: Fast Hands
• Perk 3: Dexterity
• Bonus Perk: Flak Jacket/Tac Mask

This class takes advantage of the AK-27's versatility and mobility, so it's a good idea to start with the perks—I recommend using the Perk Greed Wildcard for an extra perk. Lightweight, Fast Hands, and Dexterity all improve your overall movement and handling, while Flak Jacket/Tac Mask reduce the effectiveness of enemy throwables.

To further bolster the aggressive nature of the AK, equip Drone Pods, Stun Grenades with a longer duration, and even more explosive Semtex. The Drone Pod hounds enemies, while the Flashbang and Semtex are perfect for clearing rooms. If you'd rather hold down an area, then Pinpoint Grenades and the Point Turret are also a fun combination.

Excluding knives, pistols, and launchers, you've got a total of 23 weapons to play around with in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. That's a lot (though two less than Black Ops 6), so it's not always easy to know what the best guns are at any given moment if you're more meta-minded.

Of course, if you're going for all the Black Ops 7 Mastery Camos, then you'll be using all 30 of the launch weapons eventually, anyhow. Even so, it's a good idea to start with the meta weapons in the event that they get nerfed and become harder to progress. Or, better yet, the worst guns get a buff later down the line.

Best Black Ops 7 guns in the meta

In the launch Black Ops 7 meta, the best guns are:

M15 MOD 0

It may be the very first assault rifle in the game, but the M15 loadout doesn't mess around. Seriously. To make up for its fairly average rate of fire for an assault rifle, the M15 has great mobility and handling. Plus, it's also got a reliable 315ms time-to-kill all the way out to 46 meters and little recoil compared to its counterparts like the MXR-17.

It's a great all-rounder, and you don't even need to lift a finger to unlock it. Honestly, it's basically the only weapon you need.

AK-27

If you can manage to rip yourself away from the M15, your next pick should be the AK-27 assault rifle. It's got the third fastest time-to-kill of all the assault rifles at 264ms, but it's got effectively no range drop off, even compared to the M15.

Alongside this fast TTK, the AK-27 also boasts easily controllable recoil and great close-range handling, too. It's a jack of all trades, especially with mobility-boosting attachments in the best AK-27 loadout.

Dravec 45

The SMGs aren't doing too hot right now, but it's hard to ignore the Dravec 45. This was the king of the beta, and although it was nerfed for launch, it's still a very strong pick. The Dravec is intended for close-range shootouts, and that's undoubtedly where it excels, particularly if you use mobility attachments. Basically, you want to slide and jump all over the place while rinsing enemies.

The Dravec also has surprisingly great recoil control and better damage drop off than any other SMG. In other words, you'd be surprised how strong the Dravec can be in medium range when the situation calls for it.

RK-9

The other SMG that's worth using, and one of my favourite weapons in the entire game, is the RK-9. It's an odd SMG in that it's actually burst-fire, but it rocks an incredibly fast TTK. In fact, if you're using its Prestige attachment to increase the rate of fire, it'll kill in just 169ms.

I wasn't expecting a burst-fire SMG to be this powerful, but it is, and it's so much fun to use. Build it for mobility, and you'll blitz through the enemy.

Warden 308

The Warden 308 might just be the most baffling and infuriating weapon in BO7. It's a marksman rifle, so you'd expect it to be better suited to long range, but that's not really the case in practice. Slap on a red dot, and the Warden is basically a shotgun with max range.

This rifle will kill enemies with just one shot to the chest and above. So, use attachments to increase aim down sight speed and close-range handling, and literally nothing will be able to out DPS you—even with its built-in firing delay.

M34 Novaline

Like the Warden, the M34 Novaline is a marksman rifle that makes mincemeat of people at close and medium range. It fires in a two-shot burst, but land both shots, and your enemy will drop in the blink of an eye.

Just as you would with the Warden, use attachments to increase aim down sight speed and handling so you're more agile with this larger weapon.

All Black Ops 7 weapons and how to unlock them

At launch, there's a total of 30 weapons in Black Ops 7, made up of 23 primary weapons, three pistols, two launchers, and two melee weapons. There will be seven more weapons arriving in Season 1 shortly after launch, too.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 came under intense fire last week, with players and developers alike criticising Activision Blizzard's use of generative AI to produce many of the game's calling cards. Now, US Congressman Ro Khanna has weighed in on the furore, calling for proper regulations on AI use in the wake of the controversy.

Responding to the social media post that triggered the debate on X (via Eurogamer) Khanna stated: "We need regulations that prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profits. Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed. They should share in the profits. And there should be a tax on mass displacement."

This is not a new position for Khanna, who has been calling for regulations on how generative AI is both created and deployed in the US. In an interview with the Verge last year, Khanna provided a detailed explanation of his position on AI. He criticised both the datasets genAI systems are trained upon, pointing out that models up to that point had been "trained with generative AI on everything on the Internet without necessarily distinguishing what is true from false", as well as how the technology makes it easier to spread misinformation, and the potential labour issues arising from it.

It's worth noting Khanna's position on AI isn't wholly negative. He cited potentially beneficial use for AI, pointing out that "There was someone in India actually using AI to have a politician speak in 20 different dialects. That could be a positive use of AI— Ro Khanna speaking in Spanish and speaking in Tagalog and speaking in Hindi across my constituency." But he pointed out that in such cases, viewers should be made aware that "that’s AI generated and that’s not really me speaking."

Activision responded to the furore surrounding its use of generative AI late last week, stating that it uses "a variety of digital tools, including AI tools to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players" adding that its "creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios."

This hasn't stopped criticisms of Black Ops 7 from flowing in, however, with the shooter currently sitting at the lowest user Metacritic score for any Call of Duty game so far. Meanwhile, Black Ops 7's Steam rating currently sits at 42% positive at the time of writing, with players criticising its "Terrible campaign" and "boring and repetitive" Endgame mode alongside Activision's use of AI generated art. PC Gamer's Morgan Park agrees the game is flawed, though he praised its loosening of skill-based matchmaking in competitive multiplayer.

Black Ops 7 largely doesn't aim to reinvent the Call of Duty wheel. In many ways, it's bringing together the best of Black Ops 6, 3, and 2, and stirring it in one giant pot to produce yet another potent brew that'll have me grinding Mastery camos once again.

But in a year where Call of Duty hasn't been so challenged in arguably well over a decade, largely thanks to Battlefield 6, it's the small changes that matter just as much as sweeping ones.

That said, a co-op campaign, an SBMM-free playlist, more Mastery Camos, Hybrid Combat Specialities, and double jumps are a pretty good list of sizable changes, even if it's not a radical reinvention. That's cool and all, but I'm more hyped about Overclocks, one of the few major upgrades to scorestreaks since Modern Warfare 3 (the first one) introduced point streaks—and it's a callback to the maligned Advanced Warfare of all things.

For the uninitiated, Overclocks are an upgrade system to apply new effects to your scorestreaks, field upgrades, and equipment. Each item has two levels, and the more you use them, the more you progress with them and boost their power.

You can upgrade the Stim Shot to remove debuffs and boost your speed, increase the Point Turret's rate of fire and even let you place it on walls and ceilings. One of the most popular, I'm sure, will be Active Camo's Overclocks, which cause gunfire to temporarily reveal you rather than end it, as well as increase its duration and recharge speed. The barebones Scout Pulse can be made even cheaper and add directional arrows to pings.

The upgrades are simple, sure, as is how you progress each one (thankfully no long-winded challenges), but it's enough to encourage me to actually experiment with different equipment, field upgrades, and scorestreaks rather than stick with my old favourites—though the Drone Pod is dumb fun, and you can even cause it to leave a minimap icon when it explodes.

With how deeply ingrained progression is to every other aspect of your arsenal, from levelling up to unlock new equipment, then grinding guns for attachments, and of course, collecting all the Mastery camos, I'm surprised it's taken this long.

The thing is, this isn't actually the first time we've had upgradeable equipment. Cast your mind back to 2014, and you might recall Modules from Advanced Warfare. Modules let you pick and choose upgrades for individual scorestreaks that would increase their cost, like faster UAV scans for +50 points cost or moving the UAV into orbit for +300 points so it couldn't be shot down. Importantly, Modules weren't earned through a distinct progression system, and only applied to scorestreaks (field upgrades didn't even exist).

That said, there is one aspect I wish Black Ops 7 would have stolen from its decade-old predecessor when it came to reviving and improving this long-dead feature: choice. As much as I love the brain-pleasing 'ding' of unlocking something for my hard work, there's a lack of agency and control over the Overclock upgrades in Black Ops 7 that made the original incarnation tick—you just pick one upgrade or the other.

Even better, combine both games' spins on the system and let me pick from two different upgrade paths, letting me personalise my gear from other players and weigh up the power of one upgrade against the higher cost of earning it in battle. We've got the satisfying progression; now we just need more impactful ultimatums.

"When I first showed them the boost jump, are you kidding me? They almost threw me out of the room." Former Call of Duty director Glen Schofield is recalling the day he pitched Advanced Warfare's signature mechanic to Activision.

As the series entered its second decade, it had already begun to veer away from historical drama and behind-the-headlines espionage. Treyarch was developing drone swarms for Black Ops 2, and Infinity Ward had dared to kick off the singleplayer campaign of Call of Duty: Ghosts in space.

What Schofield was proposing, though, was something different: a futuristic moveset that would interfere with the fundamentals of CoD's sacred multiplayer component. Rather than merely providing novelty in the campaign, the boost jump would change the rules of competitive deathmatch, enabling players to reach high rooftops in newly vertiginous maps, and gain an edge through skilful combination of double jumps and mid-air dashes.

If the idea backfired—drawing ire from a community which had grown used to its annualised fix of familiar FPS action—then Activision would be facing a serious threat to its most reliable cash cow.

Nonetheless, Advanced Warfare's concept was greenlit. Schofield's studio, Sledgehammer, had proven itself by saving Modern Warfare 3 after many of that project's original developers had walked out to work on Titanfall. It had earned some goodwill. But Schofield didn't take that trust for granted.

"We started to work on the game," he says. "We knew that it had been approved, but they weren't happy with the boost jump idea. So we put it in one of our older levels." In the earliest prototypes, Advanced Warfare's movement included wall jumps, something that ultimately wouldn't arrive in the series until later iterations.

"It took a lot of time to make it fun to jump, and now you gotta work on shooting," Schofield says. "It was like building a brand new game from scratch, because you have a main character that now jumps. You have to do shooting in every single direction. So it was a big, big project."

Development was complicated by the fact that Activision's higher-ups, back in the early 2010s, didn't know what an exoskeleton was. The entire concept of the boost jump depended on the idea that future soldiers could leap around with greater power and agility, and absorb the impacts of long falls, thanks to their exosuits. "But I knew that Neill Blomkamp's Elysium and Edge of Tomorrow were coming out before our game, and they would let people know about what an exoskeleton was," Schofield says. "Finally, when Activision saw the boost jump with the exoskeleton, and then we showed them a couple of trailers from Elysium, they understood."

The publisher was blown away. But the boost jump wasn't where its reservations ended. Schofield had envisioned a world 50 years in the future, where tanks walked. "I had a rule on the futuristic stuff. Anything in it had to have a hypothesis or prototype or theory," he says. "What I did was, I actually went back 50 years in the past, and I looked at predictions, and they were all off. And so I tried to use that same amount of change here, but we have to multiply it a little bit more because of computers and everything."

Activision proposed a compromise: that Sledgehammer shave five years off its timeline and set Advanced Warfare 45 years in the future instead. "I freaked them out with the walking tanks," Schofield says. "They're like, 'There's no such thing as a walking tank.' I said, 'You've got little walking drones right now.'"

During the same period, Schofield scheduled a private tour at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in LA. "It was a rocket scientist who showed me around," he says. "It's near the end of the day, and he said, 'I'm going to show you something. A walking tank.'"

The tank, composed of chunks of metal and wire, was lowered before Schofield's eyes. "I got video," he says. "They put a drill on it, and it was supposed to go to asteroids. I thought, 'It'd be easy just to put a turret on it in 50 years.' So Activision finally succumbed to allowing some of this stuff."

Advanced Warfare launched in 2014 to critical acclaim, with some of the more grudging praise coming from PC Gamer. "Bluntly, movement in Advanced Warfare is less fun than movement in Titanfall, which has more liberal jetpack jumps, bigger, taller maps, and wall-running chains," Tyler wrote in our review. "Even so, the exosuits do make for occasionally fun cat-and-mouse chases as we hop around all over the place."

By and large, the community responded well to the boost jump. But in subsequent years, that public mood curdled as Sledgehammer's fellow CoD studios, Treyarch and Infinity Ward, followed its lead with futuristic movement abilities.

"They then put the boost jump in the next two games," Schofield says. "So now you have three in a row with the boost jump, and the fans got a little bit sick of it. Some people say to me, 'Hey man, you created the boost jump, but I didn't really like it in the third one.' I'm like, 'Well, yeah, that has nothing to do with me.'"

Schofield laughs as another memory occurs to him. "You know what Bobby Kotick said to me after people wanted the boost jump out? He said, 'You know Glen, I think you maybe over-innovated there.' Over-innovated! I took it as a compliment."

In the wake of that shift, Sledgehammer scrapped plans for an Advanced Warfare 2, and instead took Call of Duty back to its original stomping ground, the Second World War. Activision's marketing for Call of Duty: WW2 led with the phrase 'boots on the ground', an unambiguous assurance that nobody would be wallrunning through Stalingrad.

"By then, it was enough of the boost jump," Schofield says. "And I wanted something new creatively, actually—I spent three years on Modern Warfare 3, which was about six years in the future. And then you have Advanced Warfare 45 years in the future. So for me, going back into the past was a different creative challenge. The other ones are about imagination. This one is about taking stuff that was used and making it really fun. It was a research project for me."

In the end, the cancellation of Advanced Warfare 2 was a blessing. Advanced Warfare had made Kevin Spacey its villain, and Schofield believes a sequel would have been impacted by the sexual misconduct allegations that later engulfed the actor. "We're lucky," Schofield says. "We were going to go there, and I'm glad we didn't, because it was like two months before we would have shipped when the scandal broke."

Listening to the story of Advanced Warfare and the boost jump, it's clear that making a Call of Duty is a tricky—and at times thankless—balancing act of creative and corporate interests. But Schofield's lodestar was always clear. "The fans were who I made the game for," he says. "I call it creative math, but it's easy math to me. You want to please the stockholders, you want to please the executives, you want to please everybody in the company. And if I just make the fans happy, the stockholders are happy, executives are happy, everybody's happy. So you just do it for the fans."

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out today, and if you thought we were going to make it through the day without an AI-generated art scandal, I am here to tell you, hoo boy, you're living in the wrong year. I can't say with 100% certainty that there is generative AI art in Black Ops 7, but an awful lot of fans sure think there is, and with good reason.

Images of what people believe to be AI-generated art assets have been appearing all over social media and Reddit, with complaints focusing primarily on calling card images because of their overt Studio Ghibli styling. AI-generated Ghibli images have been all the rage since earlier this year: In March, for instance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman swapped his profile picture on X for a Ghibli-style portrait that remains there to this day, despite Japan's largest manga publisher recently accusing OpenAI of "trampling on the dignity of artists" with its Sora 2 video app.

And, yeah, there's no denying that's pretty much exactly what these calling card images are, and shots are being fired.

On X:

And Bluesky:

Not to break immersion but when I came up with Tee's boss i had them be a call of duty fan cause I love very stupid details like that. So it would make sense for me to get Black ops 7 and stream it but how can i pay 70 bucks for such AI slop. I dropped Fragpunk for the same reason. Shit sucks

— @teetheclown.bsky.social (@teetheclown.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T21:02:17.273Z

And of course, Reddit:

So these calling cards are DEFINITELY AI generated right? from r/CODBlackOps7

Personally, my first question here would be, why the hell would you use Ghibli-style images in a Call of Duty game? It makes no sense. Fallout gets away with that kind of stylistic mash-up because it's thematically appropriate, and also Fallout has been doing it forever. But Black Ops? I'm not a fan of the series but I don't recall this sort of visual discord in previous entries.

Those of you who can remember back to last year will know that isn't the first time Activision has used generative AI to make in-game assets: They're present in Black Ops 6 (and Modern Warfare 3) as well. But in that case, the visuals were relatively normal and it took months of suspicion and allegations before Activision copped to it.

The Black Ops 7 calling card images stand in sharp contrast to those images, though, which just sort of sucked (and had bad fingers), and the feeling among some is that by using the popular Ghibli style, Activision is displaying a complete indifference to the potential for backlash. Where previously it might have taken a softer, more subtle approach to generative AI, this time around it's just rubbing people's faces in it.

Activision makes no secret of the fact that it uses AI, although as is the way with massive corporations, specifics are in short supply. The Black Ops 7 Steam page carries an obligatory AI generated content disclosure: "Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets."

That's not much to go on, and unfortunately Activision wasn't a whole lot more helpful in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "Like so many around the world, we use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools, to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players," Activision said. "Our creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios."

It's an empty bit of "people first!" noise that could just as easily refer to someone punching prompts into the plagiarism machine as actual artists creating actual art. Neither does it address the very straightforward question of, are these specific images gen-AI? The fact is, I don't know for certain, but given the preponderance of evidence I'm going to assume that, yeah, they probably are.

For the record, I have done my best to bully Activision into providing more specifics on the calling card images. I don't expect it'll relent, but I'll update this story if it does.

It's Call of Duty launch day—the yearly festival in which millions of eager revelers are presented with a fresh crop of maps, weapons, and killstreaks to enjoy as they slide, wallhop, and twitch their way through combat in a pseudonarcotic mania. This year's paramilitary bacchanal, however, seems a more muted celebration: On Steam, Black Ops 7 is drawing Call of Duty's lowest launch day player count since the series made its return to the Valve storefront in 2022.

According to SteamDB, which uses public data from the Steam API, there are 81,000 users playing Call of Duty on Steam at time of writing—well below the player counts of Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6, which are currently drawing around 370,000 and 236,000 simultaneous players, respectively. This does place Call of Duty in the top 10 of most-played games on Steam. But in comparison, when a similar amount of time had passed since Black Ops 6's midnight launch in 2024, Call of Duty was being played by almost 230,000 players on Steam.

In other words, Black Ops 7 is generating roughly one third of the launch day interest on Steam that Call of Duty had mustered last year.

Steam concurrent player counts, admittedly, only provide an incomplete picture of Call of Duty player activity. Users playing Black Ops 7 via an Game Pass subscription, for example, wouldn't be represented in those numbers. But even if we're limiting our scope to Steam activity, it's a stark decline.

This isn't exactly a surprise. For months, it's been clear that Call of Duty was facing its unfriendliest market in recent memory: As players voiced growing fatigue with COD's yearly churn and gradual Fortnitification, Battlefield 6 made a compelling pitch as a military shooter alternative. And barely two weeks before the Black Ops 7 launch, Arc Raiders emerged as an unexpected multiplayer phenomenon. Where it usually enters the holiday season with competing games going out of their way to create distance from it on the calendar, COD is facing a crowded field at the exact moment its footing seems shakiest.

Call of Duty launches (and indeed Steam launches in general) typically see their peak player counts on the weekend, so we can probably expect to see Black Ops 7 gain some momentum. But while we're probably not witnessing the realtime collapse of one of gaming's biggest franchises, the glimpses I've seen of BO7's boss fights against giant guys in the pasghetti dimension don't exactly inspire confidence.

I think most people would agree that field upgrades have always been kinda boring. Not bad, just not all that exciting. The new overclock upgrades certainly help, but—ammo crates, trophy systems, scramblers—field upgrades still aren't that fun in Black Ops 7. Well, that was until I used the Drone Pod.

This little device shoots out drones that chase down enemies and explode. And when I say chase, I mean it; these drones don't complain about having to travel halfway across the map to find a target.

If that sounds incredibly annoying to play against, then you're spot on. They're easy enough to shoot, sure, but you're wasting ammo shooting them out of the sky (don't forget how long reloading takes), and they're the perfect distraction.

While the drones are unlikely to score many kills (it requires two to hit a target to bag a kill), having one damage an enemy you're fighting is more than enough to seal the deal. It's basically an easy way to soften up the enemy or get them to fire their gun, wasting their ammo or even revealing them on the map if they're not using a suppressor.

Using the new overclock system, you can even upgrade these drones, causing them to launch faster or leave a minimap ping where they detonate.

The Drone Pod is annoying by itself, but it becomes more of an issue when multiple people on a team are using it. It's hard to effectively push a lane or an objective when there's an armada of explosive drones barreling towards you.

As far as field upgrades go, it's hard to say no to the Drone Pod. It's been a favourite of mine alongside my M15 loadout and Dravec 45 build, and I've no doubt I'll keep it by my side as I continue to grind for the Mastery Camos.

It's oddly unlike Call of Duty, but most of the SMGs in Black Ops 7 kind of suck. However, there is a contender amidst the crowd: the Dravec 45 loadout is one of the strongest weapons in the game right now.

If you're grinding for the Black Ops 7 Mastery Camos, then this is the one SMG that won't feel like you're banging your head against a wall. My recommendation is to start with the Dravec and hope that the other SMGs get a buff before you get around to them.

You'll unlock the Dravec at level 34, but you can use it earlier than that if you have the Vault Edition of BO7, since this comes with a Mastercraft version of the gun. Either way, here's the best Dravec build in BO7.

Best Dravec 45 loadout in Black Ops 7

The best Dravec 45 build in BO7 is as follows:

• Muzzle: Bowen .45 Suppressor
• Barrel: 12" Cloud Barrel
• Rear Grip: Herald-Z1 Grip
• Laser: LTI Swiftpoint Laser
• Fire Mods: Accelerated Recoil Springs

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: S04-8V9R9-YGB51. To do this, just open the loadout menu, select the Dravec 45, and click the small gun icon to the right of the 'create new build' option.

As you'd expect from an SMG, the Dravec is intended for close-range shootouts, and that's undoubtedly where it excels, though it's also got surprisingly great recoil control. This build focuses on improving mobility so you can hop around your enemy while you fill 'em with lead.

We're starting off simple with the no-frills Bowen .45 Suppressor. Literally all this does is remove the map ping when you're firing, but it means you can rotate around the map without alerting enemies. If you're not a fan of suppressors for whatever reason, then I'd swap it for either the Hawker Series 45 compensator or an optic.

To boost lethality up close, I recommend the 12" Cloud Barrel, Herald-Z1 Grip, and the LTI Swiftpoint Laser. Put together, these raise your aim down sight speed (including while jumping), as well as sprint, dive, and slide to fire speed. In other words, you're able to aim and fire faster after any type of movement, which is exactly what you want with an SMG. I'll note that it's more or less a toss-up between the Herald rear grip and the Helix-Tac Grip, depending on your playstyle, with the latter providing a bigger sprint to fire speed boost.

Last but not least is the Accelerated Recoil Springs System fire mod attachment. This improves both horizontal and vertical recoil control, which helps you go toe to toe with assault rifles slightly better in the grey area between close and mid ranges.

I don't think it's all that necessary, but if you want an eight-attachment setup using the Gunfighter Wildcard, I'd add an optic, the Gator Extended Mag, and the EAM Heritage Stock for good measure.

Black Ops 7 Dravec class setup

I suggest using the following equipment in your Dravec class:

• Wildcard: Perk Greed
• Field Upgrade: Drone Pod (Quick Launcher)
• Tactical: Stim Shot (Combat Performance Boost)
• Lethal: Cluster Grenade (Tighter Packing)
• Perk 1: Lightweight
• Perk 2: Fast Hands
• Perk 3: Dexterity
• Bonus Perk: Flak Jacket

Taking advantage of the Dravec's close-range power, I recommend the Lightweight, Fast Hands, and Dexterity perks to boost movement and handling. Trust me, it comes in clutch when you're rushing around. Thanks to the Perk Greed Wildcard, you should also pick up Flak Jacket, Tac Mask, or Ghost, depending on your preference.

Similarly, the Stim Shot, using the Combat Performance Boost overclock, is the perfect companion for the Dravec. Pop a Stim during or between fights to turn them in your favour. Your lethal grenade is generally up to personal preference, though I like the Cluster Grenade for clearing areas.

It's easy to look down on starter weapons, and you might feel inclined to do so with M15 MOD 0. Let's face it, basically being an M4, it's nothing you've not used in the past. Nevertheless, the best M15 loadout in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is one of its strongest, and you really don't need to put much work in to make it shine.

That's great news if you've got your sights set on the Black Ops 7 Mastery Camos, since you'll most likely start climbing that mountain (and what a climb it is) with the M15 MOD 0.

Although, if you want to collect everything, you'll have to get through this weapon's 47 levels, prestige it three times over, and then reach weapon level 250, so I hope you like it.

Best M15 loadout in Black Ops 7

The best M15 build in BO7 is as follows:

• Optic: Lethal Tools ELO
• Muzzle: VAS 5.56 Suppressor
• Barrel: 15" Mirage Light Barrel
• Magazine: Mayday Extended Mag
• Rear Grip: Contour Grip
• Stock: Wander-3V Stock
• Laser: 3mW Motion Strike Laser
• Fire Mods: Buffer Spring

Here's the build code so you can import it into your game: A01-B6FDL-EWND5-1. To do this, just open the loadout menu, select the M15, and click the small gun icon to the right of the 'create new build' option.

The defining feature of the M15 is its superb handling out of the box. Great recoil, combined with its consistent 315ms time-to-kill all the way out to 46 meters, makes it a great mid-range weapon. I like to take advantage of this by using attachments to make it more of a threat up close, especially if you like jumping around the place.

You'll no doubt have noticed that this build features eight attachments, so you'll need the Gunfighter Wildcard. Without this, you'll have a five-attachment version, so I'd drop the laser, magazine, and either the optic or suppressor.

While the Monolithic Suppressor might be tempting for its increased range and bullet velocity, I don't think it's worth taking the hit to aim down sight speed. Instead, I opt for the simple but effective VAS 5.56 Suppressor, which removes your ping when firing from enemy mini-maps with no downsides.

Then, to increase mobility, I love the 15" Mirage Light Barrel, Contour Grip and Wander-3V Stock. Combined, these attachments significantly buff aim down sight speed and sprint to fire speed (including while jumping), and also speed up aim walking movement for better strafing. I'll note that the Hexcut Grip is a good replacement for the Contour if you're always diving and sliding around.

It might sound somewhat counterintuitive to use the 3mW Motion Strike Laser with a suppressor, since the laser is visible while aiming, but it's really not that big of a deal (unlike the hipfire versions). Plus, this attachment provides massive boosts to range and recoil stabilisation, which is why you don't need to use a compensator or brake muzzle, nor a longer barrel.

This build also uses the incredible Buffer Spring fire mod to reduce both horizontal and vertical recoil. It's very noticeable and comes with no drawbacks, so you'll notice that it's a common pick for most assault rifles.

Finally, just slap on the 45-round Mayday magazine to make multi-kills easier, and an optic of choice for better target acquisition. I'm a big fan of the clean and simple Lethal Tools ELO, but there are plenty of alternatives.

Black Ops 7 M15 class setup

For the rest of your M15 loadout, I suggest using:

• Wildcard: Gunfighter
• Field Upgrade: Drone Pod (Quick Launcher)
• Tactical: Pinpoint Grenade (On Board AI)
• Lethal: Molotov (Heavy Pour)
• Perk 1: Lightweight
• Perk 2: Fast Hands
• Perk 3: Dexterity

Since this class is built around versatility and mobility, it's a good idea to start with the perks. Lightweight, Fast Hands, and Dexterity all improve your overall movement and handling, so it's hard to beat this combination. However, there are some alternatives, like Ghost, Flak Jacket, and Tac Mask, depending on your preference.

To help push lanes and control areas, I recommend the Drone Pod field upgrade, Pinpoint Grenades, and a Molotov. The Drone Pod can chase enemies down and soften them up for you, the Pinpoint tactical effectively gives you wall-hacks, and Molotovs weaken enemies and close off areas for a short window.

Again, since this M15 MOD 0 build uses eight attachments, you'll need the Gunfighter Wildcard. If you don't have this or simply prefer five-attachment setups, use the Perk Greed Wildcard and pick one of the perks mentioned above.

It feels like I say this every year, but Black Ops 7's Mastery Camo grind is the biggest it's ever been. At this point, it's tradition to work through the levels for each gun in every new Call of Duty, unlocking all the prestigious Mastery Camos as you go.

This year, alongside the usual multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone Mastery Camos you'd expect, you'll also have to play the campaign mode and prestige each gun upwards of three times. Don't shoot the messenger; remember, you don't have to do this grind if you don't actually want to.

Below, I'll go over all the Mastery Camos you can earn in Black Ops 7 and what you have to do to get them in each mode. Buckle up, because it's a lot of work.

Black Ops 7 camos explained

Black Ops 7 has more moving parts than ever when it comes to the camo grind, so here are the steps you generally need to follow:

1. Start by unlocking all nine Military Camos sequentially for each gun. For most weapon types, this generally requires you to do the following tasks in each mode:
   1. Co-Op Campaign: Critical kills
   2. Multiplayer: Headshots
   3. Zombies: Critical kills
   4. Warzone: Eliminations
2. Collect all nine of a weapon's Military camos and then complete a unique, gun-specific task for each of the three Special Camos.
3. Unlock all nine Military Camos and three Special Camos, and you'll gain access to unique four Mastery Camo challenges for each mode, for a total of 16 Mastery Camos.

Weapon Prestiging returns in Black Ops 7 for the first time since Black Ops 4 and features three unique Weapon Prestige Camos this time around. This is technically separate from the linear unlock system for the camos above, as all you have to do is reach max level with a gun and prestige it three times to nab all three skins.

If you want to take it even further, there are also four Prestige Master Camos, unlocked at Weapon Prestige Mastery levels 100, 150, 200, and 250 (the max gun level). Keep in mind that you'll automatically enter Weapon Prestige Master after completing the standard gun Prestige process three times.

Black Ops 7 Multiplayer Mastery Camos

If you are going to hunt for any Mastery Camos, make it the multiplayer ones. The challenges aren't too hard on paper, prioritising killing sprees, though it's not always easy to complete them on certain maps and modes. When in doubt, try Hardpoint or Domination. Here are the multiplayer camos, plus the steps to unlock each:

Shattered Gold

1. Complete all Multiplayer Military and Special Camo Challenges for the specific weapon.
2. Complete the Shattered Gold camo challenge for the weapon: Get three kills without dying 10 times.

Arclight

1. Unlock Shattered Gold for the specific weapon.
2. Unlock Shattered Gold camo on all remaining weapons of the same type (eg. all assault rifles or all SMGs).
3. Complete the Arclight camo challenge for your chosen gun: Get 10 Double Kills or better.

Tempest

1. Unlock the Arclight camo on 30 weapons (either all 30 Launch weapons, or 30 total weapons when more than 30 weapons are available at Season 1).
2. Complete the Tempest camo challenge on the specific gun: Get five kills without dying three times.

Singularity

1. Unlock Tempest on 30 total weapons.

Black Ops 7 Zombies Mastery Camos

While Zombies' Mastery Camos aren't particularly hard to earn, it's safe to say they're very grindy and time-consuming. Even more so when you remember you'll eventually have to do them for every weapon. Here's each Zombies camo with unlock steps:

Golden Dragon

1. Complete all Zombies Military and Special Camo Challenges for the specific weapon.
2. Complete the Golden Dragon camo challenge for your chosen weapon: Get 10 kills rapidly 15 times.

Bloodstone

1. Unlock Golden Dragon for the specific weapon.
2. Unlock Golden Dragon camo on all remaining weapons of the same type (eg. all assault rifles or all SMGs).
3. Complete the Bloodstone camo challenge on the selected gun: Get 20 or more consecutive kills without taking damage five times.

Doomsteel

1. Unlock the Bloodstone camo on 30 weapons (either all 30 Launch weapons, or 30 total weapons when more than 30 weapons are available at Season 1)
2. Complete the Doomsteel camo challenge on your chosen gun: Eliminate 10 elite zombies.

Infestation

1. Unlock Doomsteel on 30 total weapons.

Black Ops 7 Campaign Mastery Camos

These co-op campaign Mastery Camos are new with Black Ops 7, and include the Endgame mode. The unlock challenges for these skins are generally focused on killing high-tier enemies, so it's not too bad, just time-consuming. Here's each camo plus the steps to get it:

Molten Gold

1. Complete all Campaign Military and Special Camo Challenges for the specific weapon.
2. Complete the Molten Gold camo challenge for the selected weapon: Eliminate 20 special enemies.

Moonstone

1. Unlock Molten Gold for the specific weapon.
2. Unlock Molten Gold camo on all remaining weapons of the same type (e.g. all assault rifles or all SMGs).
3. Complete the Moonstone camo challenge on your chosen gun: In Endgame, eliminate 100 Zone III or Zone IV enemies.

Chroma Flux

1. Unlock the Moonstone camo on 30 weapons (either all 30 Launch weapons, or 30 total weapons when more than 30 weapons are available at Season 1).
2. Complete the Chroma Flux camo challenge on the gun: In Endgame, eliminate 10 elite enemies.

Genesis

1. Unlock Chroma Flux on 30 total weapons.

Black Ops 7 Warzone Mastery Camos

Like clockwork, Warzone will be updated with content from Black Ops 7 when Season 1 launches, and this includes new Mastery Camos exclusive to the battle royale mode. These unlock challenges are primarily focused on getting multiple kills without dying, so you can't play passively.

Golden Damascus

1. Complete all Warzone Military and Special Camo Challenges for the specific weapon.
2. Complete the Golden Damascus camo challenge for your weapon: Get three kills in a single match five times.

Starglass

1. Unlock Golden Damascus for the specific weapon.
2. Unlock Golden Damascus camo on all remaining weapons of the same type (eg. all assault rifles or all SMGs).
3. Complete the Starglass camo challenge on the gun: Get five kills without dying five times.

Absolute Zero

1. Unlock the Starglass camo on 30 weapons (either all 30 Launch weapons, or 30 total weapons when more than 30 weapons are available at Season 1)
2. Complete the Absolute Zero camo challenge for the specific gun: Get 10 eliminations while in the Top 10.

Apocalypse

1. Unlock Absolute Zero on 30 total weapons.

Like clockwork, it's that time of the year again: a brand-new Call of Duty. As much as it's easy to poke fun at, I can't hide the fact that I'm always looking forward to sinking hundreds of hours into unlocking Mastery camos. So if you've been waiting for the Black Ops 7 release date like I have, then it's a good idea to know exactly what time the game goes live in your region.

I'll say right now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 doesn't make this simple, as the game actually launches at different times on PC and console, so it's not just your time zone you need to worry about.

Alongside that, I'll also go over Black Ops 7 pre-load details so you don't have to sit there for hours on launch day like a chump. All that said, here's the Black Ops 7 release time for each region so you know when you can start playing.

Black Ops 7 release date and time for each region

Black Ops 7 launches on Friday, November 14, in most territories, though it'll actually be Thursday, November 13, on the West Coast. While it releases at a specific time in each region on PC, the console release is midnight in your time zone. Yes, that means it's possible to do the 'New Zealand trick' on consoles by changing your time zone.

Here's the release schedule for PC (Steam and Battle.net):

• West Coast US: 9 pm PST on November 13
• East Coast US: 12 am EST on November 14
• UK: 5 am GMT on November 14
• Europe: 6 am CET on November 14
• Australia: 4 pm AEDT on November 14

As mentioned above, Black Ops 7 launches at midnight locally on console on Friday, November 14, which could be before the PC launch in your time zone depending on your region.

And if you're on console or using the Xbox App on PC, wondering specifically what time Black Ops 7 releases in New Zealand, convert November 14 at 12 am NZST to your time zone. For example, that's November 13 at 11 am in the UK and 4 am PST for the West Coast US. If you set your device to this region, you can get in early in your time zone.

How to preload Black Ops 7

You can now preload Black Ops 7 on all platforms just by purchasing the game and setting it to download. Given the game's file size is over 100GB on all platforms, it's certainly a wise idea.

Remember that, using the CoD HQ app, you can specify which parts of the game you'd like to download to save space. If you know you're never going to play the campaign mode, then there's no point having it installed.

We have T-minus three days until Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases. Players have been gnawing at the bars of their enclosure to get back into the fray since the beta ended over a month ago, so I'm sure it'll come as a relief to many.

But there's not just a new multiplayer and campaign for players to look forward to—this time, Treyarch is also introducing Endgame.

There's no Infinity Gauntlet, and Steve Rogers won't be jumping into action. Endgame in Black Ops 7 is something very different. Once you reach the end of the campaign, you unlock Endgame, a replayable multiplayer mode set in a huge map made up of locations from the campaign.

"Avalon is this massive space, and we want you and your friends to continue to come back here," design director at Treyarch, Kevin Drew, says in a Dev Talk video. "We wanted to continue the campaign in a replayable way."

Fighting alongside up to 31 other players, your mission in Endgame is to wade through escalating zones and complete changing assignments with your squad, and then extract before time's up to keep your progress.

"This map is really special," level design director Phil Tasker says. "The team's been working on it for a really long time. They've designed it to be a cohesive space, but it's absolutely massive. We have tons of places of interest from previous games. We have maps from Black Ops 2, Black Ops 4, and Black Ops 6. You might even find a little piece of Hazard from Black Ops 1."

We don't have any specifics on which maps from previous Black Ops games will be used, aside from Hazard, but we do know that not all of them will be one-for-one remakes. "Some you'll experience just as they were in slightly new ways, and then some of them served as inspiration for totally new spaces," Tasker continues.

Endgame's concept has intrigued me, and not just because I'm a fan of some of the OG Black Ops maps. If Treyarch manages to pull this off, it may be the first time in a very long time that I'm actually excited to finish a Call of Duty campaign, and that would be priceless.

I don't know who among you asked for it, but you're getting it: Treyarch is looking at making changes to aim assist in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Treyarch touched on a number of adjustments to Black Ops 7 multiplayer being made in the wake of the recent beta, including an increase in footstep volume, decrease in sliding speed and distance, and speeding up mantling. But it's the promise of changes to aim assist that's the real centerpiece.

"We're looking very closely at the data, and the data says that controller players are winning slightly more in close-range engagements, and then keyboard-mouse players are winning slightly more in those long-range engagements," Treyarch design director Matt Scronce said in today's developer update.

"So, what we're going to do here is to try to close that gap, take a very close look at the strength of aim assist across all of those ranges. And then, additionally, we are looking at rotational aim assist and the requirement for your right aim stick to be moving in the direction of your target."

The first action it's taking against aim assist strength is to change how rotational aim assist works (the aspect of aim assist that automatically tracks targets in motion).

"The team is focused on aim assist strength across all ranges, as well as rotational aim assist and the requirement for the right (aim) stick to be moving in the direction of a target on controller," said the official Treyarch X account.

The idea is to make the tracking assist less forgiving—now, it won't kick in until you're already moving your camera in the direction of the target. Is it weird this wasn't already the case?

Raven subsequently confirmed that, "in parity with Black Ops 7 multiplayer," it will look into making similar changes to Call of Duty: Warzone.

Aim assist is up there with SBMM in terms of touchy subjects for shooter fans (and in case you'd forgotten, Treyarch is also fiddling with SBMM in some pretty big ways too). The idea is to level the playing field between players using controllers and those on keyboard-mouse setups—controllers behind inherently slower and less precise than a mouse—but it's a very tricky business. Not only do developers have to find the sweet spot where people on both sides of the equation are equally unhappy (you're never going to make everyone happy, so 'cosmic balance' is the next best thing), they also get to deal with people who try to game the system, like console players who connect keyboard-mouse setups to their systems, or PC players who spoof consoles.

(Even without taking aim assist into account, the whole business of aiming your gun at the bad guys in videogames has become brutally complicated. It's rough out there, folks.)

The nerf to rotational aim assist could prove transformative on its own, but Treyarch isn't stopping there. Scronce said "more concrete details" about what's in store will be shared soon.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat; Black Ops 7 says it's nailing cheaters, and that's that.

Fresh off a humblebrag earlier in the beta, Activision-Blizzard's Team Ricochet has returned to provide some more stats on dirty rotten cheaters that, on the surface at least, make for some impressive reading. "We’ve crunched the numbers for Black Ops 7 Beta, and Ricochet Anti-Cheat achieved the strongest Beta results in Call of Duty history," says a message from Team Ricochet on X. "Each day, our cheat detections got faster and your matches got cleaner."

Activision-Blizzard now claims that, by the end of the Black Ops 7 beta, "nearly 99% of matches were cheater-free" and "the median detection time for cheaters was three matches."

This does raise a few questions. Only one in 100 games featuring a cheater is an impressive stat, but such a claim also depends on Ricochet having 100% confidence that it's detecting all cheaters… which may not be the case.

Secondly, a median time to detection of three matches seems… a little high? Far be it from me to cast aspersions on a piece of anti-cheat software that is clearly catching an awful lot of scoundrels, but if it's taking three games (and obviously with a median value in some cases that means many more) then maybe there's yet room for improvement.

Ricochet addressed the secure boot and TPM 2.0 requirements earlier this month, claiming that in concert with the software's automated systems even "those who did manage to slip through didn’t last long. Most never made it into a match." Grumbles persist about allowing this software kernel-level access to our machines, which as PCG's hardware writer Jacob Ridley says "is like administrator [mode] on steroids." But sadly it's not going anywhere.

The 99% number is incidentally a slight improvement on where Team Ricochet thought they were a few weeks ago. "97% of cheaters were stopped within 30 minutes of their first sign-in, [and] fewer than 1% of cheating attempts reached a match, and those who did were removed within minutes," they said on October 6.

It's also pleasing to see that Activision is prepared to use its muscle outside of the game. It's sent an army of lawyers after cheat-makers and won some hefty judgements against the biggest culprits, with some of the villains even choosing to give up without a fight. Activision says it has "directly contributed" to over 40 cheat developers and resellers going out of business (or possibly even further underground) since last year's Black Ops 6.

I'm not sure quite how to feel about the robust attitude Team Ricochet takes towards cheaters. These stats all sound impressive and, very generally speaking, players do seem to be having fewer matches ruined. But maybe next time it could back up the numbers with some insight as to how it reaches these estimates, because just sticking a big graphic on X saying "99% cheat-free" feels a little simplistic.

"Team Ricochet is always adapting, working to stay ahead and keep your matches fair," say our kernel-loving friends. "We'll keep the updates—and progress—coming as we head into Black Ops 7 launch on November 14."

It's a landmark day in the greatest ideological conflict of our time: In a blog detailing its Black Ops 7 beta takeaways, Treyarch has announced that BO7 will launch with "minimal skill consideration" as the multiplayer default, reversing a series trajectory of skill-based matchmaking implementation that dates all the way back to Call of Duty 4.

"Simply put, imagine the matchmaking experience of Open Moshpit from the Beta, but as the standard in Black Ops 7 on day one," Treyarch said. "Our team feels strongly about providing players with a more varied experience, and the Beta proved to be a great opportunity to test this approach."

If you haven't been tuned into this years-long contentious debate, the main argument of SBMM critics is that matchmaking logic that attempts to clump together similarly-skilled players leads to less variety. It means less crushing defeats, sure, but also fewer blowout victories. Every match becomes a battle of tryhard attrition.

It's worth noting that SBMM's loudest critics tend to be those who'd most benefit from ditching it: high skill players and streamers who'd get to enjoy more public games where they can reap clip-worthy killstreaks from the hapless, outmatched masses. Whether or not that risk sounds appealing is probably down to personal preference—but it seems like a preference that plenty of BO7 beta players shared.

The impressions of PC Gamer staff who played the Open Moshpit beta playlist were generally in the neighborhood of "seems alright, but didn't really notice a difference." But it's a win for anyone nostalgic for the days where pubstomping was more achievable.

And that's not the only item CoD players can cross off their matchmaking wishlists: BO7 will also bring back persistent lobbies, so your bitter rivalries with that dude who won't stop camping the staircase can once more carry over from one match to the next.

"We’ve heard the community discussion and dialogue around lobby disbanding, and as we mentioned earlier during the Beta, we’re focused on keeping players together from match to match more often," Treyarch said. "Today, we’re excited to announce we’ll have persistent lobbies at launch for Black Ops 7. We’re committed to improving this experience for players, and will be sharing more details soon."

Treyarch said that aim assist will get additional tuning before launch, too. These are some dramatic changes to what's been the standard CoD multiplayer formula for years now—and it's probably not coincidental that they're being announced just a day before the Battlefield 6 launch.