We'll have a bit more coming in hot from the upcoming Season Three update for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, which sees major shifts in the overall narrative, individual game modes, operatives and equipments and, perhaps most importantly, in live events you don't want to miss.

This shapes up to be the biggest addition to the game since seasonal content and updates began post-release, and though we don't foresee a massive shift in any meta here, players -- especially those of the hardcore ilk -- have a tendency to surprise not just the broader community, but the devs deep within their seemingly impenetrable design bunkers.

Anyway, before we unleash our own thoughts on this mammoth delivery of content, here's a taste of intel from the powers that set the New World Order at Activision:

The Story So Far...

Naga’s forces kept Frank Woods and his CIA strike team busy searching for Russell Adler in the Golden Triangle, buying Stitch the vital time he needed to initiate the next phase of his grand plan. Naga’s distraction may yet turn out to be the pivotal action that determines the course of the Cold War.

Meanwhile in Russia, two Perseus operatives travel to Mount Yamantau on a mission to recover top-secret files from a long-forgotten clandestine program for Stitch’s cause.

Woods and his team gear up to follow the intel uncovered at Naga’s base of operations in Laos. All signs point to Verdansk, and Adler’s fate is in their hands…

This is Season Three in Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, officially launching on April 22. The season goes live following updates to Black Ops Cold War on April 20 at 9 PM PT and to Warzone on April 21 at 9 PM PT.

The biggest missing piece of the puzzle involves the chaos currently raging across Verdansk in Warzone. While the latest intel is detailed below, Containment Protocol status reports are still incoming from Armistice Central Command.

Click here for the official breakdown of upcoming changes, and stay tuned for more from us from earlier debriefings we might, or might not, have been privy to.

I've thought for the longest time that the Zombies branch of Call of Duty should become standalone and seasonal in delivery. It just has that sort of charm and longevity about it, and a rich universe that maybe started out as a bit of a joke about "heh, Nazi zombies, lol" on a whiteboard inside Treyarch HQ, but has since gone on to become a hit in its own right, and now Activision has read my thoughts and Zombies is indeed going seasonal, kicking off with Season One: Firebase Z.

Dropping for all players on all platforms from February 4, Firebase Z takes players to Vietnam and features new outlandish weapons, bigger, scarier monsters, larger maps and lots of gore. Here's some more information ahead of the trailer embed.

Following the events of "Die Maschine," Requiem's next mission brings them deep into the jungles of Vietnam. Under the direction of Grigori Weaver, the team must uncover the secrets of Outpost 25 and face the threat that "lives" within to save Samantha Maxis.

We as media, often switch in and out of pointed content around the Call of Duty series. Is it major changes in multiplayer? A new studio running front and centre? New writers? A reinvigored engines. The 30fps vs 60fps debate. Even zombies. But in our review of Cold War we feel we've rightly settled on a focus on the game's campaign, because surprisingly, this is perhaps the best in the franchise yet, and it wasn't even lead by either of the A or B teams...

Here's an unredacted slice of intel:

We might need to acknowledge that without Treyarch’s World at War/Black Ops world, we wouldn’t have this, and Raven is the first to tell you it came in as a fan first wanting to “write a love letter to Black Ops”; while diving deep into the franchise’s lore, while equally expanding upon it. And they do this by embracing everything that came before it -- Mason, Woods and Hudson are all in tow. Their stories and clandestine ways deepen evermore and rifts and side-missions balloon through their interactions and how you handle the game’s narrative. I say “handle” because in Cold War we get delivery of a Campaign with multiple moving parts. More often than not you’re either playing as Mason (no longer voiced by Sam Worthington), or as “Bell” (in my case Stephen “Bell” Farrelly).

The latter is Raven’s way of bringing you into the fold, so to speak. As Bell you get to choose attributes about yourself in a psychological evaluation. You get to choose two assessments of yourself and these come with permanent perks. Choosing Calm Under Pressure will net you a 90% reduction in flinching when you’re hit in the field. Lone Wolf gives you three times the running distance than normal, and so on. It just adds an element to attachment where the game’s narrative is concerned, but also feeds into how that narrative and its many missions are structured. There’s a main path, but for the majority of the game, you’re operating out of a Safehouse, and within you can partake in conversation with other team members, uncover new bits of information and, most importantly, consult the Evidence Board.

Click here for our full Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War review.

With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War set to support the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series (aka the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080) with ray-traced shadows, ray-traced ambient occlusion, and the truly impressive DLSS for that much needed performance boost. Alongside the new impressive RTX heavy PC trailer (which is in stunning UltraWide) we've also got a breakdown of hardware requirements covering a range of settings.

But first, a taste of the maxed-out goodness.



And here are the PC specs. Great to see the breakdown including both competitive settings for multiplayer and 4K ray-traced visuals.

Minimum Specifications

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit (SP1) or Windows 10 64-Bit (v.1803 or higher)
CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8GB RAM
HDD (at launch): 50GB (MP only), 175GB (all game modes)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon HD 7950
DirectX 12 compatible system Required

Recommended Specifications (60FPS in most situations with all options set to Medium)

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen R5 1600X processor
RAM: 12GB RAM
HDD (at launch): 175GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / GTX 1660 Super or Radeon R9 390 / AMD RX 580
DirectX 12 compatible system Required

Recommended Specifications (Ray Tracing)

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update)
CPU: Intel i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 1800X
RAM: 16GB RAM
HDD (at launch): 175GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
DirectX 12 compatible system Required

Competitive Specifications (High FPS for use with a high refresh monitor)

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update)
CPU: Intel i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 1800X
RAM: 16GB RAM
HDD (at launch): 175GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 / RTX 3070 or Radeon RX Vega64 Graphics
DirectX 12 compatible system Required

Ultra RTX Specifications (High FPS, 4K resolution with Ray Tracing enabled)

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest Update)
CPU: Intel i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 3700X
RAM: 16GB RAM
HDD (at launch): 250GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
DirectX 12 compatible system Required

That said, another 250GB of space required for this Call of Duty too.

Recently we had the chance to go hands-on with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's multiplayer as part of a preview session, and were impressed by its polish even in an Alpha state. Plus the Cold War setting meant playing CoD in the neon-lit streets of nighttime '80s Miami. This weekend the Open Beta for the game begins on PlayStation 4 - with Xbox One and PC to follow next weekend.

As per the trailer below the Beta will include a number of maps in addition to modes like Kill Confirmed, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Combined Arms, and VIP Escort.



Here are the dates and details for the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Beta.

Weekend 1 (PlayStation 4)

OCT. 8-9 - Access to those that have pre-ordered on PS4
OCT. 10-12 - Open Beta For PS4

Weekend 2 (Xbox One and PC with cross-play)

OCT. 15-16 - Xbox One and PC Early Access and PS4 Open Access
OCT. 17-19 - Open Beta All Platforms

And it's this week. In fact, it's 3AM AEST on October 1st for us, so if you're a zombie freak, Black Ops enthusiast or real-life zombie, chances are you'll be up and able to catch the preso. But given this is, frankly, Treyarch's greatest gift to the Call of Duty franchise, I reckon I might stay up for it as well.

We don't have much more to reveal other than the Tweet sent out, but in case you're into all things undead, fun and tongue-in-cheek, set your alarms. Or at least stay tuned the following day for our breakdown of the full reveal.

A new #Zombies story begins.

Watch the official reveal at 10AM PT Wednesday, Sept. 30th.https://t.co/TIBHK7LMOQ #BlackOpsColdWar pic.twitter.com/56EFrBYJ2l

— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) September 28, 2020

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We recently had a quick 6v6 multiplayer session with fellow journos in Australia with the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and its multiplayer and walked away happy, smiling, nostalgic and VIP-curious.

So we played a couple of new modes, for one (or two), as well as some familiar across a variety of well-designed maps in a very pretty experience. Here's some intel on our two-ish hours with the game:

Speaking of, what I got from the whole experience was this entry’s story is going to truly double down on era and settings. And that’s a good thing. The Satellite map -- a desert with caves and caverns featuring, you guessed it, a crashed satellite (because, Cold War) -- was a particularly cool narrative nod to what we’re in for when Reagan is in charge, and while it’s all largely aesthetic, these things help sell the skirmish. I mean who doesn’t love Nuke Town? Seriously, who doesn’t?

So, those new modes. Well, my favourite was VIP. It has a Last Man Standing element and snowmobiles. I’m genuinely looking forward to the videos, gifs and memes that will come from this mode because you can have everyone on the map downed and crawling around on all fours waiting to be revived by the alive players, but you can crawl really fast. And it has snowmobiles. I mean -- recipe = awesome (comedy).

Click here for our hands-on with Cold War's new multiplayer.

What's NVIDIA Reflex? Good question, it uses the NVIDIA GeForce GPU alongside G-Sync on compatible displays to offer extremely low latency for esports and competitive gaming. Video after the jump. But first, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with RTX On.

With the latest Call of Duty supporting ray-traced shadows as per Modern Warfare in addition to DLSS 2.0 support for smooth performance on GeForce RTX cards.



“With the GeForce RTX 30 Series, we’ve been able to expand our ability to realistically immerse players into our game world with the integration of ray tracing features,” said Mark Gordon, Co-Studio Head at Treyarch. “We’re also excited about the introduction of NVIDIA DLSS, which will level up performance. We look forward to continuing our commitment to Call of Duty PC players everywhere.”

Full details on the game's RTX implementation should come through shortly -- though the footage above looks damn impressive.

Oh and as for NVIDIA Reflex -- here's the skinny on that.

For the single-player campaign that is, with Activision and the team at Raven and Treyarch offering players the ability to create their own campaign hero (if that's even the right term) in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Which, was given its first gameplay trailer overnight after being teased.

And in terms of character creation you'll have control over things like skin tone, name, and sex -- plus, their psychological profile. Which will provide certain benefits like increased damage or more stamina when sprinting into your own Black Ops star. In our recent preview session and interview with Treyarch Co-Studio Head, Dan Bunting and Senior Creative Director at Raven, Dan Vondrak -- we put forth the question as to why it was decided to move away from the traditional 'Call of Duty... starring' approach.

“When we wanted the player to create their character, we wanted them to immerse [themselves] into the game,” Vondrak says emphatically. “We love the idea that the player can be anyone, anywhere in the [game] world -- that they could be the Black Ops soldier they wanted to be.”

Dan’s full statement takes into account things like gender and place of birth. What this means is you’re writing your own chapter in this fictional history, no longer constrained by flashback and bad accents. But how this plays out is yet to be seen. Treyarch has forever chosen voiced, fleshed out avatars for the player, bucking Infinity Ward’s traditional voiceless player-self.

“It was just too good of an opportunity,” Dan adds. “To let the player immerse THEMSELVES into the game, instead of just having them [play] a predefined role.”

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in a Call of Duty campaign, but as the debut trailer showcased, it's looking very cool.

I'm hoping there's enough character creator detail so I can create my own Reagan, go right up to the Gipper and say "Trickle This" whilst holding the correct button on the d-pad to activate a certain "celebration emote".

Our Full Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Preview

In that Treyarch might be championing itself as the A studio again, because if what's being promised from this next Call of Duty is to be believed, well, this might be the best one yet.

And who doesn't love a good conspiracy. Here's a snippet:

“The important thing for us was… we love Black Ops 1,” enthuses Raven’s Senior Creative Director, Dan Vondrak. “And the thought was -- we love the whole series -- but there’s this huge gap in time between Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2. And [the era] has such a rich history, and for us to ignore all that felt wrong as fans.

“We LOVE Mason and Hudson and Woods and we couldn’t have imagined erasing that (their story), or re-writing it. So the logical thing for us was to write this love-letter to Black Ops 1 and make this game that can live between [Black Ops] 1 and 2 -- that was always our intention, to have the Black Ops that was there, and to build on top of it.

“The last thing we wanted to do was wash away all that awesome history.”

Click here for our in-depth Cold War breakdown.