Treyarch took Gamescom as an opportunity to reveal some of the specific features that PC gamers can look forward to in the Windows port of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 6, 2015 (with PS3 and Xbox 360 versions following at a later date). The promised features include:
- 100 percent Ranked Dedicated Servers
- 2-Player Split Screen
- Seamless Game Controller Support
- Strong GPU scaling, SLI and Crossfire Optimizations, and 4K monitor support make the game look and run great at full 4K resolution
- FOV Slider
- Framerate Cap Slider
- Improved Text Chat features available in-game and also now in lobbies.
- Fantastic Steam Trading Cards – collect them all!
- Treyarch Anti-Cheat (TAC)
In light of some high profile disasters with recent AAA PC ports (most recently the Batman: Arkham Knight debacle), Treyarch has been firm in its professed desire to provide a fully-supported experience for PC gamers as well as their console brethren. This past Spring Treyarch head Mark Lamia told Polygon “if you’ve really invested in your rig, we want it to pay off,” emphasizing features such as 4K resolution support for high-end PCs and optimization for mid- to low-end setups.
This past Spring Treyarch also revealed the targeted minimum PC specifications for the game, far earlier than is normal for a game coming out in November. Apart from hefty memory requirements compared to other AAA PC releases this year, Black Ops 3‘s requirements are more or less par for the course. The recommended spec is still on the way, as the developer reiterated in the Gamescom announcement:
“As we add more optimizations and advanced graphics features, we’re re-evaluating our recommended spec, so stay tuned. Rest assured that our goal is to provide the best performance across the widest range of machines possible.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 continues Treyarch’s blockbuster FPS sub-franchise, taking the series into a dystopian near future featuring cybernetic augmentation, introducing superhuman abilities similar to last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are among the best selling games of all time on any platform, following closely behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for best-selling first-person shooters of all time, so anticipation runs high for the upcoming release.
