Skip to main content

‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’ will make Blackout mode free to play this week

Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 — Blackout Free Trial Announcement

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is one of the best games the series has seen in quite some time and its battle royale mode “Blackout” is a big part of its success. If you haven’t played the game yet, you will have a chance to try out Blackout for free this week so you can see how you compare to the most dedicated Black Ops 4 players.

Recommended Videos

On PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC beginning January 17, you will be able to play the Blackout mode without having the main Black Ops 4 game installed. The offer will last until January 24, so you have plenty of time to get accustomed to Blackout’s unique features and decide whether you want to purchase the full game.

Blackout is limited to a single map, unlike competitor PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but it contains elements from some of the series’ best environments. It also features vehicles, which have rarely appeared in the Call of Duty series, and certain areas of the map are filled with zombies that can quickly kill you or give away your position to enemy players.

Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 – Blackout Battle Royale Trailer

The free trial will begin just after the game’s most recent patch. It features a number of changes across all available modes, include a revised looting interface in Blackout — it’s intended to make grabbing items quicker on consoles, which should ensure you don’t get shot in the back as you try to pick up your 2oth bandage. Concussion grenade stack counts have been reduced to just one, as well, which should stop you from being able to keep players in a permanent state of paralysis.

Unlike the permanently free-to-play Fortnite, cross-platform play is not enabled in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Only two games currently support play between Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, with the other being Rocket League. As console manufacturers and publishers revise their approach to online multiplayer, however, we expect to see Call of Duty eventually give players the option to enjoy the game with each other, regardless of system.

If you’re on PC and want to play Blackout for a reduced price, you can purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – Battle Edition. It includes multiplayer and Blackout mode, but omits Zombies and costs $40.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Xbox Game Pass is getting tons of new games following Black Ops 6 success
A cockpit view in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

We know a lot of you are playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Xbox right now, but the company just announced some games coming to Xbox Game Pass -- specifically the Game Pass Standard tier -- in the first half of November.

The biggest game coming to the service (and we mean that literally) is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Xbox and developers Asobo Studio previously reported that it will have a smaller install size than its predecessor -- 127GB versus 157GB -- but it'll also require 64GB of RAM. All of this is to help stream immense detail to the player as they fly around the world. Asobo says helped it to increase "the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000." Alongside the hyperrealistic graphics is a new career mode where you go through training and missions to become a pilot and a challenge mode where you compete against other pilots. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming to Game Pass at launch on November 19.

Read more
The best PC settings for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the latest in a long line of high-paced shooters, and like its predecessors, it brings with it not only a new campaign and multiplayer features but enhanced graphics too. Although upgrading your graphics card or processor is always a great way to boost performance in new and demanding games, you can also have a big impact by adjusting its settings to the best ones for you and your PC.

However, even if you’re the most competitive player, you won’t want to just turn all the settings off to maximize your frame rate. You still need clarity to make out your opponents at distance, and what’s the point of playing the latest Call of Duty, if you can’t enjoy some of its new visual flair?

Read more
Black Ops 6 just can’t compete with these 2 RPGs on Steam
Lucanis in Dragon Age: The Veilguard in center frame.

Despite Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on its way to being one of the biggest Call of Duty launches of all time, two role-playing games are giving it a run for its money.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latest RPG from BioWare and the first Dragon Age game in over a decade, is currently selling better on Steam than Black Ops 6 just a day after release. According to the Steam top sellers list, The Veilguard is just barely outranking Black Ops 6's single-player campaign as the top seller on the platform, followed by MMO Throne and Liberty and Monster Hunter Wilds, an open beta for which launched on Friday.

Read more