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‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’ adds Black Market system to dress up your soldier

Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 – Launch Gameplay Trailer

In case you haven’t heard yet, we really enjoy Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and if you’re anything like us, you’ve been playing a ton of competitive multiplayer and Blackout battle royale so far. If you’re looking to make your character stand out from the crowd a little more, the Black Market system is just what you need.

Available now on PlayStation 4 and coming to Xbox One and PC next week, the Black Market offers a few different ways to earn new Blackout characters, signature weapons, outfits for specialists, and new tags and gestures. Each “Operation” for the Black Market will swap out the rewards, with the inaugural one appropriately called “First Strike.”

The first way to earn these goodies is the “Contraband stream” system, which gives you rewards just by playing Black Ops 4. You’ll want to continuously play the game to earn rewards, as they will change every few months.

Limited-time events also offer unique gear, with a Halloween-themed event kicking off on PS4 October 20. Once these items are gone, they’re gone for good, so you’ll want to complete the Contraband stream before it concludes.

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

As with the previous Call of Duty games, there is also a microtransaction option, but it is not live yet. Starting in November, you will be able to directly purchase the gear you want, with the shop changing out items once a week. It doesn’t sound like there will be any loot boxes or guessing games, so you shouldn’t have to use it too frequently, if at all.

If you’re more interested in Zombies mode, you will not need to worry about the Black Market, as it is meant for competitive multiplayer and Blackout. Still, it’s great to see Treyarch supporting Blackout with additional options for skins already and the studio will have to keep the updates coming if it wants the game to compete with Fortnite over the long haul.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you want some tips for picking your Blackout weapons or surviving in the Zombies mode, we have you covered.

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Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is official and it’s coming this November
call of duty modern warfare iii release date makarov mwiii

Activision has confirmed a November 10 release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III with a teaser trailer following a barrage of leaks.
The shooter, which is going to be a direct sequel to 2022's Modern Warfare II, was the subject of lots of reports and leaks prior to this announcement. Reports from Bloomberg revealed that this game was originally going to be a Modern Warfare II expansion, but it later got upgraded to a full game. Then, over the summer, more game details started to leak before some Monster Energy advertisements revealed the game's title prematurely. Activision coyly acknowledged this leak on Twitter at the time, but finally pulled the curtain back on the project today with a video titled "Modern Warfare III is Coming."
Modern Warfare III is Coming
It begins with some green soundwaves on-screen and a lot of radio chatter in the background. Then, the soundwaves turn from green to red before the perspective then pushes into them, creating a trippy red void. In there, we briefly see waveform images of a snake and Captain Price before he says, "Never bury your enemies alive" over the silhouette of a new character. This is believed to be Vladimir Makarov, the villain of the original Modern Warfare trilogy, who was teased in the post-credit scene for last year's campaign. After all of that, the title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is confirmed, as is the release date of November 10.

This date falls right in line with the late October to early November window in which Call of Duty games usually come out. It also places its launch after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to be complete, so it looks like this may be the first Call of Duty game released under Microsoft. Other than that date, official details on the game are fairly scarce. Thankfully, we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to learn more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launches on November 10. 

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Overhead shot of Vondel map in Warzone.

The Vondel map in Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the best battlegrounds in the history of the battle royale genre. It's a small-scale, densely packed map with a wide variety of points of interest (POIs) that feel distinct. Modeled after European cities, Vondel is a feat of level design as it simultaneously feels fun and functional. It's a city that you can truly imagine as a real place, with a slew of different shops to enter, a canal, and even a water taxi service that moves throughout the map.

But behind the scenes, there are countless design choices that help the flow and pacing of the map. To get a better sense of just what makes this map work so well, I spoke with Beenox Senior Level Designer Fred Wilson and Lead Artist Guillaume Alain. The duo revealed how Vondel's composition seeps into the players' subconscious, with intuitive design choices that work better than any Warzone map that's come before.
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It looks like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be the title of this year's Call of Duty game. Following several leaks, including an undeniable one connected to Monster Energy, a joking tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account appears to confirm that this is true.
Leaks suggesting that 2023's Call of Duty game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III have existed for months, but ramped up recently. On July 17, the Call of Duty Twitter account put up tweets asking if Operators, weapons, and bundles from Modern Warfare II should carry over to this year's game and teasing that a big reveal would happen alongside the unveiling of Season 5. Later that day, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier stated that this is a Sledgehammer Games-led project that started as an expansion and morphed into a full game.
Then, Monday morning, images of Monster Energy promotional materials connected to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III emerged on Twitter, giving us confirmation of the name and our first look at the game's logo.

A leak like this is pretty difficult to deny, so Activision decided to play along with it. "Whew. Mondays," the official Call of Duty account tweeted. "Anyone have an energy drink they can spare?"
While not a traditional, explicit announcement, this tweet confirms the validity of the Monster Energy leak and affirms that this year's Call of Duty will be a direct follow-up to 2022's Modern Warfare II. Now, we'll just have to wait and see when Activision decides to officially reveal more about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III itself. 
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