Skip to main content

See a taste of battle royale in the latest ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’ trailer

Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 – Multiplayer Beta Trailer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 won’t include a traditional campaign mode when it launches in October, but in its place will be the series’ take on battle royale, dubbed “Blackout.” Thus far, we haven’t seen the mode in action, but a trailer for the upcoming beta test offered us our first taste.

Recommended Videos

Near the end of the multiplayer beta trailer post on the Call of Duty YouTube channel, we see a grounded helicopter surrounded by several soldiers. The camera then cuts to the helicopter soaring through the air with a number of enemies below, one of whom kills a passenger with a single shot from a sniper rifle. The helicopter briefly veers off-course before the remaining occupants start firing on the vehicles below. It looks like the helicopter might escape, but a well-placed rocket appears to throw a wrench in that plan.

The first multiplayer beta test for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 begins on August 3, and it will be limited to PlayStation 4 players who pre-ordered the game. A second test on August 10 will also include Xbox One players, and the PC version will receive a concurrent beta test on Battle.net. These tests will include access to modes like Team Deathmatch and Hardpoint, but Blackout won’t be available to play until a separate beta in September.

Black Ops 4 will include classic series characters in Blackout, which could convince former players to return to Call of Duty. It isn’t the only big-name first-person shooter including a battle royale mode, however, as Battlefield V is planning to include one in a post-launch update. Unlike Black Ops 4, however, Battlefield V will still include a campaign mode, and doesn’t appear to be focusing on zombies.

If you are interested in zombies, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be right up your alley. Three separate undead campaigns will be included at launch, and they go to some places the series has never ventured before, including Ancient Rome and the Titanic.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 12 — nearly a month ahead of when the series generally releases new installments.

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