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Call of Duty: Warzone rebrands, will remove Rebirth Island ahead of Warzone 2.0

By Joseph Yaden November 9, 2022

Activision announced that Call of Duty: Warzone will relaunch as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera. The game will go offline temporarily on November 16, 2022, before returning on November 28. When it does so, it will only include the large Caldera map; Rebirth Island and Fortune’s Keep will no longer be playable when Warzone Caldera launches.

Warzone Caldera will be a separate experience from the upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. Activision confirmed that only a standard battle royale playlist will be available in Warzone Caldera and that the free-to-play title will no longer include an in-game store. Your COD points are transferable across Warzone Caldera and Warzone 2.0. Despite that, nothing else will carry over from Caldera to Warzone 2.0. That means all your weapon camos, charms, emblems, and any other cosmetics will remain on Warzone Caldera. It’s currently unclear if those maps will come to Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 at a later time.

A group of four operators stands together in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. — Activision

All of this seems to be done to encourage players to migrate over to the new Warzone 2.0 experience, which launches on November 16, 2022. This free-to-play battle royale is built from the ground up alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, featuring brand-new weapons, progression, and the fresh Al Mazrah map. Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 will share progression systems, allowing players to level up weapons in one game to access them in the other.

Activision confirmed that users who played the original version of Warzone will gain “a few items” to use in Warzone 2.0, but it’s unclear what they are or when they’ll come to the game.

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Joseph Yaden is a freelance journalist who covers Nintendo, shooters, and horror games. He mostly covers game guides for…

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The best Warzone Carrack .300 loadout

Character holding the Carrack .300 in Warzone.

Call of Duty: Warzone season 5 has kicked off with two brand new weapons, including the Carrack .300 sniper rifle (aka the WA 2000). This sniper works a lot like it did in past iterations, with a fast fire rate and, unfortunately, low damage. That's the thing about the Carrack .300: It's extremely difficult to use in its current state, regardless of the map you're on. But if you're looking for a challenge, or a weapon to attempt to troll your opponents with, the Carrack .300 might be up your alley. Here's the best Carrack .300 in Warzone.
The best Carrack .300 loadout

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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.

Gaming

Call of Duty: Warzone devs share the design secrets of the best battle royale map

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.
Pacing is king