We all knew we’d be getting a new Black Ops 7 trailer at Gamescom Opening Night Live, but this quick look and pre-order announcement didn’t give us the full picture of what this game has in store. Odds are most fans are already busy pre-ordering the game for PS5 or Xbox Series X after learning that Menendez is back, but if you want some more details to push you over the edge, I have some more exciting information about the Black Ops 7 campaign not included in the new trailer.
The new campaign has been the main focus of Black Ops 7‘s marketing thus far, and for good reason. This is the biggest and most evolved a Call of Duty campaign has been in years. Not only does this campaign feature 4 player co-op across its globetrotting and mindbending story, but there will now be a new endgame and progression system to match the systems in multiplayer and Zombies. This includes XP, a battle pass, challenges, and more, but what exactly does this look like?
After beating the campaign, players will unlock a new 12th mission called Endgame. Using the same operators from the campaign, you will be able to drop into an extraction-like scenario in Avalor with up to 31 players to earn new skills, abilities, calling cards, weapon camo, and everything else you’d expect to be earning in multiplayer or Zombies. But, just like an extraction shooter, you will lose all your operator progress if your squad gets wiped out.
The team does promise that the Black Ops 7 campaign will have a satisfying ending. Set in 2035, this game will be the ultimate conclusion of story threads set up in both Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6. The four playable characters are familiar faces in David Mason, Mike Harper, and Eric Samuels, but one newcomer to the series is Leilani Tuuola.
The campaign isn’t the only pillar of Black Ops 7 with new twists. Multiplayer is getting traditional prestige, but also the return of weapon prestige, plus a new Skirmish mode that features 20 vs. 20 battles, encouraging fast movement. Sharing weapon builds is also easier than ever, thanks to the ability to send your weapon builds directly to friends or share them online with a unique code. We’re all excited about Zombies, but Dead Ops Arcade 4 might steal the show.
We’ll learn way more about multiplayer and round-based Zombies later on, but the Black Ops 7 campaign has way more to be excited for than previous years.
Black Ops 7 will launch on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on November 14, but there’s a beta running from October 2 through October 8 for those who preorder or are Game Pass subscribers.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.