Over the past year, Activision Blizzard has completely reenergized its Call of Duty franchise. Last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was a return to form, and with help from Call of Duty Warzone, the company is making it clear that it can hang with Apex Legends, Fortnite, and others.
Now, though, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty Warzone are about to reach another crescendo with the release of season 4. Details are scant right now, but as the end of season 3 inches closer next week, rumors are trickling in on what to expect.
Here’s a look at what we know so far, and some of the rumors that have cropped up around Call of Duty season 4:
It’s not too hard to predict Call of Duty’s season 4 launch. Season 3 is set to expire on Tuesday, so season 4 should launch soon after. In previous seasons, Infinity Ward launched the new season the day after the previous season expired. That would suggest, though it’s not confirmed, that we can expect season 4 to land on Wednesday, June 3.
There have been several signs in recent weeks that Captain John Price will make his debut in season 4, and Infinity Ward fanned the flames on those rumors in a recently released video on the official Call of Duty YouTube page.
The most recent speculation started when Infinity Ward sent its official Call of Duty app users a message that an event was happening on May 21. That day, a video was published to the Call of Duty YouTube page, and app users were directed to the link.
Infinity Ward called it a “tactical alert” and asked players to have “vigilance on enemy comms for the location of enemy surveillance.” At the end of the one-minute video, Captain Price is clearly shown, suggesting he’s making his way to season 4. Better yet, he should be a playable character.
Season 4 promises plenty of new weapons.
Data miners that have been digging into the game’s code to find new weapons discovered that a Galil and Vector SMG will be launching alongside season 4. The Galil is an automatic rifle dating back to the 1960s and the Vector SMG is a submachine gun. A semi-automatic sniper weapon called the HK G28 is also coming, according to data miners, but likely won’t be released until later in the season.
There haven’t been too many leaks surrounding new maps in season 4, but Infinity Ward’s recent decision to open Warzone bunkers could be telling.
Players have gone inside them to grab all kinds of weapons and other goodies. One of the bunkers houses a nuke that appears dormant. Some players have speculated that the nuke may explode in season 4, leaving a wasteland for players.
Aside from that, there haven’t been many credible reports on maps. Infinity Ward has done a good job of keeping those plans under wraps.
The nuke in the bunker may also point to another possibility: a Cold War-themed launch later this year.
Activision has confirmed that a new Call of Duty will launch this year but stopped short of saying what its theme will be. In recent weeks, there’s been speculation that this year’s title will be Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, helmed by developer Treyarch.
That claim, coupled with the hidden nuke in the bunker, was bolstered a bit by players who said they can hear people speaking Russian when they answer calls in bunkers.
So, what does that mean for Warzone?
Infinity Ward Narrative Director Taylor Kurosaki said in an interview this month with GamerGen that Warzone will live on as the “throughline that connects all the various sub-franchises of Call of Duty.”
In other words, Warzone isn’t going anywhere in the coming years. And other Call of Duty titles will in some way connect through it.
Although season 4 is just days away, Infinity Ward isn’t turning its back on season 3 just yet. In fact, the developer is launching a Double XP event starting on Friday to help players finish the Battle Pass before season 4 launches.
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.