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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Saqib Shah

Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 1 slammed as 'worst update ever' by players

With the first season of Black Ops 6 reshaping Warzone to fit its new direction, we knew it was going to be a bumpy ride. But the resulting backlash has still come as a surprise due to its sheer scale. 

Upset Call of Duty fans have flooded X and Reddit with vociferous posts about the divisive changes.

Irked by the introduction of omnimovement, a new feature in Black Ops 6 that allows players to sprint and dive in any direction, they claim the change has made the controls in Warzone feel significantly clunkier.

However, this could just be down to some settings being reset by the update. One of those is the field of view (FOV), as noted by Activision on X. This is basically the range of your in-game vision, which some players like to crank up above the default to see more of the action.

Others are frustrated by the in-game audio - another pivotal element in a game that lets players sneak up to take you hostage (or just eliminate you with elaborate finishing moves). 

Irritated players claim everything now sounds muffled, with footsteps barely audible. Some are even going as far as to suggest that Activision tampered with the volume on purpose to make players pay for the game’s enhanced audio feature, which costs $20 per month from a company called Embody.

Of course, the allegations are so far baseless. If anything, it’s more likely to be a bug that will probably be fixed in the coming days.

Alongside the technical changes, players are also miffed at Warzone’s new map, Area 99. The abandoned nuclear site provides fertile ground for campers, they claim, who can easily pick off players parachuting in.

Needless to say, most of these criticisms are subjective - and plenty of players are enjoying the update. Pushing back against the vitriol, some players claim that so-called Call of Duty fans love to complain about the franchise. 

Helping to illustrate their point, the update has seen the return of posts decrying the changing nature of the game. CoD has abandoned its roots to embrace outlandish cosmetics in the pursuit of rampant monetisation, naysayers claim. While valid complaints, the shift appears to be working, with each new Call of Duty game-breaking player records. 

Then again, the thought of an OG mode for Warzone featuring old-school guns and mechanics (as one Redditor suggested) sounds like a blast. If Fortnite can do it, why can’t Activision?

Despite the feeling of déjà-vu, there’s at least one drawback that can’t be put down to player ennui. 

Following the update, the amount of COD points that can be earned from the Battle Pass has dropped to 1,100 from 1,400 previously. This means you only have enough in-game cash to buy the next Battle Pass, with nothing left over to spend in the store.

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