With just two days till its release, Activision Blizzard is plying gamers with ads and promos for Black Ops 6, the latest entry in the juggernaut Call of Duty series.
Over on YouTube, you can watch the game’s ostensible mascot, the Replacer, goofing around with KSI and the Sidemen. Turn on the telly, and you’re bound to run into the game’s trailer during the ads, complete with a faux quote describing it as “the blockbuster event of the year”. To whet your appetite, junk food brands are even jostling to offer free XP in exchange for deep-fried grub.
To say the game is inescapable would be an understatement. But, the barrage of hype threatens to bury some of the most contentious new features from the upcoming shooter. As usual, these have been unearthed by Call of Duty’s hardcore fans.
Earlier this week, social media was flooded with leaks from the game, revealing never-before-seen cosmetics and settings. Chief among them is a new operator skin for one of the most pivotal characters from Call of Duty’s zombies storyline. We’re talking about Samantha Maxis, who popped up wearing childish pyjamas in a nod to her tragic origins.
For the unfamiliar, Maxis’s father was involved in the experiments that created the zombies and Maxis herself has been able to manipulate them from an alternate dimension, which she first entered while wearing those same PJs. If she does show up as an operator in the new game, you’ll be able to play as her, most likely in the heavily anticipated round-based zombies mode.
The leaks also reveal what looks like a paywalled audio feature akin to the PS5’s personalised 3D audio profiles for headphones. Only this version, apparently, comes from a third-party company known as Embody, which also offers similar premium audio settings for PC versions of games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy 14.
You can try it for free, but you may have to pay a one-off fee of $20 (£15) to fully unlock it. Seeing as Call of Duty is crammed with premium items and tiered Battle Passes, charging for another feature in a game that already costs £70 probably won’t go down well with players. Then again, plenty of them may choose to ignore it altogether.
Introducing Enhanced Headphone Mode in @CallofDuty! Experience the new adaptive battlefield in #BlackOps6 with increased directional accuracy and precision sound powered by #Immerse Spatial Audio.
— Embody (@EmbodyAudio) October 22, 2024
Launching in #BlackOps6 Oct 25th!
Learn more at https://t.co/JlS7vKsNeP pic.twitter.com/vGAnw70k3V
Other leaks, including calling cards and emblems from the game, were swiftly removed from social media – probably because Activision caught wind of them. They mainly offered clues about the various themes for the new Prestige Mode, a levelling-up system for more experienced players.
Finally, the other big talking point has focused on the exclusion of one major item. Black Ops 6 won’t include the division Riot Shield, a defensive weapon that has been a mainstay of other Call of Duty games for several years now. Although it does a great job of blocking incoming fire, some players hate on it with the type of fury usually reserved for campers.
