The listing, found here (opens in new tab), confirms the product is 81.65 GB in size, runs on Xbox One, features multiplayer, and is rated M for Mature with “Intense Violence, Blood, [and] Language.”

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In addition, the page contains one piece of artwork (seen above), alongside an official synopsis, which reads as follows:

“There is more than one truth. If you go looking for answers, be ready to question everything and accept that nothing will ever be the same. The Red Door awaits, do you dare step through it?”

As it happens, a listing for The Red Door was also found on the PlayStation Network a few weeks ago (opens in new tab), alongside the content ID tag “COD2020INTALPHA1”, suggesting this title is actually a front for the next Call of Duty game, rumoured to be named Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

The next instalment in the long-running FPS series is rumoured to be in the works at Treyarch, and will softly reboot that studio’s beloved Black Ops series. We’ve reached out to Activision for comment on this latest rumbling, and will let you know if we heard anything more. 

For more, check out the best Call of Duty games (opens in new tab) in the series’ history, or find out what we’ve been playing in this unusual times in the episode of Trending Topics below. 

The post The Red Door, reported to be Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, has appeared on the Microsoft Store appeared first on Game News.

The fresh rumours arrive courtesy of YouTuber Xclusive Ace (opens in new tab), who posted a video claiming insider sources have supposedly shown him actual gameplay of Call of Duty 2020. 

The video has since gone offline, suggesting Activision may have stuck it with a takedown notice, but Reddit (opens in new tab) was able to provide a full breakdown of what it contained. 

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According to the report, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to release sometime in October or early November, and developer Treyarch has almost finished development on the project with the game in “good state.”

The upcoming instalment in the annual FPS series is said to feature a full campaign, Treyarch’s popular PvE Zombies mode, a suite of multiplayer content, and a new Call of Duty: Warzone (opens in new tab) map that’ll update Infinity Ward’s free-to-play battle royale. 

In addition, the game apparently reneges on several of the features found in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The traditional mini-map is back, for instance, as are Black Ops’ swimming mechanics, while Treyarch has also apparently done away with Infinity Ward’s interactable door systems for its environments. 

The Reddit post also goes into further detail about the game’s rumoured set of multiplayer maps, class system, and Warzone changes, and – taken together – it sounds like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War could shake things up as drastically as last year’s title did for the franchise. 

Activision will likely make an official announcement soon, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled, and take these rumours with plenty of salt until then. 

For more, check out the best Call of Duty games (opens in new tab) in the series’ history, or find out what we’ve been playing in this unusual times via the latest episode of Trending Topics below. 

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War reportedly features new Warzone map, zombies, and a full campaign appeared first on Game News.

As posted on Reddit (opens in new tab), much of the footage is already being struck with takedown notices from Activision (which, ironically, lends further credence to their authenticity), but shows apparent pre-alpha gameplay, guns, and environments that hint that this game will take place in the Black Ops universe. The map in the leaked footage also bears a resemblance to Black Ops 4’s Arsenal multiplayer map.  

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Though the source claims this is pre-alpha gameplay, which would explain why it doesn’t look as robust or visually impressive as you’d expect from a Call of Duty title, the reddit post claims that the game is running on the same engine that Treyarch used for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (opens in new tab) and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (opens in new tab).

Whatever we’re looking at here, it’s worth taking it all with plenty of salt. Even if this footage is real, video game projects can transform drastically over the course of their development, and the fact this gameplay appears to be from an early version of the title suggests it’ll bear no resemblance to the finished product. 

In any case, it’s likely that Activision is planning to officially reveal the next Call of Duty very soon. Who knows? Perhaps it’s something we can expect to show up at the incoming PS5 Future of Gaming (opens in new tab) event, a new date for which is apparently set to be announced “soon”. (opens in new tab) 

For more, check out the best Call of Duty games (opens in new tab) in the series’ history, or find out what we’ve been playing in this unusual times via the latest episode of Trending Topics below. 

The post First Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War footage leaks ahead of Treyarchs official reveal appeared first on Game News.

Gearing up for next month’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3? We know that time is of the essence, so we’ve recapped all the major events from the series over the next few pages. Whether you’re going in cold or if you just want a refresher, you’ll be caught up in no time.

The Black Ops series spans multiple generations, taking players from the jungles of Vietnam to a futuristic Los Angeles seized by military drones. What starts out as a straightforward assassination mission soon becomes much more complicated, as former friends reveal themselves as traitors, and betrayals on the battlefield yield shocking results. For now, though, let’s return to where the series started.

Operation 40

Call of Duty: Black Ops begins in 1968 with CIA operative Alex Mason strapped to an electric chair. His captors are convinced that he knows the location of a Russian numbers station, and Mason, suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations, recounts the events leading up to his capture.

Previously, Mason and his teammates Woods and Bowman tried to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as part of America’s failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. Mason unknowingly ends up killing a body double instead, and he stays behind in Cuba while helping his squad escape. The real Castro captures Mason and hands him over to General Nikita Dragovich, who in turn hauls him off to the Vorkuta Gulag forced labor camp.

Uneasy Alliances

The next year Mason spends at Vorkuta isn’t especially pleasant, as you might imagine. During his imprisonment, Mason befriends fellow captive Viktor Reznov, who shares a common enemy with Dragovich. Dragovich, along with his comrade Lev Kravchenko, betrayed Reznov during a Russian operation in 1945, using the deadly nerve toxin “Nova-6” against his own squad before fleeing with the chemical weapon’s ex-Nazi creator, Friedrich Steiner. Reznov vows revenge, telling Mason “Dragovich, Steiner, Kravchenko … All must die.”

Reznov and Mason spearhead a prisoner uprising and both escape, though Reznov is presumed captured as Mason flees to the United States. Returning to military duty, Mason travels to the Pentagon and meets President John F. Kennedy, who sends Mason on a mission to sabotage Russia’s space program and kill Dragovich. During the briefing, Mason briefly hallucinates aiming his weapon at Kennedy’s head, but the vision ends before he can act on his urges. That’s probably nothing to be concerned about, right? Off to Kazakh!

Reznov’s Revenge

Mason, Woods, Bowman, and newcomer Weaver successfully destroy their target. Though Dragovich is thought to have perished in an explosion, Mason fails to confirm the kill, and believes that he’s still alive. Mason spends the next five years unsuccessfully hunting Dragovich, eventually leading him on a U.S. military mission to Vietnam, where a Russian defector promises information regarding Dragovich’s whereabouts. The defector, who turns out to be Reznov, leads Mason, Woods, and Bowman to Dragovich’s partner Kravchenko and a wayward shipment of Nova-6. The shipment is lost, and Mason’s squad is captured by the Viet Cong and Spetznaz soldiers. In the confusion that follows, Bowman is executed, and Woods and Kravchenko apparently die during an explosive struggle.

Elsewhere, Weaver and CIA agent Hudson track down the whereabouts of Nova-6’s creator Steiner. Mason and Reznov get word of this development, and two teams – Weaver and Hudson, and Mason and Reznov – separately converge on Steiner’s location on Rebirth Island. Mason gets there first, and Reznov kills Steiner before Weaver and Hudson can interrogate him for information regarding a planned attack on the United States. Mason is detained and placed in military custody. Players then experience the scene from Weaver and Hudson’s perspective. The pair see Mason execute Steiner while reciting Reznov’s dialog. Reznov himself is nowhere to be seen.

Manipulated

Mason’s current-day captors are revealed to be Weaver and Hudson, who are trying to make sense of his sabotage. They reveal that Steiner, on Dragovich’s orders, had psychologically programmed Mason to kill President Kennedy during his imprisonment in Vorkuta. Mason refused to be broken by the training, leaving his inner programming incomplete and unstable.

Mason’s fellow captive Reznov takes advantage of the situation, himself reprogramming Mason to assassinate his own enemies: Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Steiner. Reznov actually died during the prisoner uprising in Vorkuta, but his thirst for revenge lived on in Mason, who hallucinated Reznov’s presence in Vietnam and at Rebirth Island. Mason had been doing Reznov’s posthumous bidding all along, leading him to kill Steiner while suffering from the effects of brainwashing.

Sleeping Dogs

In the years after Mason went missing in action, the U.S. military learned that Dragovich planned to set off Nova-6 in locations across the United States through sleeper cells activated by Russian numbers stations. Crucially, Mason is believed to have been programmed with the ability to decode these broadcasts, though even after interrogation and repeated listenings to the point of auditory hallucination, he does not recall his training.

After Mason attempts an escape from his captors, Hudson tracks him down and successfully breaks his brainwashing. Mason recalls that the numbers station is broadcast from the Gulf of Mexico-bound Rusalka, the ship where Castro originally handed Mason over to Dragovich. Mason and Hudson head there immediately to take care of unfinished business before the sleeper cells can activate. In the game’s final mission, Mason, Hudson, and Weaver board the Rusalka and encounter Dragovich, who starts the sleeper cell broadcast. The team orders an airstrike while still aboard, and Mason hunts down Dragovich and kills him. The transmitter is destroyed, the numbers station broadcast terminates, and the sleeper cells remain dormant. Mason, Hudson, and Weaver escape, and jets fly overhead as a new dawn rises.

Called Back

After preventing a war between international superpowers, Alex Mason retires to a quiet life in Alaska with his seven-year-old son, David. In 1986, Alex is called back into duty by Hudson, who heads up a rescue mission of personal interest. It turns out that Mason and Hudson’s old partner, Frank Woods, survived his encounter with Kravchenko back in Vietnam, and had disappeared along with his squad during a since-disavowed CIA black ops mission in Angola. The mission sets off a chain of events that spans decades.

Woods explains that his squad had been held captive by Raul Menendez, a dangerous and unpredictable arms dealer with ties to the Soviets. Mason, Hudson, and Woods track Menendez to Afghanistan, where they discover Kravchenko instead. He reveals that he had placed moles within the CIA, and claims an alliance with Menendez. After Woods finishes off Kravchenko, the accompanying Mujahideen squad betrays Mason’s team, and leaves them for dead. The team is discovered in the middle of a desert, and Mason claims to see Reznov among his rescuers.

Deep-Seated Grudges

Mason, Woods, and Hudson afterward close in on Menendez’s headquarters in Nicaragua. During the raid, Woods inadvertently kills Menendez’s beloved sister and only remaining relative, Josefina. Menendez spends decades afterward planning his revenge against America and Woods in particular.

In 1989, Mason’s squad allies with real-world Panamaian dictator Manuel Noriega in an attempt to finish off Menendez. Noriega instead helps Menendez escape. Mason’s team separates and Woods, acting on orders from a kidnapped Hudson, executes a masked man that he thinks is Menendez. The man turns out to be Mason. Menendez appears at the scene, kills Hudson, and cripples Woods, warning him that his revenge is not yet complete.

Heart Day

We jump ahead to 2025. Alex Mason’s son, David, now a U.S. Navy SEAL with the code name “Section,” questions an elderly and wheelchair-bound Woods regarding the whereabouts of Raul Menendez. Menendez had visited Woods recently, and warned him that his final act of revenge was approaching.

Menendez, now heading up a global populist group named Cordis Die, hacks the Chinese Stock Exchange and pins the blame on the United States. Swayed by Menendez’s false but convincing evidence, the world’s nations turn against America as Cordis Die’s influence grows. China additionally locks down exports for rare earth elements that are critical in the production of U.S. military technology, weakening the nation’s defenses.

Infiltration

Section’s next mission to Myanmar reveals that Menendez is planning a second and infinitely more destructive digital attack using Celerium, an advanced computer chip capable of hacking and taking control of any computer system in the world. Following him to Yemen, Section captures Menendez and brings him aboard the USS Barack Obama (yup) for questioning.

A traitor in Section’s team allows Menendez to escape. Menendez hacks the computer system aboard the Obama (yup) using smuggled Celerium and gains control over the United States’ drone fleet. Menendez escapes and sends thousands of American drones to attack major cities across the globe.

Closure

After surviving a drone attack on Los Angeles and saving the life of the U.S. President, Section travels to Haiti to put an end to Menendez’s plans before he can use America’s military to attack other nations. Upon subduing Menendez in a final showdown, players can see one of several endings depending on whether a handful of major characters survived the events of the campaign.

In Black Ops 2’s best ending, Menendez is imprisoned, and the virus he used to control the U.S. military is stopped. If Woods wounded the masked Alex Mason in 1989 instead of killing him, Mason reunites with his son after Menendez’s capture.

Party Hard

That ending’s a little bit too conventional, though. We choose to accept Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s post-credits sequence as series canon. Basically the Call of Duty equivalent of Silent Hill 2’s infamous “Dog Ending,” this scene recasts Woods and Menendez as members of the band Avenged Sevenfold. Asked if he’s ready to rock, Woods rises from his wheelchair and proclaims “I’m ready to roll!” before the pair takes the stage in front of a cheering crowd. No, really. This is a thing that actually happens, and it rules.

Given Black Ops 2’s ridiculous alt-ending and its futuristic tech that at one point transforms Section’s squad into a fleet of flying squirrels (again, not an exaggeration), we’re excited to see where Black Ops 3 takes the series. It’s set in 2065 and stars a new cast of characters, but we’re willing to bet that we probably haven’t seen the last of the Mason clan.

The post Call of Duty Black Ops: The story so far appeared first on Game News.

Starting with the original Call of Duty, this is a game that’s been putting us in the boots of larger-than-life soldiers in some of the most intense combat moments you could imagine for a long time. Let’s reflect on some of the most memorable moments that have defined the series.

SPOILERS AHEAD, read at your own risk!

15. Menendez’s bloody rampage | Time and Fate | Call of Duty Black Ops II

Very rarely do you get to know the exact motivations behind a psychopathic villain, but in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, you get to witness Raul Menendez’s plight from his own eyes–bloodshot, rage-filled eyes. In a CIA raid to capture Menendez, his sister Josefina is taken from him, sending the antagonist into a murderous frenzy. With nothing but a shotgun, machete, and blind rage, you rampage through the nearby town, slaughtering every soldier that stands in your way. Bullets can’t hurt you, you shrug off grenades, and you attack your victims like a man possessed. What a rush.

14. Saving the ‘President’ | Atlas | Advanced Warfare

Mission 2 of Advanced Warfare is a bit of whirlwind. One minute you’re meeting your slain best friend’s father at a funeral, the next you’re rescuing the Commander-in-Chief from a hostage situation at Camp David. What’s going on? When your shiny new prosthetic arm malfunctions and a colleague shoots the POTUS in the head, it suddenly becomes clear – this overblown, oh-so-CoD mission is just a VR simulation. It’s a miniature twist, and a nice introduction to AW’s future-tech. Also, Kevin Spacey’s all over it, which is always fun.

13. The United States getting nuked from space | Ghost Stories | Call of Duty: Ghosts

To kick off the new setting for Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward brought out the biggest guns they could get: a weaponized space station orbiting right above the United States. As the astronaut Baker, you and your partner witness the Federation hijack the station, gun down its crew, and launch nuclear missiles towards southern California. But what you have to do gets even more insane. As in, get-blown-out-into-space, shoot-any-bad-guys-you-see, then commit-suicide-to-save-the-world kind of insane.

12. Deciding the fate of Alex Mason | Suffer With Me | Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Black Ops II did something that no other Call of Duty campaign had done before: it let you make choices. But one of those choices might’ve passed without you even knowing it happened. The young Mason and Woods have tracked down the murderous extremist, Raul Menendez, who was betrayed by his allies. With a blinding cloth draped over his head, Menendez is displayed in front of Woods, who has a sniper rifle in hand, ready to gun the madman down. You’re given control. You take the shot. But as you inspect the body, you discover that you shot Alex Mason instead! Dun dun dun. Guess you should’ve shot him in the leg, a subtle choice which gives you a completely different ending.

11. Back to WWII | Demon Within | Black Ops 3

CoD fans have spent years campaigning for a return to the battlefields of the past – in cheeky fashion, Black Ops 3 gave them what they wanted. Entering the mind of the dying Sarah Hall (don’t ask), you’re thrust into 1944’s Siege of Bastogne, taking down Nazi threats with tech a century ahead of theirs. Quickly, things get weird(er), as the world starts folding in on itself, Inception-style, gravity begins to turn off, and zombies and direwolves start popping up. It’s all very meaningful, I’m sure.

10. Hijacked plane sequence | Turbulence | Modern Warfare 3

And there we were thinking Modern Warfares breathless airplane-based bonus mission Mile High Club was pretty special. But then MW3s Turbulence comes along and takes in-flight combat to the next level – protecting the Russian president from hijackers in the claustrophobic space of a jet is high-stakes stuff on its own. Then, the engines stall out and the dive sends you into a sequence of zero gravity shooting and a crash landing that rips the aircraft fuselage in two. True action film fare.

9. De-Nazifying the woods | The Forest | Call of Duty 3

A wonderfully paced, rising crescendo of a level. At first requiring a softly-softly snipey-snipey approach, with the relative peacefulness of the forest creating an edgy atmosphere, the player never quite knowing where the next Nazis going to spring from. Then it kicks things up a notch, with the battle intensifying as it moves between tight burrow-like trenches and wide-open spaces. Finally and a complete contrast to the cautious way the mission starts youre given a mortar to play with, allowing you to merrily blow apart any of Hitlers helmeted hobgoblins unfortunate enough to still be lurking in the forest.

8. The Airport Massacre | No Russian | Modern Warfare

“Best” is perhaps not quite the right word for this entry, but it’s undoubtedly one of the series’ most effective, affecting missions. No Russian places you in the shoes of an undercover agent in a terrorist cell. Quickly, you understand just what that asks of you. You enter an airport and are told to mow down everyone you see, regardless of who they are. It’s a video game mission that’s sparked protest, academic study and genuine soul-searching. There’s very little else like it in the medium.

7. Beach landing | The Battle of Pointe du Hoc | Call of Duty 2

Starts with a fellow soldier in the landing craft having a fear-induced puke. BLEEUURGH. This is quickly followed by the sound of bullets whizzing through the air. Then clouds of red mist as those bullets thud into flesh. Soldiers fall to the ground. Spray from a near-miss explosion obscures your view. Then the ramp is down and youre running on to the beach. MORTAR BOOM. Down you go. Cue semi-deafened shell-shocked horror of war moment as you survey the scene around you. When you regain your senses the metaphorical implications of the vertical cliff face ahead of you become apparent. Your role to this point is one of spectator, but its still a breathless couple of minutes.

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The post 15 of the best Call of Duty moments in the history of the series appeared first on Game News.

Note that the first time we saw anything like a Black Ops 2 release date teased (opens in new tab) – which was also the moment everyone threw up their hands and agreed that Activision wasn’t fooling anyone and Black Ops 2 was pretty much a definite thing – the date given was far closer, cementing suspicions that May would be when the game was officially announced for proper (it’s now scheduled for unveiling on May 1, during the NBA playoffs).

Since then we’ve seen hints of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 doing future warfare (opens in new tab), giving you a few remaining unknowns to look forward to when Activision unveils the title and the gaming world feigns polite surprise. And then, knowing CoD’s preternatural powers of publicity, we’ll all go out and reserve ourselves three copies apiece.

The post Black Ops 2 release date outed by preorder card? appeared first on Game News.

Jun 16, 2011

Here’s the behind-the-scenes trailer for the pack, which makes its XBL debut on June 28 with day-one downloaders treated to a double-XP weekend starting July 1. The trailer offers a few location-specific tips for the new multiplayer maps %26ndash; Hangar 18, Silo, Hazard and Drive-In %26ndash; and a look at Shangri-La, the new Zombies map which injects Night of the Living Dead into that other 60s obsession: mystical old Eastern stuff. Basically, it’s a tightly-wound cornucopia of 60s oddity, held together with the ability to stab people in the gut for fun. If that notion doesn’t hold anything new for you, you may actually be Charles Manson… in which case, your presence on our site is both flattering and terrifying.

Jun 16, 2011

The post Treyarch teases Black Ops: Annihilation map pack with new trailer appeared first on Game News.