A new high-resolution texture pack is coming for Warzone and Modern Warfare players on PS4 Pro, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The texture pack is the third to be made available, and players will receive an automatic prompt asking if they want to download it after the next update.
As reported by VG247, the pack is 8.4GB on PlayStation consoles, and while the size on Xbox Series X hasn’t been reported yet, it’s likely to be similar. With the file size of Warzone and Modern Warfare already incredibly large, players should make sure they have the space to spare before downloading.
File sizes on the recent Call Of Duty games have expanded so much that Activision recently had to warn players that Modern Warfare, Warzone, and Black Ops Cold War would no longer fit all together on a 500GB PS4 with all extra content installed.
The new texture pack “supports the most detailed textures for weapons and Operators,” according to the description on the download page.
The texture pack is just for Modern Warfare and its battle royale spinoff, Warzone–despite the launch of a new season of Warzone based around Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The new season is running concurrently in both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, and includes an ongoing “Outbreak” zombie event. Check out the details of the Season 2 update here.
For over 14 years we’ve seen the MP5 featured in almost every Call of Duty game. Here’s a look at how the reliable submachine gun has evolved over the course of 14 titles.
In November, we released an article outlining the top issues and community concerns[www.ubisoft.com] among the Rainbow Six Siege community. Protecting our content creators from players using streamers’ public information to disrupt their experience was highlighted among our top priorities. With the release of Streamer Mode, creators will have more control over what information is publicly available, protecting them from Stream and Queue Sniping.
So, what are these disruptive actions and our efforts to stop them in their tracks? Read on for the details.
Queue Sniping
Queue Sniping—when players taunt or kill a streamer after they deliberately queue at the same time as them—has been a growing problem within the Siege community. Streamer Mode will give creators two forms of protection against Queue Sniping:
Hide Region and Latency – This will allow users to hide all instances where region and ping are mentioned.
Hidden Matchmaking Delay – This will offer a random, hidden delay to the streamer’s matchmaking. The streamer will be able to choose from several delay options. The delay will not impact a player rejoining a match if they are reconnecting.
Find these settings in the Options menu under “Streamer Mode preferences.” Utilizing these settings will greatly reduce the ability of players who are watching a stream to purposely queue into that streamer’s lobby. This isn’t the only issue facing content creators, though.
Stream Sniping
There are instances in which players also intentionally use another player’s livestream to gather information and get an unfair edge, or to act in a disruptive manner. This behavior, calledStream Sniping, is another issue we want to protect against. Our initial release of Streamer Mode will have three settings that empower creators in the battle against these disruptive actions.
Hide Names – This option–listed as “Hide Usernames” for PC players, “Hide Online IDs” for PlayStation players, and “Hide Gamertags” for Xbox players–gives users the ability to hide their own name or the names of their entire team by replacing them with randomly generated presets taken from the NATO phonetic alphabet. This will be reflected not only in-game, but also across text and voice comms, the scoreboard, and Squad drop down.
Hide Clearance Level – Hide the Clearance level on the after-match bonus screen and the contact panel by replacing it with a placeholder.
Hide Avatar – This allows streamers to hide their avatar and replace it with a placeholder.
Stream Sniping Next Steps
Currently, these settings will only impact the point of view from the streamer, limiting the information those watching have regarding the match. However, our team is hard at work on the next iteration of Streamer Mode. Our hope with the next version is the anonymization provided by these settings will be seen by all players in the match, not just the streamer.
Match ID Display and Reporting
Cheating and toxicity are subjects we are [committed to winning](http://rainbow6.com/anticheat_update) the war against. We understand that allowing players to activate these options may raise concerns regarding the process of reporting cheating and disruptive behavior. For this reason, we will add visibility of the Match ID on each match’s scoreboard. This not only gives players a reference point when reporting, but also increases our team’s ability to accurately investigate these reports.
Conclusion
Streamer Mode is just one step we are taking in our efforts to protect our players and is a feature we intend to keep building upon. This is just the first version. We are currently working on and will be releasing a second version that will strengthen and improve stream sniping protections. As we continue to listen to your concerns, our efforts to address those concerns will also continue. We look forward to sharing more updates regarding our work addressing issues facing content creators in the future.
Kicking off 2021, all of us at Rainbow Six Siege are proud to introduce Crimson Heist, a season that gears players up for the ultimate heist. A new Operator is joining our ranks: the sly and tactical Flores, an Attacker from Argentina who knows how to mix precision and passion. He brings the RCE-Ratero Charge, a remote-controlled charge, with a timed explosion, that sneaks up on unsuspecting opponents.
Crimson Height is an action-packed season that offers reworks of the Border map and Newcomer playlist, a new secondary weapon, and plenty of other exciting additions. Are you ready to get the stash? Keep reading the Patch Notes below to discover more.
In this latest edition of Designer’s Notes, we’ll go into more detail about the balancing changes that’ll come with the Crimson Heist patch and give you an insight into the reasons behind these changes.
BALANCING MATRIX AND TOP OPERATOR BANS
WIN DELTA VS. PRESENCE
Please note that we are using presence to gauge the popularity of an Operator. This notion had to be introduced to reflect the implementation of the pick & ban.
Presence definition: pick rate of an Operator when not banned. Win Delta: The Win Delta is aggregated from Operator’s Win Deltas per Bomb Site.
OPERATOR BAN RATE
OPERATOR BALANCING
KALI
Increased CSRX 300 damage to 127 (from 122)
1 body shot will kill a 3-speed Operator
1 body shot will DBNO a 2-speed Operator
1 body shot will DBNO a 1-speed Operator
Wearing Rook Vest:
1 body shot will DBNO a 3-speed Operator
2 body shots will DBNO a 2-speed Operator
2 body shots will DBNO a 1-speed Operator
Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.
Our main objective with Kali is to make her a viable and balanced operator. In general, this requires us to strike the right balance between ability (LV Explosive Lance) and loadout. For Kali in particular, this depends on two main elements. The first is that Kali brings a great amount of utility to the game. The LV Explosive Lance can deal with gadgets, including bulletproof gadgets and ones behind electrified reinforcements. The second element is the CSRX 300. This primary weapon is in charge of most of her killing potential, and keeping this weapon in line is key to avoiding an overpowered operator.
Unsurprisingly, finding the right balance for a one-shot-kill weapon can take a number of iterations. We noticed that on release, Kali was perceived as overpowered, but the power perception has been slowly drifting towards "underperforming." In the previous patch, we took our first step in finding the sweet spot for the CSRX 300. We have looked at your feedback and we are making new changes.
What we’ve done so far:
We started by identifying the 1-shot-DBNO mechanic as one of the main issues. The mechanic was perceived as frustrating and it did not allow us to tweak the weapon power level, so we decided to transform the CSRX 300 into a normal weapon. Now, we can modify the weapon damage and iterate until we find the sweet spot.
With this change, we’ve also tackled the lack of counter for Kali’s CSRX 300. For example, now, wearing Rook’s Armor Plates can now help Operators to survive a body shot.
We also wanted to keep the damage modifiers caused by bullets getting through walls or hitting Operators limbs’, as this helps to prevent lucky shots that can kill or put Operators in to DBNO. This also ensures good aim is rewarded. The first iteration set the damage at 122. With this value, we had a compromise where 3-speed Operators would die from a chest shot and 1-speeds would survive it. This compromise took into account that 1-speed Operators do not represent a majority in a defensive line-up, especially on Pro League. This approach has been perceived as too weak, though, and we are making new changes to address that.
What we’re doing now:
Our next step is to increase the weapon damage to make 1-speed Operators also fall into DBNO. Like last time, we will be monitoring your feedback and the game data to ensure we continue tracking towards finding that sweet spot for Kali. For some Operators, balance is a process that takes iteration, so we appreciate the feedback and insight the community has shared here!
Additional insight into Kali’s interaction with Rook’s Armor Plate:
With the above change in mind, we want Rook’s ability to be relevant against Kali’s CSRX 300. We are not creating any specific rules for the interaction, but we want to clarify how Rook’s Armor works:
When an operator is wearing Rook’s Armor Plate, their armor gains an extra 15% protection. This means that:
A 3-speed Operator will have 15% damage reduction.
A 2-speed Operator will have 25% damage reduction.
A 1-speed Operator will have 35% damage reduction.
This means that with the new damage value, only 3-speed operators will fall into DBNO when receiving a CSRX 300 body shot. The rest of the 2 and 3-speed Operators will survive that shot.
BLACKBEARD
Reduced Shield HP to 20 (from 50)
Reduced MK17 damage to 40 (from 49)
Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.
According to the Balancing Matrix, Blackbeard continues to be a force to reckon with, sporting the highest Attacker win delta. Between the great utility afforded by his Rifle Shields and a loadout with strong damage capabilities that has earned him a high K/D, he is a point of frustration for Defenders.
By reducing the HP of his shields and damage of his MK17, this will slightly reduce both his killing potential and survivability. Given that the majority of the time, Blackbeard ends matches with shield economy to spare, this change should be fair to both sides as it brings him more in line with other Attackers.
DOKKAEBI
Added Gonne-6 (Removed C75)
Added Stun Grenades (Removed Frag Grenades)
Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.
Dokkaebi is the first of two Operators who will be encountering a loadout shakeup this patch to make way for the newest gun in the Siege armoury. The Gonne-6 will replace the C75 as her secondary weapon, providing highly accurate explosive utility for dealing with gadgets, abilities and Operators. As a result, her gadgets have also been tweaked to limit the number of explosives at her disposal.
It’s no secret that Dokkaebi has received a number of loadout changes in the past year. The initial intention for giving her Frag Grenades was to offer more utility against bulletproof devices rather than to increase killing potential. By switching to Stun Grenades, she will retain this utility against bulletproof devices while also empowering her with a wider range of tools to better adapt to her surroundings while disrupting Defenders.
FINKA
Added Gonne-6 (Removed GSH-18)
Added Stun Grenades (Removed Frag Grenades)
Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.
Like Dokkaebi, Finka is also receiving an update to her loadout, gaining the Gonne-6 secondary weapon and replacing her Frag Grenades with Stun Grenades. Given her strong win delta compared to other Attackers on the Balancing Matrix, the slight reduction in AoE damage capabilities is not expected to have a significant effect on her performance, particularly now that she is able to accurately deny many Defenders’ tools with the Gonne-6.
MOZZIE
Warning will hint at the distance to Pests by modifying its blinking speed
Population targeted by this change: Top Ranked and Pros.
In its current state, Mozzie’s Pest lacks clear counters and often forces Attackers to waste time and resources in order to avoid or mitigate obvious traps. The difficulty countering him has made Mozzie a particularly useful Operator, and has contributed to driving up his presence in the Balancing Matrix.
By adding a proximity warning to Pests, this provides Attackers with a tool to more effectively avoid or deal with clear traps. While this change will not fundamentally change Mozzie’s moment-to-moment actions, it will encourage more creative placement of Pests to get the jump on Attackers.
NØKK
While HEL Presence Reduction is active, Nøkk won’t activate proximity-based gadgets
Gadgets affected: Ela’s Grzmot Mine, Melusi’s Banshee, Kapkan’s Entry Denial Device, Proximity Alarm, and Metal Detectors
Nøkk’s glitch effect will cancel the proximity immunity, resulting in the activation of any gadget in range
The color of the HEL device on Nøkk’s hand will change colour when bypassing any proximity device
Population targeted by this change: Top Ranked and Pros.
Nøkk was initially designed as a counter-intel Operator, but not every intel tool is a camera. Devices triggered by proximity give very useful information as the activation’s sound cue provides information without requiring players to lower their weapon. We want to make Nøkk’s gadget more interesting to play and useful against more defensive setups.
Please note, this is a TEST SERVER ONLY change. We will turn it off before releasing the new season to continue working on her. We have tested this change internally and while we feel it adds an interesting dynamic to her play, there are still some unanswered questions. Therefore, we would like to hear your feedback and iterate before deploying this to the wider community.
TWITCH
Added Smoke Grenades (Removed Stun Grenades)
Population targeted by this change: Top Ranked.
Twitch continues to have a high presence in the Balancing Matrix. This is due in part to her high killing potential and aggressive playstyle as a secondary entry fragger.
By replacing her Stun Grenades with Smoke Grenades, this removes one of the tools that empowers such aggressive play and opens up additional role opportunities for players who would rather hang back and provide support. We will continue to monitor how this affects her playstyle to ensure any changes retain the core of why players love Twitch.
WEAPON BALANCING
G36
Improved recoil
Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.
It’s no secret that the G36 has been overshadowed by the R4C and ARX and is in need of a tweak. In order to make it feel better to use while bringing it more in line with the effectiveness of its contemporaries, this assault rifle’s recoil has been updated.
Players should notice an immediate change in its handling. Specifically, recoil will no longer drift horizontally, making it more reliable. Like anything relating to the handling of weapons, though, it’s important to note that we are continuing to look at how we can further improve the feel of different weapons in players’ loadouts.
OTHER CHANGES
DISABLED STATE FOR ELECTRONIC GADGETS
With Year 6 Season 1, when a gadget is disabled by Mute, there will be proper feedback showcased to players.
Expect feedback when the following gadgets are disabled while in play:
Attacker drones
Breach Charges
Hibana’s X-Kairos
Fuze’s Cluster Charge
Thermite’s Exothermic Charge
Zero’s ARGUS Cameras
Claymores
Nomad’s Airjabs
—
Try out the latest Rainbow Six updates on the Test Server and earn an exclusive charm through the Bug Hunter Program[rainbow6.com].
Follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook [www.facebook.com]and on our forums[forums.ubi.com].
The NPD Group released its latest monthly report, this one covering the January 2021 period, and the Nintendo Switch and Call of Duty had a big month to help lift up the overall US gaming industry substantially.
Total spending on games, hardware, and accessories reached $4.7 billion, up 42% year-over-year, and representing the biggest revenue in any January since NPD began.
For hardware, the Nintendo Switch was once again the top-selling platform based on units sold, reaching the highest of any console–Nintendo or otherwise–since the Nintendo Wii in January 2010. The PS5, however, drove the most spending in terms of dollars due to its more expensive price point. It reached the highest dollar since for a January month since the Wii in January 2009.
Total spending on hardware rose 144% year-over-year to $319 million, the highest for a January month since January 2011 ($323 million).
In terms of games, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the top-seller in January; it’s been the best-selling game each month since it was released in November. It’s also now the 20th best-selling game in US history for dollar sales, after just three months.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was No. 2 in January, and it’s now the second fastest-selling game in the series in the US, only behind Assassin’s Creed III, when looking at its first three months.
You can see the full list of the top 20 best-sellers for January below.
Moving to another unit, accessories sales rose 73% to a January record of $222 million. The PS5’s white DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory in January.
Top 20 Best-Selling Games In The US For January 2021
Activision is facing a new lawsuit over Mara, a character from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone. Writer and photographer Clayton Haugen claims that Mara is based on Cade Janus, a character he created who is portrayed in live action by the same model as Mara, Alex Zedra. You can get a look at the two characters in the images below.
A press release provided by Potts Law Firm, who are representing Haugen, says that he created Cade Janus as part of “a story treatment to draw interest from various movie production companies,” along with a photoshoot of Zedra portraying the character. The release says Haugen posted these details and images on his website to attract attention, though he no longer appears to have an active website. The images appear on his Instagram account, though these posts don’t include a name or details about the character.
The Call of Duty character Mara was released a few years later in December 2019 as part of Modern Warfare‘s Season 1. Model Alex Zedra provided the likeness for the character model, as well as modelling in live-action promotional imagery for the character. Mara has since been released in Call Of Duty Mobile and Warzone.
The lawsuit alleges that Activision used Haugen’s images when developing Mara, as well as hiring the same model and makeup artist used for his original shoot. It also claims that those involved were made to sign non-disclosure agreements to cover up the infringement.
The same legal team are currently involved in a similar lawsuit also targeting Activision, with wrestler Booker T. Huffman claiming that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s Prophet is a copy of his G.I. Bro alter ego. That lawsuit is set for trial in April.
The trial has similarities to a lawsuit filed against GTA V publisher Take-Two Interactive by Lindsay Lohan, with the actress alleging that the game character Lacey Jonas was unlawfully based on her. The case was thrown out when a five-judge panel concluded that Jonas was simply a “generic” twenty-something female character.
Activision has successfully defended itself against other lawsuits in the past, including one brought by Humvee manufacturer GM for the use of its vehicles in Call of Duty games, and lawsuits involving depictions of real people including Jonas Savimbi and Manuel Noriega.
Laut einer aktuellen Klage gegen Activision und Infinity Wars sollen die Unternehmen das Design der Spielfigur “Mara” in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare bei der Idee eines Fotografen gestohlen haben. Für das Marketing soll der Publisher sogar das selbe…
It’s been about half a year since our last dev blog[www.ubisoft.com] on the Rainbow Six Siege war against cheats. For the last six months, the team has continued the fight and we would like to share with you a bit about what’s been happening behind the scenes. While we would love to be fully transparent, doing so could hinder our efforts as it could aid in the creation of new cheats.
Most of our changes will be made on the backend, so you may not see them. To summarize our current status, we are actively reinforcing cheat detection by adding to existing security measures and lessening the overall ability to cheat in Rainbow Six Siege.
Glossary
Throughout the blog we’ll reference a few different groups of exploiters:
– Cheaters: Players using a 3rd party application, script, or macro to obtain an unfair advantage in-game or in a manner that violates the Terms of Service for Rainbow Six Siege. – Cheat Developers: Those developing cheat applications which they then use, sell, or give to cheaters. – Hackers: For the context of this article, these are malicious individuals/groups who are taking over accounts that are not theirs and re-selling accounts they do not own.
The Siege Team’s Approach Towards Cheating
In our never-ending cat and mouse game with cheaters and cheat developers, we continue to focus our efforts on 3 core points:
– Detection Improvement – Increased Barriers to prevent cheaters and novel cheats – Reduction of Impact of cheats in-game
2020 in Numbers
By the end of 2020, we confirmed we exceeded our previous annual ban number record by 44.73%. Improved detection, detailed reporting, and data sharing with BattlEye were big factors in this ban increase. With a continually growing population and the increased availability of cheats, new cheats and cheaters regularly keep us on our toes.
In August, we started issuing a new type of cheating sanction based on player data—something we will go into more detail on below. We used this new data detection model to ban over 4500 players between August and December. Adding this to our cheating sanctions brings us to a total of 52,69% increase in cheating bans.
A Look Back at 2020 and Where We Are Heading
The June Dev Blog[www.ubisoft.com] described three important topics for 2020: Detection, Blockers, and Vulnerabilities. These continue to be our focus and we have some updates to report.
1. IMPROVED CHEAT DETECTION
Cheat detection will always be a work in progress, as well as a ‘’hunting’’ process. As cheating is ever-evolving thanks to changing behaviors, the continued bypassing of systems, and more, it will always be impossible to detect 100% of cheaters.
That’s why we are building new cheat detections based on statistics to uncover our most disruptive cheat users.
1.1. USING DATA-BASED DETECTION MODELS FOR EARLY DETECTION AND FLAGGING CHEATS
Bans based on player statistics are still new to Rainbow Six Siege. One of the major goals of data-based cheat detection is to sanction cheaters faster. We are happy with the accuracy of our first model, but we are still operating the ban waves manually. This is causing the process to be slower than we would like. Automation for this first model is planned for the beginning of Year 6.
New detection models will always launch manually. We start by identifying data that will make our detection model relevant. Next, we launch it on the backend and make sure we are comfortable with the results. The first ban waves are done by hand, allowing us to review each impacted player. This helps us ensure the detections are identifying concrete proof of cheating. We will continue to develop new models that give us better visibility on what is happening live in order to expedite the identification of cheaters and sanctioning them.
1.2. IMPROVING BATTLEYE IN SIEGE
For the last six months, we have been working with BattlEye to improve cheat detections in Siege. We will continue to ensure that our partnership with BattlEye has a positive impact on the Rainbow Six Siege community.
2. INCREASED BARRIERS TO ENTRY AND CHEAT PREVENTION
Cheat detection is only one piece of the anti-cheat puzzle in Siege. We are also working to increase barriers to entry for both cheat developers and their users. Our goal is to cancel any benefit that could be gained from this practice by making it costly for illegitimate players.
2.1. MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT FOR CHEATERS
In our quest to make cheaters’ lives as difficult as possible, we included APAC regions in the 2-Step Verification Ranked Lock[www.ubisoft.com]. This not only deters cheating, but it helps secure a wider array of accounts from being hacked. Increasing the overall security of accounts is an effective way to help fight instances of account stealing or selling, and makes it harder for Cheaters, Hackers, and Cheat Developers alike.
Another tool in the arsenal of cheaters and cheat developers is the creation of burner accounts. To combat this, we have linked BattlEye bans with Steam Vac bans, which prevent banned players from receiving game refunds.
In the upcoming months, we’ll also be keeping a closer eye on leaderboards. We are aware that cheaters are appearing in the highest rankings and will dedicate efforts to manually cleaning the leaderboards periodically.
2.2. MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT FOR CHEAT DEVELOPERS
While we can’t offer specifics on this topic, please know we are working to make it harder for cheat developers to analyze and modify our game. With every update we’ve launched for the past few seasons, we have continued to further secure code, making it more difficult for cheat features to keep up.
Cheat Developers may only be one part of the equation, but they are the source of the problem. We will continue securing our code and eliminating vulnerabilities in order to make the upkeep of cheats more costly and time-consuming.
3. REDUCTION OF VULNERABILITIES, CHEAT OPPORTUNITIES AND IMPACT OF CHEATS
We are continuing to learn a great deal from our battle against cheating as we fight on multiple fronts, from live issues and fires, to planning the future of Siege’s anti-cheat responses, through to making sure we maintain visibility on our vulnerabilities.
3.1. VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
Cheat developers take advantage of vulnerabilities to create their cheats. For this reason, we assess our vulnerabilities every season to not only detect current vulnerabilities, but also to predict what new loopholes could be found in the future. We keep the Ubisoft game security team close and use their knowledge to plan our initiatives and understand past and present errors.
3.2. VULNERABILITY FIXES
In addition to using software to discover potential risks, we actively keep an eye on social media and work closely with the community team and customer support to concentrate our efforts on issues that matter to our players. As soon as we discover vulnerabilities, we get to work on fixing them. In some instances, there are no simple solutions, so we complement prevention with detection.
What is Next?
We have big plans on the horizon for our team and for the game, and have no intention of slowing down. While we can’t go into full detail at this time, we hope this Dev Blog has helped you understand some of the work we do behind the scenes. This work is rarely user-facing and can be overthrown by new cheat iterations, but we’ll keep pushing to improve on all fronts.
In the future, the anti-cheat team plans to remain transparent by publishing Dev Blogs when we have notable updates to share.
Conclusion
For every wall reinforcement that we deploy, Cheat Developers are trying to breach in another room. But it far from deters our will to rid the game of as many opportunists and cheaters as we can. We are dedicated to making Siege secure and fair for everyone. We look forward to sharing exciting new releases in future Dev Blogs. Until then, keep reporting cheaters in-game and stay safe out there.
For over 14 years we’ve seen the MP5 featured in almost every Call of Duty game. Here’s a look at how the reliable submachine gun has evolved over the course of 14 titles.
Let’s take a look back at some of the most overpowered and infamous Akimbo guns that Call of Duty has ever offered.
