Call of Duty MW 2019Mit Warzone hat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare einen Battle-Royale-Modus spendiert bekommen. Die Spielvariante ist als Update für den Ego-Shooter erhältlich – oder wahlweise als Standalone-Client. Mitglieder von PS Plus dürfen sich dabei auf einen…
Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Warzone: Geschenk bei PS Plus für Modern Warfare Battle Royale – das steckt drin
Der Launch von Call of Duty: Warzone ist erfolgt. Die Battle-Royale-Variante ist kostenlos als Standalone-Version und als Update für Modern Warfare erhältlich. Das Modern Warfare Update steht auf PC, PS4 und Xbox One als Download bereit. Inzwischen hat…
Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Patch Notes zum großen Update 1.17 – was ist neu?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare players on PlayStation 4 have lucked out today, with Activision releasing a free Combat Pack for Playstation Plus users. This free DLC Pack is for the new battle royale mode, Call of Duty: Warzone, which launched today.
The DLC Pack includes the Yegor Operator Skin ‘Trackstar’, the Shotgun Blueprint for ‘Showstopper’, the ‘Skilltrack 56’ Watch, the ‘Covert Operation’ Calling Card, a ‘Shredded’ Weapon Charm, and a 60-Minute Double XP Token.
Most of these are just cosmetic and accessory unlocks that don’t affect the gameplay whatsoever, aside from the 60-minute double XP token. The Operator Skin unlocks the playable Allegiance character Yegor as an option to play as in the new battle royale mode, the first of what seems like many optional character skins to unlock.
Operator Yegor
The shotgun blueprint unlocks the Model 60 shotgun, a full black camo shotgun that has blue tape on the grip. This is purely cosmetic and only seen when holding the shotgun in the game.
Model 60 Shotgun ‘Showstopper’
While the gold and blue Skilltrack 56 watch in this pack is pretty cool, nothing will beat the tomogunchi watch–the virtual pet that grows with your in-game kills.
‘Skilltrack 56’ Watch
The Combat Pack isn’t the only free content Playstation users can enjoy, with Call of Duty: Warzone not requiring a Playstation Plus subscription to play online. Usually a subscription is necessary to play any online content on the PS4, but some games like Fortnite and Apex legends do not require an PS Plus account either; Call of Duty: Warzone is just the latest exception. Xbox users will still need a current Xbox Live Gold subscription to play Warzone online.
This is not the first timed exclusive Call of Duty content. Modern Warfare’s Season 2 update included some PS4-exclusive DLC, while the Survival mode for Spec-Ops is also exclusive to PS4 until October 1, 2020.
Call of Duty: Warfare is available to play on PC, PS4 and Xbox One to those who own Modern Warfare. The Call of Duty: Warzone Combat Pack is exclusive until October 1, 2020
Kompletter Artikel: Here's What's In The Call Of Duty: Warzone Playstation Exclusive DLC Pack
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s standalone free-to-play spin-off, Warzone, Activision is pushing deeper into the battle royale space, and the impact for the publisher could be massive. Not only that, but if successful, Warzone could potentially have implications for the entire video game industry.
Battle royale is not a fad. It started strong with PUBG, which paved the way for making battle royale games a household name and a viable business category for developers to pursue, and the genre has only grown in size and popularity since. Fortnite built upon that success and elevated the genre to incredible new heights inside of gaming and out. Apex Legends helped the category grow even further with its unique innovations and refined gameplay and gunplay.
For its part, Activision was already in the battle royale business prior to Warzone thanks to Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, but that was just a baby step. Blackout was locked behind the paywall of having to already own Black Ops 4–despite the fact that, it was arguably the game’s major selling point. But with Warzone, Activision is opening up Call of Duty for everyone. It’s a very big deal because, up until this point, the Call of Duty franchise (on console, at least) relied on the annual $60 releases. Warzone subverts that tried-and-true model with a new take.
This is potentially a significant step forward for Call of Duty and the entire gaming industry. If Warzone becomes successful, it could represent a way for publishers to have their cake and eat it too, argues Atreides Management’s Gavin Baker. In essence, Activision can make money from the upfront sales of new Call of Duty games every year, and stack even more money on top of that from Warzone.
Activision’s mainline Call of Duty franchise is not going anywhere. The publisher already announced that it plans to launch a new frontline release this fall, and rumors peg it to be Black Ops 5 from developer Treyarch. Even though 2020’s Call of Duty isn’t expected to sell as many copies as the record-breaking Modern Warfare, Call of Duty is always a money-maker. In fact, Call of Duty has been the No.1 best-seller in the US every year this decade except for 2010 and 2013 when Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5 were released respectively. The franchise is a sales juggernaut.
Whatever 2020’s Call of Duty turns out to be, Activision will likely sell this new game alongside ongoing development and support for Warzone, creating yet another Call of Duty revenue stream for the company. Free-to-play games have the lowest possible barrier of entry, so they are risky in that Activision is giving it away for free, but also potentially lucrative if they spark. Free-to-play games, when done right, can generate mountains of money through their microtransactions. Just look at Fortnite and Apex. It’s also worth mentioning that Activision already operates the free-to-play Call of Duty Mobile, which is steamroller with 150 million installs and a battle royale mode of its own that brings in many millions of dollars every month from microtransactions.
Baker observes that, should Warzone become successful, it could become a model for other developers to follow as they look to expand the profitability of their franchises across multiple releases in the same franchise. It’s not a stretch to imagine other shooter series following suit with their own standalone battle royale offerings.
But Warzone also raises some interesting questions about the future of Call of Duty, including what threat of cannibalization might exist. That is to say, if Warzone becomes the next bona fide battle royale phenomenon, could this impact the sales of 2020’s Call of Duty? Activision is emphatically marketing Warzone with the tagline “Free Call of Duty” and this raises questions about how players view the franchise. Will the expectation be, going forward, that Call of Duty is a free game like Fortnite or Apex?
Beyond that, Activision has now released a battle royale game or mode for the latest two Call of Duty games. So should fans expect 2020’s Call of Duty and those beyond it to also include battle royale modes? There are no answers to these questions yet, and that makes sense.
Activision is clearly experimenting with Warzone, both in terms of creative design and business strategy, so it’s too early to say what the impact will be long-term for Activision and the wider industry. What is clear is that Activision is finally delivering on what fans have been asking for: a multiplayer-only, standalone Call of Duty release on console, and that’s a very big deal.
Kompletter Artikel: Why Warzone Battle Royale Is A Big Move For Call Of Duty And Gaming Overall
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been updated with a free-to-play Battle Royale mode called Warzone. Watch us drop into the action, sharpen our knives for the gulag, and try to become #1.
Kompletter Artikel: We Play Warzone, Call Of Duty's New Battle Royale Mode
Call of Duty: Warzone–the new standalone free-to-play battle royale CoD game based on Modern Warfare–shares a few similarities with Apex Legends. Both use three-player squads and emphasize the use of communication, loot management, respawning allies, and teamwork. However, despite these similarities, the two battle royale games are quite different.
If you and your friends love Apex Legends and you’re now eager to jump into Call of Duty: Warzone, you should know you’ll have to account for these differences when you play. Generally, Apex Legends does more to prioritize teamwork within combat, while Warzone’s mechanics and systems prioritize teamwork outside of it. But, of course, it’s a bit more nuanced than that, so let’s break these two games down to showcase what we mean.
The biggest difference in how the two games (aside from the lack of distinct hero characters and abilities) emphasize teamwork is with contracts–a system that doesn’t really exist in Apex Legends. The closest equivalent Apex Legends has to Warzone’s contracts are the loot vaults on the map World’s Edge.
In short, contracts allow you and your squad to earn in-match cash, which can be spent at specific locations to unlock Killstreaks and special legendary items. You can just find cash on the ground or take it from other players you’ve killed as well, but contracts present the fastest way to earn enough in-match money to then quickly outfit your squad (so, again, like finding a key to open a loot vault in Apex Legends).
Contracts provide tasks for your squad to complete that don’t all relate to killing players, providing a way for teammates to contribute to their squad’s success without necessarily having to seek out and destroy. The one exception is bounty contracts, which task you with hunting down and killing a nearby player. The others, however, are much more passive–one tasks you with finding hidden caches that are sometimes in hard-to-reach areas and the other asks you to capture and hold a hardpoint.
Apex Legends’ loot vaults are limited to World’s Edge (they’re not on the original Kings Canyon map) and there are only three on the map, so not every squad is given the opportunity to use them each match. Contracts are basically endless until the final few circles and your squad can take on as many as they want (though you must complete or fail one before moving on to the next). If you’re not your team’s best fighter, but you’re good at completing small tasks in between a bout, Warzone’s contracts are a way to benefit your team and keep them loaded up with cash to spend on shields, Killstreaks, legendary gas masks, and revives.
The ping system in Apex Legends is geared towards use in combat while Warzone’s is not. It’s much easier to use the ping system in Apex Legends while moving (as it’s mapped to one of the controller bumpers), allowing you to ping while you’re approaching a fight, firing a gun, throwing a grenade, healing, using an ability, or retreating. The ping system in Warzone, on the other hand, is mapped to the d-pad, forcing you to remove your thumb from the control stick to mark something, limiting its utility to when you’re not moving around a lot. You can certainly use it during a fight, but stopping your movement is a really easy way to die in a Call of Duty game.
There’s nuance to Apex Legends’ ping system too–it allows you to do general commands like pinpointing items and attackers, yes, but you can also use it to request ammo or healing while in combat or let your teammates know whether you’re attacking, defending, or looking at a spot. Warzone’s ping system has none of this. It’s best used as a way of marking enemy locations before the bullets begin to fly, but not much else. Once a firefight begins, Warzone seems to encourage you to rely on your own skills and forge your own tactics to react to what’s going on, not look to your teammates to quickly call out or suggest other strategies. And, admittedly, standing on your own and going on a spree is a very Call of Duty thing to do. You can, of course, alleviate the limited nature of Warzone’s ping system with a full squad on mics.
Apex Legends and Warzone handle inventory very differently, in terms of picking up loot, equipping attachments, and managing what you’re holding. Whereas the system in Apex Legends is team-oriented and encourages sharing, Warzone’s is more focused on the individual person finding what they need.
Whenever you hover over new loot in Apex Legends, it lets you know whether you can equip it and what benefits you’ll gain when you do–whether that’s body armor, weapons, attachments, or items. Warzone has only one type of armor and CoD’s traditional health regeneration removes the need to look for or share healing items. There are no attachments either; instead, a gun’s attachments are dependent on its level, with grey common weapons having none and each subsequent level adding more. You also have to account for different ammo types in Apex Legends (some SMGs use heavy ammo while others use light, for instance) while Warzone just has catch-all ammo for weapon types (all SMGs use SMG ammo, for example).
This results in very different inventory systems. In Apex Legends, you can easily equip/unequip and move items around because you’re constantly searching for ways to improve your loadout or that of your teammates. You can access your inventory on the move as well, allowing you to both heal and quickly gift items to players in the midst of a fight. In Warzone, not so much. Inventory management is slower and more cumbersome–which is honestly fine because you don’t need to share items as often. You also find what you need relatively quickly and don’t need to worry about weapon attachments or having specific ammo types. Warzone doesn’t need an inventory management system that allows you to quickly adjust your loadout or heal in the midst of a fight because the game doesn’t require you to do either one. You just pick up what you need and automatically drop everything associated with the item you’re not using anymore. The only times that I’ve regularly had to share so far is when it comes to pooling in-match cash to buy expensive Killstreaks–something you’re not typically doing during a fight.
Apex Legends introduced the concept of respawning into a battle royale game, building off of the genre’s traditional revive mechanic to also include ways of self-reviving and teammate respawning. Warzone does both too, but these mechanics are less dependent on doing so during a fight.
In Apex Legends, you self-revive with a legendary gold knockdown shield. The item allows you to defend yourself from incoming fire and continue distracting or pinging enemies until you decide to crawl away to a safe place to slowly revive yourself. Warzone has an item like that too–which you can purchase with in-match cash–but there’s no shield associated to it, seemingly implying you’d use it away from a fight instead of sticking around to continue marking enemies before reviving yourself.
When you die in Apex Legends, your squadmates can secure your banner card and bring you back. This can be dangerous though–there’s a limited time to grab the card and sometimes falling in the middle of a firefight can make it difficult for your squadmates to get to you in time. In Warzone, there’s no timer and your teammates don’t need anything from your body. With enough in-match cash, they can respawn you for a fee away from the bullets. When you return, you drop from the sky via parachute as well, which is significantly less noisy than the respawn dropships in Apex Legends that advertise to every nearby squad where you and your team are.
Additionally, those who die in the early rounds go to the Gulag and fight to the death with another player for a chance at respawning. It’s a really fun respawn system and one that’s completely separate from your teammates needing to succeed at winning at a fight to bring you back. You just need to stand on your own, not rely on teammates.
Kompletter Artikel: CoD: Warzone Vs. Apex Legends: How Both Squad-Based Battle Royales Differ
As you already know by now, the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone is now available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It’s based on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, so many of its gameplay mechanics will be familiar for those who have already played that game. But if you’re new to the battle royale genre or haven’t touched Modern Warfare yet, a free comprehensive strategy guide to Warzone is available courtesy of Infinity Ward and Activision.
The guide includes the ins-and-outs of battle royale and how the genre’s common elements work in Warzone, such as parachuting, safe zones, how the deadly gas circle closes in, and general loadout and looting strategies. There are also extensive details about each area of the map and what to expect when dropping into or looting these specific zones. The Contracts system is explained, which acts like a set of side objectives amid the battle royale match, and the Plunder mode is detailed as well. You may also be caught by surprise if you’re not aware of how the respawning system works, which pits you in a knife fight with other eliminated players inside a prison. There’s a lot more in it that’ll help get you prepared; you can access the full Warzone guide here.
As for the basics of Warzone, it takes place on one large-scale map called Verdansk that features a few familiar areas from previous maps. You can only play in squads of three, and a total of 150 players (50 squads) fight it out in a last-person standing deathmatch. While it’s free-to-play, Warzone is a huge download: 83 to 101 GB for those who do not have Modern Warfare installed, and 15 to 22 GB for those who do.
Call of Duty: Warzone just dropped and we have it covered extensively here on GameSpot. Be sure to check out everything we know about Warzone, what happens when you win a match in Warzone, how cross-progression works with Modern Warfare, and how Warzone tweaks a common battle royale mechanic.
Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty: Warzone Guide Offers A Crash Course On The New Battle Royale
The newest battle royale game on the block is Modern Warfare spin-off Call of Duty: Warzone, and it takes inspiration from games like Apex Legends in a variety of ways. However, it also introduces its own wrinkles to the formula, some which impact gameplay directly (like being able to complete “contracts” during the match), others that are more minor visual flourishes (like the names that adorn the map when you’re choosing where to drop). While the things in the latter category aren’t what’s going to make or break the game, they can help to provide it with extra flavor, and so far I’m loving the way all of these new elements come together to ensure 150-player matches still have their intimate moments and stories.
Much like in a standard Call of Duty: Modern Warfare match, the beginning of a Warzone round sees a brief cutscene of sorts to set the stage, as you and your team assemble on a plane before dropping in. The end of a match is bookended by another scene where a helicopter arrives to extract the winning team members, who are able to show off their customization options during some close-up shots on the chopper. It provides a very light narrative wrapper to the whole affair.
During the helicopter sequence, the screen is also home to an In Memoriam list where each player from that round’s name is displayed. These names are grouped into squads of three (no cause of death is displayed), and actually seeing nearly 150 names listed out in this way serves to hammer home just how many people you managed to overcome–assuming you did come out on top. The choice to focus solely on names and nothing related to their performance or placement distinguishes this from merely being a very long leaderboard.
Even if the overall story elements of Warzone are minor, there are other ways for narratives to develop within the course of a game. Any battle royale game might remind you of the name of the player who kills you, but here things are taken a bit further. Scattered around the map are contracts, which are essentially missions your squad can take on. There are a couple of different variations, but the most interesting is one that has you hunt down a specific player with some guidance as to their general location.
By pairing off groups of players like this and giving the loose framework of a sudden-death Team Deathmatch game within the broader match, it gives you a way to more easily develop a personal story. Beyond that, even if you don’t end up winning and making that helicopter escape, at least you have the opportunity to feel like you accomplished something within that match (other than checking off the box for one of the meta challenges that are also available to you). It’s also particularly thrilling to kill players who have been specifically tasked with hunting you or one of your teammates down, as I can attest to with a sweet double-kill I pulled off by dropping an airstrike on some approaching enemies.
Another version of this comes in the Gulag, which you visit after your first death. Two players are given the same equipment in a small arena and fight to the death as other deceased players look on (and throw rocks at the participants or simply punch each other while they await their turn). It’s an intense experience, with a win securing you a second chance at life back in the main game. Losing doesn’t mean you’re permanently out, but it puts pressure on your living teammates to both secure enough cash to buy your revival and to safely make it to a designated location where they can do so. After only a handful of matches, it might be my favorite revival system in a battle royale game yet.
150 players sounds like a lot for a battle royale game, particularly when Apex went sub-100 with its player count. After a handful of matches with Warzone so far, I’m most impressed with how it finds way to ensure that rivalries and more personal anecdotes still emerge.
Kompletter Artikel: My Favorite Part Of Call Of Duty: Warzone Is How Intimate It Can Feel
With the release of Call of Duty: Warzone, the new battle royale mode for and game based on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it makes sense that the popular first-person shooter would be discounted on the Xbox One this week–even if you don’t actually need Modern Warfare to access the free-to-play Warzone. It’s joined by a bunch of different game discounts, some of which are exclusive to Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers while others are not. This week’s Xbox One deals are valid from now until March 17 at 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET.
As for the deals that are available to everyone, we have Mortal Kombat 11 Premium Edition discounted to $29.69, Hitman 2 down to $18, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition for $18.
Per usual, Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers get the bulk of the best deals. These include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for $39, Borderlands 3 Deluxe Edition for $40, and some great discounts on the Destiny 2: Forsaken and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep expansions. You can also pick Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition for $15 and Red Dead Redemption 2: Special Edition for $36.
These are only a small selection of the best deals, so be sure to check out the best deals at the Xbox Store. And if you’re looking for more discounts on Xbox One games, controllers, accessories, and even consoles, then be sure to check out our guide on the best Xbox One deals for March 2020.
* indicates a deal exclusive to Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers
Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Gets Its Price Slashed In Xbox One's New Weekly Deals
Infinity Ward veröffentlicht ein großes Update für Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Der neue Patch steht ab sofort auf PC, PS4 und Xbox One als Download bereit. Die Patch Notes mit allen Änderungen und Neuerungen liegen bislang nicht vor. Daher bleibt…
Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Großes Update jetzt zum Download – Server-Start für Warzone