call of duty black ops cold war beta xbox

The Miami map, too, allows players to either sneak around the entire map or to simply charge head-on into a small urban environment. A large map set on a handful of large battleships offers numerous flanking routes (including ones that can only be accessed by swimming underwater) while also having places for snipers to camp. Visuals aside, they simply play better than most of the maps in previous Call of Duty titles. The beta offered about 10 maps across 20v20, 12v12 and 6v6 modes, and each one of them is honestly just great. It certainly helps that the maps themselves are fantastic to play on, too. The introduction sequences to missions are a nice touch I don’t doubt that the game will end up being as “serious” as last year’s Modern Warfare, but there are a lot less browns and melodramatic notes in this one, which is refreshing for a franchise that generally has less colour than a business suit store. Being set in what boils down to an ‘80s action movie means that the game absolutely oozes style, from its colourful maps to its actually fun soundtrack. Unlike with the more recent Call of Duty games, the beta throws you back to a time when disco was hip and communists were evil, and this setting is undoubtedly the game’s greatest strength. In this year’s entry, you take control of a spec ops soldier in a cold war gone warm in the 1980s. After playing this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War beta, though, it looks like I’ll have to force myself to play it when it comes time to write a full review in a few weeks.

It’s not exactly an obligation for me to play these games, but depending on the year, it can feel like one.

It’s a set of filler games, something for me to play when I’m not playing better shooters or worse RPGs. Although the franchise has certainly had its ups and downs, each year I spend £45 on a series that I’ve come to think about in the same way I think about a beer that’s drunk in between cocktails.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been buying Call of Duty games at launch, and recently I’ve even started to participate in their testing phases.

Call of duty black ops cold war beta xbox