Xbox

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was first announced, one of the standout features that developer Treyarch announced was the return of League Play, a popular competitive feature from Black Ops 2. League Play doesn’t have much of an analogue in traditional console shooters; instead it finds its roots in more competitively-focused PC games like League of Legends or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The return of a more focused ranked mode in Black Ops 4 was a sign of Treyarch’s bigger plan to create a competitive ecosystem that exists entirely inside Black Ops 4 called the World League Hub. Though the World League Hub won’t launch until December, Treyarch has already announced some of the competitive features that it will include, from the game modes and events players can participate in themselves, to professional matches that anyone can spectate. The largest of these modes is called the Pro Series. The Pro Series is an in-game playlist that features the same rules as … [Read more...] about How Black Ops 4 is handling the return of serious competitive play

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launched last night without a traditional single-player campaign. In its place there’s a new mode called Blackout, a battle royale-style game based loosely on hit titles such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Many expected the mode, a collaboration between Treyarch and Raven Software, to be a quick cut-and-paste job. After spending a few hours with the final product, it’s clear that’s not the case. Not only is Blackout a rock-solid online experience, the game has its own unique style of play. It deviates from the traditional model of the battle royale genre, all but abandoning its roots as a survival game. The first true battle royale games, H1Z1 and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, were effectively designed by the same person: Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene. He’s explained many times, including in our interview from a few years back, that his designs were inspired in part by his love of DayZ, the … [Read more...] about Call of Duty Blackout abandons battle royale’s roots as a survival game

Hitman 2 will let players battle each other in a one-on-one, real-time competitive mode, a challenge to see which player can assassinate five targets before their opponent can. You can see the game’s new competitive Ghost Mode in action in the trailer above. Two players will start each match of Ghost Mode side-by-side, both playing as Agent 47 (one’s a lot paler). They can’t attack or interact with each other; each player exists in their own separate reality that’s unaffected by the actions of their opponent. Players will have access to Hitman 2’s arsenal of weapons, items and outfits, and the game will give them “ghost crate supply drops” during their respective missions. Ghost Mode will join Hitman 2’s cooperative Sniper Assassination mode in the suite of multiplayer options in IO Interactive’s next game. The new mode will be available in Hitman 2’s Miami location at launch, with additional locations added to Ghost Mode … [Read more...] about Hitman 2 gets competitive with a 1v1 ‘Ghost Mode’