This week you can go to space with Starlink: Battle for Atlas and return to earth with SoulCalibur 6.Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is off to a fast start. Activision announced in a press release that the newest Call of Duty instalment broke Activision’s record for the “biggest day one digital release” in the company’s history. Digital sales of the Treyarch-developed shooter surpassed the previous digital day one sales record-holder, 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII.
In addition to setting internal records at Activision, Black Ops 4 had the strongest day one digital full game sales on the PlayStation Store in its history. Black Ops 4 also broke the Xbox One record for best-selling digital game of all time for Activision.
Black Ops 4 is also available on PC via Battle.net–and it was a success there as well. According to Activision, Black Ops 4 PC sales on Battle.net more than doubled the launch-day sales of Call of Duty: WWII, which was available on Steam. Black Ops 4, meanwhile, is available exclusively through Battle.net.
Across all platforms, the number of players who connected Black Ops 4 online on the first day increased from Call of Duty: WWII, though Activision did not provide any details on how dramatic the increase was.
Activision did not share any unit sales numbers–physical or digital–for Black Ops 4, and that’s no surprise given that Activision and many other big publishers no longer share those details.
Black Ops 4 launched on October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Unlike almost every previous instalment in the mainline franchise, Black Ops 4 does not feature a traditional campaign. It does, however, have an ambitious new mode in the form of the battle royale mode Blackout, which is Call of Duty’s response to PUBG and Fortnite. The game also includes new storylines in the fan-favourite Zombies mode, which developer Treyarch created.
According to a Nielsen survey, Black Ops 4 is the most anticipated game of the holiday 2018 shopping season. GameSpot is currently playing Black Ops 4 for review, and you can check out our early impressions of Blackout, Zombies, Multiplayer, and more.
The first update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has arrived. It introduces changes, tweaks, and fixes across the shooter’s three main modes: Blackout, Zombies, and Multiplayer, with Zombies getting the bulk of the attention in the form of a notable balance pass.
The update increases player health for Casual, Normal, and Hardcore difficulty options by 50 points, which should help you survive longer. Developer Treyarch has also made adjustments how fast you earn points and to the cost of shield repair/replacement, among other things.
Moving to multiplayer, the update changes the pre-requisites to unlock active camo on signature weapons, while it also fixes a bug that prevented Scorestreak kills from counting towards progress for some challenges.
There are a number of PC-specific changes and further information that you can see below, while all platforms also received changes to make the game generally more stable and less prone to crash. The full patch notes can be seen at the bottom of this post, as revealed by Treyarch on Reddit.
Black Ops 4, which beat Red Dead Redemption 2 to become the most anticipated game of the the holiday in the US, launched on October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It broke sales records for Activision and PlayStation. Keep checking back with GameSpot for our full review of Black Ops 4.
General
General stability and crash fixes across all modes.
Zombies
Gameplay Balancing
Increased player health in Casual, Normal, and Hardcore Difficulty in Classic mode by 50 points.
Balance adjustment to rate at which players earn points.
Balance adjustment to Tiger attacks.
Balance adjustment to Hellhounds (spawn radius, speed, and frequency).
Balance adjustment to Hellfire Special Weapon.
Reduced cost of shield repair and replacement.
Resolved an issue where some players experienced a crash in the Laboratory.
Multiplayer
Create-a-Class
Mastercraft camos can now be properly unlocked.
Adjusted unlock requirements for the active camo on Signature Weapons (MX9, Strife).
Gameplay
Prevented Scorestreak kills from counting toward progress in certain Challenges.
Blackout
Characters
Addressed an issue that occasionally prevented players from unlocking Ajax.
Blackout
Fixed an issue where Trauma Kits would occasionally not work properly.
Here are some of the hot topics we’re currently tracking and/or working on for a future update:
PC Crashes
We’re tracking a number of these across several different configurations, and the team at Beenox is working to identify and fix these as they come up. Watch /u/TreyarchPC and @TreyarchPC on Twitter for PC-specific Black Ops 4 updates, and please be as descriptive as possible when reporting crashes (for example, “error code Negative 345 Sky Wolf”) and what was happening in the game at the time of your crash. Every bit of info helps the team track and squash these issues.
Map Spawns
We adjusted spawns in Domination in yesterday’s update, and have seen reports of map spawn issues across other MP modes. We’re investigating these now and will address as necessary in upcoming updates.
Progression Issues
We’re investigating reported issues where some users have experienced a temporary loss in some progression stats, while others have reported Hardcore wins not counting toward Challenge progression, and/or losing a match already in progress counting as a loss. Our teams are on it.
Weapon Camo Issues
We’ve seen reports of instances where certain camos can cover up the Optic on your weapon. This is on the list for a fix in the near future.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
First up, it’s good to be able to write a spoiler-filled Dead review again. Last week’s advance review of the Season 9 premiere almost killed me. So, having this stored up, WOOOO-HOOO! GREGORY’S DEAD!
Speaking a little more seriously about Xander Berkeley’s departure from the show, it was a good death. Naturally, not the biggest death, but it was fortunate to happen on an episode that also featured the very non-impactful death of a new person we’d just met. Which has become, sadly, a Walking Dead trait throughout these later seasons. It’s the dramatic equivalent of filling yourself up on the free bread at a restaurant. When the meal finally arrives, you want none of it.
Warning: Full spoilers for the Supergirl Season 4 premiere below.
A lot has changed with Supergirl this season, not least of which being the transition to Sunday nights. Several series regulars have taken on drastically reduced roles, while new players are rising up to fill the void. It all feels like a significant and very intentional shift in direction from Season 3. And given how underwhelming that season was in some respects, that’s not a bad strategy. In fact, it’s one that pays off pretty handsomely this week. After one episode, there’s already reason to feel enthusiastic about the show’s future.
Judging from “American Alien,” the focus this year seems to be as much about bringing the series back to the tone and approach of Season 2 as it is blazing new ground. Individual character arcs from Season 3 are clearly influencing the direction of the show (J’onn and Winn’s retirement, Lena and Supergirl’s estrangement, etc.), but the Reign storyline in general barely seems to matter at this point. Instead, the focus has shifted back to National City’s growing anti-alien hysteria and drama within the Luthor family.
The fourth Avengers movie has finally finishing filming, directors Joe and Anthony Russo announced on Twitter. That’s an exciting and important milestone in the film’s production, but perhaps the more intriguing element here is the image that that brothers shared.
The mysterious image depicts a bright blue light that apparently has some kind of connection to something that happens in the untitled fourth Avengers film.
#wrapped pic.twitter.com/k8xCxiQL4J
— Russo Brothers (@Russo_Brothers) October 13, 2018
The follow-up to Infinity War is set to hit theatres in April 2019, following the release of the Brie Larson-starring Captain Marvel in March 2019. The new Avengers movie will seemingly wrap up a years-long story arc following the dramatic events of Infinity War.
Chris Evans, who plays Steve Rogers/Captain America, recently talked about his emotional final day on set. Some Marvel fans believe Cap might be among the characters who could be killed off in the new Avengers film.
According to ComicBook.com, Evans recently recalled at the ACE Comic Con in Chicago how the final line he recorded for Avengers 4 was “something really stupid” that he cannot talk about. Importantly, this was a scene he came back to set to film as a pick-up, so it’s not the final line his character says in the film. “It might have been a line to Paul Rudd. He wasn’t there, but it was a stupid line. The line wasn’t memorable to me [laughs]. The day was more memorable than the line,” Evans said.
Writer Christopher Markus said the next Avengers film will be very different, summarizing it as: “We broke your heart. Now we’re going to blow your mind.”