Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's hidden nuke scorestreak has expanded to the rest of multiplayer, Treyarch has announced.

The nuke scorestreak that was only available in Cranked Hardpoint mode is now available in all multiplayer modes except League Play and CDL variants, Multi-Team, party games and Gunfight.

Treyarch first added the nuke scorestreak to Black Ops Cold War without an announcement in May, during season three, to the Cranked Hardpoint mode. It was the first time a Treyarch Call of Duty had the nuke scorestreak.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone Season 4 Reloaded launches 5am UK time on 15th July.

The update brings with it the next round-based map in the Dark Aether story for Black Ops Cold War's Zombies mode, developer Treyarch confirmed.

The map is called Mauer der Toten, and its debut trailer is below:

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UPDATE 9TH JULY 2021: Activision appears to be taking action against the machine learning cheat that hit the headlines this week.

YouTube videos showcasing the cheat were taken down following copyright claims by Activision.

A video promoting the cheat has been removed from its creator's YouTube channel. Yesterday, it was online.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies will get weapon unlock challenges in season three, developer Treyarch has announced.

In a tweet, the studio listed a number of weapons, including the R1 Shadowhunter, that you'll be able to unlock by playing Zombies mode.

This is welcome news for Zombies fans. Currently, you're only able to unlock Black Ops Cold War weapons via challenges in Multiplayer.

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Activision has announced the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone season three roadmap.

The headlines are the confirmation of a map refresh (which we know to be 1980s-themed) for Verdansk, and a limited time mode called Hunt for Adler. This LTM sees the characters of Black Ops Cold War arrive in Verdansk in a bid to discover Adler's whereabouts.

The season two outro cinematic, which sets all this up, is below:

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The arrival of a new gaming generation always shakes up the status quo - not just in the console space, but for PC owners too. With new Xbox and PlayStation hardware effectively resetting the baseline, how does your existing gaming rig stack up? Do you need to upgrade? What kind of PC kit is now required to match the console experience? We've already tested Assassin's Creed Valhalla, finding that relatively high-end PC kit is required to get the job done, while Watch Dogs Legion lowered expectations - provided you had an Nvidia RTX card. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War is our next port of call.

You can watch our entire process in matching PlayStation 5's visual make-up to PC in the embedded video below, but through a process of careful testing, it was possible to provide a very close match, up to and including ray tracing features, so let's get straight into the nitty-gritty. The volumetric lighting setting controls the resolution of lit volumetric fog in the game, where PS5 is closest to PC's low setting. Water tessellation controls the displacement of water, offering up more detail and this is turned off on PlayStation 5. Other features are engaged though - motion blur on PS5 is equivalent to the PC game with its 'all' setting, yet has fewer samples in motion than the closest 'high' quality level. Meanwhile, texture quality on PS5 is equivalent to PC's maxed out setting, as long as the high quality texture pack is installed.

The object detail setting is interesting - it controls the draw distance of odd one-off bits of environmental detail, usually only noticeable in the far distance. Through a process of elimination, PlayStation 5 looks closest to PC at medium. Other settings reveal the developers erring more towards the high end - screen-space reflections, for example, are an important aspect of the game's visual make-up and so PS5 runs at what looks like a match with PC's high preset, while the model quality option (which is self-explanatory) is again for a match for PC at its best. Ordered independent transparencies increase sorting quality for transparent effects - with some very odd artefacing when disabled. However, I could find no difference between low and high settings, so PS5 could be equivalent to any of them. Meanwhile, sub-surface scattering more realistically renders the way that light interacts with skin on character models. It's an on/off setting and it's definitely enabled on consoles.

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Call of Duty: Warzone players were surprised to discover yesterday that their hard-earned double XP tokens no longer work in the battle royale.

Before the launch of Season One - the new, unified season set in place across Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare and Warzone - double XP tokens earned in Warzone and / or Modern Warfare were available to use in Warzone and / or Modern Warfare.

Double XP tokens, obtained in multiple ways but also earned through premium battle passes, are one of the best ways of levelling up weapons quicker than normal. They last for a set amount of time, and are triggered at the player's command.

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Treyarch has, as promised, shaken up the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War meta with its weapon balance update.

The developer issued the update for its shooter yesterday, 15th December, but only now has published the patch notes, revealing the extent of the changes.

The headline change is a significant nerf to the M16 and AUG tactical rifles, both of which were seen as the two dominant weapons in the game. The M16 has seen its maximum effective range and fire rate reduced. The AUG has seen its headshot multiplier, maximum effective range and fire rate all reduced, while the damage for the 19.8" Task Force barrel attachment has also been reduced.

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The integration of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War into Warzone has begun with a 21GB patch out this morning.

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare patch brings Infinity Ward's shooter up to version 1.30. It kicks off the new Season One that is unified across Black Ops, Warzone and Modern Warfare.

There's a new Season One battle pass, too. However, while you can earn progress through this by playing either game, there is no new Modern Warfare content to be had.

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Treyarch has issued the long-awaited balance patch for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Treyarch said to expect download sizes to range from 3.4GB to 7.1GB, depending on your platform. It weighs in at 6.817GB on PlayStation 5.

The developer hasn't released patch notes for the update yet - they're due out ahead of the launch of Season One tomorrow, 16th December. So players have spent the morning trying to work out what exactly has changed.

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