Author: Trafficblast

Research company Nielsen has released the results of its annual survey of the “most anticipated” games of the holiday season, and as you might have guessed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 tops overall most-anticipated chart for multiplatform games in the United States.

Rounding out the top five were, in order, Red Dead Redemption 2, Battlefield V, Fallout 76, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. No surprises here.

Nielsen gets its data from an internal metric called Game Rank, which is described as the “overall anticipation level among gamers on each platform” based on measurements like awareness, purchase intent, and user rating, among other things.

“The values reflect how strong the overall anticipation level is for the title, relative to the pre-release anticipation levels of all previous titles that released on the platform(s). In other words, an upcoming release with a Game Rank of 90 indicates that after considering a combination of various consumer measures, and taking into account how far the game is from releasing, the current overall anticipation for the game is higher than 90% of previous games on the same platform(s), when at that same point in the pre-release cycle,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen looked at 82 games releasing in the September 1-December 31 window. For multiplatform games, the values are averages of each title’s rating on a single platform. To make the list, the game had to rank 70 or higher. Nielsen polled 6,000 “active” gamers aged 7-54 for this survey.

With all of that methodology explanation out of the way, Nielsen’s “Most Anticipated Holiday Games 2018” lists can be seen below. What are your most anticipated games of the holiday season? Let us know in the comments below!

Multiplatform

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 — 99
2. Red Dead Redemption 2 — 97
3. Battlefield V — 94
4. Fallout 76 — 92
5. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey — 91
6. FIFA 19 — 87
7. NBA 2K19 — 84
8. NBA Live 19 — 72
9. Shadow of the Tomb Raider — 71
10. Hitman 2 — 71
11. WWE 2K19 — 70

PlayStation 4

1. Spider-Man — 100

Xbox One

1. Forza Horizon 4 — 84

Nintendo Switch

1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 98
2. Super Mario Party — 98
3. Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu!
4. Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee!

We’re about halfway through October, and the new game releases haven’t slowed down one bit. This week’s big titles let you duke it out with weapons in SoulCalibur 6 or settle things on the court in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. You can also assemble spaceships in Starlink: Battle for Atlas or build you own custom minifigure in Lego DC Super-Villains. Last but certainly not least, Nintendo Switch fans can finally get their hands on Dark Souls Remastered.

Lego DC Super-Villains — October 16

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch

The Lego games are all about solving puzzles, building up and tearing down Lego constructions, and collecting studs, but this time you’ll do it all as the bad guys. Well, “bad” is a relative term here. After the Justice League disappears, the new Justice Syndicate that rises in its place doesn’t seem to be led by very noble heroes…

Further Reading:

Starlink: Battle for Atlas — October 16

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Starlink is part space combat, part planet exploration, and part toys-to-life. You can swap out your pilot, ship body, wings, and weapons on the fly, choosing the best gear for the task at hand. There are plenty of missions to complete, and the Nintendo Switch version offers some exclusive ones starring the Star Fox crew.

Further Reading:

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 — October 16

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch

With the power of 2K sports developers behind it, Playgrounds 2 is bringing tons of new players to the court. There are more courts too, plus better dribbling and rebounding systems and four-player online multiplayer. Developer Saber Interactive also plans to add more classic NBA names to the game post-launch.

Further Reading:

SoulCalibur VI — October 19

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

The soul still burns, and the latest SoulCalibur game returns to the events of the first game, making this something of a reboot. It also introduces a new Reversal Edge Mechanic, slowing down the battle and giving you a chance to block or counterattack. This game’s guest character is a pretty big deal too: Geralt of Rivia, last seen in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Further Reading:

Dark Souls Remastered — October 19

Available on: Switch

It’s finally time for Switch owners to journey through Lordran. This remaster contains a souped-up version of the original game and its Artorias of the Abyss expansion. It also includes some quality-of-life improvements, but don’t expect them to actually make the game any easier. You can pick up the Knight Solaire Amiibo the same day too.

Further Reading:

That’s all for this week, but October still has more games to come. On the next episode of New Releases, we’ll get moving with Just Dance 2019. Oh, and there’s a little game called Red Dead Redemption 2 coming soon. Maybe you’ve heard of it.

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.

Black Ops 4 Patch Notes:

• General

• 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

• Blackout

  • Characters

PC-Specific:

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

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.

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.”