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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has gotten its second update in as many days. The April 8 update for the military shooter introduces a new modes in the form of Gunfight Tournaments and Gunfight Blueprints, while a new Throwback Moshpit playlist is also now in the game.

In Gunfight Tournaments, sixteen teams fight in 2v2 Gunfight matches in a single-elimination tournament that progress through four rounds. You can earn rewards for winning matches, including an emblem, calling card, charm, and a weapon blueprint. Competitors will also get XP bonuses for each match you win.

The Gunfight Tournaments are scheduled to run for a week, ending on April 15. New tournaments start every five minutes, so you shouldn’t have to wait long to get involved.

Another new mode is Gunfight Blueprints, which is a 2v2 playlist that lets you try out some of the new weapon blueprints in Season 2. These matches play out on some of the smallest Black Ops Cold War maps, including the new Mansion map.

The Throwback Moshpit playlist, meanwhile, includes team deathmatch, domination, kill confirmed, and Hardpoint.

This Black Ops Cold War update also includes some fixes for the Zombies mode. In Dead Ops Arcade 3, the bug causing the Gladiator enemy to fail to spawn is now fixed. Additionally, this patch fixes an issue that could case the Gladiator’s aces to stay on the screen for longer than they should.

Additionally, Treyarch reminded players that double XP is now available in Black Ops Cold War for a period of four days, wrapping up on April 12. You can see the complete patch notes below, as posted by Treyarch on its website.

It’s not just Black Ops Cold War that’s getting new playlists, as the battle royale game Warzone also recently welcomed three new playlists.

Black Ops Cold War April 8 Patch Notes

GLOBAL

Events

• Double XP Weekend
  • Four days of Double XP now available in Multiplayer, Zombies, and League Play through 10AM PT Monday, April 12.

MULTIPLAYER

Gunfight Tournaments

• Sixteen teams of two clash in a 2v2 single-elimination tournament for exclusive rewards. Win and move on to the next round. Lose, and you’re out.
• Register for a Tournament and get matched up with 31 other players of similar skill.
• Each Tournament is broken up into 4 Rounds: Preliminaries, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and the Tournament Finals.
• Each Tournament introduces new exclusive rewards as you win your way through the bracket. Rewards for the first Tournament include a new Emblem, Calling Card, Charm, and Assault Rifle Weapon Blueprint.
• XP is also awarded as players win their way through each Tournament and can be earned repeatedly with each Tournament participation.

Modes

• Control
  • Each segment captured by the Attackers will now add 20 seconds to the game clock. Time will no longer be added after capturing a single zone.
  • Overtime Defense is now awarded to the team that captures the most zone segments in the previous rounds. In the event of a tiebreaker, the team with the most kills will be awarded Defense in Overtime.
  • Also applies to CDL Control in League Play.

Featured Playlists

• Gunfight Tournament [NEW]
• Gunfight Blueprints [NEW]
• Throwback Moshpit (also available in Hardcore)
• Snipers Only Moshpit
• Nuketown 24/7 (also available in Hardcore)
• Prop Hunt
• Face Off (also available in Hardcore)
• Multi-Team Moshpit

ZOMBIES

Dead Ops Arcade 3

• Enemies
  • Addressed an issue where the Gladiator enemy was not spawning under certain circumstances.
  • Addressed an issue where the Gladiator enemy’s axes remained on the screen longer than intended.

Featured Playlists

• Outbreak
• Firebase Z
• Die Maschine
• Dead Ops Arcade: First Person
• Dead Ops Arcade
• Onslaught (PS4/PS5)
• Onslaught Containment (PS4/PS5)
• Onslaught Nuketown (PS4/PS5)
• Onslaught Apocalypse (PS4/PS5)

Bungie has provided a preview of some balance changes coming to Destiny 2 as part of the as-of-yet untitled Season 14. While numerous areas of the game will be tweaked, the latest weekly blog post keys in on changes to weapons, which will see certain swords and hand cannons nerfed, the effectiveness of certain perks reduced, and more.

Weapons feature lead Chris Proctor detailed a selection of changes, which will be further explained in future patch notes. Among the most wide-ranging changes are a nerf to Aggressive (120rpm) hand cannons. Proctor describes them as “very dominant” in PvP modes, so Bungie wants to “rein them in a bit.” It’s doing this by reducing the damage and aim assist falloff distance by 2-4 meters, depending on the given weapon’s Range stat. Proctor says this should tone down the Beyond Light buff to Aggressive hand cannons by about half.

Vortex Frame swords like Falling Guillotine will see their effectiveness reduced, but not by decreasing their damage. Bungie is increasing the amount of ammo a full-energy Heavy attack requires from 4 to 6, so you’ll need to be a bit more selective with how you attack. All swords and the Exotic weapon Bastion will also see the removal of chip damage, which is what allows you to bypass shields to deal direct damage. Proctor says chip damage causes a variety of issues, including problems with enemies in Stasis and the mechanics involved with certain encounters. (It’s not all bad news for Bastion, as it will intrinsically stagger Unstoppable Champions following the update.)

The Quickdraw perk will also see a nerf, as it currently provides more of a benefit than intended, offering a major boost to weapon handling. Proctor points out that this “completely negates” what is meant to be the drawback of using weapons with low Handling stats, like sniper rifles or Aggressive shotguns. After the update, the Handling bonus will go away after one second when switching to a weapon with Quickdraw, or as soon as you aim down sights. You’ll also see Quickdraw replaced by Surplus on both new and existing versions of two extremely dominant PvP weapons: the shotguns Felwinter’s Lie and Astral Horizon.

The Frenzy perk will also be nerfed due to how effective it is in PvE; you’ll now only get 15% bonus damage from it (as opposed to 20%). Reservoir Burst on fusion rifles will also be adjusted to increase magazine size but with reduced battery bonus damage (25%, down from 33%). Proctor also teased the need to make this change due to some upcoming content.

And finally, another Exotic, The Lament, will be nerfed due to it being a “clear outlier for sword damage.” Its revved Heavy attack will deal about 16% less damage, but it will still have anti-barrier effects even with chip damage being removed.

While these were the only specifics shared, Bungie did say that some underused perks and linear fusion rifles will be receiving buffs. Those changes should be outlined later in April.

Destiny 2 Season 14, whatever it ends up being called, is expected to launch in mid-May. It’ll bring with it some new and returning Iron Banner weapons.

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Hot Wheels Unleashed is the next game in the decades-long toy and video game franchise, and GameSpot has an exclusive new gameplay video showcasing the fast-paced micro-racer in action. Announced back in February, with an expected release on September 30 this year for current platforms, it will feature many of the familiar aspects of Hot Wheels, such as cool racing vehicles and complex orange tracks with some bizarre loops and turns.

Our recent hands-on with the game gave us a chance to check out three unique tracks: Spider Trial, Speed Vault, and Dragon’s Den. In keeping with Hot Wheels’ style and aesthetic, which features a variety of stylized muscle and sports cars, the races turned into hectic brawls on the track where crashes and conflicts with other racers were common.

What’s interesting about the pedigree behind Hot Wheels Unleashed is that it’s coming from developer Milestone, the same team behind racing sims like the MotoGP and Ride franchises. Just before the reveal, we spoke with lead game designer Federico Cardini from developer Milestone about the making of the game and what it was like jumping from one side of the racing genre to the more over-the-top side of an arcade racer.

“I’ll be honest, from a development side, it really made me ecstatic, I’d say. We are also fans of racing in general, and we really felt like with an arcade racer like this, we could show our love for the genre,” said Cardini while reflecting on Milestone’s jump from sim-racing to an arcade racer. “One of our most famous games is Screamer, from the nineties, and that was an arcade racer, and we have an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise on racing games. This is a great opportunity for us where we can really create something unique for a game like [Hot Wheels Unleashed] that uses our years of experience on racing games.”

In the final release coming this September, the full game will have 40 standard tracks and over 60 vehicles to collect and race in arcade mode and online. Including preorder bonuses vehicles, such as the GT-Scorcher and Track Manga vehicles, you can also expect to see DLC vehicles post-launch as well. The developer made tracks that ship with the game, and you can use the game’s track editor to make your own complex levels to test your skills and share with others online.

The most recent Hot Wheels game that fans got to check out was the tie-in DLC for Forza Horizon 4, which turned out to be a favorite activity in the online racing community. Hot Wheels Unleashed looks to be the kind of game that Hot Wheels fans have come to expect, which leans heavily into the over-the-top racing and fun tracks to race on.

Infinity Ward added a trio of new maps to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last week, but the studio has now quietly removed two of them without explanation.

Last week we reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which Activision had seemingly ended support for, received the classic Call of Duty 4 map Killhouse, as well as two new maps called Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage.

In addition to Killhouse, the Drainage (Gunfight) and Al-Raab Airbase maps are also available in #ModernWarfare Private Matches.

Read more: https://t.co/lVkbsr6UCG pic.twitter.com/bK7Cr6ShEV

— Call of Duty Tracker (@CODTracker) March 31, 2021

But, as spotted by Eurogamer, both of the new maps have now been removed, while Killhouse remains, accompanied by the Killhouse 24/7 playlist inside the game. Drainage and Al-Raab Airbase were previously playable in private matches, but if you log into the game now, you won’t be able to choose them during custom game setup.

It’s not clear why the maps were even added, never mind removed, and Activision nor Infinity Ward haven’t commented on the situation, which makes it all the more confusing. Hopefully, we’ll get an official explanation soon. We’ve contacted them for comment.

Infinity Ward appears to have removed Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage MP maps from Modern Warfare quietly. The two maps were added to play in Private Matches last week. Both are no longer on the list for players.

Killhouse is still available.

— Call of Duty News (@charlieINTEL) April 7, 2021

In other Call of Duty news, check out our article covering how the Season 2 update finally reduced the game’s massive file size. The actor behind Modern Warfare’s Mara character also recently got two Warzone cheats banned after calling them out during a Twitch stream.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Capcom has announced a Resident Evil Village showcase for April 15, and files for a new ‘gameplay demo’ appear to have been uploaded to the PlayStation Network.

Announced on Twitter, Capcom says the showcase will include a new trailer and gameplay, “along with a few other surprises” on April 15 at 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern / 11pm UK (that’s April 16 at 8am AEST).

Brace yourselves for the next Resident Evil Showcase which goes live on April 15th at 3 PM PDT / 11 PM BST! Once again hosted by Brittney Brombacher (@BlondeNerd), watch the teaser below for more info, and join the Resident Evil Re:Verse Open Beta Test while you wait! pic.twitter.com/ZFNhSfztRM

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) April 8, 2021

Those surprises could include the promised second demo for Resident Evil Village (which will be multi-platform). MP1st reports that files for a new demo have been uploaded to PlayStation Network’s backend, calling it a “Gameplay Demo” (presumably to differentiate from the previous Maiden demo, which was more of an interactive experience, with no combat included).

MP1st reports that the files are around 10GB in size, and includes Vita Remote Play controls, which suggests it can be played on PS4, PS5, or Vita. The Maiden demo was released alongside the last showcase, so it feels likely that Capcom will repeat that trick.

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We’re running an IGN First for Resident Evil Village throughout April, giving you exclusive looks at the game you won’t see anywhere else. We’ve already shown gameplay on PS4 Pro, and run you through the evolution of Lady Dimitrescu, and we have much more coming.

An open beta for the game’s multiplayer mode, RE:Verse is playable right now, and it feels likely we’ll see more of it in the showcase. It’s possible we may also learn more about live-action movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which will remake the first two games as a single film.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

The game director of the PS5 exclusive Abandoned has responded to rumours about the game being a secret Hideo Kojima project – and teased that it will receive a demo and a potential closed alpha test.

Revealed earlier this week, Abandoned is a cinematic, first-person horror survival shooter with realistic visuals, pegged to launch in Q4 2021. Developer Blue Box Game Studios has a quiet social media presence, a fairly unknown history, and released a P.T.-esque trailer – all of which led some fans led to believe that it was actually a front for a new Kojima Productions project. The studio quickly issued an official response to the rumours on the company website: “We have no association with Hideo Kojima nor do we claim to have any association nor was it our intention to claim such a statement. We are a small group of developers working on a passionate title we wanted to work on for a long time.”

In an interview with IGN, Blue Box Game Studios director Hasan Kahraman spoke in more detail about the rumours: “It wasn’t fun but it did make me laugh,” they explained. “At first I was receiving messages from people telling me that they’ve been watching me and that I (As Kojima) used some marketing tricks to promote his next game. I didn’t know what they meant until I Googled it.”

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You may remember all the way back in 2012 when a game called ‘The Phantom Pain’ was revealed during the 2012 Video Game Awards. Supposedly developed by ‘Moby Dick Studios’, its CEO Joakim Mogren (Joakim being an anagram of Kojima) appeared covered in bandages in an interview with Geoff Keighley to promote the game before it was later revealed that the project was actually Metal Gear Solid V. Many took the unknown nature of Blue Box to mean something similar was happening now.

Kahraman assures us that it isn’t, and that this isn’t the way they’d hoped to announce a new game: “It did bother me a bit as we as a team are so excited to tease a bit of our game and then this conspiracy comes.” Kahraman continued. “All I wanted to do is to tease our game. Regarding our social media presence, we’re a small team and not a big AAA studio, it’s already hard work to work on a highly polished game for PS5 so we really can’t spare the time to work on our social media presence full-time (while it is important).”

Moving past the misunderstanding, Kahraman also shared some more details about the game with IGN. Blue Box has been working on Abandoned since 2017, and the studio’s initial goal was to create a tactical shooter game with cinematic storytelling and realistic gameplay. “We wanted to make something different than traditional shooter games,” Kahraman said. “We wanted to make a game that feels real. Like when reloading, you get to see the whole animation, while in combat. Or when you get hit, you really need to stop the bleeding in order to continue fighting.”

Kahraman talks about several gameplay situations that will affect a character’s stability in realistic fashion: “When you get hit in the legs, for example, you would fall down, unequipping your firearm by dropping it on the ground. You would eventually have to choose to take your firearm and fight or to stop the bleeding and cleanse the wound to prevent getting a disease,” Kahraman adds. “This is not going to be a comforting battle. I promise.”

Kahraman says that the game’s realistic environmental graphics were achieved through photogrammetry and retopology of the models (a process that takes high quality visuals and shrinks them for more efficient use), and has been bolstered by the horsepower of the PS5. “The PS5 console is powerful enough to run these images at a 4k resolution,” Kahraman notes. “However optimization is needed to run the game at 60 FPS. At the end of the teaser, you’ll see some heavy cam shakes and frame drops. The animation isn’t final while the cam shake is removed and the framerate will go up to 60FPS, unlike the teaser video.”

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According to Kahraman, the game also “depends” on the DualSense wireless controller and makes good use of the immersive benefits of the PS5. “The feel and sound of the controller would change depending on if your firearm is loaded or unloaded. 3D audio is used for tactical purposes like to determine the distance between you and the enemy.” they add.

Much like Kojima’s own P.T. (which was intended as a teaser for the cancelled Silent Hills), or Resident Evil’s recent demos, a “small teaser” for Abandoned will be available to download on the PS5 ahead of launch, but Kahraman says the studio “can’t share more details about it just yet. We are also thinking of doing some closed alpha testing on PS5 sometime after, but that isn’t 100% sure.”

Aside from Abandoned PS5’s 2021 exclusives include Returnal (April), Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart (June), and Horizon Forbidden West (TBA 2021). We’ve also got a rundown of all of Sony’s first party studios and what they’re working on.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Here’s some good news for Indiana Jones fans: a new 4K UHD box set is heading our way. The set gathers together all four films on 4K Blu-ray and digital, plus a pile of extra bonus content as well. It’s out June 8, but it’s available to preorder now at Amazon for $79.99 (was $90.99), or Amazon UK for £79.99.

It’s doubtlessly no coincidence, but this June also marks the 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first movie in the Indiana Jones saga.

Preorder Indiana Jones 4K Box Set

• Get it at Amazon – $79.99
• Get it at Best Buy – $99.99 (includes steelbook case)
• Get it at Amazon UK – £79.99

Each movie in the upcoming collection has been “meticulously remastered from 4K scans of the original negatives with extensive visual effects work done to ensure the most pristine and highest quality image,” according to the press release. The audio for each movie was also remixed at Skywalker Sound to create Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

The set comes with a collectible booklet that goes into the making each of the movies. It also contains trailers and a digital download code for each film. Finally, it comes with a disc of bonus features that includes seven hours of (previously released) content. Here’s what’s on it:

Indiana Jones 4K Box Set Bonus Features

On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark

• From Jungle to Desert
• From Adventure to Legend

Making the Films

• The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981 documentary)
• The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• The Making of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• The Making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (HD)

Behind the Scenes

• The Stunts of Indiana Jones
• The Sound of Indiana Jones
• The Music of Indiana Jones
• The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones
• Raiders: The Melting Face!
• Indiana Jones and the Creepy Crawlies (with optional pop-ups)
• Travel with Indiana Jones: Locations (with optional pop-ups)
• Indy’s Women: The American Film Institute Tribute
• Indy’s Friends and Enemies
• Iconic Props (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) (HD)
• The Effects of Indy (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) (HD)
• Adventures in Post Production (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) (HD)

More New and Upcoming 4K UHD and Blu-rays

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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