New maps, modes, and a swathe of fixes, tuning, and improvements will be coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s open beta this week. After a relatively successful alpha, Treyarch has revealed the dozens of changes it has made as a result of player feedback and data.
On the content front, new map Cartel will be thrown into the mix for the beta, along with three new modes: VIP Escort, Combined Arms: Assault, and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb. But it’s the mountain of gameplay changes that have really caught the attention of Call of Duty fans. Arguably the one change that has been talked about the most is the addition of an FOV slider for console players – a setting that is usually reserved for PC players.
With PS4 and Xbox One players now able to adjust the height and width of their field of view, Black Ops Cold War looks set to level the playing field between console and PC players. However, this balancing has also caused another gameplay feature to be added – and it’s one that hasn’t been in a Treyarch Call of Duty game since Black Ops 2.
Aim assist will be enabled for all sniper rifles in the Black Ops Cold War beta, but only for console players in order to “balance out cross-play sniping.”
A new ping system will also debut in the beta, allowing players without voice comms to tag enemies, objectives, and more in multiplayer modes.
On the weapon front, snipers have had scope glint increased and now require more accuracy to get a one-shot kill. The AK-74u has also received a nerf (hallelujah) in the form of increased recoil and ADS time. There’s also been some tuning to weapon attachments to ensure they’re balanced, but Treyarch doesn’t include any specifics in its comprehensive beta update notes.
We’ve got Beta patch notes! See what’s new since Alpha:
• Movement updates
• Weapon tuning
• More Gunsmith stats
• Visual upgrades
• Footstep improvements
• Audio enhancements
• Scorestreak system tweaks
• Spawn logic changes
• Bug fixes + morehttps://t.co/VLuuCqbJQr pic.twitter.com/dK78mnwWQw— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) October 7, 2020
Footstep audio was also a big talking point of the alpha. The Ninja perk has been buffed for the beta after footsteps appeared to sound just as loudly when it was equipped in the alpha, so sneaky plays should be a bit easier now. Crouch walking will also have much quieter footstep audio and will be of a similar volume to someone running Ninja.
With Treyarch addressing so many different issues this quickly and being very transparent with the changes its making, Call of Duty fans are seriously excited for the full Black Ops Cold War release date next month.