by Enrique Guiterrez

Following the recent Battle Royale video game trend, Call of Duty enters its 15th year of continuation with the never-before-seen “Blackout” Battle Royale mode.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 introduces a battle royale mode called “Blackout” to join the over-populated battle royale community. The new game mode has brought the attention of many streamers and players that do not usually play Call of Duty. Blackout has gained popularity and interest since its announcement and is going to change people’s view of Call of Duty for a long time.

Treyarch released a beta for those who pre-ordered Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 early. Those people have the opportunity to play the new game mode earlier than anybody else. The beta was live for Playstation and Xbox starting September 10th and ended a week later on September 17th. The beta was live for PC gamers September 14th through September 17th.

Blackout has 13 marked and named locations on its map where you may land. These 13 points of interest are: Estates, Construction Site, Hydro Dam, Train Station, Asylum, Turbine, Array, Firing Range, Rivertown, Nuketown Island, Fracking Tower, Factory, and Cargo Docks. The map has many little locations that are not marked on the map but are still available for the player to access and to land at. The map has many open areas, and if you’re not lurking from building to building, you’re a sitting duck waiting to be shot at by enemy players.

Blackout introduces the first ever controllable vehicles as transportation. There are four vehicles that players are able to drive around the map. These vehicles are a Cargo Truck that can hold up to three players in the trunk, an ATV that can hold two players, a boat that can hold two players, and a helicopter than can hold five players in total. These vehicles were made to transport yourself and your team. The player has the option to play solo, duo, or quads (Squads) in the Blackout game mode.

Throughout the beta, Treyarch has been productive and introduced new content throughout the week. Blackout’s player limit was increased throughout the beta, beginning at 80 players and ultimately increased to 100 players during the final hours of the beta’s release. As there is no campaign or story mode yet revealed in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Treyarch is heavily focused on this mode and multiplayer in general for this year’s release. 

Another change is going to be the health system, especially in the Blackout mode. Players have 150 health and can attain medkits, bandaids, and armor. Player armor has been controversial throughout the beta due to the amount of bullets needed to eliminate someone. Another controversial item was perks. Perks are scattered around the map as consumables that affect a player’s play style during the match. Thus far, there are only seven perks available: Paranoia, Looter, Consumer, Skulker, Outlander, Iron Lungs, and Stimulant.

Character skins and other customizable player items give Battle Royale games an identity. In Blackout, there are 20 different characters you may choose from to play with. These 20 players are from the Black Ops storyline, Black Ops Multiplayer, and Black Ops Zombies characters. During the beta, all characters were available. At full launch, these characters will need to be unlocked via challenges and certain tasks.

What makes Blackout special compared to all the other battle royale games is the nostalgia that players receive when playing. A player who has kept up with the Black Ops series will remember the old maps, weapons, and franchise characters that have been brought back for this mega-release. Treyarch stepped up their game and are bringing a whole new fun in the games’ multiplayer platform. Call of Duty Black Ops 4 will be available on all platforms October 12th, 2018.

by Enrique Gutierrez

Rainbow Six Siege enters its year 3, season 3 update with Ubisoft introducing new in-game improvements, a renovated Hereford Base, the return of Favela, a new Elite Skin Set and two new additions to the Rainbow Six Siege team.

The long awaited update and game patch has finally released September 4th on all platforms, introducing Operation Grim Sky. PC players were been able to play the new operation as Ubisoft released it on a test server mid-August.

The biggest Twitch TV Rainbow Six Siege streamers including Macie Jay, King George, and Beaulo have shared the content across the web and given a taste to those who were unable to play the test servers. Rainbow Six Siege has exploded and has gained interest over the past month due to it being on a limited time sale and popular Fortnite streamers promoting the game. Thanks to their partnership with Fortnite streamers, they have drawn interest and new players are coming to join the Siege community. 

Rainbow Six Siege introduces a new recoil pattern which affects all weapons and will change the way players play the game. The new recoil pattern will change the direction of bullet path now as where the player aims down sights, that is where the bullet will go. The weapon’s crosshair will be a main role in the way you kill someone as bullet trail before this update was very inconsistent. 

Hereford Base was one of the games original maps at launch back in 2015. The map was a three story army base used for target practice. This map lacked of competitive play and had many gameplay issues. For this reason, Ubisoft decided that Hereford Base needed a change of scenery and received a map rework. Players hope with this renovation that Hereford Base will find a new home in the ranked and competitive playlist. 

“The map will still retain its ‘soul,’ making multiple nods to the old Hereford Base,” posted Ubisoft on their website. 

Another map that will be making a return to Rainbow Six Siege is Favela. Favela is a Brazilian map that has many locations around the map accessible to defend and attack from. The map was removed from the game and vaulted because Ubisoft wanted to fix bugs and glitches the map had. In this September 4th update, the map will make its return to the casual playlist. 

Ubisoft gives elite skin sets to operators that have a high pick rate. In the Season 3 update, the defensive operator Frost was given an elite skin set. This skin set changes the operators entire wardrobe and look. When purchasing this item, the player receives headgear, a uniform, a weapon skin, a weapon charm, and an animation that will play anytime you are the ‘MVP’ of the match. 

One of the newest operators to join Team Rainbow is Maverick. Maverick is an attack operator whose gadget is an Exothermic Torch. The torch is able to burn through walls and give the attacking team an advantage for using a hole in the wall for a line of sight. The torch is also able to give the team an entering route to the objective. Maverick’s ability is unique as he is a counter towards reinforced walls, Bandit’s shock charges, Mute’s mute devices, barb wire, and many more utilities. Maverick is a lightweight operator which makes him a three speed and a one armor operator. 

The second new operator to join Team Rainbow is Clash. Clash is a female operator who is the first defensive operator with a shield. Since she has a shield equipped, this makes her a one speed and three armor. Her unique ability is having the CCE Shield as her primary weapon, with a pistol or an SMG as her secondary – your choice. This shield she has is no ordinary shield either, consisting of high voltage electricity to zap, damage, and slow down the opposition. Although the thought of having a shield defensive operator is overpowered, she is easily counterable with a well-coordinated team giving call outs, flash grenades, Zofia’s stun launcher, and other lethal equipment. Clash is a distraction and a detour for the attacking team to reach the objective. 

Operation Grim Sky is bringing a boatload of content into the game. The two new operators will be changing Rainbow Six Siege’s meta as players will find different ways to win games with these new operators. The game’s additions are completely free to the Siege community besides the two new operators and the frost elite skin set. Hop on the new update now!