BLOPS7

In a few days, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta launches on console and PC. This will be the first time players get a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming FPS. It will also be the first chance hackers and cheaters get to possibly screw up the game. And Activision not only expects that to happen, but wants it to happen.

On September 29, Activision and the team behind Call of Duty’s anti-cheat tech posted a lengthy blog about what they are doing to stop cheaters from ruining the game. As previously announced, this time around, Call of Duty players on PC will have to have Secure Boot activated on their rig to play Black Ops 7 and the upcoming beta. For most players, this shouldn’t be much of an issue as newer PCs running Windows 11 are likely to already have Secure Boot activated. But for other players planning to run the game on older PCs or rigs that don’t support Secure Boot, this could be a problem.

We saw similar issues with Battlefield 6 and its open beta, which also required Secure Boot. The idea is that this extra level of security can help stop some PC cheat tools, but some players have complained that it can be a pain to turn on Secure Boot if you aren’t experienced with messing around with your PC’s BIOS settings. Others claim it doesn’t do much to stop hackers and cheaters, and point to the fact that BF6‘s beta reportedly had cheaters in it almost immediately. Regardless, Secure Boot is needed to play Black Ops 7 and the beta. And if cheaters do try to play the BLOPS7 beta despite Secure Boot, Activision and its anti-cheat team, Team Ricochet, are waiting for them and ready to ban them forever.

“Cheaters will try to test the limits during the Beta. That’s exactly what we want because #TeamRICOCHET is here, watching, learning, and removing them as they appear,” explained the team in the previously mentioned blog post. “Any account permanently banned for cheating during the Beta will be banned across all Call of Duty titles, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to future releases.”

The studio further explained that all of its anti-cheat tech, which includes machine learning tools and more, will also help make Activision’s free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty Warzone safer from cheaters, adding: “Everything we’re building for Black Ops 7 will also protect Call of Duty: Warzone.”

I still expect cheaters will break through Activision’s defenses and cause problems in BLOPS7‘s beta and the full game, which launches in November on consoles and PC. But it sounds like the folks building the game’s anti-cheat tools are not just ready for a fight, but actively encouraging it.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta launches on all platforms on October 2 via early access. It then opens up to everyone on October 5 and ends on October 8.

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Ahead of Black Ops 7‘s November 14 release date and the early access beta running from October 2 to 5, Call of Duty Next showed off some live footage from the latest entry in the long-running of the military shooter series. The game looks like a solid, speedy, competitive shooter that’s utilizing its futuristic setting for some war-themed sci-fi fantasy. So let’s jump into what stood out during CODNext.

Black Ops 7 multiplayer looks tactile and fast

I don’t blame those who think all of these games look the same, but if you like a fast shooter with some interesting opportunities for gravity-defying tactics, you might want to check out footage from today’s event–especially if you’re a fan of Black Ops 2, to which 7 is intended as a spiritual successor.

Set in the near future, Black Ops 7 has some fancy tech that builds off the advanced movement techniques in Black Ops 6. Wall-jumping, sliding, tactical stance, it all combines very seamlessly in both the scripted sizzle reels and the actual gameplay shown off today.

The wall-bouncing, which looks like it’ll owe Titanfall a royalty check, is particularly exciting as various streamers showed off how these techniques can be used for some vertically lethal plays and opportunities to get new, unexpected sight lines.

Black Ops 7 will ship with 18 maps, mostly focusing on 6v6

In what’s shaping up to be a healthy roster of maps, BLOPS7 will feature 16 6v6 maps, with 13 of those being brand new designs joined by three remakes of BLOPS6 maps. The remaining two maps are for 20v20 battles.

During the beta, folks can jam on six of these maps, all of which are of the smaller, 6v6 variety. Map design in BLOPS7 is particularly focused on standard, three-lane construction. That tried-and-true design, however, might be just what allows the game’s advanced movement techniques to really let players mix things up.

Overclocking equipment

BLOPS7 will contain many of the usual loadout options we’ve long come to expect from CoD, but you’ll be able to further customize your class by “overclocking” lethal, tactical, field upgrades, and score streaks. Once unlocked, these let you equip two modifications in addition to the ordinary functions of the equipment. One such example shown off today was the Stim Shot, which lets you either cancel out enemy-induced debuffs or gain a speed boost when using it.

Weapon build sharing

In what stood out to me as one of the coolest features in BLOPS7, folks will be able to quickly share weapon builds with each other by way of a simple code the game generates when you finish a specific setup. This should make it pretty easy to just grab an effective meta build and jump into a match.

Season one aims to be the ‘biggest’ in BLOPS history

Though BLOPS7 has a pretty sizeable stock of maps to choose from at launch, Treyarch announced today that seven additional multiplayer maps will join the game over the course of its first season, with six of them for the 6v6 mode. Ranked play will arrive in season two.

Nuketown returns

Looking like it came straight out of Bethesda’s Fallout games, the end of the multiplayer reveal showed off a couple of shots of fan-favorite CoD map Nuketown. Check it out:

Nuketown is expected to arrive “soon” after BLOPS7‘s launch.

All in all, the big takeaway from CODNext is that if fast-paced, competitive shooters are your thing, BLOPS7 is looking pretty solid.