During the pandemic lockdown last year, I fully embraced my love for FPS gaming playing Modern Warfare (MW) multiplayer (MP) regularly from Season 3 onwards. I never paid attention to honing my gunsmith skills or strategizing before, as I would end up with very low kills and quickly give up while playing with regular and pro Call of Duty (COD) gamers.
Modern Warfare multiplayer helped improve my gaming reflexes, I used to dread sniping earlier, and that fear was gone as I can claim that I have played MW MP to my heart's content. I don't aim to be a pro gamer with Call of Duty, but more like an average gamer who wants to have fun and keep experimenting with my gameplay!
I was excited to play COD Black Ops Cold War (BOCW) when I got my Xbox Series X last year in December. I started noticing framerate issues on the aging Xbox One console I used to play earlier and expected that the gameplay experience would be better on Xbox Series X. I started reading about the initial bugs that started plaguing the Series X | S version of COD BOCW, so I stuck to playing multiplayer and have not started playing the campaign to date.
Recurring technical issues I have been facing with Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War:
Instances of the game freezing or crashing have gone down, but not entirely; there's still some issue with the game UI as it may randomly freeze while accessing recorded gameplay from the barracks menu in the theatre mode
I keep the ray tracing off for multiplayer gaming because there's visible on-screen lag and stuttering while using guns with scope and sniping, and on the crossroads map, I have experienced real-time rendering issues as well
Theater mode glitches a lot; sometimes, you can't access the recorded gameplay as the menu UI keeps throwing up an error, and in some matches, as you approach the end of the gameplay, the screen blacks out, but you can still hear the menu options in the background, leaving you with no choice but to quit the game entirely
Xbox Series X DVR – No sound issue:
I use a pen drive to record my gameplay from Xbox Series X, and for no reason, the COD BOCW would save recorded games without any sound frequently. If you don't check on the recorded files stored on the external pen drive, you will get a series of muted gameplay files.
The workaround I found to this issue to record a small game clip from some other title and then record the COD BOCW games via Xbox DVR
Daily Challenges – Finishing in top three in Fireteam Dirty Bomb mode :
This is one challenge that I have not been able to clear for more than a month now because of some bug that does not register my team qualifying in the top three category
The Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War and Warzone conundrum
The only time my interest peaked to play Warzone was during the Halloween event. I stick to playing the plunder mode as the idea of getting booted out with one gulag revival chance in the battle royale mode does not fit my interest. The current rebirth island map is worse when it comes to surviving the drop; you would be killed even before getting a chance to even scour for a weapon after dropping on the map.
I'm not too fond of how COD BOCW operator skins unlocks are linked to Warzone challenges. I don't want to spend time completing bounty contracts or driving vehicles in Warzone for 'X' minutes. Modern Warfare has suffered more due to COD BOCW integration; I have experienced game loading issues while trying to play Warzone, random game freezing, etc.
The other problem of coming across cheating players in both Warzone and COD BOCW is rising. I like sniping too occasionally, but the way snipers are glorified in COD BOCW by featuring their quick scoping skills in the best gameplay segment at the end of the match is beyond comprehension. Players using aimbots, suspiciously raking up scorestreaks, and scoring insane level of points makes you think if a regular gamer gains anything by playing fair, forget about the skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) debate and reverse boosting tricks used by pro gamers to gain access to easier lobbies.
Way ahead for Call of Duty Series
In my view, Activision should consider an event like COD BOCW + Modern Warfare mixed in Warzone as a one-time crossover experiment. Warzone has the potential to continue as a free-to-play battle royale game with a new spin-off.
They are disappointing gamers of both games by forcing them to overlap with weapons, operators, and other challenges. I understand that the last year was a difficult one for game developers and publishers alike, but that does not mean we cannot overcome the ongoing issues and the general dissatisfaction growing amongst gamers who are fans of the Call of Duty series.
Comments