When news happens in the world of “Call of Duty,” it’s always big news. With the possible exception of “Fortnite,” it’s the biggest video game in the world, and players fall over themselves to get their hands on the latest downloadable content whenever it appears. We’re pleased to report that the long-awaited Season 5 update is now available to players, but we’re less happy to report that you might need to make a few adjustments to your PlayStation before you can download it. In fact, you might need to go back through your game catalog and finally delete that install of “No Man’s Sky” that you’re never going to play again.
Why are we telling you this? It’s because the Season 5 update for “Call of Duty: Warzone” comes in at an astonishing thirty-six gigabytes in size. It gets worse than that, though. Before you run off to clear the required space, consider this. Even though the size of the final install is thirty-six gigabytes, it needs a full ninety gigabytes of space to start the download and complete the install. The excess space is tidied up after the process is complete, but that process won’t start at all unless you can give the game the storage space it needs to get the job started. Given that we’re now into the seventh year of the PS4’s existence and the majority of dedicated players are continually hovering on the point of storage capacity with their games, this is likely to present a significant issue for a large number of players.
There is an upside to this. Once the install is complete – presuming you can accommodate it – the total size of the game on your hard drive will actually shrink down, even though the download contains literally all the content for the season as well as alterations to the game’s asset packs. When the download has finalized and installed, you should find that you have more storage space than you did when you started. That’s always a bonus, but it’s not a great help to the people who’ll have had to delete something they cared about to make way for the download in the first place. That begs the question of whether the download will be worth the effort that it takes to facilitate it, but for most “Call of Duty” players, that isn’t even a question. It’s thought that the new season – which goes live on August 5th and so may even be up and running by the time you read this – will contain significant updates to the “Warzone” map, and so gamers won’t want to miss out on it.
The trade-off to the enormous download is that it means the mid-season updates are likely to be less data-intensive. If everything that Season 5 is required is pre-loaded in this update, there shouldn’t be anything else to feed in later unless bug fixes and other patches are required. This should therefore be the only major download and install process that players have to go through until the release of the inevitable Season 6 in the future. Activision has already confirmed that the highly-successful “Warzone” version of “Call of Duty” is viewed as a long-term project, and so not only will there be a Season 6, but there will also likely be a Season 7, 8, 9 and perhaps even 10 in the future. The company will doubtless be looking at the longevity that Rockstar Games have got out of “Grand Theft Auto 5” and trying to match it – albeit with the added difficulty of having to offer cross-generational support when next-gen consoles are released later this year.
Away from the “Warzone” incarnation of “Call of Duty,” the other big news for COD players that’s hit the internet recently is that the long-rumored “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” game appears to have a release date – and one that’s come from the most unlikely of sources. A promotional campaign by Doritos appears to have confirmed that the new game will be available for purchase or download in October this year. It’s a very unorthodox way for news of a new game to reach the internet, and we can’t rule out of the possibility that it’s a clever viral marketing tactic as opposed to a leak or an accident. Whatever the truth behind the story might be, the cat is out of the bag, and the game is no more than two months away. This is despite the fact that the game’s existence is yet to be officially revealed by Activision, although the launch of the fifth season of “Warzone” might take care of that.
Overall, the picture that all of this news paints is one of a “Call of Duty” franchise that’s in rude health. The video games are selling well, the official mobile version of the game is still attracting millions of downloads, and even the officially-connected online slots version of “Call of Duty” is delighting players at online slots websites. The majority of video games never reach the level of success that’s required for them to become online slots attractions, and so “Call of Duty” and all those involved in making it should be congratulated on the continual success of the brand. They might even have found a reliable way to make money consistently from Online Slots UK – a trick that eludes the majority of people who play them, even if they do occasionally win big!
While the new season of “Warzone” and the seemingly-forthcoming release of “Black Ops” might be a difficult set of balls to juggle for some developers, it’s thought that Activision will avoid that issue by treating the two games as totally separate entities. “Warzone” won’t integrate with “Black Ops” or vice versa, and it’s expected that the gameplay of “Black Ops” will be more tactical and gritty than the relatively arcade-like standard set by “Warzone.” Between the console games, the mobile games, and the online slots product, it appears that you can now play “Call of Duty” any way you like. It’s just a shame that the planned movie was canceled at the end of last year!
