برچسب: call

  • Everything We Know About Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 So Far

    Everything We Know About Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 So Far


    At the end of the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft surprised gamers with the debut teaser for the latest Call of Duty. While official information is still scarce, here’s everything we know about Black Ops 7.

    Setting and Story

    While the last several Call of Duty games have elected to stick to historical or modern settings, Black Ops 7 is heading back to the future. Despite being numbered to follow 2024’s Black Ops 6, the latest CoD actually has way more in common with the classic Black Ops 2.

    Like Black Ops 2, 7 will take players a decade ahead of the game’s release and predict a near future full of technology which revolutionizes the way wars are fought. Black Ops 7 takes place in 2035, with characters from Black Ops 2 returning in the form of David Mason, Menendez, and Harper. The announcement blog further teases the setting as a “world on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare”.

    While story details are still being kept classified, the cryptic teaser does give fans a taste of what to expect. That trailer is filled with surreal, mind bending environments which confirm the spirit of Black Ops as a trippy espionage thriller is still alive and well. Several of these aforementioned locales allude back to classic characters and missions from early Black Ops campaigns. Most notably, David Mason confronts Raul Menendez in a recreation of the room has father was interrogated in over the course of the original Black Ops story.

    Multiplayer, Zombies, and More

    As exciting as a new Black Ops Campaign can be, Call of Duty’s suite of multiplayer modes is what keeps players hooked all year. That being said, the Campaign does actually fit in here, too. Perhaps whats most exciting about Black Ops 7’s story is that fans will be able to experience it with others. In a rare move for the franchise, this year’s campaign is confirmed to be playable co-op or solo, allowing fans to play the narrative out together for the first time in a decade.

    For fans of Call of Duty’s PvP offerings, Black Ops 7 is expected to have the classic Multiplayer modes, as well as some new ones. Black Ops 7 will continue the trend of a direct sequel to a previous Call of Duty entry in an odd numbered year; just as Modern Warfare III followed up II the year before it. However, unlike MWIII, Black Ops 7 is confirmed to have several brand-new Multiplayer maps at launch, rather than just a collection of remasters.

    The seasons of Warzone content to follow the Black Ops 7 launch seem to feature a new large-scale map called Avalon. Several prominent CoD content leakers have claimed Avalon was originally set to release with Black Ops 6, but was delayed too make room for the re-introduction of Verdansk. Several of the Black Ops 6 Multiplayer maps take place in or around Avalon, and the surrounding area matches up with some brief looks at gameplay in the first Black Ops 7 teaser.

    A brief look at this year’s Zombies offering was also shown. Black Ops 7 will once again feature the classic Round Based Zombies mode. Our first look at the horde mode this year shows a group of zombies being alerted by the turning on of headlights in a rural environment. Many fans believe this could be some sort of remake or reimagining of Tranzit, the launch map for Black Ops 2 Zombies, as the teaser images seem to include that map’s Farm locale and bus. Fans have long wanted a reinvention of the controversial map on new hardware, and with Black Ops 7 being a direct sequel to 2, the time may finally be right.

    A full reveal of Black Ops 7 is promised for this summer. In the meantime, you can play Black Ops 6 & Warzone on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Black Ops 7 will be available on all those platforms as well. It is unknown if and when the game will come to the Nintendo Switch 2.


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  • Birdy Call Party Game Review


    You’ll like this if you like: Making silly noises and laughing with your friends!

    This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

    Birdy Call is a silly, funny, and noisy party game where you need to impersonate Bird noises. You will either love it or hate it. But I would challenge anyone to watch others playing it (who are enjoying themselves) and not laugh! It is that sort of game. SO, let’s get it to the table and see how it plays.

    Birdy Call Party Game Review

    Decide if you want to play with the advanced Eggstra birds or not. I suggest taking a few out, but more on that later. Shuffle the remaining cards and deal them out to the players based on player count Seven each for a three player, Five for a four player game, and four each for five to six players. Place the 25 eggs into the centre of the table, and you are now ready to play.

    Players now play in real time, looking at all of their cards at once. First, check for any pairs in your hand. If you do have any, place them down and claim an egg. Then draw back up to the hand limit. If you don’t, pick one and start making the noise as described by that bird’s call on the bottom of the card. You can do this however you feel is best. Up to you! Whilst you are doing this, you must be listening out to the other players’ calls and trying to find a match to the call you are doing. You can move onto another card whenever you wish, and start trying a new call. But if you hear another player make a call similar to one you previously made, quickly find that card in your hand again, and make that call again to see if you have a match. If two players think they have a match, place your cards face down on the table in front of each other, flip them, and if they are indeed a match, both players claim an egg. Draw back up to your hand limit again, and go again. This continues until all eggs are claimed and the player with the most eggs wins.

    Birdy Call Party Game Review

    There are five Eggstra cards. I recommend using just two of them. Here is how they work.

    Waven – This is not technically an Eggstra bird, but it sure is different. Wave at other players instead of making a noise. Simple fun. Throw it in the deck.

    Parrot – You can mimic any other player’s call when you have a Parrot in hand. When you reveal your cards and you reveal a Parrot instead of the actual card, the tricked player takes their card back and must pay you one egg. The Parrot is discarded. I do not get this at all. The other player can do nothing about this. It is just annoying. Very strange decision to include in this game. It winds kids right up. This card alone brings this game down a full mark in its overall score. Sure, you can just take it out, but its inclusion annoys me that much.

    Hawkward – Fantastic name, annoying mechanic. When you have this card, play it face up in front of you, and start counting down from ten to zero, in silence. If each other player notices this (which they always will) and also falls silent and places their cards face down on the table, then this card is discarded. But if someone does not notice and keeps playing beyond these ten seconds, they must then lose two eggs. Not as annoying and mean as the Parrot, other players do have some agency here. But as I found, most players mostly notice, bar younger gamers, it is just pointless, slows the game down, and on the rare occasions it does work, just annoys people. No one gains anything. Some players may just lose something. Terrible addition. Another point lost from the overall score.

    Birdy Call Party Game Review

    Peacock – OK, finally, a fun card! When you play your Peacock, hold your cards above your head like a group of feathers and shout the Peacock’s call. The first player to respond with the same action and call receives an egg, with the player who played the Peacock also gaining an egg. They don’t need a Peacock card themselves to do this; it’s simply a race. It’s fun, players gain things, and it is funny. Great card.

    Robin – Play it, try and steal an egg from another player. If they spot you, you have to return it. If not, it’s yours. Zero jeopardy. You either steal or don’t. The person defending gains nothing from spotting you. It’s just annoying and feels like organised cheating, but not in a fun or clever way.

    Birdy Call Party Game Review

    Is It Fun? Birdy Call Party Game Review

    I want to love this game. We have had some games where we were all in hysterics. And I can see myself taking this with me to many holidays, parties, dinners, and events and having a blast with it. I just hate the fact that three of the extra birds are so bad. I mean, really bad. Sure, just take them out. But wow, come on. Who thought this was a good idea for a family-level party game? Who in testing thought that was a good idea? Take-that can be fun at times, but it needs some thought. Some two-way jeopardy. Not just a chance to steal stuff with no consequences. Or a card where you can flat out lie to another player about a card you have and then take an egg from them when they fall for it, with them having zero chance to block, defend, or know this is what is happening. Utterly ridiculous. I may simply burn these cards and pretend they never existed. Because the rest of the game is joyous, innocent fun. And these cards do not belong in this game at all.

    It blows me away that these cards were chosen to be included. Some other cards could very easily have been added in that add positive effects that are funny, then benefit all players. Why anyone thought these effects added to the game genuinely blows me away, and honestly annoys me.

    Birdy Call Party Game Review

    As such, I am giving this a six. I wanted to give it an eight. For a party game, if you like simple, silly fun, where you are happy to make silly noises and laugh at others doing the same, whilst they all laugh at you doing it too, this is perfect! But it does lose those marks as I should not have to remove cards from a game to make it better. The cards are optional, but their sheer existence annoys me that much. And other cards that offer mutual benefits and more fun would have been welcome. the game needs extra cards to add to the wrinkles. And it sadly now doesn’t have them due to this lazy and uneducated design work.

    OK, rant over. I think you get the message. Great fun game. Cute, bright and vibrant art. Decent card stock. And worth a look if you like this sort of thing. And do tell me if you try those other cards and find a different experience. I would love to know.



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  • Helldivers 2 dev says it will call “100%” of the shots on its next game

    Helldivers 2 dev says it will call “100%” of the shots on its next game


    With Helldivers 2 still going strong, despite having to navigate some difficult moments since its launch last year, the top dog at developer Arrowhead has revealed that it is now exploring some “cool concepts” for its next game, which will also be “100%” funded by the Swedish studio. This confirms that Arrowhead won’t be continuing its partnership with Sony and Playstation for its next project, even though “there would be no Helldivers if it wasn’t for them.”

    Helldivers 2 is a brilliant and massively successful co-op game, and the partnership between Arrowhead and Playstation has, on the whole, worked out a treat. From Arrowhead’s perspective, the Playstation marketing machine and backing helped elevate Helldivers 2 to a place it maybe wouldn’t have gotten to without it. From Sony’s side, having Helldivers 2 in its slate helped spare its blushes in what was a rough time for its live service endeavors.

    However, it has caused some stumbling blocks – most notably the infamous review bombing that occurred after Sony tried to force Steam players into creating and linking Playstation account, something that was not only disliked but saw the game delisted from Valve’s storefront in dozens of countries due to them not having PSN support. This low point has fueled a narrative in some circles that Arrowhead would’ve been better off without Sony. But even though the studio’s head honcho has today confirmed it won’t be partnering with Sony (or anyone else, for that matter) in the development of its next game, it remains full of praise and gratitude.

    As was spotted by Forbes, a post in the Helldivers 2 Discord server by CEO Shams Jorjani reads: “The wonderful thing is that thanks to the amazing support of you fine people Arrowhead’s future is quite bright and we have the freedom to explore some really cool concepts that we couldn’t have otherwise. Game 6 (our next project) will happen the way it will happen thanks to you.” He adds that Arrowhead’s next game “is 100% funded by ourselves so we’ll call 100% of those shots.”

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    Making clear his admiration for Sony, Jorjani also says that “Playstation are great. There would be no Helldivers if it wasn’t for them. We’re open to working with them again in the future. They are incredibly game/dev oriented. Solid partners. And this is me just saying it like it is. Not blowing smoke up their asses.”

    I’m excited to see what Arrowhead can do outside of the Helldivers universe, which I’m guessing is the direction it’s going in seeing as Sony isn’t on board for its next game. It’s shown it’s adept at building amazing, dynamic game worlds, so I could certainly see it tapping into that even more for future projects. Alternatively, given that Jorjani talks of having real “freedom” now, it could be something completely unexpected and unlike anything it’s done before.

    If you’re a big Helldivers fan, you should definitely check out our recommendations for the best space games and best multiplayer games.

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