Another year another installment of Activision’s long-running Call of Duty first-person shooter series. This year it’s a continuation of the rebooted Black Ops storyline.

Just as they did with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot, 2020’s Black Ops: Cold War drew a line underneath the previous instalments. Whilst the game retained some of the characters and the feel of the earlier games, it was a new beginning.

This new game drops the subtitle and returns to the regular series numbering, whilst continuing the story from Black Ops: Cold War. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s campaign, jumps from the Cold War era of the 1980s to the 1990s and Operation Desert Storm.

The story is on-brand for a Black Ops game. Instead of a straight shooter (literally and figuratively), Black Ops campaigns feature convoluted plots heavy on conspiracy and subterfuge. There’s the intrigue, the dark underbelly of covert ops works in a grey area, international espionage and double-crossing. It’s more of a spy setting than playing as a black op commando unit but the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games have kinda co-opted that.

The campaign game starts in 1991 with the player taking on the role of William “Case” Calderon, a CIA operative, charged with extracting a high-ranking Iraqi politician. After engaging Iraqi forces and apprehending the target, the CIA team comes under fire from a paramilitary group called Pantheon. Defeating the attackers and reaching safety, a Humvee pulls up. Out gets the unpredictable rogue CIA operative, Russel Adler, from Black Ops: Cold War who promptly dispatches the captured Iraqi politician, before being apprehended. Adler has a message for his former teammate, Frank Woods.

With the CIA team suspended, Frank Woods, Troy Marshall and Case follow up on Adler’s message leading them to a safe house in Bulgaria. The safe house is a hub area where players are free to roam around and explore.

Whilst for the most part Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a linear affair. The safe house hub area is where you can train, look for clues and converse with other characters as if you are playing a role-playing game.

At the safe house, we learn what Adler’s been up to. And that a team needs to be assembled just like in a heist movie. Over the next few missions, using Adler’s notes in the safe house, tech operative Felix Neuman and assassin Sevati Duma are recruited to join the team. On breaking out Adler, the plot unfolds, revealing that Pantheon is trying to sell a US-development chemical weapon, the Cradle, to Saddam Hussein.

For me, the appeal of the Call of Duty campaigns is the linear first-person shooter gameplay, with its set pieces coming across like a no-hold-barred action movie. In recent years Activision has, via its team of rotating developers, tried to spice things up, altering the recipe with what I consider to be so-so results. Whilst I can dig the desire for non-linear open-world gameplay, that’s what we’ve got Ghost Recon for (now) and to a lighter extent, EA’s Battlefield games.

One of the missions is a huge open-world area where you get to kill Iraqis during the dubious Desert Storm 1 (there’s even a not-so-subtle reference to WMDs- the only WMDs in the game being the fictional ones, just like in real life). It’s bold mission choice, a mini open-world game within a game. Whilst very well done, it exposes the joins between the various teams that worked on the game.

Whilst not exactly my cup of tea, the developers have also managed to weave the popular Call of Duty zombie multiplayer gameplay into the campaign story. It’s cleverly done, but it’s another sequence that sticks out a bit.

There are, of course, some breathtaking moments, such as when you first call in for air support during the Iraq level. Fans of Modern Warfare’s Danger Close level will likely enjoy guiding bombs to their targets. Then there’s calling in the British SAS attack helicopter with the player manning the guns.

A bit of fan service has players using an RC-XD remote-controlled car with a C4 payload. This is identical to the one included in the original Black Ops Prestige Edition, even down to the controller.

The stealthier missions are a lot of fun, with only some sequences forcing players to remain undetected. This means that whilst stealth is the best way, you can still go in guns blazing.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign ticks all the boxes and tries to do something new. It’s not the best campaign game in the series, but it does have a few levels that I’ll likely return to again and again, and a few I’d not. The disparity between the missions fits the more abstract clandestine storyline but is likely more to do with multiple development teams working in isolation and their work being stitched together. It’s a good effort, but not up to the standard of its predecessor.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PC) Campaign Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Backbone is teaming up with Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile for the game’s official launch, confirmed for March 21st, 2024 on iOS and Android devices.

Backbone players will have additional opportunities to level up weapons and XP with shared progression across Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone, and get access to exclusive in-game items.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will redefine Call of Duty action on-the-go. Backbone+ subscribers can soon take advantage of exclusive member perks, including even more double XP and exclusive in-game items including a Calling Card, Emblem, and Weapon Charm to customise your loadout.

Backbone transforms your iPhone or Android device into the ultimate gaming console. Snap in your phone and play any game or service that supports controllers, including Apple Arcade, Google Play Store, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or even stream from your Xbox, PlayStation or PC.

All Backbone One USB-C and Lightning 2nd Gen controllers include magnetic adapters, allowing for even better phone fit and support for many phone cases. When combined with the Backbone app – which puts all of gaming in one place – it’s our most accessible gaming experience ever.

The post Backbone x Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Breaking tradition, Activision has released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III the next instalment of the rebooted Modern Warfare series.

For years, Call of Duty games have alternated between development studios and their relative narratives. After Infinity Ward’s 2019 Modern Warfare, we had to wait two years with the excellent Black Ops Cold War from Treyarch and the not-so-excellent Vanguard from Sledgehammer holding the torch until Infinity Ward returned with Modern Warfare II.

Modern Warfare III, like 2021’s Vanguard, is bought to us by Sledgehammer Games, who did an outstanding job with Call of Duty WWII back in 2017. The single-player campaign continues from MWII with the reintroduction of Vladimir Makarov as the game’s protagonist.

As they have been from the beginning, Call of Duty games have distinctive single-player and multi-player modes (with the exception of the multiplayer-only misstep that was Black Ops 4). As of writing this the multiplayer servers are not yet functioning, only the single-player campaign has been made available for me to play. So that’s what this review focuses on.

The single-player campaign sees the return of Captain Price and his Task Force 141, a group of British SAS operatives, strangely led by CIA Station Chief Kate Laswell, (and with a Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley pronounced as “lootenant and not the British “leftenant”). Also returning is Urzikstan Liberation Force Commander Farah Karim and her second-in-command Alex Keller – a former CIA operative who still wears his US flag proudly on his uniform. Other notable returnees are the slippery General Herschel Shepherd and Shadow Company Commander Phillip Graves (who I thought was dead).

The first mission “Operation 627” sets the tone with a franticly paced assault on a gulag. The developer puts a crafty twist on the mission that puts the team on the trail of Makarov and yet more errant missiles.

Of the fourteen missions, six are “open combat missions”. These missions give players the freedom to fulfil their objects as they see fit. This freedom means that there are none of the set pieces or the carefully orchestrated gameplay moments that are a signature of the usual Call of Duty mission.

These large open battlefields are peppered with ammo and equipment stashes that sometimes feel more like you are playing a multiplayer bot match than part of a story-driven campaign.

The later open world combat missions, “Highrise”, which has players clearing a Konni HQ in St. Petersburg, and Gora Dam, sabotaging a false-flag attempt to blow up a dam, are both a bit more enclosed and more fun. These work better than the free-for-alls that are “Precious Cargo”- tagging missile-filled containers in an Urzikstan port and “Reactor”- which sees Captain Price infiltrating an old reactor site in Northern Urzikstan. “Crash Site”- which has Farah Karim investigating a plane crash site overrun with Konni operatives, and “Oligarch”- infiltrating a private island, both fall in the middle.

Whilst still fun, the open combat missions are second place to the tighter “Frozen Tundra” ambush mission, the “Payload” missile silo infiltration mission, and the excellent, but uncomfortable stadium assault that is “Flashpoint”.

The “No Russian” inspired “Passenger” is an important, but short scene-setter of a mission with the Kate Laswell infiltration mission “Deep Cover” being not that much more. “Danger Close” continues the COD tradition of having a C130 aerial support mission- which is unnervingly realistic. The game saves the best for last with the showdown in the tunnels under the English Channel with “Trojan Horse”.

My first playthrough did leave me disappointed. On the regular difficulty setting, the campaign was over in an instant. On higher difficulty settings the more constrained levels hit their stride as tense combat missions and started to feel more engaging. The larger wide-scale missions did, however, start to get ridiculously improbable and impossible as a one-man army against a well-armed military force.

I don’t know if it’s the freedom of the open world missions, but more than ever, the usual multi-agency, geopolitical shenanigans are told by the game’s cutscenes rather than the in-game moments. It makes sense to weave the story around the gameplay, but it feels a little disjointed at times.

As a Call of Duty campaign story, it’s not bad. But, as with the gameplay, it is weaker than MW2, which in turn is weaker than that of the first Modern Warfare reboot. It would seem that the single-player campaign is playing second fiddle to the multiplayer side of Call of Duty, once more.

What’s indisputable is how good the game looks, with some almost photoreal sequences and great lighting. I’ve played the single-player campaign on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. All of them look and play fantastically smooth. PC owners get all the bells and whistles with Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS to ensure consistently high framerates with a decent level of detail.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III gives players a popcorn action movie of a single-player campaign that shouldn’t be examined in too much detail. It’s a fun romp but a step down from past efforts.

The post Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (Xbox Series X|S & PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, as is the way with most of the games in the long-running first-person shooter franchise, is split into two parts.

First, there’s the cinematic single-player campaign, and the competitive multiplayer modes. Activision provided me early access to the campaign for a review.

This is probably the most ambitious Call of Duty campaign in years. It’s also the most unforgiving, and that may be a problem for some players.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is another game developed during Covid. It’s likely the way the development teams worked on the game remotely that makes the campaign feel a little less focused than in the last Modern Warfare. That’s not to say it isn’t good, it’s perhaps one of the best campaigns in years. It’s far better than Vanguard’s campaign and that of the last Black Ops.

The game follows on from the end of 2019’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare reboot. Captain Price and Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick are back, joined by British SAS operatives, Sergeant John “Soap” McTavish and Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley. Together they form the multinational Taskforce 141, for this mission operating under CIA Station Chief Kate Laswell. Aiding Captain Price and his team are Mexican special forces operatives, Colonel Alejandro Vargas and Sergeant Major Rodolfo Parra. The campaign’s huge cast also includes US Army General Shepherd and US PMC, Shadow Company Commander Phillip Graves. Urzikstan Liberation Force Commander Farah Karim from Modern Warfare also makes an appearance.

The plot is as engaging as any blockbuster action movie. The globe-trotting adventure starts with Ghost and Soap leading a company of US Marines to capture Russian-backed Iranian Major Hassan Zyani in Al Mazrah. Whilst Hassan escapes, the team discovers that the Iranians are in possession of an American-made ballistic missile. The action switches to Amsterdam where Price and Gaz discover that Hassan is in Mexico, being sheltered by his allies, the Las Almas cartel.

The game jumps about between the teams following leads that take them to Mexico, Spain, Urzikstan, an abandoned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, ending with an epic showdown in Chicago. The game nicely sets up the next chapter with a call-back to the original Modern Warfare games.

The story is epic and rivals anything Hollywood turns outs. The cinematic CGI cutscenes are approaching photo-real and blend almost seamlessly into the gameplay. The character performances are superb, both in the cinematics and during the game.

The environments and lighting are also superb. The level of detail is phenomenal, with the graphics looking almost real. It’s shame that most of it goes past as just a blur as you try to stay alive against the odds.

The PC performance was without fault. Implementation of Nvidia’s DLSS kept my framerate high even in 4K with all the bells and whistles turned on. I did have a few games crash on me. I’m pretty sure it’s not the PC configuration, although I am running a new Intel i9-12900K that hasn’t been installed for long.

A bit more technological horsepower has enabled the developers to spread their wings a little. Many of the environments have been opened up, giving players more choices in what strategy they want to employ. This freedom also hands players enough rope to hang themselves with. The result for some of the levels is a hybrid of open-world and corridor shooter, and this might not be what players are expecting, or want, from a Call of Duty game. It’s easy to get lost, flanked, and totally surprised by the enemy. To be fair, it’s a lot more realistic, but it also increases the difficulty considerably. The game will likely not make you feel quite the one-man army that the previous games would have you believe.

I usually run through Call of Duty campaigns on the regular difficulty for the review and the harder settings for subsequent playthroughs in my own time. Having already played a mission usually offers a significant advantage the second time around. I feel that with Modern Warfare 2 this will not be the case, as the harder difficulties don’t let you get away with being such a bullet sponge.

By and large, Call of Duty campaigns tend to be shooting galleries. We’ve had the odd C130 support mission to break things up, but generally you are on the ground following a fairly well-defined path through a combat zone to the next batch of bad guys.

The developer has peppered the campaign with several different environments, gameplay mechanics, and set pieces, some we’ve seen before and others we have not. Even so, I don’t recall previous games having quite as much variety or straying as much from the usual Call of Duty formula.

After a scene-setting interactive prelude, the game opens with a huge environment in Iran that also features multiple house-clearing sequences that rival the acclaimed “Clean House” mission from 2019’s Modern Warfare. Then we have a nice throwback to the classic “All Ghillied Up” mission from the original MW, with Price and Gaz picking off the enemy inside a Spanish fishery.

Fans of aerial support will be pleased to know that they get to rain hell from above supporting the ground team with missiles and cannon fire from a Shadow Company AC-130 plane. Following laser pointers and avoiding the IR strobes of the blue team, players get to unleash 25mm and 40mm shells, as well as low-trajectory missiles whilst complying with orders and the rules of engagement. I found this sequence worryingly satisfying, to be honest as I watched Mexican cartel members getting vaporised, below.

There’s a notable sequence on board a ship in a storm. Containers and cargo are sliding across the deck during a gunfight. Players must not only avoid enemy fire but also avoid getting crushed by huge cargo containers, all the while trying to return fire between obstructions. It’s a set piece that rivals those of Naughty Dog in their Uncharted games.

Another set-piece straight out of Naughty Dog’s playlist is a driving sequence that has players controlling Gaz as he makes his way through an enemy convey. He must leap between and hijack trucks whilst returning fire and avoiding land mines. It’s a crazy mission that defies belief, but excellent heart-in-mouth stuff.

Modern Warfare 2 also tries out some new ideas that may be a bit polarising. Making his way through a Mexican town that’s under siege, unarmed and injured, Soap must gather resources to fashion makeshift weapons and equipment whilst avoiding heavily armed forces. This is a stealth mission that is quite the opposite of the run-and-gun tactics that these first-person shooters are infamous for. Again, the play area is vast, offering lots of tactical approaches, and an equal number of opportunities to fail.

Whilst still an action-adventure tale like that of a AAA Hollywood movie, with its fair share of unbelievable moments, I found the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 campaign to be more grounded than previous efforts. There seems to be a lot less scripting in some of the enemy behavior, sometimes making them react differently. There seems a certain randomness that other COD games haven’t had before. Add in the open environments and you have a Call of Duty game that I found a lot less forgiving than in the past.

Whilst I welcome any evolution of the Call of Duty gameplay and celebrate the developers for trying new things, the game is not supposed to be ARMA. It’s a COD game and, perhaps sometimes the player could do with some better pointers to avoid frustration. Don’t get me wrong, occasionally Captain Price or another character will dish out some advice when you are off track. But there were times when I was wondering what on Earth I was supposed to be doing, whilst copping fire from an enemy I couldn’t avoid. I’m pretty sure it was 100% luck that allowed me to progress in the end.

Overall, I think that most Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 players are going to love the campaign. It is a bit different and doesn’t hold your hand perhaps as much as in the past. They’ve tried a few new things that, by and large, work well. Some of the missions are a bit unforgiving which may make them less appealing for a replay. The last Modern Warfare set the tone of the series and whilst this one lives up to it, I’m not sure that it quite surpasses it.

The post Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Games & pop culture merchandise specialist Koyo and video game publisher Activision have partnered to launch high quality, officially licensed Call of Duty: Vanguard & Call of Duty: Warzone collectibles.

The new and upcoming products build on Koyo’s existing games offering, which encompasses a range of collectibles based on popular characters and iconic items from some of the world’s biggest game developers and publishers.

Koyo’s latest range of ‘must have’ collectibles for fans of Call of Duty: Vanguard & Call of Duty: Warzone includes Logo Pin Badges, Logo Keyrings, Bar Blade Bottle Openers, Patch Sets, DIY Pin Badge Sets and Tomogunchi Pin Badge Sets.

“We’re so excited to be working with Activision to create some truly unique Call of Duty collectibles,” said Koyo COO Helen Garlick. “Our aim is always to deliver what our fan communities want, and Call of Duty has been on many wish lists for a long time, including ours! We’re sure Vanguard and Warzone players everywhere will love these items – and we have more planned for the coming months.”

The Call of Duty: Vanguard collectibles will be available for fans to buy direct from Koyo’s official store or through retail stores globally from January 22nd, 2022, Call of Duty: Warzone collectibles following in February 2022.

The post Call of Duty Collectibles from Koyo & Activision appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

It’s back to World War II for Activision’s big first-person shooter series with Call of Duty: Vanguard.

After a game set in the modern-day and another set during the cold war, this year’s entry, from Activation’s Sledgehammer Games, returns to World War II.

It is, after all, the scenario that the series originated with and the one likely to cause the least offense. After all, as everybody knows, the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.

As is the way with Call of Duty games, Call of Duty: Vanguard features a single-player narrative campaign, multiplayer, and co-operative Zombies mode. The campaign is spread across the various WWII theatres of war.

The multiplayer game features 20 maps, again drawing from various locations and settings from the war. The Zombies storyline serves as a prequel to last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies mode.

The campaign follows the misadventures of an international special operations team, Task Force Vanguard, behind enemy lines in Hamburg in 1945, at the end of the war. They are tasked with retrieving documents relating to Project Phoenix. Captured by the Nazis, the team is transported to Berlin where they are interrogated.

My first impression of all this was that of disappointment.

A WWII setting featuring a team of supermen (and a superwoman) chewing up Nazis would be pushing it for me. Last year’s Black Ops Cold War is about the limit of Call of Duty OTT storytelling.

Thankfully, the game doesn’t dwell too long on the special forces team aspect, which only really exists as a narrative binding and a way for the game to segue into the multiplayer element.

With the team being captured and interrogated by Nazi SS Officer Jannick Richter (The Lord of the Ring’s Dominic Monaghan absolutely chewing the scenery) the game splits off to tell the stories of each of the surviving members.

This is unusual for Call of Duty which in recent years has stuck to the one protagonist. The campaign feels more like a Battlefield game in this regard. The individual stories are separated by cut-scenes playing out the last days of the 3rd Reich.

First up is British Paratrooper, Sergeant Arthur Kingsley dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of the Normandy Landings. This setting harks back to the very first Call of Duty which also had players behind enemy lines in Normandy, securing the beachhead for Operation Overlord.

Polina Petrova is a Russian medic caught up in the fall of Stalingrad. Her story has her witnessing the destruction of the city. Picking up her father’s sniper rifle she heads out to exact her revenge, forging the legend of Lady Nightingale.

US Navy pilot Lieutenant Wade Jackson’s story allows players to take part in the battle of Midway, dive-bombing Japanese aircraft carriers. This sequence seems to take inspiration from the movie, Midway. Wade’s story then takes him into the jungles of Papa New Guinea the 93rd Infantry Division.

The fourth playable character is explosives expert, Lucas Riggs. A rough and ready Australian infantryman, the character is almost a cliché.

His story starts in the desert of Tobruk, under the command of an arrogant British major. Going against orders, Riggs and his squad storm a German outpost securing enemy intel and generally causing havoc. The second part of Rigg’s story has him posted to El Alamein taking out flak cannons, again, disregarding orders.

The final part of the campaign is back to Vanguard Team with players switching to each of the characters as their particular specialty comes into play.

The end of the campaign sets up the continuation of the fight against the escaping Nazis following their defeat in Berlin in the game’s multiplayer mode.

As with all Call of Duty games you get out of them what you put in.

The campaigns tend to rely on set pieces and solid storytelling over engrossing gameplay. Unfortunately, Vanguard’s story is not that inspired. Although the settings, Stalingrad and Tobruk in particular, are interesting and immersive. The campaign story and gameplay are a far cry from that of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty WWII.

Call of Duty’s multiplayer is usually a moving feast, with balancing and updates as time goes on. Players select from the available Vanguard operatives and watch a short introductory movie, continuing the game’s cinematic style from the campaign.

The game features all the usual Call of Duty multiplayer match types, Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed, Patrol, Hardpoint and Search and Destroy. These game types are 6v6 matches played across a whopping 16 maps at launch.

The maps are mainly based upon locations from the campaign with a few surprises like a rerigged Castle from Call of Duty: World at War.

Another four maps are available to the new mode, Champion Hill. In this mode, eight teams of two or three players battle it out in a team deathmatch across the four maps, Airstrip, Courtyard, Market, and Trainyard. This is very much a team game, with communication between players pretty much essential.

The multiplayer maps are all fairly small, encouraging fast gameplay rather than the strategic approach that can be used in Battlefield. The result is rather breathtaking with hesitation punished by a quick death. Vanguard’s maps also feature destructible walls which can be used to create perfect shooting positions.

I’ll be honest and say that the Call of Duty Zombie modes have never gelled with me.

This time the mode seems bereft of an actual story to accompany the co-op zombie killing. Players start in a courtyard hub with energy fences stopping them from leaving where the zombies shamble in. There are several portals in the courtyard that transport players to the missions. I’m glad to see that I’m no longer expected to nail up windows, the structure is a lot different from that which has come before and I’m not sure if hardcore fans are going to like it. As with previous games, post-launch updates will vary the experience and time goes by, with the seasonal content starting in December (2021).

Across all the game modes, Call of Duty: Vanguard looks amazing.

I’m fortunate to be able to play the game in 4K HDR on a high-end gaming PC with the setting, for the most part, maxed out; so, I’m seeing the game in all its glory.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X owners should experience something similar, but those with lower-spec PCs may need to turn the settings down a bit. The game supports Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution setting giving lower-spec machines a performance boost and / or enabling a solid frame rate at higher resolutions. Interestingly, Vanguard does not utilise ray-tracing.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is a solid game that’s better than most.

The presentation is slick as you’d expect with a Call of Duty game. The campaign is a lot of fun to play, but as with that of Black Ops Cold War, sits in the shadow of Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign. Multiplayer is just as frantic and unforgiving as always with the co-op Zombies mode departing from the norm, but still entertaining. Vanguard is not perfect, but still a solid entry in the Call of Duty series.

The post Call of Duty: Vanguard (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – The ASTRO A10 is a limited-edition and Call of Duty: Cold War licensed gaming headset features all the functionality of the A10 headset, but includes a removable microphone pop filter, and special in-game custom item created for ASTRO customers.

The ASTRO A10 is built for comfort and quality, featuring flexible, lightweight materials and cloth ear cushion, along with durable steel headbands with damage resistant rubberized cover and detachable cable system, the A10 is designed to withstand both victory and defeat.

ASTRO Audio V2  is designed to produce detailed, true-to-life game audio, ASTRO Audio V2 provides a natural, smooth sound through an extended frequency range.

Tuned for Gaming to deliver non-fatiguing highs, clear mids and distortion-free bass. The 3.5mm jack on the A10 headset provides universal console and PC compatibility, as well as functionality with any mobile device that utilizes a 3.5mm audio port. The ASTRO A10’s highly precise boom mic offers Flip to Mute functionality, which mutes voice output and conveniently stows the microphone when not in use.

Owners of the ASTRO A10 will receive bonus in-game content available in the launch of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War game and is included with every purchase of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War A10 Headset (Details on how to redeem are at this link).

Thanks to our good mates at ASTRO we have one A10 Call of Duty: Cold War headset to giveaway plus a $100 (NZD) PlayStation store voucher!

To enter you will need to tell us how having an ASTRO A10 Call of Duty: Cold War gaming headset is going to make you the supreme Call of Duty player.

There is no wrong or right answer and you can hit us up by placing a comment below, Facebook, Tweet or Email us.

Important stuff: Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a physical boxed ASTRO A10 gaming headset and a voucher code for $100 NZD to redeem digitally on the PlayStation Store. Call of Duty: Cold War is by redemption only and you must adhere to the conditions on the redemption card included with the ASTRO A10 gaming headset. Call of Duty: Cold War is age rated R18 in New Zealand. You MUST be over the age of 18 years in order to enter this promotion – STG may ask for age verification. Competition ends on the 12th of December 2020. Only New Zealand entries are accepted for this promotion.

Everyone that works on STG is a volunteer. If you like the site and it’s contents please think about donating. Even a small amount helps keep the servers running.

The post ASTRO Gaming Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War A10 Headset Giveaway appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

One of the most iconic, blockbuster video game story experiences in gaming entertainment history has returned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered, a complete enhancement of the critically-acclaimed single player experience, is available for purchase now, first on PlayStation 4 on the PlayStation Network, with other platforms available for pre-purchase. The game includes the full campaign with stunning high-definition visuals – up to 4K resolution and HDR support on console; and uncapped framerate as well as ultrawide monitor support on PC.

Published by Activision, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered features improved texture resolution and detail, revamped animation, remastered audio, and much more.

In this famed experience, originally developed by Infinity Ward and now re-mastered by Beenox, players enlist as members of Task Force 141 and Tier 1 Operatives in a breathtaking series of missions to save the world from destruction. “Cliffhanger,” “Takedown, “No Russian,” and more all return in this intense story experience.

“Modern Warfare 2 campaign was incredible. We all remember the lasting impression the story left upon us. This campaign was very special and we thank Infinity Ward for creating such an amazing experience,” said Thomas Wilson, co-studio head, Beenox. “Restoring and remastering this campaign for a new generation of players was a labour of love for our team.  We wanted to make sure that the feelings and power of the story was accurately represented with full high-definition visuals and the latest audio fidelity.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is available now on PlayStation network. Players who purchase will also receive, free with purchase, Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare including the UDT Ghost Operator skin inspired by the ‘The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday’ campaign level that featured an action-packed hostage rescue attempt from an oil rig in in the arctic. Alongside the Ghost Operator skin, players will also receive two weapon blueprints, a weapon charm, new finishing move, voice quip, animated calling card, emblem and two Battle Pass tier skips all for immediate access in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the recently released Call of Duty: Warzone.

Players can pre-purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered for other platforms and receive the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle with the UDT Ghost Operator skin instantly for play.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is published by Activision.

The post MODERN WARFARE 2 CAMPAIGN REMASTERED IS NOW appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A game music orchestra from Finland, Game Music Collective, was hit by a zombie attack in their latest music video.

Game Music Collective, renowned for their great live concerts, has released a new music video. This time the theme is zombies and the theme music is from the hit game Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies. The brutal horror-themed music video is for adults only and definitely not for the faint of heart. At the end of the video, Lukas Stasevskij, the founder and cellist of the orchestra, ends his days in a rather unfortunate way.

“I have a somewhat Tarantino-like attitude towards violence. It can be used as an element in art, but I oppose violence in real life to the fullest,” comments Lukas Stasevskij, the founder and cellist of Game Music Collective. “We also want to be responsible and that’s why we’ve released two versions of the video – one for adults only and a censored one with less violence.”

Collective’s game-related music videos have more than two million views on YouTube. As their latest video project, Game Music Collective filmed footage for war game themed music videos at the Parola Armour Museum in cooperation with the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces. Their newest music video is the second one in the series as the first was released last December.

Game Music Collective is an orchestra of 20 musicians, complemented by a choir and other guest stars as needed. Game Music Collective Band is a band consisting of seven members from the orchestra. Game Music Collective’s first concert at the Finlandia Hall in September 2017 featured a wide range of game music from a variety of game series conducted by conductor Eero Lehtimäki. Since then, the collective has done a variety of performances and other activities related to game music.

Game Music Collective is also an active influencer on YouTube and regularly releases new video content. The video of Halo’s main theme has already been watched over 1.1 million times.

Game Music Collective has also just completed the recording sessions for game music composed by Ilmari Hakkola for the computer game Iron Danger which is due to be released next week.

Game Music Collective received a significant grant of 200,000 Euros this week from the Alfred Kordelin Foundation. The foundation was established in 1918 for supporting the work done for Finnish culture. This is to strengthen and deepen cultural work internally, and also to represent Finnishness amongst other nations.

The post Game music orchestra from Finland attacked by zombies appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – Call of Duty is once again crowned top game

According to new data insights from New Zealand’s fully impartial price and product comparison site, PriceSpy, Kiwis have once again backed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4), despite the game first launching back in October 2019.

Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, says:  “It’s great to see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4) being crowned as the most popular game for February 2020.

“The last time this game claimed the top spot on our popularity rankings was back in November 2019, one month after it first released.”

The PriceSpy data also found two new game releases secured top game positions in the popularity rankings.

Liisa adds: “As well as clicking on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4), Dreams for PlayStation 4 placed second overall and Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Switch, placed third.”

Prices correct as of 19 March 2020

Liisa concludes:  “As with all new game releases, we strongly suggest gamers play the waiting game before they commit and make a purchase – as our historical pricing insights suggest many games will drop in price considerably three months after they are first released.

“Using a website or app like PriceSpy can help shoppers keep a close eye on the price of games every day to help save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in the long run.  Gamers should also bookmark our gaming daily deals page, for all the latest offers. ”

PriceSpy has teamed up with us here at STG to Giveaway two of the top two games for February 2020.

To stand a chance of winning, enter our giveaway by answering this question:

Dreams is exclusive to PS4 and made by the same development company that made the ‘Little Big Planet’ series of games. Who are they?

A: Media Molecule

B: Naughty Dog

C: Santa Monica Studios

You can give us your Answer by placing a Comment below, hitting us up on Facebook, Tweet to us, or Email Us.

* Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a physical copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on PlayStation 4 and Dreams on PlayStation 4. Dreams is rated PG in New Zealand, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is rated R18+ in New Zealand. You must be over the age of 18 years in order to enter this promotion – STG may request age verification. Competition ends on the 12th of April 2020.

Download the PriceSpy app here.

www.pricespy.co.nz

The post Enter to Win Games of the Month w. Pricespy! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.