Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War released a surprise alpha on PS4 after it was announced at the PlayStation 5 Showcase. Being massive fans of Modern Warfare's big team battle mode, Ground War, we spent our time playing Cold War's Combined Arms mode. Although Combined Arms has 24 players versus Ground War's larger 64 player count, we found plenty of similarities and differences to talk about. Some of those include how the games handle their maps, spawning troubles, vehicle versus infantry balance, scorestreaks versus killstreaks, and what needs polish going into Cold War's final build.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes multiplayer mechanics away from the mil-sim and sandbox direction of Modern Warfare and towards earlier Black Ops gunfight fundamentals. Cold War is set in the 1980s with weapons themed around that time. Cold War had some larger maps in the alpha including a naval-based one called Armada and a frozen map called Crossroads. These maps contain a mix of gunboats, jet skis, tanks, and snowmobiles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War releases on November 13 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It will not have a season pass but will have a Battle Pass system. Cold War supports cross-save, cross-play, and cross-generation play, and will tie into Call of Duty: Warzone.