A huge new update has landed for the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta, and it addresses a well-known and frustrating component of gameplay that has long plagued the competitive circuit.
With the Black Ops: Cold War beta now entering open status on PS4, and Xbox One and PC in closes status for a week for those with a pre-order, there’s added focus at developer, Treyarch, to get the game up to scratch and in line with both community and competitive expectations.
The key changes in this Black Ops Cold War beta update comes by way to adjustments made to sliding mechanics, as well as some fixes to key weapons. Additional maps, guns and modes have also been added to the fold.
The October 15 update for Black Ops Cold War‘s beta appears to have a rather specific focus on the game’s sliding mechanics. The community has for a week been calling on Treyarch to adjust this mechanic, as it’s appeared “broken” and uncompetitive, namely when combined with the Duster Stock and Milano 821 SMG.
If Overwatch is any indication, not to mention past Call of Duty games, the competitive scene has a significant impact on the changing face of online games, and Black Ops Cold War is certainly no exception in this regard. Competitive players from across the globe have been calling for these changes after playing the PS4 open beta, and with the game soon to enter cross-play functionality it’s best to address it sooner rather than later.
Also coming to the beta as part of the Black Ops Cold War beta are some familiar modes in Hardpoint, Control, and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb. Additional, two new maps in Ruka and Alpine have also been added. Check out the list of new weapons and perks below.
New weapons
- LW3 Tundra sniper rifle
- QBZ-83 assault rifle
- RPD light machine gun
- RPG-7 launcher
- Magnum pistol
New perks
- Cold Blooded
- Flak Jacket
- Quartermaster
- Ninja
New scorestreaks
- Napalm Strike
- Air Patrol
- Chopper Gunner
New wildcards
- Gunfighter
- Perk Greed
New equipment
- Molotov
- Decoy Grenade
- Semtex
- Jammer
Check out the rest of the patch notes below.
Black Ops Cold War Beta Weekend 2 patch notes
Movement
- Reduced the speed of the initial slide impulse and slightly shortened slide duration.
- During the PS4 Beta, we found players over-relying on sliding to traverse ground quickly or engage in close quarters, making it difficult to target players in the open. Our goal is for sliding to function as a smooth transition to cover, escape, or transition to a crouching stance. This weekend’s changes result in a snappier slide that better fit our goals for the mechanic.
- Significantly reduced slide speed with the Duster Stock attachment equipped.
- In Weekend 1, the Duster Stock attachment accounted for massive slide speed increases that didn’t fit into our more grounded combat loop. With this new change, Duster Stock now offers a modest improvement in slide speed that is more balanced with other attachment offerings.
Known PC Issues and Workarounds
- Mouse Wheel Input Delay defaults at 0, which is lower than intended.
- Workaround: The player can adjust the value for the mouse wheel delay input in Settings. Recommended default value is 80.
- When many audio devices are available, it is not possible to view or select the last one from the drop-down list.
- Workaround: These audio devices can be selected using the keyboard.
- Some players on AMD GPUs may experience frequent packet burst spikes during gameplay.
- Workaround: Lowering the Graphics Settings can alleviate the severity of this issue.
