The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta is beginning soon, with a PS4-exclusive beta weekend starting on October 8. Alongside some details about what’s changed since the alpha, developer Treyarch has also revealed some details about what to expect and how to play the beta, revealing some interesting new details.
One key new feature introduced in the beta is a ping system, which sounds a lot like the ping system first introduced in Respawn’s Apex Legends. The ping system is a way of pointing out important points on the map, and indicating to other players where enemies, loot, and other things are. It’s a good way to communicate without needing to use voice chat.
The ping button will be mapped to the left D-Pad button on controllers, and Z on keyboards, but it can be remapped. You’re able to ping enemy Scorestreakers, too, including spy planes. This will make it easier for players to communicate with one another, even if they don’t like to chat.
This will also be the first game in the Black Ops series on consoles to feature a field of view (FOV) slider. This lets you adjust the settings to dictate how wide or narrow your view is, and although you might face frame rate or graphical issues by increasing the width too much, you can recreate the settings available to PC players, which will be good for cross-play. It’s not common for console games to have features like this, but it could become more common as more games allow for cross-play.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will release on November 13 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, and Xbox One. You can figure out which version is for you with GameSpot’s preorder guide.
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