Everything You Need to Know About Call of Duty’s Midseason Update

Weekly Briefings are back for the Call of Duty franchise, and Monday’s drop revealed a lot of content for the new Black Ops Cold War update, set to release on Jan. 14. From a new Warzone map to free Zombies, there’s a lot of ground to cover.

Multiplayer changes

Perhaps the biggest addition in the Black Ops Cold War midseason update is the introduction of a new map called Sanatorium for Warzone. It’s described as a low-wooded hills area where players will be tasked with unearthing the “clandestine secrets of Project Golova.”

It will include a large selection of land, air and sea vehicles.

The update will also introduce a new game type for multiplayer. Entitled “Dropkick”, two teams of six compete for control of a briefcase that supposedly contains nuclear launch codes, a sensible containment unit for access to weapons of mass destruction. The first team to score 200 points apparently gets to set off the nuclear device.

An enticing reward for victory, indeed.

Free Zombies

Slaying hordes of the undead has never been more cost-efficient.

With this new update comes a free trial period for Zombies, lasting until Jan. 21. In that span, users on any platforms will be able to access a few game modes in Treyarch’s seminal work.

Die Maschine, Cranked and Onslaught (PlayStation Exclusive) will all be open to the general public for a week.

Misc.

New bundles will be available for those inclined to fork out the cash. The “Disavowed Assassin” and “Tracer Pack Indigo” each contain cosmetic skin, weapon and emblem upgrades.

“Disavowed Assassin” boasts five items, including a new melee weapon Blueprint, an Operator skin, a Finishing Move dubbed “Dangerous Approach,” an Epic Emblem and a Calling Card. “Tracer Pack Indigo,” which will be available for purchase on Jan. 17, contains two weapons blueprints- the “Great Pacific” assault rifle and the “Turbo Powered” SMG- to go with a new Emblem, Sticker, Charm and Calling Card.

Call of Duty: Mobile is launching the “Counter Intelligence” event this week, in which players can send spies to infiltrate cities on a virtual map of the Soviet Union.