Treyarch's Call of Duty Blackout beta wrapped up late last night and so far, the new battle royale mode seems to be a big success. As always though, there will be a few changes made before the final release. Today, Treyarch revealed the patch notes for the release version of Blackout, which arrives with the rest of Black Ops 4 on the 12th of October.
Changes all come from player feedback received over the course of the beta. For starters, the player cap has been increased to 100 per match, bringing it up to par with PUBG and Fortnite. Black Ops 4 introduces body armour in multiplayer, this was already tweaked for the main multiplayer modes but it will also be tweaked for Blackout. Level 3 armour will spawn less frequently and won't be quite as strong at launch. Level 2 armour will also be rebalanced.
Some audio fixes are coming into play, including a remix of in-game volumes and how sound is impacted by walls, floors, buildings etc. Teammates footsteps will also be adjusted to make them quieter than enemy footsteps. The Awareness perk will reduce the sound of teammates even further, making it easier to differentiate between friendly and non-friendly player movement.
The HUD will now display armour health for all teammates in addition to their regular health. Item pickup times are being readjusted too, some players requested faster pickup times for items but we don't know the exact details but more on that front will be revealed closer to launch.
KitGuru Says: I had the chance to try a few hours of Blackout and it was a lot more fun than I was expecting. The shooting is fast-paced, items are easier to come across and the map is big enough to keep match tempo up without ever really slowing down. It takes a lot of the headaches out of the equation, although some people may prefer the difficulty to be ramped up a bit. Did many of you play Blackout over the weekend?