Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from 2018 was a turning point for the series mainly because, as the first numbered entry, it dropped the classic linear single-player campaign entirely. Treyarch replaced it with a set of standalone Specialist Headquarters missions that flesh out the stories of individual multiplayer characters, shifting the game's focus to live modes – multiplayer, the cooperative Zombies mode, and the entirely new battle royale arena Blackout. Multiplayer also returned to more grounded movement compared to the previous Black Ops 3, dropping the vertical boost jump and wall-running, a deliberate response by Treyarch to criticism of previous entries for being too fast-paced and chaotic. The game launched simultaneously for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

In terms of content, all three versions were identical at launch: the same multiplayer maps, the same three Zombies chapters, and the same Blackout map, assembled from locations familiar from previous entries in the series. The differences were again mainly technical – the console versions targeted a stable 60 frames per second at resolutions matching that generation of hardware, while the PC version allowed higher resolution, unlimited frame rates, and more precise mouse aiming, appreciated especially by competitive multiplayer and Blackout players. Zombies also offered, for the first time in the series, three standalone maps right at launch simultaneously on all three platforms, instead of the gradual content rollout players were used to from previous entries.

PlayStation 4 remained, even with Black Ops 4, the platform with timed exclusivity on additional content under the long-standing agreement between Sony and Activision – new maps and items for Blackout and Zombies appeared on PS4 first, with a noticeable delay before arriving on Xbox One and PC. This made the PlayStation 4 version the natural choice for players who wanted new seasonal content as soon as possible after release, even though the base game was identical to the other two platforms on launch day.

Why play it: Because of the long-standing agreement between Sony and Activision, PlayStation 4 players received new seasonal content for Blackout and Zombies first, making it the ideal choice for those who didn't want to wait.