In the same way that YouTube and Instagram are pushing short-form vertical videos to try to keep up with Tiktok, it seems that Call of Duty wants to emulate Fortnite as a game where you can be Goku doing Griddy. CoD will feature skins straight from Diablo 4 and other fictional universes in its upcoming Halloween-themed season.
At least they fit that vibe a little bit. Mad Wave highlights include Lady Diablo Lilith, a faceless angel named Inarius (not to be confused with the faceless angel named Tyrael, I guess), Evil Dead’s Ash Williams, Skeletor (?), and Todd’s Spawn McFarlane, once again voiced by the inimitable Keith David.
I feel like I can’t get too upset about this nonsense, no one is forcing anyone to pay for it, and these aspects will be carried over to the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 for a change. The non-Tyrael premium CoD skin isn’t real, it can’t hurt me. It can only damage premium special operators Nicki Minaj and Homelander.
The collaboration is also in line with Activision’s cosmetic strategy around the recently closed Warzone 1, which included packs for John McClane, Leatherface, Ghost Face, and the Titan from Attack on Titan. However, I can’t help but laugh when remembering PCG contributor Noah Smith’s “6 Mistakes Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 Better Not Repeat,” namely the one about cosmetics getting out of control:
“It looks like Warzone 2.0 will already be refreshing,” Noah wrote, “briefly free of the baggage of two and a half years of a monetization model gone haywire.” I guess there’s an emphasis on “briefly.”
Sorry, sorry, I’ll stop worrying about that. The skins look at least very high quality, as expected from the CoD-Industrial Complex at this point, and look nothing like those flashy, graffiti-tagged, proto-NFT Counter-Strike weapons that players Teenagers like to gamble. I’m glad Keith David is getting some of that money from Activision Blizzard too. Thanks for his performances in The Thing, They Live and Pitch Black, sir!
Now, the low fps reload Doom shotgun skin, on the other hand, is unequivocally good and cool. No notes.
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