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Black Ops 6 isn’t the only Activision Blizzard game coming to Xbox Game Pass this month

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A soldier stands outside in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Activision

It’s October, which means it’s Call of Duty season for Xbox and Activision. So expectedly, Xbox Game Pass’ offerings for the second half of the month into November are all about Activision Blizzard.

October 25 is the big day for Call of Duty fans. The next entry in the shooter series, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, is hitting cloud, console, and PC for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers. Modern Warfare 3, which was the first Call of Duty game added to the service in July, is also specifically coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming on October 25, along with Call of Duty Warzone.

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A lot of what’s coming to Black Ops 6 is standard Call of Duty fare: new multiplayer maps, Zombies mode, and a single-player campaign. However, developer Treyarch and Raven Software have added a new movement system called Omnimovement, which allows the player to spring into action in every direction. Players will also get the old Prestige system back for progression, along with a fully customizable HUD.

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Activision announced Tuesday that preloading begins at 9 a.m. PT on October 21. It’ll roll out on PC from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. PT.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - Global Launch Gameplay Trailer

Xbox Game Pass will also get StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection on PC for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers on November 5. Players can still use Battle.net to play the multiplayer for free, but with Game Pass, the single-player campaigns — including all the expansions — have been upgraded with 4K and widescreen support.

If you’re not into Call of Duty or StarCraft, there are (surprisingly) other games coming to Game Pass in the last half of October. You can check out the full list below.

  • South Park: The Fractured but Whole (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard) — October 16
  • Donut County (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard) — October 17
  • MechWarrior 5: Clans (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass) — October 17
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass) — October 25
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Game Pass Ultimate, Cloud) — October 25
  • Call of Duty: Warzone (Game Pass Ultimate, Cloud) — October 25
  • Ashen (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard) — October 29
  • Dead Island 2 (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass) — October 31
  • StarCraft: Remastered (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass) — November 5
  • StarCraft II: Campaign Collection (Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass) — November 5

DLC and game updates

  • Core Keeper (Xbox One) — October 17

Game Pass Ultimate perks

  • Monster Hunter Now: MHN Bundle
  • Throne and Liberty: Clay and Mischievous Bundle
  • Free Digital Comic GONE #1 by Jock from DSTLRY

Leaving October 31

  • Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
  • Headbangers
  • Inkulinati
  • Lonely Mountain’s Downhill
  • Mineko’s Night Market

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Carli Velocci
Carli Velocci
Contributor, Games
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's zombies mode.

There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
Jugger-Nog
You can never go wrong with the classic Jugger-Nog. Increasing your health by 100 is useful for the entire duration of a Zombies mode, but especially in the early rounds. Going down is at best a major setback and at worst a cascade into defeat. This extra health allows you to get out of a bad situation that would otherwise end your run.
Quick Revive
This Perk has two components, with the less useful one being the ability to revive teammates 50% faster. Ideally, that shouldn't be needed but is nice. However, what makes it rank so high is the 50% shorter delay on health regen. Your health will come back over time in Zombies but at a dreadful pace. Starting to heal faster means less time running and kiting zombies around and more time in the action helping the team.
Speed Cola
The best early guns for Zombies mode have a large magazine, fast reload, or both. Running out of ammo at the wrong time and not being able to get more rounds in the chamber fast enough has ended many a run, but Speed Cola is the solution. It will speed up your reloads and armor plating by 30%. That's not a massive number, but fast enough to make the difference.
Stamin-Up
These zombies aren't the shambling types. They will chase you down like sprinters, and some of the monstrous ones can outpace you even at full tilt. Stamin-Up sounds like it would let you run for longer, but actually just lets you run faster since you have no limit on sprint in Black Ops 6. Positioning is everything in Zombies so being able to get where you need to be faster is never a bad thing, especially if it's a downed teammate bleeding out.
Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
Not being able to hurt yourself is situationally useful, and the ability to cause an explosion by diving is a risky move. Yes, it's cool, but you don't want to be lying prone surrounded by zombies. This is a cool gimmick, but save yourself the Essence and skip it.
Elemental Pop
When Elemental Pop works, it's great. The problem with it is that you can't rely on it. It gives a small chance on every shot you take to add a random ammo mod effect, which is cool but impractical. If you have spare Essence on you, sure, it won't hurt you to have, but it isn't something that will turn the tide for you or your team.
Melee Macchiato
Finally, Melee Macchiato bottoms out the list. It is fine in the early game when the hordes are small and you're better off meleeing enemies since it will smack enemies away with each hit, but quickly drops off in usefulness. When the zombies get too strong and too numerous, you will need a lot more than a strong punch to deal with them and end up forgetting you even have it.

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War is hell, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes it a carnival game
Zombies shambling in Black Ops 6.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.

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Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?
A soldier crouching with his eyes blacked out.

When Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision, the big question on everyone's mind was what would happen with Call of Duty. Well, it took months of legal battles, but the deal finally went through and the first CoD game to release officially under Microsoft is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox has held firm to its commitment to put all of its first-party titles onto Game Pass on day one for all its subscribers, but is it honoring that deal for the biggest game of the year? We know it isn't an Xbox exclusive and is still cross-platform, after all. If you have an Xbox and a subscription to Game Pass, you might not need to spend any money on Black Ops 6, but only if you meet one specific requirement.
Is Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

The short answer is yes, Black Ops 6 is on Game Pass, but not at every tier. Prior to Black Ops 6 launching, Xbox restructured its Game Pass tiers a bit with new pricing and benefits. What you need to know is that you now need to either be a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to get access to any first-party day-one titles.

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