Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Everything coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone in season three

Nuclear holiday.

Activision has announced the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone season three roadmap.

The headlines are the confirmation of a map refresh (which we know to be 1980s-themed) for Verdansk, and a limited time mode called Hunt for Adler. This LTM sees the characters of Black Ops Cold War arrive in Verdansk in a bid to discover Adler's whereabouts.

The season two outro cinematic, which sets all this up, is below:

Cover image for YouTube videoSeason Two Outro Cinematic | Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War & Warzone™

Activision also teased Operation Rapid Sunder throughout Wednesday 21st April. This is the event that ties into the nuke of the current Verdansk map and ends the zombie invasion.

Here's the official blurb:

"The situation in Verdansk has hit a critical level. It seems the combat zone has become too dangerous for even a Tier 1 Operator to survive in. Is a conflagration imminent? The answer is still unknown, though it is recommended you clear your schedule for the week and ready yourself for a crescendo of utter chaos within the Warzone. Be certain you're available for Operation Rapid Sunder throughout Wednesday, April 21 and beyond."

Three new operators are coming to both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. Wraith, who arrives launch week, is an ex-Norwegian Intelligence Services alpine warfare specialist-turned-Perseus-agent. Wraith is available at tier zero of the season three battle pass, and has a legendary skin at tier 100.

Roman "Knight" Gray is another Perseus agent operator, who arrives in-season. Knight is a Dublin-born former MI6 wetworks operative.

Ex-hitman Antonov is the third new operator, who also joins season three. Knight and Antonov are premium DLC.

Meanwhile, Captain Price arrives in Black Ops Cold War as "Price '84", which is yet another example of the Black Ops and Modern Warfare series colliding (they're all canon in the same timeline now). Price '84 is free for all Black Ops Cold War owners.

Six new weapons are coming as part of season three. The PPSh-41 SMG, which goes live launch week, is a rapid fire, high-capacity SMG that's free at tier 15 of the season three battle pass.

The Swiss K31 sniper rifle, also due out launch week, has great accuracy as well as fast aiming speeds.

The ballistic knife is a new melee weapon due out launch week in Black Ops Cold War and mid-season in Warzone. This was first introduced in the original Black Ops game, although this version was used in the late 1970s by Soviet forces. The spring-action knife launcher can either be used as a melee weapon or to silently fire lethal retrievable blades.

The CARV.2 tactical rifle is down as coming out mid-season. This burst fire tactical rifle is similar to the M16, with high-damage, high-bullet-velocity output.

The AMP63 pistol (in-season), is the fourth sidearm in Black Ops Cold War, and is described as a cross between a self-loading pistol and a fully automatic SMG. Yes, it's another full-auto pistol. Hopefully it doesn't have quite the same impact on the meta as the Sykov did.

The sixth and final new weapon is the baseball bat, which is a new melee due out in-season.

Obtain the Ballistic Knife, CARV.2, AMP63, and Baseball Bat during Season Three in one of two ways: complete an in-game challenge to obtain the free base weapon, or pick up a bundle with a Blueprint version when it appears in the Store.

Obtain the Ballistic Knife, CARV.2, AMP63, and Baseball Bat during Season Three in one of two ways: complete an in-game challenge to obtain the free base weapon, or pick up a bundle with a Blueprint version when it appears in the Store.

Black Ops Cold War gets four new multiplayer maps: Yamantau (6v6, launch week); Diesel (6v6/2v2/3v3, launch week); Standoff (6v6, in-season); and Duga (multi-team, in-season).

Duga is available to play in Zombies' Outbreak mode at launch for the first half of season three.

Sticks and Stones mode launches at the beginning of season three. Here, every player starts the match with the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow, Ballistic Knife, and a Tomahawk.

Black Ops Cold War is getting a new scorestreak at the launch of season three, too. Strafe Run sees you call upon a pair of jet fighters to shower lead and rockets down on the map. This mid-tier scorestreak has a longer active period and higher potential for kills compared to the Napalm Strike.

There's a new cargo truck vehicle available across multi-team modes, too. It comes with a mounted machine gun, and is playable on Ruka, Alpine, and Golova at launch, and in Duga later in the season.

Onto Zombies. Expect a new field upgrade called Toxic Growth (enemies moving through it have their movement speed halved and suffer toxic damage until they exit the affected area). The aforementioned Duga is a new Outbreak region available at season three's launch. The new Outbreak vehicles are the high-speed Fast Attack Vehicle (FAV) and the cargo truck.

There are new prestige levels, too. Season three offers four additional prestiges to achieve across the first 200 levels, as well as a new weapon blueprint. This means there are now 15 prestige levels in total.

Season three launches on 22nd April. The season goes live following updates to Black Ops Cold War at 5am UK time on 21st April, and to Warzone at 5am UK time on 22nd April.

For this update, there will be a download size of approximately 8.1 - 13.1GB for Black Ops Cold War and 25.2 - 25.9GB for owners of the free-to-play Warzone who have the latest updates on either game.

Here's the breakdown:

Black Ops Cold War update sizes:

  • PlayStation 5: 12.3GB
  • PlayStation 4: 8.1GB
  • Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S: 11.6GB
  • Xbox One: 8.3GB
  • PC: 13.1GB

Warzone update sizes:

  • PlayStation 5: 25.6GB
  • PlayStation 4: 25.6GB
  • Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S: 25.9GB
  • Xbox One: 25.9GB
  • PC: 25.2GB