Hello and welcome to another entry in our “Big question” series in which we present the argument to you, the Eurogamer community, for further questioning. This week: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 against Battlefield 6or is there a third option for striking?
Why this question? What year is it now? In short, Battlefield is fighting Call of Duty, and for the first time in a long time, a winner doesn't seem inevitable. It's a story as old as time: a plucky underdog from a huge mega-corporation takes on the reigning king of a huge mega-corporation, and also takes on an even braver underdog from another mega-corporation. Such a whim! We're talking about which first-person shooter will you pick this year? Battlefield, Call of Duty – or is it Arc Raiders, or something completely different?
Battlefield 6 is good, Black Ops 7 beta was met with mixed reception and people seem to be excited about Arc Raiders
After a series of mistakes The battlefield was not easyunable to capitalize on a Call of Duty franchise that has managed to overcome everything in its path, despite players becoming increasingly confused with each new release. While CoD still seems too big to fail, Battlefield doesn't have that luxury, and things look to be heating up this year.
At Eurogamer Battlefield 6 Review We say “Battlefield 6 clearly understands what makes the series special” by awarding it 4 stars. This is great news, but are these two games really fighting each other? Well, something like that.
EA released Battlefield 6 trailer Activision launches Black Ops 6 Free Trial during the BF6 launch period. I think this can be called at least an argument, even if it's not a full blown fight.
However, there is another game on the horizon – Arc Raiders from Embark. You may not consider this to be competition from any of these established megagames, but Black Ops 7 censors Arc Raiders title during beta testing. Surprisingly, Battlefield 6 doesn't get the same attention. Releasing on October 30th, between Battlefield 6 (out now) and Black Ops 7 (November 14th), Arc Raiders makes one last attempt to entice players with one final test weekendstarting October 17th.
Notably, it's also a slightly different subgenre of first-person shooters, as it's technically an extraction shooter rather than your standard team deathmatch options like BF6 and CoD. This is notable because the FPS scene has felt stale for some time now, with apathy running rampant among its core player base. It's been a long time since something like this PUBG, Fortnite or Apex Legends appeared and thoroughly shook up the genre, and extraction shooters, although popular, never made the step from the “big niche” to the “properly mainstream.” Arc Raiders could be the one to do it. The funny twist in all this is that Escape from Tarkov, the biggest evacuation shooter, is finally coming out of its long “early access” period next month.
So what's your choice? Playing everything is an easy (but expensive) option. I'd lean towards Black Ops 7 as I expect it to have a slightly better campaign (I'm old these days and struggle with the pacing of multiplayer shooters), but realistically I'll be playing Baby Steps for probably another six months or so.
-Tom O
Then the big question: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 vs. Battlefield 6, or is there a third option ready to strike?
