Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 first look

Preview of this autumn’s new edition promises fresh missions in the service of US power and a ‘ground floor’ rebuild of the gaming monster truck

Microsoft wasn’t messing about with its Xbox showcase this year. After a raft of announcements about job losses and studio closures, the company looked to give gamers what they wanted in its Sunday night Summer Game Fest slot, ending with a full 40-minute preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a game so large it will require a 300GB download, as well as continual online access even for the single-player mode, due to the amount of textures it’s going to be streaming from remote servers. As expected, the Xbox version will be available day one on GamePass, but there will be no platform exclusivity – the PlayStation version will arrive the same day: 25 October.

The game itself is set during the geopolitical tumult of the early 1990s, taking in the fall of the Soviet Union, the Gulf war and the transition of the US presidency from George Bush to Bill Clinton. As ever, the Campaign story is an airport novel spy thriller taking in deniable CIA ops, clandestine power struggles and conspiracies that go to the very top, dammit. Series regular Frank Woods has been gravely injured and withdrawn from active duty, giving way to reckless spec ops squad leader Troy Marshall and smart CIA handler Jane Harrow. When a mission screws up, they’re forced to go rogue, recruiting a ragtag team of tech nerds and glamorous assassins. It is almost definitely going to be your ass on the line here, sir.