šŸŽ®ļø Black Ops 7 Broke My Spirit

I dove into the Black Ops 7 campaign and emerged with emotional damage - here’s everything else that happened this week.

Good morning!

I’m back again to wade chest-deep into the gaming industry so you don’t have to. This week I strapped myself into the Black Ops 7 campaign to find out if it’s really as bad as everyone says. Spoiler: my PC is now in therapy.

In this edition, we’ve got:

  • A Call of Duty campaign that forgets what a ā€œcampaignā€ is

  • Studios breaking up, shutting down, or ā€œconfusing the gameplayā€

  • And one very spicy Zelda movie leak šŸ‘€

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of gaming - buckle up, it’s a fun one. Want your game in front of 11,000+ passionate gamers and industry decision makers? Get in touch.

I’m thinking about adding a new tier to the newsletter - Would you be interested in more deep-dive essays, behind-the-scenes breakdowns, and spicy takes on the biggest releases and industry drama.

(Your vote helps me decide if I should double down on essays… or keep yelling about GTA delays and quick news)

Would You Be Into Industry & Game Deep Dives?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

TOP STORY

🤯 I Tried the Black Ops 7 Campaign to See If It's That Bad…

Short answer? Yeah. Long answer? Oh boy.

Call of Duty’s latest campaign arrives dressed like a normal campaign but secretly functions like a half-converted multiplayer mode. It’s always-online, refuses to pause even in solo play, and—my personal favorite—offers zero checkpoints. If your internet sneezes, you’re replaying the whole mission. Peak innovation, folks.

So what is this campaign trying to be?

Thus begins your journey through:

  • surreal hallucination battles,

  • Inception-style folding cities,

  • a kaiju boss fight (yes, really),

  • and even a mission where zombies are on your team pushing a payload like some bizarro Overwatch fanfic.

It’s weird. It’s wild. And somehow… still boring.

Mechanically?

It’s wave-based shooting with enemies that feel copy-pasted from the Zombies and MP modes. The levels look nice—credit where due—but the structure feels 2008 in the worst way.
And since the whole thing is glued together like a co-op horde mode, it just… isn’t a real Call of Duty campaign. Not in feel, not in pacing, not in soul.

Speaking of soul…

The vibes are corporate cold brew, and the freshly discovered AI-generated art in achievements does not help. Nothing says ā€œpremium $70 blockbuster experienceā€ like quest icons that look straight out of a confused Studio Ghibli generator.

The Verdict

Look—trying something new is great. But Black Ops 7’s campaign feels like a committee-approved fever dream that forgot to be fun. When the highlight is ā€œat least the environments are different,ā€ you know we’re in trouble.

For a ~4-hour experience, it’s short enough not to ruin your week… but long enough to make you question some life choices.

Meanwhile, games like Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 are actually eating COD’s lunch on Twitch—which might finally force COD to wake up and try again next year.

Until then: hug your backlog, it deserves better.

LATEST NEWS

QUICK LINKS

🧩 Industry & Business

šŸŽ® Game Updates & Development

āš ļø Controversies & Censorship

šŸ’„ Studio Drama & Hot Takes

Thanks for reading - until next time!

Hugs and kisses,

Buh-bye! šŸ‘‹

Luke