Since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 first launched, I've played it exclusively on PC, be that a laptop, my desktop, or even my ROG Ally. Almost 400 hours, and all of it on PC. But now I've finally tried it on console, playing on my Xbox Series X, and it's like an epiphany.
The console experience for Black Ops 6 and Warzone is just overall far better. I'm actually a little shocked how good it is by comparison.
My initial reasoning to switch was the new crossplay options for ranked modes in both Black Ops 6 and Warzone. I, like many others, am completely sick of cheaters ruining the game, so being able to eliminate PC from the pool on console is an easy reason to switch.
But what I wasn't expecting was that overall, the game is just better. So much better.
Ranked Play is immediately better without PC players
Sorry to all the legitimate PC players out there (I've been one) but the Ranked Play experience is immediately better without you. The issue is, of course, the rampant cheaters, and the latest update to Ricochet doesn't actually seem to have done anything to quell the onslaught.
Jumping onto my Series X last night for the first time to check out Ranked Play with just Xbox and PlayStation players was a completely different experience. Playing for a few hours I encountered one obvious Cronus user (shame on you) but otherwise, it was fun. Competitive, fair, and the only thing letting me down was my lack of skill rather than getting wall hacked and aim locked. Scouting around social media I'm certainly not the only one feeling happier about competitive play without PC.
Console Only crossplay for Ranked is so fun and I don't think I can go back to playing ranked on PC. Clear to me that even when you're not facing *blatant hackers* there is clearly a lot of players who are more lowkey with it...January 29, 2025
Warzone Ranked is 1000% better without PC. Thanks for the option.January 29, 2025
There was a lingering doubt about how long it might take to match make, but honestly, it didn't seem to take much longer, if at all, than with PC involved. Even with Activision's warnings, we forget that the biggest player base for Call of Duty has always been console. If I were ranked higher, perhaps it really would take longer, but so far, at least, it all seems fine.
Sacrificing image quality and frame rate but for a better overall game
One thing you don't get on console versus PC is the wealth of graphical options to tweak how a game looks and how fast your frame rate is. So, depending on what PC hardware you're running, the game could run at a lower frame rate and look a little worse.
But when the overall experience is so good, is that really that important? Is it worth putting yourself into the same pool as blatant hackers?
I can't speak for the PS5 as I don't have one, but on the Xbox Series X I think the game looks fine. It's hardly a masterpiece of graphics on any platform, but the detail is good, the frame rate is good, latency and stability seem good. It's all good.
I can't quite put my finger on it, either, but it feels better to play. Especially since the update for Season 2, playing Black Ops 6 or Warzone on my PC, something feels off. It feels like my aim assist and sensitivity have been altered, when the settings are exactly the same.
By contrast, on the Series X everything feels buttery smooth and razor sharp. I'm the first to admit I'm not a very good player, but even with crossplay on in non-ranked matches, I felt immediately more competitive. The game almost felt faster, like it was being held back on my PC.
Black Ops 6 and Warzone are both far better optimized on console than on PC, I'm fairly confident in saying that. Which is good, because if more of the players are on console, then more of them will be happy.
I'm still not very good at the game, but at least by shifting to console I can try and enjoy ranked, now.
