Big Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War update adds sniper flinch

Publish date: 2023-06-18

Treyarch has added sniper flinch to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as part of the game's latest big update.

Black Ops Cold War Multiplayer fans have called for some form of sniper flinch ever since the game came out last year.

Flinch is the disruption caused to your aim when you're hit by enemy fire. Sniper rifles are seen by some as overpowered in Black Ops Cold War because of their distinct lack of flinch.

In patch notes for the update that went live overnight, Treyarch said it had revised sniper rifles with two goals in mind:

"To create more meaningful gameplay between sniper rifles and other weapon classes.

"To better define the role of each sniper rifle to give them more individuality and specialisation."

To that end, Treyarch has created a sniper-specific flinch that moves the weapon aim while being hit. This flinch is more pronounced in Aim Down Sight (ADS), Treyarch said, and attachments that reduce flinch have been factored into this update.

There's more: ADS momentum is now individualised for each sniper rifle. As Treyarch puts it, ADS momentum is "that feeling of weightiness as the weapon exits and re-enters ADS".

"You feel this when you rapidly exit and enter ADS, without fully returning to the hip position," Treyarch said. "Heavier sniper rifles will now feel weightier and re-acquire ADS slower accordingly. Please note that ADS momentum is not used when entering ADS from the full hip-fire position."

Treyarch has also made additional changes across the sniper weapon class. Elsewhere, Treyarch has improved bullet velocities across the board (with one exception - the devastating FFAR 1) to assault rifles to give them more innate long-distance advantage over submachine guns.

LMGs have seen their bullet velocity refactored, too, to give them more inherent power with less reliance on the Task Force Barrel attachment. And finally, pistols have received minor adjustments to bullet velocity. These changes better fit each pistol by pushing their "hitscan" range to the edge of their most-used engagement distances, Treyarch said.

The mid-season three update goes live at 5am UK time on 20th May, but the update is available to download now. It has a download size of approximately 7.1-13.1GB for those who own the full version of Black Ops Cold War.

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