‘Now Kiss’: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players are already abusing the new proximity chat feature between human shields

Human shields and their attackers can now make small talk

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6is taking the radical step to automatically enable proximity voice chat between an attacker and their human shield, and surprise surprise, people are already abusing the new feature.

Developer Treyarch Studios announced the feature last week in a simpletweet: “We heard you and can confirm that the Body Shield feature in Multiplayer will enable voice chat between the attacker and victim.” The studio then cheekily warned players to “Be nice,” but this is Call of Duty we’re talking about here - being a little ‘not nice’ is the name of the game.

The Call of Duty:Black Ops 6 betaopened up early for pre-orderers and Game Pass subscribers ahead of its full September 6 kick-off date for everyone, giving some players a glimpse of what multiplayer matches will be like now that strangers can whisper sweet nothings in your ear.

The clips embedded below show some of the wild trolling that’ll probably be rife in the game proper, making two humans shields kiss included - and I’m sure people will magically become much nicer for when Blops 6 comes out on October 26, right? Right?

We are going to be a problem on black ops 6… making 2 people kiss each other is crazy LMAO pic.twitter.com/vROuUXVOmLAugust 31, 2024

black ops 6 lets you take people hostage and they can hear your comms while you have them https://t.co/0zkMrO70Rc pic.twitter.com/BTJbos572KAugust 31, 2024

There’s now a non-zero chance that carpet salesmen might try to get into business with you in-game, all while holding your in-game life headlocked between their arms. Of course, human shield proximity chat also opens the door to all kinds of, well, less funny and way more toxic speech making its way into your headphones, but hopefullyActivision’s moderation systems are up to the task this time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes a huge change to weapon camos and “takes inspiration” from previous games with no more gun level requirements.

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.

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