Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War PS4 open beta date, start time, pre-load link and schedule

The Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War multiplayer beta weekend is about to enter its second phase on PlayStation 4.

Following on from the closed beta for pre-order customers, Activision is opening the game up to all PS4 users as part of the Cold War open beta.

Activision’s Cold War open beta has an October 10 release date, and a 6pm BST start time if you live in the UK. That’s 10am PT for US Call of Duty fans.

The Black Ops Cold War beta ends a couple of days later at 6pm BST UK time on Monday, October 12.

Unfortunately for Xbox One and PC owners, this weekend’s beta is only open to PS4 users. A second beta weekend for all platforms begins on October 15.

If you’re planning on checking out the open beta this weekend, you can ensure you don’t miss a second of the action by pre-loading the multiplayer demo early.

The Cold War beta pre-load weighs in at around 30GB, and can be downloaded through this link. You don’t need to have pre-ordered the game to pre-load early, so get downloading right away.

With the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War beta about to enter its second phase, existing players can expect one or two changes.

In order to freshen things up, Activision is adding a new 6-vs-6 game mode to the Call of Duty Cold War playlist.

From 6pm BST UK time on October 10, VIP Escort will be joining Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination, and Combined Arms: Domination.

These game modes will be playable on the Miami, Satellite, Crossroads, Moscow, Armada and Cartel maps.

That’s on top of the more unique game modes such as Combined Arms: Assault and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb.

This unique new game mode sees ten teams of four compete to collect uranium and detonate dirty bombs.

“Fireteam: Dirty Bomb cranks the action up to 11 with multi-squad insanity,” Activision explains.

“A total of 40 players broken out into 10 teams will compete to take out enemies, collect uranium caches, locate Dirty Bombs scattered throughout the map, and successfully deposit their uranium into said bombs to detonate them and get the win.”

In Combined Arms: Assault, two teams of 12 fight to secure a neutral capture zone in the centre of the map.

Activision explains more: “Once that objective is captured, the next one opens up deeper into enemy territory. The first team to successfully infiltrate and capture the enemy’s final zone comes out on top.

“By default, teams will battle it out through five capture zones in each map. Once a zone is captured, the match timer will pause, allowing teams to reset and prepare for the next push.

“The match is won when a team has captured the final zone at the end of the linear progression of objectives.

“If neither team successfully captures the enemy’s final zone, the round will end, and teams will play a single overtime round with only the central objective in play. The first team to capture the zone will win the round and the match.”