Technologies

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded Release Date Revealed

We now know when the Eclipse night club and the Fringe distillery will make their multiplayer debut.

If you enjoy smaller, quicker Black Ops 6 multiplayer experiences, the Season 4 Reloaded update has you covered with a pulse-pounding new Gunfight map.

The next big midseason update adds multiplayer maps, zombies events and gameplay features for Warzone’s battle royale mode. Whether you’re looking to earn time-limited rewards, try out your Season 4 weapons in some new places or you just want to enjoy zany map reskins, Season 4 Reloaded has something for everyone.

Here’s everything you need to know about the arrival of Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded, including the release date and time, and what new content you can expect to see once the update arrives for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

When does Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded come out?

The new Black Ops 6 midseason update will launch on July 2, including a substantial content package for multiplayer and zombies mode players. Here’s when the Season 4 Reloaded patch will come out in your time zone:

Eastern Time: July 2, 2025 at 12 p.m.
Central Time July 2, 2025 at 11 a.m.
Mountain Time: July 2, 2025 at 10 a.m.
Pacific Time: July 2, 2025 at 9 a.m.

Two new multiplayer maps coming to Black Ops 6

One of developer Treyarch’s best three-lane multiplayer maps from Black Ops 3 is making a return in Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded.

Fringe is a war-torn version of a small town, where heated sniper battles take place down an open street and flankers scuttle through crowded buildings that fill up the sides of the map.

The new version of the map takes place on the grand opening of a rustic-looking distillery — too bad you won’t have time to grab a drink with all the gunfire breaking out around you. Fringe is a medium-sized map for 6v6 core playlists.

Eclipse is a much smaller map, but it has a really groovy vibe. This Avalon nightclub is streaked through with purple strobing lights, which could be disorienting in the middle of battle. Your battles here will be up close and personal: Eclipse is a small-sized map designed for 2v2 playlists, but some 6v6 playlists will also add this map to the lineup.

CODtoons: Cel-shaded map variants arrive alongside Beavis and Butt-Head event

Fan-favorite multiplayer maps are getting a cartoon glow up (or glow down?) during the CODtoons event. Cel-shaded versions of Nuketown, Babylon, Skyline, Stakeout and Grind will be added to the game in a special moshpit playlist — which means it’s fairly safe to assume you’ll be playing on cel-shaded Nuketown and Stakeout for a majority of the event.

The Beavis and Butt-Head event includes a free and premium reward track, wherein players can earn the Olympia shotgun from the original Black Ops, a Pickaxe melee weapon, an SVD full auto mod and a CQB auto conversion kit for the TR2 marksman rifle.

If you pay for the premium track, you’ll have a chance to earn cel-shaded Beavis and Butt-Head operator skins in their most famous cartoon attire. If you want to deck them out in tactical gear for the true Call of Duty experience, you’ll have to shell out even more money for the Tracer Pack: Beavis and Butt-Head.

Zombies starting room challenge is a new limited-time mode

Treyarch has acknowledged the long-standing challenge in the zombies community with an official game mode. Don’t worry about neglecting to buy the door — you physically can’t leave the starting area in this limited-time offering.

This limited-time mode is available on all of the current Black Ops 6 zombies maps, including Liberty Falls, Terminus, Citadelle des Morts, The Tomb and Shattered Veil. The space you have to work with, wall buy weapons and mystery box, perk machine and GobbleGum machine availability varies by map.

Each map will have a special high-round challenge associated with it. If you’re able to reach that round without getting downed by the zombie horde, you’ll earn 15,000 account XP points, a high-value GobbleGum and a GobbleGum pack.

Everything else coming in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded

We’ve covered the biggest parts of Season 4 Reloaded — but that’s not all that this update will change in Black Ops 6. Here are the other changes you’ll see with the launch of the midseason patch.

Multiplayer

The Party Ops limited-time mode is a new free-for-all playlist where players compete in different minigames. These include controlling moving zones (which force you to dance), a version of red light, green light and more. The three top performing players will each count as victors.

Zombies

The Abomination Challenge limited-time mode brings players back to a fully cel-shaded version of Liberty Falls. Here, opening the church door unleashes Mo, a special boss Abomination zombie that’s always in its enraged form. Mo is a real threat — this guy will gain immunity to weapons frequently fired at him, refuse to eat your tossed grenades and he can knock perk bottles out of you with his charge attack. If you can brave this challenge and defeat the boss, you’ll unlock a special calling card.
New leaderboard events will let you test your undead-slaying prowess against other Black Ops 6 players and earn special rewards for doing so. Everyone gets something, but the top players will unlock exclusive items for stacking up zombie eliminations.
The Grief mode is getting tweaked. Now, you can inflict more punishing effects on enemy players. Revive-based GobbleGums are outright banned, and zombies spawn faster after a zone is captured on the map. Completing Grief matches also guarantees you’ll earn a Whimsical-tier GobbleGum, which is a fun little quality-of-life update.

Warzone

A cel-shaded variant of Rebirth Island will be available to play alongside the multiplayer maps during the CODtoons event.
Resurgence Casual and Havoc Amped are new game modes you’ll be able to queue for. Havoc Amped lets you drop in with their full loadout in quick 15-minute long matches that ramp up as you unlock special powers when the circle closes.
Players will now be able to call in a care package outside of the Clash game mode to earn new gameplay items, the Hand Cannon and Door Barricade.
The Loot Master perk is the next way you can augment your Warzone loadout. It’s a simple perk, letting you spawn more loot from supply caches.
The Search and Destroy contract is a new way to get discounts at buy stations — if you can hold off against enemy squads for long enough to set off a bomb.

Black Ops 6 Season 4 Reloaded will be released for free on July 2 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC. If you want to keep an eye on when we’ll get a double XP weekend in Season 4 Reloaded, keep up with our coverage here.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 25 #662

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 25, No. 662.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has a holiday theme, and if you know a certain Christmas carol, you’ll quickly determine which words to hunt down. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Carolers count.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Five golden rings.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RIMS, HIMS, MARS, CHIME, CHIMES, MADS, DATE, DIAL, WAIL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

LORDS, MAIDS, SWANS, LADIES, PIPERS, DRUMMERS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is CHRISTMASDAYS. To find it, look for the C that’s three letters down on the far-left row, and wind across.

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Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK.

Technologies

Judge Blocks Texas App Store Age-Check Law

A preliminary injunction found the Texas law, set to begin Jan. 1, is «more likely than not unconstitutional.»

A new Texas state law set to take effect on Jan. 1 would have required app stores to implement age verification processes. But the law has been put on hold, at least temporarily, by a federal court judge.

As reported by the Texas Tribune, Senate Bill 2420, also known as the Texas App Store Accountability Act, is the subject of a temporary injunction issued by US District Judge Robert Pitman.

Pitman said in his decision that the law as written is broad, vague and «more likely than not unconstitutional.» However, he also wrote the court «recognizes the importance of ongoing efforts to better safeguard children when they are on their devices.»

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The Texas law, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in May, requires app store operators — including Apple, Google, Nintendo, Steam and more — to build age verification processes for the storefronts and to only allow downloads to minors who obtain parental consent. The injunction is a ruling in an October lawsuit filed by the Computer & Communication Industry Association.

CCIA senior vice president Stephanie Joyce said in a statement, «This Order stops the Texas App Store Accountability Act from taking effect in order to preserve the First Amendment rights of app stores, app developers, parents, and younger internet users. It also protects parents’ inviolate right to use their own judgment in safeguarding their children online using the myriad tools our members provide.»

Other individuals and the advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas also filed suits over the law, the Texas Tribune reported.

App Store Accountability Act

The bill author, State Senator Angela Paxton, said the bill was meant to give parents «common sense tools to protect their kids and to survive court challenges by those who may have lesser priorities.»

The language of Texas Senate Bill 2420 does not only include mobile app stores from Apple or Google, but any «website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes software applications from the owner or developer of a software application to the user of a mobile device.»

By that definition, websites with links to browser games or mobile game consoles with download options would fall under the Texas law as written. The law also defines mobile devices as including phones and tablets, as well as any other handheld device capable of transmitting or storing information wirelessly.

The parental consent aspect of the law requires those under 18 to have an app store account affiliated with a parent or guardian to purchase or download applications.

Age verification elsewhere

In an effort to keep adult materials out of reach of minors and to protect children from potentially harmful content and interactions, tech companies have been compelled by law or through legal action to verify the age of users.

Roblox, which has a huge audience of minors, began rolling out stricter age verification after investigations and lawsuits hurt its reputation as a safe gaming space. Australia is perhaps the most large-scale example of a government restricting access to online content. In December, Australia began restricting social media access to those 16 and older. Reddit recently challenged that law.

In the US, age verification laws have primarily targeted adult sites. Texas already has a law on the books that requires adult sites to age-block their content. The Supreme Court upheld that law in a June ruling. The UK has also enacted age restriction rules for adult sites as have other US states.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Dec. 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 25.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Of course, there’s a very Christmassy clue involved. And once you solve the entire puzzle, look at the letters used in all the answers and see what they have in common. (5-Across will tell you!) Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.