Technologies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Leak Claims Nov. 14 Release Date, No Switch 2 Version Yet

What new conspiracies will be revealed in Black Ops 7?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be the next entry in Activision’s military shooter series, which typically comes out in October every year, making it one of the last big game releases before Black Friday. A leak suggests that the new CoD might come out a little later than usual, but still in time for the big shopping day.

Black Ops 7 will reportedly be released on Nov. 14, according to a leaker who goes by the name billbil-kun from a post on the French website Dealabs. Along with the supposed release date, the leak says there will not be a Switch 2 version when the game launches.

A spokesperson for the franchise said in an emailed statement that details about Black Ops 7 will be revealed at Gamescom Opening Night, which is this coming Tuesday, Aug. 19.

The Call of Duty series release dates typically straddle the late October and early November period. The last CoD game to come out mid-November was Black Ops Cold War, which was released on Nov. 13, 2020. It’s unclear if the later release was due in part to Battlefield 6 coming out on Oct. 10, which would allow for some time between the releases of the two popular military FPS games.

The lack of a Switch 2 version at launch could mean that the team working on that version of the game needed some more time before its release. While the original Switch has become too underpowered for modern games, Nintendo boosted the performance of the Switch 2, which makes it capable of running more graphics-intensive games, potentially including Call of Duty. Black Ops 7 will still likely be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S on launch day as it is every year.

In Black Ops 7, players will jump into the role of David Mason, played by Milo Ventimiglia. The year is 2035, and Mason is struggling with hallucinations of enemies from his past. The character was first introduced in 2012’s Black Ops 2 and was also in 2024’s Black Ops 6.

While other Call of Duty games tend to focus on certain eras of warfare, such as World War II and the Iraq War, the Black Ops series focuses on secret missions typically conducted by the US and range from the Cold War era to more modern and even futuristic times. Black Ops 2 took place in 2025, while Black Ops 6 was set in 1991.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #1008

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 15, No. 1,008

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

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough, but the yellow category has some fun options in it. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Mine, all mine!

Green group hint: A part you might use to build something.

Blue group hint: Blended words.

Purple group hint: Not a cow, but close.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Greedily control.

Green group: Toothed wheels.

Blue group: Portmanteaux.

Purple group: Bull ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is greedily control. The four answers are bogart, corner, hog and monopolize.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is toothed wheels. The four answers are cog, gear, pinion and sprocket.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is portmanteaux. The four answers are blog, motel, smog and spork.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is bull ____. The four answers are dog, doze, frog and horn.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #742

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 15, No. 742.

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 is fun and timely, relating to a certain big ceremony held this weekend. 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: Best of all

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: The envelope, please.

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:

RATE, RATED, DATE, DOTE, DATED, DOTED, GATE, GATES, TROD, TRODS

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: