Call of Duty: Elite down, but not out

By Ryan Fleming November 9, 2011

When a major new title is released that features a heavily integrated online mode, you almost expect that something will go wrong as the proverbial gremlins in the machine are captured and killed by red eyed, slightly crazed developers that are under enough pressure to turn coal into diamonds. When Battlefield 3 launched, the online multiplayer faced several hurdles—on Xbox 360 the game was inaccessible for several hours on launch day. These launch day issues aren’t ideal by any means, but they happen.

With yesterday’s launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 going relatively glitch free, Infinity Ward (and Raven Software) no doubt breathed a healthy sigh of relief. The Call of Duty series has had experience dealing with massive opening day traffic over the last few years, so Activision was prepared for the surge of online activity, and Modern Warfare 3 seemed to hold up well. Call of Duty: Elite, however, did not fair quite as well.

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Millions of gamers that have attempted to connect their accounts to the Elite service have met with a handful of error messages. Sometimes the service connects but cannot access any data, other times it cannot connect at all. The reason isn’t surprising—there is simply too much traffic.

In response, developer Beachhead has issued a statement regarding the outages, “Registration requests for our new live service Call of Duty ELITE are exceeding even our most optimistic expectations, which is creating a bottleneck and some players have not been able to register,” Chacko Sonny, studio head for Beachhead said in a statement

“We have already registered hundreds of thousands of players and we are working around the clock to increase our capacity as quickly as possible.”

The Call of Duty: Elite service offers both a free and premium service that tracks your Call of Duty activity. Although the service is mostly inaccessible at the moment, Sonny did confirm that your data is being recorded and will be available as soon as the service is.

According to the Elite twitter feed, Beachhead is adding four times the server capacity, so hopefully the service will be up and running later today or tomorrow at the latest. Beachhead also claimed that we can expect more information on an Android and iOS Elite app later today.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

Gaming

The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

A screenshot from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's zombies mode.

There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
Jugger-Nog
You can never go wrong with the classic Jugger-Nog. Increasing your health by 100 is useful for the entire duration of a Zombies mode, but especially in the early rounds. Going down is at best a major setback and at worst a cascade into defeat. This extra health allows you to get out of a bad situation that would otherwise end your run.
Quick Revive
This Perk has two components, with the less useful one being the ability to revive teammates 50% faster. Ideally, that shouldn't be needed but is nice. However, what makes it rank so high is the 50% shorter delay on health regen. Your health will come back over time in Zombies but at a dreadful pace. Starting to heal faster means less time running and kiting zombies around and more time in the action helping the team.
Speed Cola
The best early guns for Zombies mode have a large magazine, fast reload, or both. Running out of ammo at the wrong time and not being able to get more rounds in the chamber fast enough has ended many a run, but Speed Cola is the solution. It will speed up your reloads and armor plating by 30%. That's not a massive number, but fast enough to make the difference.
Stamin-Up
These zombies aren't the shambling types. They will chase you down like sprinters, and some of the monstrous ones can outpace you even at full tilt. Stamin-Up sounds like it would let you run for longer, but actually just lets you run faster since you have no limit on sprint in Black Ops 6. Positioning is everything in Zombies so being able to get where you need to be faster is never a bad thing, especially if it's a downed teammate bleeding out.
Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
Not being able to hurt yourself is situationally useful, and the ability to cause an explosion by diving is a risky move. Yes, it's cool, but you don't want to be lying prone surrounded by zombies. This is a cool gimmick, but save yourself the Essence and skip it.
Elemental Pop
When Elemental Pop works, it's great. The problem with it is that you can't rely on it. It gives a small chance on every shot you take to add a random ammo mod effect, which is cool but impractical. If you have spare Essence on you, sure, it won't hurt you to have, but it isn't something that will turn the tide for you or your team.
Melee Macchiato
Finally, Melee Macchiato bottoms out the list. It is fine in the early game when the hordes are small and you're better off meleeing enemies since it will smack enemies away with each hit, but quickly drops off in usefulness. When the zombies get too strong and too numerous, you will need a lot more than a strong punch to deal with them and end up forgetting you even have it.

Gaming

How to get Double XP tokens in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Soldiers near a train in Black Ops 6.

Even with all the best tips and tricks, grinding your way through all the levels in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will take you a long time. Each level will take more and more XP to reach and can eventually feel like a chore, even if you swap over to Zombies mode. As has been the case for many entries now, Double XP tokens exist as a way to speed up the grind by doubling the amount of experience you earn for a set duration of time. Naturally, these are some of the most sought-after items in the game, but they're not so easy to come by. If you need a helpful XP boost while running games with your squad, here's every way you can get more Double XP tokens in Black Ops 6.
How to get Double XP tokens in Black Ops 6

There are a few ways to get Double XP tokens, but not all of them are free. We'll start with the ways you can earn them in-game before talking about the more costly options.
Prestige
Who deserves a Double XP token more than someone who has grinded all the way to level 55? Once you hit max level and opt to Prestige, you will get a one-hour Double XP token, which is the longest length they come in.
Follow Call of Duty's socials
The official Call of Duty X (formerly Twitter) account regularly posts opportunities to earn several Double XP tokens if you engage with the post. This is a quick and easy way to snag some free tokens.
Purchase the C.O.D.E. Endeavor Tracer Pack
Our first paid option is the extra DLC Endeavor Tracer Pack. Besides some cosmetics, you also get two Double XP tokens (one player and one weapon) that last an hour each.
Drinks and pizza
The two main brand promotions with Black Ops 6 this year are tied to Monster Energy and Little Caesars. Buying a marked can or purchasing a qualifying item will get you a small handful of rewards that include Double XP tokens.
Battle Pass
The Black Ops 6 battle pass isn't out at the time of this writing, but we do know that it will include Double XP tokens among its rewards. There will be both a free and paid version of the pass, but details about what can be unlocked in each version are not yet available. To be safe, we're assuming you will need to buy the pass to get these tokens.

Gaming

War is hell, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes it a carnival game

Zombies shambling in Black Ops 6.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.