Battlefield 6 releases to high acclaim, but will it beat Call of Duty this year?
Media, players, and even the developers have been ramping up the rivalry, but who’ll win the battle of the big dumb shooters?
Published: 15 Oct 2025
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Don’t mind the ominous rumbling outside, that’s just Battlefield 6 rolling into widespread release on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Expect copious plumes of smoke and men in army fatigues knee-sliding over things it would be just as quick to walk over for the next few weeks.
BF6 has had a great start. Its metacritic ratings on all platforms are in the green: 83 on PS5, 84 on PC, and a muscular 87 on Xbox. Even more miraculously, given that this is not only a mass market multiplayer shooter but also one published by EA, is that the user ratings are high too.
Critics are praising the game’s renewed focus on what was generally considered to be the series’ great strength: rollicking, large-scale firefights in big destructible maps where ground and air vehicles share the carnage with infantry units.
There’s a solo campaign in this game too, the first time a Battlefield title has fully committed to such a thing for the best part of a decade.
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Inevitably, there are problems. PC players on slightly older systems which don’t allow a specific BIOS boot setting find themselves out in the cold and unable to run the game due to the anti-cheat software’s stern demands, and there have been instances of players working their way out-of-bounds and exploiting the maps. On the whole, though, this is a big event: a triple-A, multiplayer shooter releasing without an accompanying major backlash, crippling performance issue, or depressing controversy.
For its part, Call Of Duty’s making some big promises about Black Ops 7, which is due to release on 14 November. An innovative co-op campaign which “redefines the Black Ops experience”, for one. There’s also a new 6v6 multiplayer mode called Overload, two new 20v20 multiplayer maps, and of course the usual jamboree of wave-based Zombies chaos.
Thing is, COD hasn’t had much direct competition lately. When each new title trots out on a yearly basis, the conversation about its merits is generally ‘Is it better than last year’s?’ rather than, you know, whether it’s any fun in its own right.
When Black Ops 7 releases, then, we could have a real fight on our hands. Will BF6 show up the old veteran with its new tricks, or will COD respond to the pressure by genuinely innovating for the first time in years? Either way, we, the players, win.
Yikes, Mercedes is doubling down on huge grilles with its new Vision Iconic concept
Latest concept draws from the past and previews carmaker’s future
Published: 14 Oct 2025
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Meet the Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic. It’s a two-door coupe from the German carmaker that’s a concept for now, but previews what its cars of the future will look like. And where else to start than with the elephant in the room: that grille.
Because, well, there’s no hiding from it. It follows on from the GLC and upcoming C-Class we saw at the Munich Motor Show back in September, both of which were wearing new gigantic light up faces. This takes things to a whole new level.
We’re told it draws inspiration from previous models including the delightful W108, W111 and 600 Pullman, and gets a chrome frame, smoke glass lattice and contour lighting. It can also be animated to display different graphics.
You’ll also have noted the three-pointed star standing proudly at the front of the bonnet is also illuminated, because of course it is.
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But look beyond the grille for a minute if you can, because there’s more than meets the eye here too. Behind its gloss black paintjob it gets innovative solar modules (because electric), which Merc says applied to the surface of a mid-size SUV could produce enough energy for up to 12,000km (7,456 miles) each year.
The cabin gets an art deco-themed design, including a large four-spoke steering wheel, a floating glass dashboard, and a pillar-to-pillar screen. Oh, there’s also all the blue velvet you could possibly want, plus polished brass door handles.
It also gets a new steer-by-wire system and level four autonomous tech, complete with a neuromorphic computing system designed to mimic the human brain. Mercedes says this system is designed to recognise traffic signs, lanes and other road users, as well as react faster – and is 10 times more efficient than current systems.
We’re also told it has the potential to reduce the energy required for autonomous driving by up to 90 per cent.
Just us that thinks this thing is kinda… cool?
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