In a surprise announcement a couple months ago, Activision unveiled and subsequently released the 7th-gen classics Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 onto modern PlayStation hardware. While relatively basic ports, both titles have received a welcome number of improvements. In an update which no one was expecting however, Black Ops 2 is now officially running on dedicated servers.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the official Call of Duty Updates page unveiled the latest patch for Black Ops 2 on PS4/5. Alongside a couple quality-of-life improvements such as UI and custom emblem fixes, the team revealed that BO2 now runs entirely on dedicated servers “for improved match stability and security.”

For the uninitiated, up until around 2013’s COD Ghosts, Call of Duty’s multiplayer operated on peer-to-peer connections, meaning one player would host the match. Not only did this lead to less-than-stable experiences (owing to the fact that it relied on players’ internet), but was also the cause of the infamous “migrating host server” message which plagued older entries.

Another major issue which should hopefully be solved by these dedicated servers is the abundance of cheating which has occurred across both BO1 and 2 since their PS4/5 arrivals.

As of now, Black Ops 1 has yet to receive such an enhancement. That said, given the cadence of updates released so far, we can expect the switch over to happen sooner rather than later.

KitGuru says: Are you excited to see dedicated servers added? How has matchmaking been for you since it went live? What other improvements would you like to see introduced next? Let us know down below.

Due to the massive shift in architecture between the PlayStation 3 and 4, Sony’s 8th-gen console lacked any backwards compatibility. While most 7th-gen titles were eventually ported over, some remained locked to the PS3. Finally, two of the highest-rated Call of Duty games of all time (Black Ops 1 and 2) have been brought forward to the current-gen – but it’ll cost you quite a bit.

Following its announcement last month, the PlayStation 4 and PS5 ports of Call of Duty Black Ops 1 and 2 have now been officially released, surprise-dropping onto the PlayStation Store with little warning.

While an exciting prospect given that these are two of the most revered entries in the franchise, these ports are not only rather barebones, but surprisingly costly.

Though we have not gotten anything in the way of technical specifications, these ports appear to come with a resolution boost and nothing else. Of course, these aren't remasters but simple ports. That being said, the lack of an FOV slider in 2026 is still disappointing to see.

Being Call of Duty, no one was expecting the ports to be given away for free. Even so, the listed price is quite a bit higher than some might expect, being as follows:

• Black Ops 1 Base Game: £34.99
• BO1 Season Pass: £25.99
• Black Ops 2 Base Game: £34.99
• BO2 Season Pass: £25.99

Even back during these game’s initial launches over a decade ago, the presence of a Season Pass as it related to multiplayer maps did cause a great deal of segregation, impacting matching-making among other issues.

Perhaps the one silver lining in all of this is the fact that PlayStation Plus members are able to benefit from a hefty launch discount, with the base games going down to £17.49 each and their Season Passes costing £8.57 for a limited time.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of these ports? Are FOV sliders an accessibility issue? Let us know down below.