
Cole Martin
Cole is the resident Call of Duty know-it-all and indie game enthusiast for Windows Central. She's a lifelong artist with two decades of experience in digital painting, and she will happily talk your ear off about budget pen displays.
Latest articles by Cole Martin

Call of Duty hit with server outage on all platforms
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Call of Duty servers experience outage on all platforms across all games.

COD: WWII returns to Microsoft Store after hacking fiasco
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: WWII was added to the Microsoft Store at the end of June, only to be removed on July 4 due to RCE hacks. 41 days later, WWII is back on the storefront.

Black Ops 7 devs on pushing the franchise forward while honoring its roots
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Treyarch invited us to visit their studio and talk about the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and embracing the madness in a new psychological narrative with deep roots.

Everything we know about Black Ops 7 so far
By Cole Martin last updated
Gaming A direct sequel to Black Ops 6 that's also a sequel to Black Ops 2? Let's demystify what we know (and don't) about this year's Call of Duty title.

COD: Black Ops 7 gets a full reveal at Gamescom
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 gets a proper reveal during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 kicks off Season 5
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Activision kicks off Season 5 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, with the finale to Black Ops 6's Zombies story, big changes to Verdansk in Warzone, and new maps for multiplayer.

Unveiling Ashes of the Singularity 2: Epic AI vs Humans Battles
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Stardock Entertainment has revealed a sequel to its massive sci-fi real time strategy game about the battle between AI and humanity in a not-so-distant future, Ashes of the Singularity 2.

New hardware level anti-cheat protections coming to Call of Duty
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 5 launches on August 7, and the RICOCHET anti-cheat team has announced new hardware-level protections in anticipation of Black Ops 7's launch later this year.

Activision Blizzard called out for Diablo marketing using AI images
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Eagle-eyed followers spotted melting necklaces, sloppy playing cards, and questionable anatomy in the Diablo Immortal x Hearthstone crossover marketing — once again sparking the debate about the use of generative AI in gaming.

COD Modern Warfare 2 and 3 are now available as standalone downloads
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Call of Duty fans have decried the franchise's launcher since its release in 2022, with the HQ becoming more bloated each year. Now, Activision is decoupling legacy titles.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 rated M by the ESRB
By Cole Martin published
Gaming The ESRB's rating summary of Black Ops 7 includes mentions of a rifle with a bong attachment and player characters "smoking joints".

Interview: Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektala
By Cole Martin published
Interview I spent 4 hours with a hands-on preview of Dying Light: The Beast before sitting down to chat with Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektala. I now have a new understanding of what makes this open-world zombie RPG special for the community and developers alike.

Germany wants Google and Apple to ban DeepSeek AI
By Cole Martin published
AI Germany's data protection commissioner has reported DeepSeek AI to Google and Apple as "illegal content" in a move that could lead to a ban.

4KB Atari game defeats Copilot AI at chess
By Cole Martin published
AI An almost 50-year-old Atari Chess game left both Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT LLM chatbots in defeat against 4KB of ancient technology.

Xbox says its recently revealed game slate is safe, but is it really?
By Cole Martin published
Xbox This past week has been a bloodbath for the upcoming Xbox catalog, making it hard to take a promise that recently showcased titles are safe at face value.

COD: WWII on PC taken offline while investigating RCE hackers
By Cole Martin published
Gaming In what might be the understatementiest understatement ever, Call of Duty finally acknowledges issues for the PC version of Sledgehammer Games' COD: WWII.

EA's Anthem to go offline next year
By Cole Martin published
Gaming EA has announced that its ambitious live-service extraction shooter, Anthem, will sunset servers on January 12, 2026. The game will be unplayable, as it was designed to be an online-only experience.

7 overlooked details from the Black Ops 7 trailer
By Cole Martin published
Xbox Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been confirmed with a three-minute teaser trailer, but you might have missed out on the significance of some of those series Easter Eggs.

Meta may shadow drop a $399 Xbox Quest 3S within days
By Cole Martin last updated
Xbox Xbox and Meta have partnered to create an Xbox branded Meta Quest VR headset, rumored to cost approximately $399 and to shadow drop on June 24. Images of the headset have appeared on social media.

Knit sweaters, bake pies, and survive the cold in Winter Burrow
By Cole Martin published
ID@Xbox Cozy meets survival to explore safety and danger in Winter Burrow, a unique genre-mashup from Pine Creek Games that offers a more approachable survival experience with a storybook aesthetic.

Fatshark shows 7 minutes of Arbites gameplay in WH40K: Darktide
By Cole Martin published
Gaming Fatshark has unveiled 7 minutes of Arbites gameplay for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide ahead of the DLC's release June 23.

Add 8 great games to Steam library with this Humble Choice bundle for just $12
By Cole Martin published
PC Gaming The June 2025 Humble Choice bundle has something for everyone, with critically acclaimed titles across a multitude of genres costing less than your favorite coffee order.

11 bit studios' The Alters changed my mind about sci-fi games
By Cole Martin published
Gaming I don’t know that I ever expected a video game to completely uproot any sense of self that I had, but The Alters managed to do it.
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