Must I buy ANOTHER Call of Duty?

Back in July, deep into the pandemic, unemployment was coming in and my nightly Warzone team was starting to get bored. One team member convinced us all to buy the full Call of Duty Modern Warfare game — at full price. We all sprang for it with little complaint, even if it was painful to go for the full $60 on a game I had basically been playing for free for months. But, admittedly, it was a good decision. The classic quick multiplayer games were a great change of pace from the very unforgiving and unvictorious Warzone games.

Then, barely three months later, the one teammate who had convinced us all to get Modern Warfare (again, at full price) is convincing the team to get Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War for the new full price of $69.99 — a price that seems to be becoming the norm. I didn’t protest; I just let him make his sales pitch thinking the others would obviously wait for a sale before buying the game. As the release date approached, however, it seemed very clear that they were all gonna buy Black Ops Cold War on the release date. “But we haven’t even played the special ops yet,” I said, trying to convince them to keep at Modern Warfare for just a little longer, but by then it was too late to dissuade them.

Now, as I write this, the day has come that I’ve been dreading — it’s our Friday afternoon game sesh and they are playing Black Ops Cold War while I sulk alone. It’s as if I’m a bratty kid begging for a new game that all my friends are playing, whilst also the frugal grown up refusing to let their kid get suckered into buying two Call of Duty’s at full price twice a year for the rest of their life.

On behalf of all the Poorest Friend in the Friend Groups out there, might I suggest these free (or, at least, very discounted) games for game night: Spellbreak, Rogue Company, Hyperscape, Warframe, Dauntless, Apex Legends, Rocket League, Destiny 2, Fortnite, Warzone, Pubg

Or try one of $39.99 new releases: Ton Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, Rogue Squadron, or Torchlight III.