Call of Duty Black Ops 4 beta: can CoD still compete?

This fast-paced taster of the next Call of Duty is a good indication of how the long-running shooter is trying to modernise

Oh God, it's fast. It's so fast. After a month playing mostly Fortnite (with the odd quick foray into Overwatch to remind me what "proper" shooters are like), the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta feels like jumping on to one of those holiday park waterslides and realising that you are are travelling at 4omph down a rickety plastic tube maintained by surly teenagers in flip-flops. Anything could happen - and it could happen really quickly.

Of course, Call of Duty has always been slick, maintaining a 60fps frame rate and an endless spawn-kill-die dynamic, but its developer, Treyarch, has upped the speed even further for this iteration. On five small maps, players are in conflict within seconds of kick-off and remain there for the duration of the bout. It is the Napalm Death of game pacing.