Shortly after the full reveal of “Call of Duty: Vanguard,” the game is entering the alpha test this week. The good news is participants do not have to go through a sign-up process to join. The downside, however, is that the alpha will be available to PlayStation gamers only.
‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’ alpha schedule
The exclusivity of the “Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha test should not come as a surprise. This is not the first time the franchise has made some content exclusive to Sony’s consoles, so it was only fitting that the official details of the alpha were announced through the PlayStation Blog.
The test will be available on both PS4 and PS5 consoles, and this is going to be the first time ever that the game will be available to play ahead of its official launch. “Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha will be live for two days, starting on Friday, Aug. 27, at 10 a.m. PT through Sunday, Aug. 29, 10 a.m. PT.
Preload of the “Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha will begin a few days ahead of the actual test. In the said blog post, Activision has provided four links for the alpha preload, and they will go live on Monday, Aug. 23, at 3 a.m. PT.
It is a good idea to take advantage of the early preload. The file size of the “Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha could be big enough to take some time to load. Downloading the alpha file early will allow fans to start playing as soon as the alpha test goes live later this week.
‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’ alpha test: What to expect
“Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha will only feature a few contents compared to what will be available in the actual game release. But this first test will give PS4 and PS5 players the chance to play the new multiplayer mode called Champion Hill.
The new multiplayer game mode is a multi-arena survival tournament. In the “Call of Duty: Vanguard” alpha, players will be able to sample Champion Hill’s 2v2 and 3v3 modes. A total of eight teams will compete in a round-robin tournament. Each group gets a certain number of lives at the start of the competition, and their goal is to lower the life count of their opponents as the tournament goes on.
Every squad gets the same weapon loadout at the beginning of a Champion Hill match. But in every round, they can collect in-game cash as they kill their enemies or gather loot across the map. These will let players upgrade their weapons and get more equipment.
Activision confirmed that more game content will be available once “Call of Duty: Vanguard” moves on to beta next month. The game is currently slated to launch on Friday, Nov. 5, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.


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