Snowball kills are the new obsession for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout players

It's Christmas! So developers across the land are adding virtual seasonal gubbins to their games as a service. Treyarch is no different. It's kicked off a Christmas event in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and as part of that snowballs are in Blackout, the game's battle royale mode.

Snowballs in most games are just for messing about, but in Blackout they pack a punch. In fact, players are already using them to kill players.

Piles of snowballs are now dotted around the Blackout map. They occupy the same slot as a grenade would, so using them puts you at something of a disadvantage because you're not using, for example, a smoke grenade. But it's Christmas. Snowball fights are on - and they do something like 20 points of damage! Oh, and you can break glass with them!

I'm nowhere near good enough to get a snowball kill in Blackout. My initial attempts have all ended in death. But of course skilled players are already using them to devastating effect, and I've seen clips where players have actually won a game of Blackout with a snowball.

Here's one example (warning, there's some fruity language in the video):

The current tactic is to use weapons to reduce an opponent's health before trying to nail them with a snowball, as they do so little damage just using snowballs to kill someone would be nigh-on impossible. Well, for most people, anyway.

The one shame about this festive event is while it adds snowballs to Blackout, there's no snow. It's kind of odd to see piles of snowballs in a snow-less environment! Yes, there are holiday stash boxes and a some Christmas trees and the odd wreath hanging on a wall, but Blackout isn't changed significantly by this event.

Still, snowballs are yet another cool addition to Blackout, a mode that I'm still very much enjoying. God bless us, every one!