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Jan 30

Battlefield 4 Means Teamwork

Categories:

Battlefield 4, Battlefield Newbie

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What is so special about Battlefield?

There are many modern warfare shooter games out there, but the Battlefield series has a strong following. The original BF 1942 is still played, as are the rest of the older games in the series. All shooters offer a thrilling adrenaline rush from engaging in-your-face fast paced combat. But Battlefield offers more than that. Much more. The first, and central, element of Battlefield is teamwork.

For sure, all team games require some level of teamwork. But in Battlefield, the need for teamwork and the tools to apply it and reward it are built into the game system. The size of the teams — 32 vs 32 plus commanders — requires some sort of organization in order to allow for any sort of planned action. Battlefield has many elements whose entire purpose is to help the players operate as a team rather than individuals.

Kits:  The Classes Of Battlefield

First, there are the kits. Each offers weapons and equipment not available to the others. No single player can have all the tools needed to succeed or operate in every situation in the game. But beyond that, each of Battlefield 4’s kits offers tools — gadgets — which exist specifically to help out other members of the team.

The assault is the team medic, with medical equipment. The engineer is the team mechanic, able to fix vehicles and equipment. The support is the team supplier, with extra ammunition. And the recon is the team spotter, with tools to locate – spot — enemies on the map, and laser markers to guide weapons to their target. The recon also has the very useful Spawn Beacon, which creates a reinforcement location for team mates to respawn on the map.

The use of these items is not only essential to help the team, but it rewards the players with points. The game has many point awards for assisting the team, as well as points for taking or helping take team objectives. It is entirely possible to score many points simply by supporting your team properly, and even possible to lead the scoreboard with zero kills. Of course, kills do count for points, but the point is that this game rewards actively supporting your team very well.

Specialization

The kits in Battlefield also divide the soldiers into specialties in other ways. In Battlefield 4, the assault has assault rifles — the best all-range weapon — and the best anti-infantry gadgets, the grenade launcher and underbarrel shotguns. The engineer has the heavy antivehicle weapons — rockets and mines — and has the biggest “bang” of any of the kits. The best short range weapon, the PDW, makes the engineer the best close combat (and jump out of a vehicle and kill people) soldier as well. The support has the LMGs with lots of ammo to provide suppressing covering fire, plus a wide range of indirect explosive fire and defensive gadgets to support teammates. The recon has the very long range sniper rifles, able hit and kill targets at any range in potentially one shot. Coupled with detection and spotting gadgets, plus useful explosives for stealthy demolition attacks.

The combination of gadget choices, the field upgrade perks, and the various weapons available to all kits to supplement the kit’s specific weapons, make each kit customizable into two major, and many minor, sub-specializations. The field upgrade paths define these as:

Assault — Grenadier or Medic
Engineer — Mechanic or Anti-Tank (AT)
Support — Indirect Fire (ammo) or Perimeter Defense (suppression)
Recon — Sniper or Spec Ops

All these options means that a squad, and team, need to coordinate in order to have soldiers on the field with the tools needed to succeed. Whether with friends or random players, it is common to ask who is doing what, or to select your equipment and specialty to fit what is missing. You can’t be nearly as effective if everyone picks whatever they want, and there is a use for every role the game offers.

Rewards

It isn’t just individual specialization and effort which is rewarded in Battlefield. The game offers rewards — points on the scoreboard and XP — for doing things to assist your team. Healing, repairing, supplying ammo, spotting and marking enemies, and many different ways of providing assistance and support in battle, all give you points. Again, unlike in many other games, filling a supporting role in the game can give players at any skill level the ability to truly contribute to the team.

Squads: Making The Team

Squads are the heart of the team organization. Assisting your squad gives bonus points, more than just assisting random team mates. The squad has a leader, and that leader has special responsibilities and rewards. The first person to join an empty squad is automatically the squad leader. This tends to be randomly assigned at the start of a game, but a group of friendly players can make a new squad or swap in and out to get the player who wants to role to have it.

In Battlefield 4, squads can have up to five members, and there are advantages for having a full squad. A big one is deploy (spawn) locations. In Battlefield, depending on game mode and server settings, you can have many choices for where you appear when you enter the game map. Controlled flags, open seats in vehicles, marked spawn locations or even paradrop entry points, all can be available. But being able to spawn on your squad mates or squad leader (hardcore, classic, and custom limit this to joining on squad leader only) is a unique Battlefield team work feature. As long as one of your squad remains alive, you can rejoin the action where they are. This makes working with your squad mates and keeping them alive very advantageous in the game. You also get points for team mates spawning on you, another reward to encourage you to work with your squad.

The Field Upgrades (Perks) system is actually dependent on squad efforts. Earning squad points for helping your squad out unlocks higher perks from your upgrades, making your soldier more effective. Having your squad wiped — no members alive — sets back your progress. Keeping your squad mates, and yourself, alive makes your squad more effective on the battlefield.

Leadership

Of all the squad elements which enhance teamwork, the squad leader’s ability to give orders to the squad, to take or hold objectives, is the greatest. All squad members can see the designated location and know to go there or stay there. Both squad leader and members are rewarded with bonus points for engaging the objectives, and these are among the highest bonuses given in the game. All players present at an objective, assisting in capturing flags or destroying targets, get bonus points, but the squad bonuses are much higher still. One very cool element is that the orders, along with the special messages available in the Commo Rose, work without the players needing a common language — the images are visual or are translated into localized languages. For a game played world-wide, this can be a big help for team work and communication.

The Big Boss Of Battlefield 4

The Commander provides the final level of teamwork in games where one is available. By working on the big picture, seeing the entire map, the commander can give orders to every squad, helping to coordinate the entire team’s efforts. The commander’s assets — especially the scanning UAVs — provide an advantage to the team, but when good squad leaders work with the commander, especially when they communicate (both text and voice chat is available along with the orders system), the team can be considerably more effective. Both squad leaders and commander get points when assets are used and orders are followed.

Even without the commander’s input, voice and text chat can keep a team coordinated. But a wonderful thing tends to happen in games with good players. Without any centralized direction, each squad leader can see areas needing extra effort on the map, and give orders to go there. Players can see an enemy force threatening to take an objective, and move to engage, to spot, to provide long range fire, and to select the most useful kit and weapons to fill in what is needed on the battlefield. A good commander and squad leaders make this work even better.

Objectives:  The Key To Winning

Objectives! Battlefield is the game which created the term PTFO — Play The ******* Objective! Most game modes are won by going after game objectives — locations to control, flags to carry, bombs to deliver, locations to destroy, etc. Killing in itself has little benefit unless it is in support of achieving the objectives. Conquest and Rush, the two major classic game modes, do give benefits to kills but victory is achieved by taking the flags or destroying the MCOMs, regardless of the number of deaths on your team. You can go on a 50 kill streak and not only be on the losing team, but make little or no contribution to your team’s victory. This focuses combat around the objective locations, and makes tactical planning and team work a core part of the game.

Even death matches — squad and team DM — which are won based on the number of kills still benefit strongly from squad and even team organization. A squad with the right kit mix working together can engage and kill the enemy far better than a group of loners. Planning to control key map locations and work together to overwhelm enemies can rack up an impressive score. It is common to see a group of clan members grouped together on the leaderboard of a dominating team, because organized team play is so much more effective than lone wolf killing.

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Jan 28

Battlefield Hardline: The 2nd Beta’s Coming, What’s This Game About?

Categories:

Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline

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Battlefield Hardline is set to release March 17, 2015.  The new beta is expected to be released shortly — (speculative:  Feb 3.  I know that is almost here, but it is still a good possibility).

(Edit:  I was right.  They’ve been hinting enough, though, that I don’t claim any special ability to figure it out)

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/battlefield-hardline-beta-details-revealed/1100-6424640/

The game itself is a cops and criminals version of Battlefield.  Lighter vehicles, heavy civilian rather than military weapons and vehicles, and an emphasis on infantry action and fast driving & chases.  I recommend that anyone curious about what the game will be like in multiplayer try it out in the beta.  Nothing beats hands on experience.

BF_Hardline1http://www.battlefield.com/hardline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Hardline

The combination of lighter forces and the game modes focusing strongly on objectives makes this game very strong for infantry-oriented players who want lots of intense action.  Putting aside the cops and robbers theme, the game play features evenly matched forces with light infantry armament (much more than typical police or criminals), and solid goals to go after.

The game structure is based on Battlefield’s tradition of specialized player kits, and a team organized into small squads which work together to achieve team objectives.  Last year, I would have considered it to be a stand alone, sideline expansion of Battlefield.  Sort of like a modernization of BF2’s Special Forces, but with cops instead of soldiers.  It is now clear that Visceral and EA are developing this as a completely new core game.  It is, at the heart of its game play, still a Battlefield game.  I’m going to call it just Hardline, though, to avoid confusion.

The Blood Money game mode, showcased in the first Beta, is a good example of its team focus.  A team of three squads has three strategic locations to cover:  the Money (Evidence), the main objective, and the two Depositories, one for each team.  Those are targets of enemy attack, and thus require defense  The action focus moves from one to another, peppered with chases as the captured Money is moved across the map, fought over by everyone.  Each squad can manage one of these areas, with assistance from the others as needed.

There are a lot of teaser trailers out now, and the game looks pretty good.  The first beta played well and was stable, so I’m not expecting any trouble there.  BF4 is still continuing development, including its CTE Community Test Environment program, and any improvements to the multiplayer engine will show up in Hardline too.  The developers took the feedback from the first beta to heart, making many changes.  I’m expecting the same to apply to the next one, although the game design is not going to change radically at this point.

I’ve seen a couple good changes so far.  We’ll see how it plays out in the beta.  First, a lot of the heavy weaponry has been removed from the player kits, and moved to either vehicle items or pick up items.  This lets them be available in the game without every player having access to those weapons at the same time, and with the loads of ammo available to Battlefield 4 players.  Second, the self-revive device has been reduced in power (one use per life, one hit point on revive), which means that using it with enemies alive in the vicinity is likely to prove fatal, and therefore not overpowering.

The game hits the mark for players looking for intense, close quarters and urban infantry combat with lots of destructive action.  The Frostbite 3 engine’s destruction capabilities may be shown better here than in BF4.

 http://battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Battlefield_2:_Special_Forces

Hardline owes a great deal to BF2’s Special Forces expansion.  Mostly lighter vehicles, gas grenades and gasmasks, the zipline and grappling hook, and urban infiltration and close combat fighting, but with civilian forces rather than elite spec ops teams.  The only element we haven’t seen is the night mission and night vision elements, but that could come along later.  I loved the CTE Pearl Market Halloween night mode game, and would love to see night mode available in Hardline, as well as BF4.  But it could be an option on the server side, rather than on the map itself.  This would allow for day and night games on the same map.  (Edit note:  Based on the CTE development of night maps, night games aren’t just lighting changes, so it would require a variant map (but using most of the same resources as the main map)).

http://www.ign.com/wikis/battlefield-hardline/Weapons_and_Gadgets

I expect to see much more equipment in the release game, simply because players appreciate options.  Unlike Battlefield 4, though, there isn’t the same need to show off the variety of real world military weapons used by many countries.

 

 

Single Player note:  We don’t know the entire course of the campaign, but one part deals with a right wing criminal/terrorist organization.  The criminals in this game are heavily armed, far more than the typical sorts of criminals in real life.  But in face, there was (and maybe still are elements of existing) a real life group of this nature in the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_%28organization%29

Several violent incidents involving shootouts or killings of law enforcement, and a serious attempt to gain control of isolated communities, I’d consider them a valid inspiration to a overreaching danger in the campaign.  This is on top of drug dealers and other gang activity, which seems to be present as well in the game.  Believable, dangerous enemies help make for a compelling campaign story.

The Bad Company series had fun campaigns, so it is possible to have a good one in a Battlefield game.  Visceral has a fairly good track record here too. We’ll find out for sure when the game releases, but for people who have been looking for a good action-movie game based on cops (rather than playing criminals), this might be the one.

 

So what will players completely new to Battlefield get with Hardline?  First, an action packed First Person Shooter with an action-movie feel.  From the gun play and sounds to the vehicles and destruction — and I expect a lot of explosions in this game — you’ll be immersed in intense action in every single game.  The speed thing that is being hyped is jumping into fast cars to rush to objectives and chase opponents around the map, all while engaging in fierce, on the go firefights.  There will be static firefights over key locations, but unlike in many games, blasting through walls, doors, windows, and other obstacles will be a core part of the game.  The need to stay focused on the objectives makes killing the enemy an entertaining distraction if you fail to get the targets (money, based, hostages, etc.)

 

 

 

 

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Jan 25

The Big Fall Patch And The Future Of Battlefield

Categories:

Battlefield 4

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September 28, 2014

Metallicat here, with some thoughts on the Fall BF4 patch and the future of BF4 and the Battlefield series.

A New, Improved Battlefield 4

The big Fall Patch makes a huge number of changes in the game, enough to make it truly a new experience. If the game came out last year looking like this, it would have been totally acceptable, respectable, and a stellar megahit of a game. For people who’ve put off getting the game until now, pretend the last year’s experience never happened. For people like me, who got in at the start, I’d give the same advice — play the game as it is now, not as the broken thing it once was.

I’m not going to review all the changes, but here are a few important ones. First, and probably the biggest change, is the weapon balance and performance changes. Visual recoil — the animation of the weapon when firing — didn’t (and still doesn’t) match the actual game mechanics for recoil on the bullet path. The laser sight (and barrel center) always showed the real aiming point of the weapon. The patch makes the optics (the crosshairs/reticle of the sight) also show the true aiming point. This, combined with the network hit registration improvements, makes hitting targets much easier. Moving fire, especially for bullpup weapons, is also more accurate.

The weapon damage model is also changed, increasing the time to kill in very close combat, but the effect is much less against the Defensive Armor upgrade. For many weapons other than shotguns and snipers, it makes the time to kill against the Armor upgrade the same as without it, and that makes the other upgrade paths more competitive.

The explosives reload change — especially for hand grenades — totally eliminates the sit and spam grenades tactic in the game. It comes at a high cost, as reloading now can take far too long to actually do at all, making the explosives a one per life weapon. I do think this is still an improvement, but hope that continued testing in CTE will allow for a faster reload outside of combat. As the current game mechanics don’t have an “outside of combat” status, this will require additional tracking info to add this feature.

The game movement physics improvements are quite nice. They are subtle enough that you cease noticing them quickly, but being able to get moving more quickly can save your life in combat. The map object physics is still a work in progress, but there are far fewer glitchy spots and odd collisions, and CTE is continuing to work to improve that.

A small subtle change is the addition of the “ready to play” check before starting a new game round. While this reduces the advantage of having an SSD in getting into a game faster, having a round start with both MCOMs already armed by the “faster” players or all flags taken before the enemy team joins was clearly unfair. SSDs are still good, but no longer are a game breaker.

 

The Final? DLC

Playing Final Stand is simply cool. The entire point of the DLC maps is the rule of cool. It is Battlefield 2142 content, but presented as background in the environment for the most part, viewed from the perspective of BF4’s near future (2020) soldiers. There are some advanced technology items, but they aren’t overwhelming in power, and not quite as futuristic as 2142 itself. They don’t radically the overall game play. I don’t think they fit with the main storyline (and time frame) of the BF4 campaign, but the scifi coolness factor makes up for that.

http://battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Battlefield_4:_Final_Stand

The HT-95 hovertank is still, in the end, just another tank. The pod launchers are just a different sort of paradrop.

The Rorsch MK-1 railgun is a powerful pick up weapon, probably the most spectacular one of the DLC. But it isn’t necessarily more lethal than other battle pickup weapons, especially the HVM-II.

The XD-1 Accipiter is based on a real world experimental weapon, and it is tricky to use effectively.

The Schipunov SC-42 is a stationary weapon emplacement, based on the Metal Storm grenade launcher.

The DS-3 Decoy is an all kit gadget, which emits sounds and signals which make the enemy see a “soldier” present on their minimap.  It can be detected and spotted, neutralizing the deception.

The TDD Target Detector is the only other item — a weapon attachment usable on the all-kit carbines and DMRs — which is usable on maps other than the Final Stand DLC. It has features of both the Motion Balls and the T-UGS sensors, with a more limited arc and range of sensing, but is available (so far at least) to all kits. It falls into the class of something occasionally useful, but costs the accessory attachment slot, which on many weapons has more combat effective alternatives.

The maps are set around the development locations of the equipment of BF 2142, with prototypes available for limited use. The Titans, the Walkers, lots of future — dare I say, advanced — warfare developments. What does this all mean? I have no clue.

OK, just kidding. I can’t see this as anything but teaser content for an upcoming Battlefield 2142 sequel. The basic art, models and weapons are prototyped here for a game that many of us have been wishing for. There has been no official (or unofficial) announcement, so this is just speculation for now. So, what do we know for sure?

The Near Future

First, Battlefield 5: Armageddon is not going to be out for quite some time. The name is from the IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3355554/). The IMDB reference for anything not yet in production is just another sort of rumor, but there are good reasons to think that BF5 isn’t coming soon.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/battlefield-hardline-can-live-alongside-battlefiel/1100-6422591/

The first big reason? All mainline Battlefield games have used a new engine for each new release. Frostbite 3 is still DICE’s main engine, and it will take time to make improvements. More game system performance — better drivers and hardware, especially on PC — will be desirable as well, in order to make new features possible and playable. A rough guess would be three years to develop a new, improved engine. Especially if the goal is improved network performance, as well as audio and visual.

The second big reason is that BF4 is just finishing, and there are two games in the pipeline for next year (2015), with possible DLCs for another year beyond that. Between keeping BF4 alive and active — so players can enjoy all the DLCs and new players can pick up the game (and Premium) to make them more money — and developing the new games, it would be hard to also develop a new, major engine and game.

What We Know For Sure

So what is coming next? First, what we know for sure: 2015 will see the release of Battlefield Hardline early in the year, and Star Wars Battlefront before the end of the year. Like BF 2142, these are not in the main modern/historical military based battlefield line, but they have the game structure — teams made of squads with kits/classes on a battleground — and a similar interface, including the basics of gun handling.

Hardline isn’t a genre I expected to see in Battlefield. But it is the first larger scale, multiplayer, well armed cops vs robbers game with an action movie/TV show feel. Games with vigilantes and criminals have done well, and smaller scale cop/SWAT games have been good too. The game play in the beta was fun, and expanded with more maps, game modes, and features, plus giving it a solidly well-armed civilian (vs military) feel in weapons and vehicles, it should be even better. A good single player mode, plus possible additional single player or cooperative content, could attract player uninterested in full-on military firefights. With fast paced action and lots of close quarters combat, I think it will be popular.

A New Force In The Battlefield

Star Wars Battlefront is the long awaited sequel/remake of 2006’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Reenvisioned in Frostbite 3, and including material from all six movies plus some expanded content, and possibly expansions using the new movies in time, this should be a blockbuster game. Fans of Star Wars who have little interest in military FPS will flock to this game. The core game, however, is based strongly on the Battlefield model, with control flags to conquer, specialized kits and alien classes, a variety of weapons, and vehicle game play. Add in the RPG elements of the hero characters playable in multiplayer, as well as a very solid single player game, and this is a new chance for a new generation of Star Wars fans to embrace multiplayer FPS action.

I expect both to do very well, and for Battlefront to be a truly epic game. DLC for both should be expected through 2016, and like many multiplayer games in unique genres, I also expect that they will remain popular for years to come. But neither one is a modern military FPS like Battlefield 4, and they won’t replace BF4 for fans of the game.

Games Have DLC (Downloadable Content) Now?

So what’s the deal with DLC for all new games? It is not a new thing, and even before the DLC craze there were paid game expansions with additional content. What is new with Battlefield — as of BF3, and BF4 continues this — is that servers with any DLC content in rotation require the players to have the DLC, even if they have the current map (the server flags the DLC required on the server browser). The Premium membership gives all DLC at a reduced cost, with additional benefits, but almost doubles the price of the game. In practice, for BF3 and BF4, serious players must have Premium.

Both games — and BF2 — have the bulk of their maps in DLC, not in the main game. BF4 has 10 maps in vanilla, plus 20 in DLC. For both BF3 and BF4, I chose to buy the Premium package rather than purchase the DLC separately. I feel that for Battlefield, separate DLC pricing is mostly a marketing ploy, to make the Premium purchase more attractive.

The best way to think of this is that games have two versions — Basic and Deluxe. The Basic version is really there just to try it out, offering the minimal features to play the game. The Deluxe (Premium) version is the real game. If you don’t like the high price tag, wait until it goes on sale. I preordered BF4 with Premium, and if it played like it does now, I’d feel entirely satisfied. I still think that the game was worth the money, but it was a painful struggle for too long.

More Future Soon?

So what else is next for the Battlefield series? For now, and the near future, Battlefield 4 is the only true (modern warfare) Battlefield game there is. BF3 is fine and fun. I, like some others, still have it installed. But BF4 is now truly superior to it, and is always going to be my go-to game for modern combat action.

Stay tuned for what else could be coming next…

 

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Jan 25

The Future Of The Battlefield Series

Categories:

Battlefield 4

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November 6, 2014

Metallicat here, with some ideas about the future of the Battlefield series.

The Known Future

First, the biggest big thing is Battlefield 5. An expanded, more spectacular, more destructive, and hopefully more perfected version of Battlefield 4. I doubt that the player count will be increased, but it has been at 64 since BF 1942 and the servers and systems might be able to handle more. But more players mean bigger maps, unless we want the action to be cramped and crowded. A few more years of development should allow for much more responsive game, as well as one with more spectacular visuals.

But that is several years down the road. I can’t guess for sure which other Battlefield game will come out when, but I believe that revisiting the past and future of the game series is a very likely source for additional games.

Going Even Further Into The Future

I mentioned a Battlefield 2142 sequel before, and I think that it is a very strong contender for the next Battlefield game, still running on Frostbite 3. Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare has some really cool vehicle action in the single player, but the multiplayer is still infantry close combat with kill (point) streaks. BF 2142 had all the advanced weapons and vehicles, and a new version could take that to the next level and beyond. More vehicles, weapons, and gear. Especially if they adopt some spec-ops mobility gadgets ala Titanfall, and make more use of the really high tech weapons. A Titan Mode with destruction effects and the ability to move the Titan airborne carrier around without crashing/freezing the game would be amazing, and bring to life the potential of the original game.

The presence of models, vehicles, and weapons from BF2142 in BF4’s Final Stand, all looking nice and working well, makes this one my pick for the next Battlefield game to be released, sometime after Star Wars Battlefront. Set on future earth, not quite as far away in the future, and still a gritty, hard-fought war, it wouldn’t directly compete genre-wise with either Battlefront or BF4.

Blast From The Past

The next pick is the ultimate blast from the past: a new, highly intense version of BF1942. We’re coming up on the seventh decade since the end of WWII. BF1942 has not had a PC sequel since the original, and BF1943 was far smaller in scope (and restricted to the Pacific Theater and consoles). Doing a big blockbuster spectacularly destructive historical war game would fit right in with the current (and continuing) trend of recent movies. The combination of less advanced weaponry, without high tech electronic gadgets, and the ability to fully show the devastating intensity of large scale combat, could yield an addictively challenging game. The nostalgia value is not to be neglected either, as unlike future and fictional wars, the battles simulated actually happened in real life.

The global scale of the war and the battles offers an amazing range of environments and multiple sides (and the associated weaponry) to play with. Desert combat, the winter war, the forests of france, island hopping, jungle battles, the air war, and much more. While I’d call the next installment BF 1944, the time frame could cover all parts of the war, from the early phases to alternative endings. By use of on map armories, pick ups, and vehicle selection, the advances in vehicles and weapons — especially the limited and never deployed end war technologies — could be experienced within the game, without forcing all play to a single short era. The potential for a strong, effective, entertaining single player story line is also excellent.

Exploring The Wild Side

Moving a bit forward, a new Battlefield Vietnam game using the military technology of the 1960s has possibilities. The 2004 game offered a strong historical and cinematic feel, with warfare a bit more advanced that the WWII era but still without the modern era’s electronic gadgets. The inclusion of nostalgic era-based music, with the option to apply it on in-game vehicles and locations as an additional element of customization and immersion, could help make it a brighter, funnier game without losing intensity (the original had a whole collection of music). The game could have settings in other jungle/brush wars of the era, allowing for more sides to be represented, in a standalone game.

Or Going Bad To The Bone

Or, as with  Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it could be handled as an expansion, either of the WWII game, or of a Bad Company sequel. That leads into the next idea, a new Bad Company game. BF:BC3 as a modern warfare game would share much with BF4, but could focus more on the general army forces rather than elite marines. Lighter combat vehicles, more destructive and destructible combat in less built up, rural and industrial environments, and perhaps a renewed focus on the faster rush-style game play, all would give it a unique identity.

In single player as well as multiplayer, the less serious side of warfare could be explored. As a midpoint game between BF4 and BF5, it could exploit improvements in game play and engine, without requiring the totally new and improved features that will be in BF5. Significantly, the vastly increased and exciting destructible environments would be showcased in this game.

Be The Elite

My last idea falls between a remake and a new game concept. Spec Ops/Close Quarters — I’d go with Battlefield: Special Ops myself — would reenvision the BF2:Special Forces expansion coupled with the BF3 Close Quarters DLC map designs. With a focus on elite infantry combat, but with some light vehicles, it would take advantage of the smaller scale combat environment to have much more detailed micro-destructible elements. In addition, the full range of night vision tools, and the mobility gadgets shown in Hardline (zipline and grapple), would allow for night, bad weather, and darkened interiors as well as player-made vertical flanking paths. Unlike BF3’s Close Quarters maps, all maps should have full conquest mode available, but game modes especially designed for close engagements, and actual stealth tactics, would be available as well. Lastly, much competitive FPS combat revolves around small infantry action, and this would give Battlefield an entry tailored to exactly that kind of game play.

The single player also has great potential, as Spec Ops missions allow for intense, story driven combat without the need (or excuse) for large scale set piece battles.

Bad Company 3 and Spec Ops would round out the modern era games, and together would provide players the option of either wide open battles or close quarters action. There have always been fans of one or the other, and this would make it easier for them to pick their favored game type more easily. Of course, true fans would want both. Potentially, they could be DLC/expansions for the base game or each other, but as standalone games could help diversify the series for potential players.

 

More Battlefield 4 Content

My last thought you might have heard about already. An additional DLC (map pack) for Battlefield 4. Beyond just wishful thinking and rumors, I see good reasons for DICE and EA to go ahead and make it.

First, BF4’s rocky release and slow road to its current state disappointed many gamers, and lost much goodwill for future releases. By making additional (and likely free for Premium players) content, it rewards those who have stuck with the game, and increases the value (and thus potential sales) of BF4/Premium for those who haven’t yet bought the game.

Second, CTE (the Community Test Environment) is continuing and will do so beyond Final Stand, and a new DLC would enhance that support. Plus, a chance to work on new and better map development another time for BF4 could prove beneficial for the later games in the series. Finally, the delay in BF:Hardline’s release leaves a gap to be filled with BF4, and new content always increases interest. In any case, BF4 is going to remain the flagship modern combat Battlefield game for the next few years, so additional material only improves its outlook.
All of these games are things that I would be interested in playing. I can’t predict what other periods or genres might fit into the Battlefield concept well enough to attract DICE (and EA’s) attention. But revisiting past games with new technology is always a good idea when it is done well.

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Jan 25

Hello, And Welcome

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Battlefield 4

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Battlefield 4 is great!  It is my favorite game, based on hours played at the very least.  I play many other games as well, and like to provide help to my friends, clan mates, and the community.

DKS Clan Logohttp://dksclan.net/

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Jan 25

Dragon’s Teeth

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Battlefield 4

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September 12, 2014

 

Hi there, Metallicat here, with my take on the Dragon’s Teeth DLC and the future of Battlefield 4.

Dragon’s Teeth — New Maps And Things For Summer 2014

Dragon’s Teeth came out in July, the 2nd to last DLC for Battlefield 4. Four beautiful new maps, new weapons, and a new game mode.

Lumphini Garden from Thailand, Pearl Market and Sunken Dragon from China, and Propaganda from North Korea. All four are open urban maps, delightfully detailed. Two are infantry dominated maps — Lumphini and Pearl Market — while Propaganda only has land vehicles, and Sunken Dragon has helicopters. Sunken Dragon and Lumphini have lots of water action, and water based Levolution. The other two have no large scale Levolution, but lots of nice smaller action and destruction.

New Maps

My first impression, starting with Lumphini Garden, is breathtaking views and wonderful scenery. The park with its gardens and waterways is a pleasantly relaxing environment for intense combat action. The map is very open, but with enough cover and structures to make engagements at all ranges practical. There is an elevated railway across the map center, which offers a nice overview, but one of the Levolution elements is a demolition charge to destroy part of it. The other Levolution causes a one time flood to pass through one side of the map, devastating the area and making it a real mess. The garden portion remains relatively pristine, and a light rain falls throughout the match.

Sunken Dragon is a fight set around an elegant floating casino or club, which can be flooded by the Levolution on the map. This map has helicopters in conquest, and offers the greatest use of vehicles in this DLC. The Sea Dragon is the center of much of the action, with the main floor area alternating between dry land and a swimming battle depending on the state of the water level control.

Propaganda is a winter urban map, with some armored vehicles but otherwise purely infantry. The railroad that divides the map has a train pass through periodically, acting a nice moving obstacle. Many buildings can be destroyed, but there is no large scale Levolution. The urban environment has lots of cover and flanking routes to keep the infantry action close and intense.

Pearl Market is an intense multi-level tight city street fight, with loads of routes up on the rooftop, between buildings high and low. It reminds me much of the Flood Zone map, or MW2’s Favela, with all the rooftop action and athletic jumps. There are few vehicles in this map, making it strongly infantry-centered. It gives you a chance to non-stop close quarters action, while remaining open and with flanking paths up, down, and around to be found everywhere.

Fast Paced Chaos Mode

The new Chain Link game mode is good news for player who want lots of close infantry action, but not be restricted to a few claustrophobic maps. It is sort of like a cross between domination and conquest. You capture flags, but the more flags you have which are adjacent — linked — the faster tickets are used up. This focuses combat intensely around the contested flags. It is both very tactical and chaotic. The obvious advantage of going after flags to make links will make both teams concentrate fights around them. But you can take any flag, and it pays to take enemy flags out even if you don’t make links of your own.

The action is so fast, though, that when you spawn in it can be hard to figure out which flag to go after. A squad leader giving orders and spawn beacons can help avoid this. Splitting up your squad on purpose can be useful in order to keep some alive as spawn points, as the intense combat can wipe everyone easily.

Often, I found it made sense to simply go after the closest flag regardless of whether it would make a link or not, rather than chase after the more valuable prizes. Sitting quietly defending a point is difficult because flanking is easy, with many routes available on all of the Dragon’s Teeth maps.

I’d like to see how Chain Link would work on other maps, but I definitely recommend it in Dragon’s Teeth if you are looking for intense, non-stop combat action. Capture The Flag game mode is available as well, and feels fairly well balanced here.

New Weapons

As usual, new weapons come with the DLC. Three of them, the Mateba Unica 6 .357 revolver sidearm, the Bulldog assault rifle, and the MPX PDW, are new weapons filling roles similar to those already available in the game – similar to the MP412 Rex, Scar-H, and MX4 respectively. The CS5 sniper rifle comes with its own suppressor, which is nice but is otherwise another, relatively short ranged, bolt action sniper. You can detach the suppressor, but the gun’s low muzzle velocity makes that less beneficial than with other snipers,

The Deagle 44 – the Magnum Research Desert Eagle – is a stand out as the only non-revolver with high damage and fast, semiautomatic fire, though accuracy suffers if you try to shoot it fast. Last, the Ballistic Shield support gadget can give you mobile cover to help get through heavily defended points. You can’t fire while having it out, and it only offers full coverage when crouching. It seems best employed with teamwork, providing cover so team mates can move up and engage the enemy.

The new weapons were tested on CTE, and some changes for balance were made, a nice benefit of the new CTE test program.

The RAWR pick up gadget is interesting. A well armed remote controlled weapons bot, with an M240B machine gun and grenade launchers, it adds another tool to push past well defended locations. While well armed, it isn’t much harder to take out than the EOD bot.

How Is It?

As a whole, I find Dragon’s Teeth to be an excellent addition to Battlefield 4. It offers players who favor infantry more outdoor, urban action, with vehicles present but playing a lesser role than most BF4 maps. As always in Battlefield, squad and team coordination can make victory easier, and the Chain Link game mode is like a speed chess variant, giving orders and executing plans as you try to mow down enemies and issuing split second decisive orders.

DICE has succeeded in creating a set of interesting — both in game terms and artistically — maps which play well. The Final Stand DLC has been revealed for CTE players, and offers an exciting conclusion for the current Battlefield 4 game. The September patch changes and improves so many things, it is practically a whole new game — albeit almost a year after release. And DICE (especially DICE LA) aren’t done yet with Battlefield 4.

So what is the future of Battlefield 4, and the Battlefield franchise? Stay tuned….

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