A top shooter needs great shooting mechanics, and either fun movement or tactical ones. Still, you can make a game that excels at all three and it will be no more dangerou??s than a lion inside an aquarium if it doesn't feature prop??er maps.

When someone talks about a specific FPS you like, chances are most of your me??mories will come from one or just a few handful of maps that stood above all others. Read on to pay your respects.

Dust 2 (Counter-Strike)

If society collapses and video game archeologists of the future end up trying to put the pieces together, they might come to the realization that serious competitive online gaming started here. In truth, De_Dust 2 isn't really the first competitive Esports map of all time, nor the first really popular one. Still, it sure is the best map in the original Counter-Strike 1.6, and it remains a banger even over 20 years later. Dust 2's service to CS helped make the tactical shooting and Call Of Duty online s??cenes the juggernaut that they are today.

Not bad for a map made for fun without following any strict rules of map-making - because those didn't exist?? yet.

Facing Worlds (Unreal Tournament)

Did you ever tell the youths of today you used to have some of the most fun a human body can survive on a CTF map composed of just two towers flying in space united by an impractical bridge? Good, because they'd laugh their asses off while likely doing what you can only assume is a Fortnite dance. Still, you know damn well that few things beat being a sniper on top of that tower, easily getting over 25 headshots per match, or, should things get too di?re, just get the ??Redeemer to nuke all pesky passersby.

Facing Worlds isn't a very competitive map because it's too easy to prevent anyone from ever crossing the bridge, but taking turns between being the cool sniper and the fool who tries to make it across remains one of the most fun things you can no longer try today because Epic completely abandoned UT.

Ps: In case you're wondering, yes, I'm using a picture of the newest iteration of Facing Worlds as a psyop to make you want UT back even more.

Nuketown (Call Of Duty series)

The universe has an interesting way of balancing things. Not long after Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull gave us?? one of the dumbest scenes in movie history where Indy survives a nuclear blast by finding shelter inside a fake fridge on a nuclear testing site, gamers get one of the mo?st fun maps of all time.

Nuketown is simple, really, just a bunch of suburban houses populated only by creepy nuclear test dolls. Still, having a shootout with your friends in a? cozy place that's clearly there only to be destroyed feels right every goddamn time.

Rust (Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2)

"1v1 Rust?" Is one of the oldest memes spawning out of the Call Of Duty series, and for good reason. Modern Warfare 2 introduced one of the smallest maps in the history of online shooters, ju??st a small patch of sand with a rusty tower in the middle.

Simple, sure, but also the best pl??ace to have an up close and personal duel with your friend or foe. Snipers? Submachine guns? Pistols? Knives? Anything goes on Rust, and everything works.

Blood Gulch (Halo: Combat Evolved)

Similarly to Facing Worlds from UT, Blood Gulch has a very simple setup of two enemy bases united by a long patch of land. But, instead of a bridge, players would get a wide corridor they could traverse on foot or by vehicle. You could take on Blood Gulch however you wanted, and it would always result in fun. If there's one multiplayer map that would immediately sell anyone on everything Halo could do, it was Blood Gulch.

They used to say, "blood gulch is the map so nice, they remade it twice." That was a long time ago, as Blood Gulch has since been remade for pretty much every Halo game, and it remai?ns just as simple and addictive back in the day

Q3DM17 aka The Longest Yeard (Quake 3)

You'd think that's probably a bad choice of a name to something you want to make popular, but, once you play it, you'll understand Q3DM17's experience will more than sell itself. First things first, Q3DM17's setting of a sci-fi arena floating in space looks just amazing �even if you're to experience its earliest version nowadays via Quake Live. Also, it? allows for a lot of freedom. This is a map you can enjoy safely or by risking some tricky and dangerous jumps that might take you to a posit??ion you can more easily frag your enemies from.

On top of being an all ??time top-tier arena map, Q3DM17 remains likely the best Instagib map ever made.

Construct (Garry’s Mod)

Not all great multiplayer FPS maps need to be all about putting players in places where it'd be cool to have a shootout straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. They can also be about creating, and Garry's Mod's Construct is one of the best places to both come up with the wackiest ideas, contraptions, and even other maps. Const?ruct provides an incredibly chill and iconic area to let your mind fly free, and there's no wonder it served as the primordial mud from wh??ence a lot of awesome gameplay ideas came out of.

Erangel (PUBG: Battlegrounds)

As far as gameplay variety goes, there's just no beating PUBG's first map. Era??ngel played a big role in making the BR genre the beast it has been since, well, the release of Erangel, a role I believe many don't realize.

I myself had to wait until the release of PUBG's much inferior second map, Miramar, to realize how much of a miracle Erangel was. The team came up with such a wide area that never feels boring or repetitive, and where every sub set piece can still provide the pe?rfect set for completely unique shootouts even so long af??ter the game's release.

Deck 17 (Unreal Tournament)

A lot of verticality and grey tones don't usually do much for me in shooters, but I'll open an exception for Unreal Tournament's Deck 17. ??It features a beautiful balcony where snipers get a great view to the open area where the madmen have at it, wide and long corridor??s, and bridges without rails that will lead you to a nasty death in a vat of green goo. That's the best of the late '90s and early '00s combined right there.

Deck 17 can be chaotic, but it'??ll?? never make you feel too bad as you know damn well you can always go for the nuke that will calm things down.

Wake Island (Battlefield series)

Battlefield's greatest strength is the incredible size and scope of the battles it allowed players to partake in?? even ?as far back as the early 00's. Still, sometimes it can be a bit much, and you might want to kick back and relax in a smaller and cozier war effort.

What makes Wake Island the definitive Battlefield map is its ability to feature both the series' amazing scope, but to also make it feel smaller, more streamlined, by allowing players to conquer the whole island by starting at one end of this organic corridor of a map and finishing at the other. If you don't care about that, however, that's also fine, as Wake Island also excels at being played as if it were any other Battlefield map.

The post Best FPS multiplayer maps of all time appeared first on Destructoid.

Following the reveal of the first piece of concept art and details for the next Battlefield entry, ??fans are reminding each other to avoid jumpi??ng on the hype train. This community feels like it's been burned before with past entries, and now "no pre-orders" has become its motto.

The first piece of concept art for the next Battlefield game was revealed in an exclusive with IGN. In the accompanying interview piece, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Vince Zampella pointed to Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 as the peaks of the franchise's mode??rn era shooters. While tha?t's encouraging and exciting news, fans remain skeptical and are trying to hold each other accountable to avoid creating an uncontrollable hype train.

Don't get carried away

Zampella doesn't announce that the next Battlefield game, which still doesn't have an official name, will follow the same path as Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. However, he does point to them as the peak of the series' modern era. "I mean, if you look back to the peak or the pinnacle of Battlefield, it's that Battlefield 3â€?Battlefield 4 era where everything was modern."

For any other series, a situation like this, a return to what fans consider to be the best it ever was, would be a time to rejoice. However, Battlefield fans feel like they've been here before with Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042. They've gotten excited about a new game before realizing that it just doesn't live up to the older titles and drop off it ?almost imme??diately.

That's why fans like user Stan Tannev on Twitter are reminding each other not to pre-order the game. It's the same in comments on this article on the Battlefield subreddit. There's a sense of genuine excitement for the return ?to the modern era, but the community is also saying that DICE needs to prove it's listened.

While pre-orders aren't the be-all and say-all for a game's success, they're a massive early indicator of success. If the Battlefield c?ommunity stays strong and withholds pre-orders un??til a multiplayer beta or demo goes live, at the very least, it'll send a strong message to the powers that be.

Adnan Muse puts the experience of being a Battlefield ??fan over the last couple of years into context better than? anyone. "Bro, they got me last time for $100, NEVER again."

Gone are the days when AAA games held enough power to guarantee success. Call of Duty, arguably Battlefield's biggest competitor, dominates the shooter market. This next entry needs to differentiate itself and stand out in the market if it wants to win back its community and attract newcomers amid a sea of similar shooters that do roughly the same thing. There's a reason players keep going back to Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 after all.

The post ‘No pre-orders’: Battlefield fans are wary of hopping on the hype train for the newest one right away appeared first on Destructoid.

Battlefield is an illustrious first-person shooter franchise that's experienced a fair share of highs and lows over its 20-year-plus run. At Battlefield's peak, the series re-defined massive combat to a scale never seen before. But after the underperforming recent entry, it's easy to wonder where Battlefield can go to right the ship.

Battlefield 1942

Release date: 2002

How to play: Not available

Battlefield 1942 set the tone and laid the groundwork for what went on to be a winning for?mula. The title introduced the class system players would go on to know and love. Favorable reviews and financial success also paved the way for DICE to kick off the series.

Battlefield Vietnam

Release date: 2004

How to play: Not available

After deep diving into World War II for Battlefield 1942, DICE re-created several historical settings for Battlefield Vietnam. Once again the de??vs struck gold by introducing an early iteration of Conquest, which would later go on to be the marquee game mode for the seri??es.

Battlefield 2

Release date: 2005

How to play: Not available

Following the success of its predecessors, Battlefield 2 continued to innovate by introducing modern combat. DICE added squads, the ability for play?ers to issue commands to their teammates, and a wide array of memorable multiplayer maps.

Battlefield 2142

Release date: 2006

How to play: Not available

DICE designed Battlefield 2142 with multiplayer in mind and continued to hit eve??ry note with its new features. ?64-player servers are now considered a series staple, and that all started with this futuristic FPS that depicted a war known as "The Cold War of the 22nd Century."

Battlefield: Bad Company

Release date: 2008

How to Play: The campaign is still playable on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, but online servers have? been shut down.

After focusing on multiplayer in the previous installment, DICE offered a refreshing change of pace by delivering an engaging single-player experience in Battlefield: Bad Company. The story follows a rag-tag group of soldiers caught in a war between the United States and Russia. As for multiplayer, the devs controversially shrunk? the server size back down to 24, but that wasn't much of an issue thanks to the iconic game mode Rush, players fell in love wit??h.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Release date: 2010

How to play: The campaign is still playable on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, but onlin?e servers have been shut down.

DICE brought the Bad Company back for another spin, and the sequel was met with positive reception and achieved commercial success. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 leaned into destructible environments and introduced regener?ating health. Both innovations captivated multiplayer fans, and the single-player story also delivered? plenty of hits.

Battlefield 3

Release date: 2011

How to play: Currently available on PC through Origin, PlayStat?ion 3 and Xbox 360

In what many consider the gold standard of the series, Battlefield 3 sold five million? copies within its first week of release and combined everything DICE had built and put it into one robust multiplayer package. Modern combat, destruction, 64-player servers, Conquest and Rush, vehicles, soldier classes, and more were the multiplayer highlights, while the title also delivered an immersive single-player campaign.

Battlefield 4

Release date: 2013

How to play: Currently available on ?PC through Origin, PlayStation and Xbox

A lackluster campaign and bug-filled multiplayer launch marred Battlefield 4 at launch, but the title went on to age like a fine wine, as players still regularly load into multiplayer matches over 10 years later. The title used the same core principles from? the previous installment but with a whole new host of maps. And some of those environments became some of the most popular in the series, such as Siege of Shanghai, Operation Locker, and Zavod 311.

Battlefield Hardline

Release date: 2015

How to play: Currently available on PC through O??rigin, PlayStation and Xbox

After spending years on massive battlefields in different eras, Battlefield Hardline boldly deviated and explored the war on crime. The game is still considered one of the most cont??roversial in series history, a??s the single-player experience failed to live up to expectations, and the heist focus divided the player base. In saying that, all of the familiar beats in multiplayer were still present, and the multiplayer received praise.

Battlefield 1

Release date: 2016

How to play: Currently available on PC through Origin, PlayStat??ion and Xbox

Battlefield 1's awe-astonishing reveal trailer raised the bar higher than fans thought was possibl??e for a series entry, and the title delivered on most fronts. The World War I FPS introduced behemoths that wreaked havoc on matches and brought back all the usual multiplayer fixings. But for the first time in a few years, the single-player campaign also garnered a positive reception, amounting in a total package.

Battlefield V

Release date: 2018

How to play: Currently available on PC ?through? Origin, PlayStation and Xbox

For everything that the Battlefield 1 reveal trailer did right in building anticipation, the opposite can be said about Battlefield V. Instead of 72 million views and 2.4 million likes, the BFV trailer brought in 16 million views and 371,000 likes. The bright and vibrant trailer rubbed players the wrong way about a World War II title, and a dispassionately meek offering of multiplayer content at launch drove most players away. It's unfortunate, because the gameplay itself was loved, and DICE went on to add phenomen??al post-launch content that most players never experienced.

Battlefield 2042

Release date: 2021

How to play: Cu??rrently available on PC thro?ugh Origin, PlayStation and Xbox

With no single-player campaign, DICE put all its eggs in the multiplayer basket for Battlefield 2042. ?That's not an issue as that's the franchise's bread and butter, and it's been pulled off before, but this title floundered in every sense. A delay already scared fans, but then multiplayer launched in a severely glitch-filled state with insufficient maps to satisfy players. As a result, the title did not perform well financially and potentially set the series back years.

The post How to play all Battlefield games in order of ?release appeared first on Destructoid.

A pair of updates from EA has revealed that its Motive Studio, which developed the Dead Space remake, will now be contributing to the Battlefield series, and that Battlefield 2042's seventh season of content will be its last.

This is part of a wider plan to build an interconnected universe of Battlefield multiplayer and single-player games. That second detail should excite those who were upset by Battlefield 2042's distinct lack of single-player campaign. Considering Motive is best known for its single-player offerings, specifically the aforementioned Dead Space remake and Star Wars: Squadrons, it's perhaps a perfect choice for developing something single-player for Battlefield.

Between Motive, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Criterion all contributing to Battlefield, though, this all feels eerily similar to how a number of Activision studios primarily serve as support studios on Call of Duty, with little to no freedom to work on their own projects. However, in a blog post?? by Motive's general manager Patrick Klaus, it's explained how Dead Space's executive producer Philippe Ducharme and creative director Roman Campos-Oriola are putting together a team within Motive to "work alongside the Battlefield studios around the world creating what’s next for Battlefield—a universe across both multiplayer and single-player experiences." So, it's not as if Battlefield is all Motive will be working on.

In fact, Motive is still hard at work on its Iron Man game, which Klaus has said is an "important priority" for the studio, and is progressing smoothly, having hit a major internal milestone ??earlier this year. Hopefully, this means we'll see something of it before the end of 2024.

As for Battlefield 2042, a separate blog post by series gene?ral manager?? Byron Beede has confirmed the game will no longer receive new seasons once its current season, Turning Point, wraps up. "As we looked at what the future of the series required, it became clear it was time for us to shift our resources and focus to be fully dedicated to what comes next," explained Beede, acknowledging this news will be disappointing for regular players. Support won't entirely end for Battlefield 2042, though. Aside from ongoing m?aintenance, it'll still see new challenges, ?events, and modes.

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Criterion Games, developer of titles such as Burnout and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, has formally joined EA Entertainment, according to a press release written by EA’s Vince Zampella. Criterion has been an EA studio since it was acquired in 2004, but it will now be primarily working on the Battlefield franchise.

“Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise,�wrote Zampella, who oversees studios working on Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi, Battlefield, and Need for Speed.

“The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield. Criterion’s experience with Battlefield, our technology and building engaging experiences will have an immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield 2042, and as we continue pre-production on a connected Battlefield Universe.�/p>

While known for racing games like Burnout and Need for Speed, Criterion has previously assisted on Battlefield games and other shooters under the EA umbrella, including the Star Wars Battlefront series. The last game Criterion released itself was the surprising 2022 Need For Speed Unbound.

Zampella goes on to emphasize that work on the Need for Speed franchise isn’t ceasing as a res??ult of this announcement, though he doesn’t specific??ally state that Criterion will be responsible for future entries. 

“I’m really looking forward to working with a core group as we shape what’s next for the [Need for Speed] franchise," said Zampella.

The post Criterion shifts over to EA Enter?tainment to assist on Battlefield appeared first on Destructoid.

Ugh. Why!?

[Update: Since posting this EA has removed Mirror's Edge from the list of games to be delisted. It was definitely there when the announcement first went out, which suggests that they've since decided against del??isting. Our original story follows.]

EA has announced that it will be removing four titles from storefronts on April 28, 2023. The titles are Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Mirror’s Edge, all of which are from developer DICE. The reasons for their removal are the discontinuation of online services for them, which is unusual, since three of those games feature single-player campaigns, with Mirror’s Edge in particular only using online for leaderboards. The online po??rtions will stay active until December 8, 2023.

The news strikes me as quite sickening. EA has proven to be one of the worst companies when it comes to maintaining the availability of its legacy products. Games like The Sims and The Sims 2 are both games of monumental importance to the landscape of the video game industry and they? are not available for digital sale anywhere, despite their lack of online integration.

[caption id="attachment_369642" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via EA[/caption]

Considering the company was founded in 1982 on the concept of promoting their developers like rock stars,?? their lack of respect for the art form in which they compete is consistently gallin??g.

While I personally didn’t jive with Mirror’s Edge, the game is a cult classic that was so well-loved that fan fervor alone managed to land it a new entry in 2016.?? It is not an online-focused game, and there is no really understandable reason for EA to p?ull it from digital shelves aside from the fact that they apparently have no intention of preserving it.

You have until April 28, 2023 to pick these titles up from various storefronts. Note, however, that Battlefield 1943 has no single-player content. As for the other titles, the press release mentions you can continue to use thei??r offline features.

The post EA is removing Battlefield 1943, Bad Company 1 and 2 from digit?a?l storefronts (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

Marcus Lehto's new studio is working on some Battlefield

Electronic Arts is officially revealing its newest studio. Ridgeline Games is the Seattle-based studio led by Marcus Lehto, and it's working on a project set in the Battlefield universe.

Lehto's move to Electronic Arts was announced almost a year ago, in October. Today, we have confirmation of both the studio's name and its first project. Ridgeline Games is working on a narrative campaign, set in the Battlefield universe.

"It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series," said Lehto in a press release.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcvP8tPkXM0

The Battlefield universe

In a new blog, Battlefield general manager Byron Beede confirms that longtime DICE developer Lars Gustavsson is leaving the studio. Gustavsson was the creative director on the Battlefield series.

"As we build for the future of Battlefield, we must remember to thank those who got us here," said Beede. "Creative Director Lars Gustavsson, who has been with the franchise since the beginning and is affectionately known as Mr. Battlefield, has decided he is ready for a new adventure. We woul?d like to thank him for his invaluable experience, expertise, and friendship for all these years."

Meanwhile, Beede says the vision for the future is "all-in" on Battlefield. Last December, EA locked in Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella as the one overseeing the Battlefield franchise. Now, this plan for a connected Battlefield universe looks to cover many different studios.

And there's a lot of Battlefield on the way, too. A Battlefield Mobile is on the way from Industrial Toys. DICE is continuing to work on the multiplayer side of Battlefield, while Ripple Effect is working on an "entirely new Battlefield experience that will complement and build upon" the foundation of the series. Now, Ridgeline also joins the lineup of EA studios working on Battlefield projects.

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Losing Faith

Studio DICE has stated that it intends to entirely focus its efforts on the beleaguered Battlefield franchise going forward, eschewing new IPs and alternate franchises such as the studio's cult series Mirror's Edge while it ensures Battlefield 2042 becomes the team's core release.

Speaking in her first interview since taking the role, DICE's new General Manager Rebecka Coutaz told GamesIndustry.biz that the Battlefield franchise was the now core focus of the studio. In particular, Coutaz notes that DICE is committed to its long-term plans for blah shooter Battlefield 2042, with support expected to roll out for another three years at the very least. Asked about whether this meant Mirror's Edge or any other projects were off-the-table, Coutaz was very clear about DICE'?s direction:

"Totally," she confirmed. "We are only focusing on Battlefield 2042. There is no time for anything else and this is what we want to do. In three years, we want to be the first-person shooter powerhouse that DICE deserves to be, and that i??s what we’re going for."

"The team is here to make Battlefield, and they’re passionate about Battlefield. We have many Battlefield veterans. So it’s important for us to improve Battlefield 2042 and the experience that we can provide to our pl??ayers. We owe the?m that."

Battlefield 2042, which launched on PC and consoles?? back in November 2021, was met with mediocre critical reviews and would go on to become one of the Steam platform's worst-reviewed games, with critics and players citing chaotic gameplay, boring maps, and a litany of bugs. DICE and publisher Electronic Arts have since spoken of their desire to correct course, and have already rolled out numerous hotfixes, rebalances, updates, and new content drops in efforts to rescue the sinking vessel.

While DICE should be praised for its commitment to the product, with a clear desire to restore the faith of the Battlefield fanbase, there's one other Faith that I, personally, would be far more interested in seeing restored. Mirror's Edge is hardly the most popular, successful, or most exciting of franchises, but it has its own niche and dedicated community, many of whom saw the writing on the wall years ago. This news d??oes not come as a shocking surprise.

We get it. Mirror's Edge didn't sell half a billion copies. It doesn't have rolling multiplayer elements, it doesn't facilitate the potential for DLC, microtransactions, or loot boxes. And studios have to make millions upon millions of dollars with every single release or the publisher fires/disbands everybody. Same as it ever was and ever will be. We get it.

Regardless, it's still disappointing to see creativity and design take a fatal fall at the behest of not making All The Money. I'm just glad that we got the two titles that we did. Solid, gorg??eous, engaging adventures that I play and enjoy today, and probably will tomorrow, and probably will for years to come.

So, here's to your semi-annual military shooter.

"We want to be proud of Battlefield 2042" [Gamesindustry.biz]

The post DICE to forgo Mirror’s Edge-style projects to focus entirely on Battlefield appeared first on Destructoid.

Season 1 kicks off in Battlefield 2042 on June 9

More tools for mayhem are arriving on the battlefield. Electronic Arts and DICE debuted a trailer today, showing what's coming in Battlefield 2042 Season 1 on June 9, 2022.

In today's trailer, the team gives us a good look at Exposure, the new map arriving in Season 1. It's set in the Canadian Ro??ckies and looks to ma??ke big use of verticality, allowing aircraft and wingsuits to really get around.

Also shown is the new Specialist, Ewelina Lis. Li??s is pa??rticularly skilled at tackling vehicles, using a remote-controlled rocket launcher to wreak havoc on armor.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hfeb7eIzbo

Alongside those, new vehicles and weapons are also coming in Battlefield 2042 Season 1. Two new gunships, the RAH-68 Huron and YG-99 Hannibal, take to the skies. The BSV-M Marksman Rifle o??ffers a new mid-range option. And the Smoke Grenade launcher offers some infantry ground cover.

But good lord, the Ghostmaker R10 ??Crossbow looks like a blast. Literally, because it has explosive ammo, alongside regular, light, and heavy ammo. The core content additions are available as part of the free Battle Pa??ss track, though it will require playing to unlock. Additional cosmetics are in the Premium Battle Pass Track.

Seasoned veterans

There are also more fixes for stability, balance, gunplay, performance, and more. It looks like DICE is trying to make good on its commitment to improving Battlefield 2042 after its rough launch.

The focus comes at the cost of some initial pillars, like the removal of the 128-player Breakthrough variant. The team also shuttered all future content development for Hazard Zone, its Tarkov-style? multiplayer mode, in favor o??f focusing on its other pillars.

With Season 1 for Battlefield 2042 finally g?oing live, it seems like th??is could be the time for DICE to rally and try to right the ship. Exploding crossbow bolts are a good start, at least.

The post Battlefield 2042 shows new map,? Specialist, and more arriving in Season 1 appeared first on Destructoid.

No more updates for the Zone

As DICE keeps ramping up to the launch of Season 1, another Battlefield 2042 mode is taking a backseat. The studio confirms today that it's shutting down future development on Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone mode.

The new mode, an Escape From Tarkov-like experience in the Battlefield setting, was one of Battlefield 2042's major pillars going into launch. Today though, EA and D??ICE are saying that futur??e development will cease on the mode.

"All of us on the team had great ambition and high hopes for this new Battlefield experience throughout our development, but we’re the first to hold our hands up and acknowledge that it hasn’t found the right home in Battlefield 2042 and that we’ll benefit greatly from letting our focus and energy stay on the modes we see you engaging most with," reads today's blog post.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkMiPwL8G1w

Hazard Zone will still be available to play in Battlefield 2042. But aside from "addressing critical errors and odd behaviors" that may pop up, no more c??ontent will be rolling out for the mode. New maps released in future seasons will not be supported in Hazard Zone, either.

The long war

Several other changes are planned, as ??DICE is building up towards its Season 1 launch in June. Animation and tr?aversal improvements are planned, as well as an overhaul to the Kaleidoscope map. Plus, a new map, Specialist, and Vehicles, as well as a Battle Pass.

In terms of game modes, Breakthrough is moving to 64 players as previously announced. Conquest will still have the 128-player option open on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. And DICE? says it's also looking at including Rush, the 32-player experience, into the official mode fold during Season 1.

It all feels like DICE is trying to reset, slim down, and move forward, as Battlefield 2042 hasn't been the smoothest of launches. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said Battlefield 2042 "did not meet expectations" on an earnings call in February. We'll see if dropping Hazard Zone from the priority list helps the team move 2042 forward.

The post Battlefield 2042 is shuttering future Hazard Zone development as it ramps towa?rds Season 1 appeared first on Destructoid.

The patch adds a big feature for Battlefield

A new update for Battlefield 2042 hits this week, adding a feature the community has been asking for. Battlefield 2042 Update 4.0 adds VoIP functionality for Party and Squads, as? well as a fe??w other areas of interest.

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, options are the big one for Battlefield 2042. The massive multiplayer shooter launched without VoIP last year, and it was a noticeable issue for folks who are used? to those options.

The dev team at DICE has been working on updating Battlefield 2042 with more patches since then. Patches have included an updated scoreboard and other quality-of-life fixes.

//twitter.com/BattlefieldC??omm/statu?s/1516068203922919428

Update 4.0 for Battlefield 2042 goes live on April 19, and adds two voice chat?? channel options. Players will be able to choose between Party and Squad VoIP, and can adjust their settings in-game too.

Additionally, the up??dated scoreboard that arrived with Update 3.3 will now be available durin??g End of Round screens.

Getting attached

The other big part of the Battlefield 2042 Update 4.0 is an overhaul of weapon attachments. The dev blog notes that previously, some attachments had effect??s that we??re too similar, and their impact was unclear.

A few bug fixes and quality-of-life adjustments have been made, as well as an overall retooling of the weapon attachments. This will probably take some in-game inspection to see the results, but considering how core the new attachment system is to Battlefield 2042's infantry experience, it's good to address it.

The Update 4.0 notes for Battlefield 2042 also detail a lengthy number of additional fixes. You can find the full patch notes here. More is on the way too, as the team says it expects another update for release in May. That update will focus on bringing more quality of life updates and bug fixes. Efforts to right the ship after a rocky launch are still underway, but at least one major piece of Battlefield is finally in.

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DICE is also trying to improve maps like Kaleidoscope that have "too many open and flat spaces"

Many of us have left Battlefield 2042 behind, and I'm not sure when, if ever, we're coming back. In an article posted today, DICE highlighted some of the "current problems" with map design and gameplay. And in terms of new maps down the road, Battlefield 2042 players ?should "expect future maps to be smaller in scale than most of our release maps."

That's potentially reassuring to hear depending on how well you've liked the chaotic-at-best, dull-at-worse matches so far. With 128 players roaming around open-ended map layouts, some of the biggest complaints from Battlefield 2042 players have focused on a lack of cover leading to a poor "line ??of sight," long on-foot travel times feeling like a "walking simulator," and being overwhelmed as infantry with so many vehicles in the mix.

In the blog post, DICE touches on all of those player-feedback points, and a few mor??e.

The idea is to get these thoughts out in the open, propose changes, and have an "open discussion" with the Battlefield community, according to the team.?? We've heard it before!

For high-priority maps like Kaleidoscope, where there's far from a silver-bullet so??lution, that means a rethink in multiple areas, which will take "substantial development time" to fully implement. As such, not every proposed change will make it into every map "simultaneously"; instead, the developers will focus on "the maps most needing the changes first." Check out these proposed capture point changes for Conquest:

Here's the takeaway that spoke to me as someone who enjoyed 2042 at times but also got tired of its flow pretty quick: "our intent is to reduce the likelihood of being fired at from a 360-degree angle, and to take away that Hail Mary feeling of running onto no man's land between objectives." I feel like this sensation was far too p??revalent in my time.

More tha??n anything, there's this "Mmm, you don't say!" takeaway:

"The biggest action point for ourselves is that bigger maps doesn’t necessarily mean more freedom and playstyles, or fun. So you can expect future maps to be smaller in scale than most of our release maps. This also means we are reviewing a possible reduction in the number of Sectors and total Capture Points per map when playing at 128 players. We’re also thinking about changing the shape of the maps to give them more sense of direction. We feel that going from a common Battlefield standard of a square shaped playspace, to a rectangular shape most commonly used in some of our older entries in the franchise can better incentivize pushing forward versus circling out sideways. We feel that this can help to?? focus areas of combat, enable you to ?have more focused awareness, and reduce opportunities for enemy fire to come in from all around you.

We’ll also review the player counts across modes such as Breakthrough, as well as the types and number of vehicles that can be us?ed on specific maps. For example, does it make sense to have (multiple) Jets on Kaleidoscope if that is our smallest map? It’s im?portant to note here that our focus isn’t to limit your available options, but instead to find the right balance which positively enhances your gameplay experience."

Season One of Battlefield 2042 will start in "early summer," which is later than expected. Clearly, there's still much to be done even ??before new content starts rolling out.

It feels like the Battlefield crew is in another mess, and I hope it can find its way out. (Or at least salvage as much as possible until it's suddenly already time for the next installment.) This series could and should be so much more than what we got with 2042. I really believe Battlefield still? has its place in the current multiplayer landscape �just... not like this.

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Request permission to retreat

The Battlefield community is not happy. Following the beleaguered launch of the million-dollar shooter's latest installment, Battlefield 2042, a rapidly increasing nu??mber of the game's community are demanding that publisher Electronic Arts offer all players the option of refunding the??ir purchase.

A petition, opened just yesterday on Change.org, currently bears the signatures of over 50,000 players and counting, demanding that EA reimburse any and all purchasers that are unhappy with the release. According to the text accompanying the petition,?? "one of the best class-action lawsuit lawyers in the country" is willing to take a case against the publisher to a court of law. Hopefully, it's not Lionel Hutz.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV5Tc1Z4DnI

Launching on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms in November 2021, Battlefield 2042 was met with middling review scores from critics and derision from players, who criticized the sequel's myriad bugs and glitches, while voicing their frustration at missing features, DLC decisions, and a general confusion tow??ard the roadmap for the shooter's first season of content. The number of active players has dropped off shar??ply since launch.

EA's Andrew Wilson has responded to the controversy in numerous reports and/or investor calls.

"We launched with strong stability, however as more players experienced the full game it became clear that there were unanticipated performance issues that we would need to address," said the CEO. "Some of the design choices we made with the game also did not resonate with everyone in our community. We are fully committed to realizing the full potential of this game and fully committed to our Battlefield fan??s [...] We’ve already implemented a series of major updates to the game and there are more to come."

It appears, however, that the Battlefield community is done waiting. Whether this is an official response to the petition by Electronic Arts, whether a class action lawsuit is filed, or whether this all amounts to nothing remains to be seen. One thing seems certain, however: in a world where even Call of Duty fails to achieve sustainable numbers �battling against its own contemporary, Call of Duty Warzone �there might simply be no space for Battlefield in the ninth generation of gaming.

The post Over 50,0?00 players signed a Battlefield 2042 refund petition appeared first on Destructoid.

Score updates pending

DICE has been working on updating and tuning Battlefield 2042 since its launch. One of the more requested features—an ??improved scoreboard—was set to arrive in ?February, but now the studio is aiming for March.

Update 3.3, which was first set for mid-to-late February, would have brought a refreshed scoreboard to Battlefield 2042. In a new post from the Battlefield co??mms account, the next update will be rolling out in early March instead.

"The extra ti??me will help to ensure we improve the quality of ou?r Updates, and include additional changes," the statement reads.

//twit??ter.??com/BattlefieldComm/status/1489160643945152512

You can see a look at the work-in-progress from back in January here. It has a lot more info available at a? glance, and also moves its elements around a fair bit.

It's a small bump, though the scoreboard is one of many features still yet to arrive for Battlefield 2042. DICE recently published a dev blog addressing the response to 2042, and highlighting features like the sco??reboard and VOIP as something they're f?ocusing on include "as soon as possible."

"We have heard you. So, we are heavily invested and committed to the future of Battlefield 2042–work??ing on taking action on multiple fronts to address feedback and implement extensive fixes to the game, key features that are important to you, and getting team play where it needs to b?e."

The addition of these features has pushed the launch of Battlefield's first season out into early summer. It seems like Electronic Arts hasn't been happy with the results, either.

Time will tell if Battlefield 2042 can right?? the ship and shift public opinion. For now though, those waiting for a fancy new scoreboard will be waiting a little while longer.

The post Battlefield 2042 scoreboard upda??te pushed back to March appeared first on Destructoid.

2042's PC-only free-play event is already here

Battlefield 2042 is looking to climb up Steam's concurrent-player chart this weekend as DICE has kicked off a free trial event. This PC-only trial is active today and will run until 10:0?0 a.m. Pacific on Monday, December 20, so if you're curious, now's the time.

If this feels really early, and it seems like the game just came out, you're not wrong!

At the same time, I can see why they'd already want to resort to a free weekend event for Battlefield 2042. After fans were burned by the tumultuous launch, which felt rushed for the sake of holiday sales, DICE has released a few significant updates for the game, and it's in a better, more consistently enjoyable place. That's not to say everything has been fixed, not by a longshot. And yeah, it's a whole can of worms to compare 2042's launch to other botched Battlefield launches. ("He can't keep getting away with it," indeed.)

But where things are at now, especially with "limited time" 64-player Conquest an??d Breakthrough and a nifty Rush playlist in Battlefield Portal, it's worth another look.

I do feel bad for anyone who spent $60, much less $70  �or even more for the pricey early-access period. The fast turnaround on deals was to be expected with Black Friday, but I'm honestly surprised that Battlefield 2042 is already in "free weekend" territory.

If you're interested, the initial download for 2042 on Steam is around 48 GB, and I'd encourage you to check out the smaller-scale modes (relatively speaking) and definitely Portal's renditions of 1942, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3 as well. Certain players appreciate the all-out chaos of 128-player matches, but more often th?an not, I just find them to ??be a slog. I'll also say this: many of you can get your fill with just this trial.

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The last update before the holidays rolls out on December 9, and here are the highlights

The third update for Battlefield 2042 will be the last one released in December before DICE regroups in the new year, and it's squeezing in some notable fixes and changes that should make for a better experience as players settle in for the holidays. If you've struggled with cross-play on Xbox or found Breakthrough's nastier rooftop objectives to be impossible to capture, you'll want to peek at the 3.1 patch notes for Battlefield 2042.

To quickly bounce off those two highlights, while it was easy enough to enable or disable cross-play in the PlayStation versions of Battlefield 2042 with a simple in-game Options toggle, for whatever reason, Xbox players have been forced to go out of their way to not be matched up against PC players, which has led to this bad ripple effect. With the update, it'll be consistent across the board, so Xbox players can easily turn off cross-play.

As for rooftop capture points in Battlefield 2042's Breakthrough mode, Orbital's hard-to-safely-reach rooftop point, in particular, can be a grueling nightmare for attackers to take. While it seems like a heavy-handed approach, the developers have opted to just remove that slaughterhouse point �and other, similar points on the Hourglass and Kaleidosc?ope maps �in update 3.1. In their place, there will be objectives to capture at the bottom.

Here's a funny demonstration of the pre-patch Breakthrou??gh experience:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGSeEVYSrBg

There are a few changes that should impact the overall flow of matches and lower spam: frag and incendiary grenades, as well as the prox sensor, have a lowered ammo count (from two down to just one), and the prox sensor has been nerfed with a reduced player-spotting radius and uptime. Aim ass??ist on consoles has also gotten "improvements."

I'm personally glad to see that the "missing loadout" bug �the one that stops you from changing weapons �has gotten a fix. And update 3.1 also has balance changes for bullet dispersion, recoil, and ground vehicle cannons vs. infantry. "Improvements" were made to bullet hit registration, but this seems like one of those hard-to-nail-down issues.

And with that, I'm pretty pleased �these back-to-back updates have done a lot. Battlefield 2042 shouldn't have even been in this mess, and it's frustrating to relive these sorts of launches again and again, but at least the teams hi??t the ground running.

Battlefield 2042 update 3.1 patch notes

Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

General

• Players that are not the Party Leader can now cancel while waiting in a queue
• Xbox - Cross-Play can now be enabled/disabled in the Options menu on Xbox
• Your Sort settings will now be correctly remembered when refreshing the Battlefield: Portal Server Browser
• Fixed an issue where loadouts would sometimes be empty on the spawn screen after joining a server, preventing weapon selection
• Made improvements to ensure Aim Assist is more consistent during console gameplay
• Ranger’s effective combat range and overall health has been decreased

Audio

• Made various tweaks to the overall audio experience to improve clarity, distance, and directional perception
• Fixed an issue where soldiers would not always play indoor specific footsteps

Weapons

• Removed bounce from Underbarrel Grenades when firing at short distances
• 40mm AP Grenades now properly damage vehicles
• Fixed some weapons displaying wrong ammo counts for specific magazines
• DXR-1 and NTW-50 Bolt Action rifles reload animation increased by 0.2 seconds
• Adjusted dispersion values for most weapons, which results in a faster dispersion decrease when tap firing or doing short bursts
• Adjusted dispersion increases for most weapons. It now takes slightly longer for weapons to become overly inaccurate in sustained fire
• Adjusted the recoil values to prevent over aggressive recoil jumps for the AK24, LCMG, PKP-BP, SFAR-M GL, and PP-29
• Improved hip fire accuracy for all SMGs to make them better stand-out from other automatic weapon archetypes
• LMG dispersion and recoil lowered to improve performance in sustained fire
• Additional improvements to recoil control for all weapons, more specifically automatic weapons.
• Increased close range damage and consistency of the MCS-880 when using Buckshot Shell or Flechette Shells
• Fixed a bug that caused bullets to be fired below the player’s aims for the SFAR-M GL and the K30

Vehicles

• Fixed a bug where vehicle weapons sometimes did not deal blast damage on a direct hit

• We’re reducing the Ground Vehicle 30mm Cannon effectiveness versus infantry. It now overheats faster, has a slightly reduced rate of fire and blast damage, and increased fall off damage at distance
  • Rate of Fire 350 -> 330
  • Heat Per Bullet 0.13 -> 0.14
  • Heat Drop Per Second 0.5 -> 0.475
  • Blast Damage 20 -> 18
• LCAA Hovercraft - 40mm GPL Grenade Launcher
  • Blast Damage lowered from 55 -> 35
• The 40mm Utility Pod upwards firing angle is now easier to use
• EBAA Wildcat - 57mm Cannon
  • Removed dispersion
  • Ammo 12 -> 8
  • Impact Damage 85 -> 75
  • Blast Damage 70 -> 35

Gadgets

Frag Grenade

• Increased the time to detonate a Frag Grenade from 1.1s -> 1.4s after first bounce on a hard collision
• Increased damage of Frag Grenades across game modes to deal 120 damage and guarantee a kill on armored players too
• Reduced Frag & Incendiary Grenade max ammo account from 2 -> 1

Prox Sensor

• Lowered spotting radius from 30m -> 20m
• Lowered uptime from 30s -> 14s
• Lowered amount of Prox Sensor a player can carry and deploy from 2 -> 1

Battlefield Hazard Zone

• Fixed an issue that caused the roaming Occupying Forces LATV4 Recon to spawn at the wrong times or not at all

Breakthrough

• Kaleidoscope - Rooftop Capture Objective has been removed. There are now two Capture Objective at the bottom in BT large and one at the bottom in BT small
• Orbital - Rooftop Capture Objective has been removed. There is now a single Capture Objective at the bottom in BT large and BT small
• Hourglass - Rooftop Capture Objective has been removed. There is now a single Capture Objective at the bottom in BT large and BT small. Also fixed an issue where players were spawning out of bounds

Soldier

• Improvements on back pedaling into objects when being in prone position
• Fixed a rare issue where players could turn invisible when spawning on a full/destroyed vehicle

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Battlefield is also seeing a shake-up at the upper levels

The latest Battlefield game is out in the wild, and 2042 has had an interesting go of it so far. EA and DICE have been rolling out updates pretty fast, but the publisher has also indicated an interest to keep expanding the franchise?? outwards.

In an interview with GameSpot, Electronic Arts noted an intent to form a "connected Battlefield universe." Similar to how Call of Duty has an expanded presence with its mobile and Warzone offerings, it sounds like EA wants to look into new experiences in the Battlefield universe.

As part of this move, Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella is now overseeing the Battlefield franchise. Speaking to GameSpot, Zampella said this is an "and" strategy; Battlefield 2042 will continue to grow, and EA will explore new experiences and business models to add onto the Battlefield foundation.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV5Tc1Z4DnI

EA indicates that both Ripple Effect, the former DICE LA studio, and its new Seattle-based studio under the leadership of Marcus Lehto are working on new "experiences" in the Battlefield universe. That doesn't specifically mean games, but it could be something different than what we've seen previously in the Battlefield universe.

GameSpot's interviews also confirmed that DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson is leaving to pursue new opportunities. EA also confirmed that Ripple Effect will continue to support the Battlefield Portal mode inside Battlefield 2042, alongside working on its "new experience."

Though Battlefield 2042 has been a shaky launch, it seems like EA is still set to take a multi-pronged approach to the franchise. The Call of Duty similarities are there, as are other franchises' efforts to expand outwards, like those with PUBG, or what we've already seen with Ubisoft's various franchises crossing over. With Vince Zampella taking over the helm and more studios moving into the franchise, it seems like Battlefield making its own big push.

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At least the updates have been quick so far

Two updates down, many more to go. It's a common belief that Battlefield 2042 launched much earlier than it should've, even among players who enjoy the game as is, and DICE has been busy prepping fixes and improvements. The next big push is happening on December 2 with "over 150 individual fixes, small changes, and improvement??s."

The studio highlighted most of those gameplay changes last week, and we ran through them, but that date is new. Without fully getting into the nitty-gritty again, I think the UI changes will be among the most impactful for the average Battlefield 2042 experience.

Most notably, check out these HUD changes coming with Update 3:

• Added a UI element that shows nearby players that can revive you within 50m when downed.
• Added a UI element that shows incoming revivers when downed and pinged by a player that intends to revive you.
• When low on ammo or health, nearby friendly players within 50m will now show a resource icon above their head indicating that they can provide you with health or ammo.
• Increased Big Map Resolution for improved navigation.
• Added health bars on enemy vehicles (up to 200m) and enemy soldiers when looked at (up to 50m).
• All player world icons now scale over distance, making them smaller when far away in an effort to reduce icons cluttering the screen.
• Time before revive completion is now visible for the downed player when being revived.

Along with this summary about incoming UI improvements:

• "We're introducing several improvements within the Collection screen menus to make customizing your loadout and Plus Menu easier. In short, less clicking around. It’s now also easier to understand which attachments are locked, in use, equippable, or newly unlocked within your Collection."

And lastly, something for the Rush crowd:

• Rush game mode layouts for all 2042 All-Out Warfare maps (through Portal).

The??re are tons of br?oader bug fixes, tweaks, and changes, but this is what I'm here for.

When I complain about a general lack of teamwork in Battlefield 2042, these are some of the elements we've been missing. It takes time to learn the maps and specialists and loadouts, but on a base?? level, making this ammo, health, and revive info readily available right in your face will go a long way to instilling a sense of cooperation beyond squads.

In its blog post today, DICE also said that Weekly Missions will debut in Battlefield 2042 next week. Currently, the format works like this: there will be three missions that "you can track via the main menu." Every mission will h??ave an XP carrot on a stick, as well as an overall goal to finish all three for the week to unlock "a unique cosmetic reward."

As for recent high-profile complaints about wonky hit detection, the Known Issues page says that this issue is a "work in progress" but "some improvements" will be made so?on.

On that note, "one more small up??date focused on further balance changes and general bug fixes" is planned for early December. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

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But it's a pretty limited system right now

Large-scale teamwork and nitty-gritty squadplay are two crucial facets of the Battlefield experience, and the more innate cooperation you've got in a match, the better your odds of flipping the battle in your side's favor. I figured a little PSA was in order for Battlefield 2042, as there actually is a way to change which squad you're in despite a lot of players (understandabl?y) believing otherwise. The UI is convoluted and unclear, so here goes.

Although it's a very bare-bones feature compared to the prior games in the series, and DICE really ought to expand it sooner than later to offer more fine-tune control, here's how to change squads in Battlefield 2042. Basically, what you need to do is get to the player list, find your name, select it, and you'll be able to change squads to another random group that has room. Here's the ??PlayStation 5 version as an example.

From the deployment screen with a view o?f the map, press the Options button (aka the "start" button), then you'll want to en?ter the menu called "Squad and Players."

From here, there's a big lis??t of player names �go to yours, and on the right-hand side of the screen, there will be a text prompt indicating that you can hit the Square button to "Change Squad." You can repeat this process if you don't like where you're placed.

I don't have the PC versio??n, but I believe it's just a matter of ri??ght-clicking your name.

In other words, you can't look at a list of every available squad on your team and then manually choose who you want to group up with. But if you absolutely need to bounce around �and sometimes you just do! �there is a way to do that in Battlefield 2042.

W?hy this feature is so hidden is beyond me. But I?? hope this helps!

The post PSA: You can change squads in Battlefield 2042 appeared first on Destructoid.

Here's a big list of Update 2 and 3 highlights, many of which really should've been ready at launch

After a far-from-ideal launch for Battlefield 2042, DICE is charging ahead with changes, fixes, and sorely-missed additions that can improve the game for the "millions" of people who are �or at least were �playing it. In a lengthy blog post, the kind we've come to expect from DICE, the studio outlined its plan for a major update on November 25 and another in early December, with a third aiming to roll out in advance of the holidays.

Looking through the list of incoming changes, I can't help but wish Battlefield 2042 had been delayed again. Even just some of these improvements wo??uld've gone a long?? way.

If you're invested in Battlefield 2042 (or want to be when the game is in a better place), it's worth going through th?e full article from DICE. That said, I'll run through the highlights, which touch on concerns with bullet spread/bloom/deviation, a?im assist on consoles, the OP nature of the PP-29 and Hovercraft, XP gains in Portal Custom Experiences, vital missing HUD information for medics (and folks in need of a medic), and much more.

Battlefield 2042 Update 2 (November 25)

• Improved Soldier Revives, addressing ‘unable to revive when a Soldier dies close to an object, or wallâ€?
• A respawn protection system that will help to prevent any extraneous issues that can leave a player in a downed state for too long, and force a manual respawn when required.
• Re-enabling our UAV-1 Interaction in Battlefield Portal, available on our Battlefield Bad Company 2 maps. It was overpowered, and we’ve made adjustments to account for that.
• Vehicle Balancing for the LCAA Hovercraft and MD540 Nightbird mentioned above.
• Dispersion has been reduced for all weapons except Shotguns, which results in more consistent bullet spread during gameplay.
• [Update: The full patch notes for Update 2 can be found here.]

Battlefield 2042 Update 3 (early December)

• UI: Improved the collection screens making them easier to use and clear as to what you’re interacting with.
• UI: Improved the ways in which you’re able to manage your attachments via the collection screen to reduce the number of interactions you need to have when building your loadouts.
• Matchmaking: Improved the experience between EOR and the Main Menu.
• Friends: Fixes to Friend Invitations for players on PC.
• Progression: Introduction of weekly missions, providing set challenges that reward cosmetic unlocks.
• Progression: Added 1st match bonus of 1000 HZC for Hazard Zone.
• Rendering: Addressed a variety of visual flickering and stuttering issues.
• Maps: Over 150 individual fixes, small changes, and improvements across all of our Maps.
• Maps: Improved level geometry issues across all levels addressing issues such as players getting snagged or trapped.
• Maps: Resolved multiple spawning issues.
• Portal: Rush game mode layouts for all 2042 All-Out Warfare maps (through Portal).
• Portal: New official Infection template.
• Portal: Added Server Info for the Pause screen.
• Portal: A series of visual, audio, and gameplay improvements to weapons, vehicles, and gadgets.
• Hazard Zone: Added additional flares to extraction point offering players better visibility of extraction area, as well as providing additional cover.
• Hazard Zone: Added variation in Hazard Zone to preplaced intel locations. Initial Data Capsules now have a chance to contain several data drives.
• Hazard Zone: Made it easier to interact with intel pick-ups.
• Conquest: Tuned information spamming in Conquest, reducing the amount of messages that appear in the world log. In particular, we reduced messages about flag state changes so that they’re not as distracting.
• Breakthrough: Tuned capture times for Breakthrough.
• Breakthrough: Improved out-of-bounds defender spawning in Breakthrough to ensure that you’re able to more consistently spawn in safety.
• Loadouts: A fix for missing loadouts, sometimes seen when first loading into a server and seeing blank boxes on the deploy screen.
• Vehicles: Balanced Nightbird minigun spread buildup and convergence.
• Vehicles: Gadgets no longer pause their cooldown when the player enters a vehicle.
• Weapons: Reduced spread globally when zoomed and moving.
• Weapons: Improved stationary zoomed accuracy for many weapons.
• Weapons: Spread now decreases faster and earlier when pacing shots. This means more success with single-fire or short bursts.
• Weapons: Increased PP-29 vertical recoil to ensure that the weapon does not overperform when engaging outside of its intended combat range.
• Weapons: Fixed an issue where spread would be too high when trying to fire while zoomed right after sprinting for some Portal weapons.
• HUD: Added a UI list that shows nearby players that can revive you within 50m when downed.
• HUD: Added a UI list that shows incoming revivers when downed and pinged by a player that intends to revive you.
• HUD: When low on ammo or health, nearby friendly players within 50m will now show a resource icon above their head indicating that they can provide you with health or ammo.
• HUD: Increased Big Map Resolution for improved navigation.
• HUD: Added health bars on enemy vehicles and enemy soldiers when looked at.
• HUD: All player world icons now scale over distance, making them smaller when far away in an effort to reduce icons cluttering the screen.
• HUD: Time before revive completion is now visible for the downed player when being revived.
• Bots: Fixed issue where Bots sometimes didn’t revive players.
• Bots: Improved Bots helicopter handling, combat behaviors, and game mode behaviors.
• Audio: Improved weapon mix for enemies firing at the player.
• Audio: Generally tweaked content and mix for distant weapons, improving audibility at range.
• Angel: Players that require armor and can receive it now have a white outline around them to indicate that the magnetism will throw the armor to the outlined player.
• Angel: Player can hold down the specialist ability button to self-apply armor.
• Rao: Added a short grace period for Rao's Cyber Warfare Suite when something occludes the target being hacked. This will help most frequently when trying to hack vehicles that may be driving in front of trees.
• Paik: The EMG-X Scanner should now be able to spot targets above or below Paik.
• Casper: Improved the visibility of Enemy Recon Drones; they now have lights making them easier to see.
• Casper: Increased the range of the EMP on the OV-P Recon Drone.
• Casper: Increased the OV-P Recon Drone’s hitbox size to make it easier to hit.
• Boris: The SG-36 Sentry Gun will now be destroyed when the owner dies instead of when the owner is downed.
• Falck: Added Lock On and Lock Off sounds for S21 Syrette Pistol for when a target is designated by the magnetism of the S21 Syrette Pistol.
• Falck: Players that require health and can receive it now have a white outline around them to indicate that the magnetism will fire at the outlined target.
• C5: Fixed a bug where the C5 Explosive blast damage was sometimes inconsistent when trying to detonate the C5 Explosive on a moving vehicle.
• C5: Adjusted the deploy time of the C5 Explosive and reduced the delay before allowing it to be detonated to improve responsiveness.
• Medical Crate and Supply Crate: Improved responsiveness of Medical and Supply crates deployment. It is now possible to throw them a lot quicker after selecting them.
• Repair Tool: Improved the Repair Tool so that it is quicker to equip and put away.
• Insertion Beacon: EMP now blocks spawning on Insertion Beacons.
• Soldier: Reduced occurrences where Specialists can be seen with low-quality animations in the distance.
• Soldier: Adjusted the pose of the legs when falling to avoid legs blocking the view.
• Melee: Decreased the range in which you can melee a player.
• Melee: You can no longer perform a takedown on a soldier climbing a ladder.

Again, this list isn't exhaustive??. Even DICE's own list today is a "snapshot."

So, what about aim assist? Some players feel like there?'s not enough on consoles. The developers say aim assist is "not consistently behaving in line with our designs," and there's also an "odd inconsistency" with PC aiming "relative to your mouse sensitivity settings." A fix for the latter will be in the third upcoming update at the ?earliest.

If you're wondering what's up with XP in Portal, the deve?lopers accidentally overcorrected "limiters" meant to combat XP farms, and things should be in a better?? place now.

"This past weekend we were able to reintroduce those caps and developed smarter XP and progression caps that have allowed us to re-enable XP earned via Portal Custom Experiences," noted the team?. "We will continue to monitor fo??r XP Farm Servers and take appropriate actions to remove them from the pool when needed."

Apart from having more consistent gunplay with those bullet-spread adjustments, I'm most excited about some of the UI touch-ups (the menus are more of a slog than they need to be) and t?he features that'll help me as a support player (like the new white outlines on players who need armor from Angel or healing from Falck).

Apart from Specialist changes hopefully leading to a better sense of teamwork, I also hope those "150 individual fix??es, small changes, and improvements" for al??l of the maps have a noticeable impact, as map design is one of the sticking points for a lot of players.

The future of Battlefield 2042

As for big-ticket requests like a useful scoreboard and voice chat in Battlefield 2042, DICE said it is "carefully evaluating" these and other "legacy features" that aren't currently in the game. "End-of-match Scoreboard, Server Browser??, and features like Voice Chat are big topics for us to cover all at once, and we have plenty we want to say around them," accordi?ng to today's post. "We’ll come back to you when we have things that we can show to you, including details about our long-term vision for certain features and functions."

The team also said it "will be supporting and evolving [the game] for years to come," and it'll have more to say about Battlefield 2042 Season 1 in "early 2022."

I'll say this much: fan sentiment can quickly change with high-impact updates, but it's going to take a significant turnaround to course-correct that "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam. These first few updates are restoring my faith in the promise of Battlefield 2042, yet I know that these games can fluctuate wildly from one patch to the next and this one, in particular, has what I feel are going to be challenging design iss??ues to overcome.

The post Major Battlefield 2042 u?pdates are coming Nov. 25 and in early December appeared first on Destructoid.

Growing pains

Battlefield fans have been through troubled launches before, and while I hoped that things would be different for Battlefield 2042 as a multipl?ayer-only experience wi?thout a half-baked story campaign eating up development resources, it just wasn't meant to be.

While DICE has nailed a sense of spectacle with tornadoes and sandstorms sweeping across huge maps with 128-player skirmishes, and there's a lot to love about its Battlefield 1942, Bad Company 2, and BF3 revivals in the Portal suite of player-customizable modes, so many grievances are adding up to spoil this game. When the stars align and the game works as the designers intended, I like it fine �but I don't love it, and with all of the hopes t?hat this would be a confident step forward for? the modern series, that really stings.

I've seen worse launches, but I expected better from Battlefield 2042.

Battlefield 2042 (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: November 12, 2021 (early access) / November 19, 2021
MSRP: $59.99 / $69.99

When your hopefully tight-knit squad and your dozens of other teammates are out there supporting each other with objective capturing and defending, and the servers are holding up enough to keep the rubber-banding at bay, Battlefield 2042 is genuinely good fun. It can feel like the "big new take on modern Battlefield combat" you have in your mind's eye.

Wingsuiting off the tops of skyscrapers, drifting along the dunes in a ??heavily-fortified hovercraft, rushing out of cover to pop an intimidating tank with explosives because it's still one of the most satisfying thrills in multiplayer ga?ming �these are the moments.

Many of the things that make the Battlefield series special are present in 2042. But too many of them aren't. It once again feels like we'v??e taken a (temporary?) step back.

Without even going into the sprawled-out and too-empty map designs in Conquest (and to a lesser extent Breakthrough), or the arguably flawed "specialist" character system that has taken the place of the traditional Battlefield classes, 2042 simply feels rushed. As I said in my review-in-progress, even when I?'m having a decent time, it can be so un??even.

I've noticed inherently better teamwork dynamics as the days have gone on, which is to be expected as we all figure out each map's hotspots and fine-tune our loadouts with slow unlocks. That said, I feel like parts of 2042 are fundamentally at odds with how real-world players will use the tools �and newfound free??dom �that's available to them.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV5Tc1Z4DnI

There are ways to play Battlefield 2042 that result in an engaging, thrilling, and surprising "I can't believe that just happened!" FPS experience; it comes down to using the right weapon for the right situation and knowing whe??n to be patient and when to take chances. You can do your best as a cog in the war machine, and you need to rely on other cogs, too.

On the flip side, there are a hundred ways to not play this game. I feel like that has been true of Battlefield before to an extent �you've gotta stick to th??e objectives and roll with your squad �but here, it feels like the onus is almost entirely on players t?o not be selfish.

Instead of naturally encouraging players to synergize and strategize, the game design seems too indifferent �as if the maps, modes, character roles, and equipment were built separately rather than in tandem with one another. In the worst-case scenario with up to 128-player firefights on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, you might be constantly picked off and spend a huge chunk of your time waiting to respawn �or run, drive, or fly �to the next point of interest only to immediately die again before getting even the most minimal lay of the land. The odds can feel stacked agains?t you in Conquest like never before.

While it helps that you can pretty regularly summon vehicle air-drops even after you've deployed on the ground (as well as call in a freaky "Ranger" robot dog that runs by your side and takes potshots at god knows what), there's no getting around the scope of All-Out Warfare in Battlefield 2042. There's too much wasted space in the sprawl, and that feeling is exponential if you're traveling on foot. I understand that there needs to b??e enough room for everyone's antics with tanks, choppers, jets, and hovercraft, but too many of the seven All-Out Warfare maps at launch feel less than ideal. I'm curious if the solution might be to trim sections of these gargantuan maps or add more noteworthy locales to the barren areas. It's hard to say for sure, but it definitely feels off right now.

Plenty of Battlefield games have come out of the gate with clear flaws only for them to be addressed after launch, and while it can be dreadful in the meantime, they ultimately end up ??in a great spot when the dust finally settles. In an ideal world, DICE would come off of the last game and only build on its momentum to reach new heights we haven't seen before. Instead, history keeps repeating itself with all-too-common problems we thought were ironed out multiple games ago, to say nothing of new-to-this-game setbacks.

It's a combination of technical struggles, basic missing features like voice chat and a useful scoreboard, and an overall vision for the game that feels incomplete. Even though I feel like a lot of positive progress was made after the open beta, I've still had a rocky experience with the publicly available "one week early" version of Battlefield 2042. We're in an era where it pays to hold off getting big new releases, and?? even from that it'll-be-a-little-rough-at-launch mindset, t?his is a letdown for a $60/$70 multiplayer game.

Some of the issues �like buggy revives that make your teammates think you're a total prick �could be short-lived. Other woes, like wonky mid- and long-range shootouts with certain weapons suffering from bizarr?e bullet spread, or poor UI decisions leading to a bogged-down and confused user experience, might be here to stay for a while longer.

There's also the audio, which is usually an undeniable high point for the series �like much of the 2042's content at launch,? it feels weirdly und?erstated and barebones.

Originally, I was skeptical of the "hero shooter"-style specialists in Battlefield 2042, but the more I play, the more I'm at peace with them. Yeah, some of their unique gear-based abilities aren't super useful (expect to see a lot of wingsuits and sentry guns), and it's also tough to gauge who's under- and overrepresented on your team in big battles. But I don't think DIC??E needs to strip out or overhaul the specialists. Refinements can?? be enough.

The main thing you need to know is that you're going to see the same faces again and again (at least until more specialists are added and more players unlock cosmetic items), which can be jarring. And even though a specialist might be classified as a healer, they can still bring in a sniper rifle, or C5, or whatever else on top of their healing syrette pistol. These named characters have a couple of unique-to-them perks to consider, but beyond these specializations, everyone can rock everything in 2042's All-Out Warfare modes.

At launch, I think seven maps is enough �or rather, it would be if I dug them all. I wish we had another main mode beyond Conquest (which I usually like but feels too unfocused here in 2042) and Breakthrough (which captures some of the same spirit and momentum as Rush but isn't a complete replacement). If you're bummed out by that lack of options, you'll need to dig into Portal, which is where all of the custom games and legacy Battlefield experiences live. There's also Hazard Zone, the third slice of 2042, but you need a good, communicative squad to stand ??a chance at staying alive, much less catching one of two rides off the map with your "data drive" goods in hand. I'm skeptical of its longevity.

I can see a passionate community forming around Hazard Zone, or I can see it petering out. If you want a more focused, intense, teamwork-oriented experience, try and group up with folks you trust over Discord, rather than randoms via matchmaking. There are some interesting progression choices (the idea is to perform well so you can afford better guns and gear in the next round, and it pays to have a hot streak), yet I can't shake the feeling that this is a flavor-of-the-month answer to the battle royale trend. (Hey, at least it's not Battlefield V's Firestorm.) Either way, it'll be my least-played part of Battlefield 2042.

Straight up, and I say this as someone who can still enjoy All-Out Warfare despite the many small and not-so-small annoyances, Portal is where it's at. For some people, it'll be the only attraction; for others, it'll be just as important as the "real" 2042 modes.

If the Battlefield community comes out with great custom modes using the Battlefield Portal logic editor, by all means, go for it. I think folks will work wonders; they almost always do! But even if they don't �or some of these wacky creations are too niche to support a full server �then at least we've got recreations of select maps and gameplay from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3. You can easily jump into these classic experiences via big menu banners, and the iconic classes, weapons, and gear loadouts are back. Even with just two maps per game, I'm already having a blast. There's whiplash going from 2042 to these chaotic time-tested maps where you're never more than 15 seconds from a cool setpiece moment or a satisfying sh??ootout. It's the norm.

If you don't have nostalgia for the classics, I still believe you'll have fun with Bad Company 2's Rush and 1942 and BF3's Conquest. These particular ?gameplay loops really hold up.

To be clear, I've had good times with pretty much every Battlefield, so when I say that Portal captures the magic again, I'm not coming from a rigid mindset where I think that DICE shouldn't deviate from the old Battlefield formula. I like risk-taking within reason, I just think that right now, at launch, the classic games in Portal are generally tuned better than what's in All-Out Warfare. If we can get Battlefield 1 content too, that'd be swell.

I would advise caution if you're on the fence about 2042 and Portal is the only thing about to push you over �it's still relatively limited as far as the whole package goes, and it's unclear how much more legacy content will be added (and how far away it might be).

Aside from UI annoyances, hit-or-miss server woes that sound like they're widespread on all platforms, and some draw-distance silliness with character animations, I'm satisfied with the performance on PS5 given the scale of everything. The escalating weather events look dramatic �especially as explosive player-led chaos is popping off in all directions �and the frame rate is as smooth?? as I'd want it to be. That counts for something.

It's unfortunate that Battlefield 2042 wasn't able to build off the mechanical highs (and lows) of Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V with a killer day-one release. This doesn't feel like an extension of where those games ended up after lots of feedback and patches �instead, it's trying out some new ideas and ditching a bunch more. I can't fully wrap my head around it yet. I keep coming back to the notion that the near-future vision for 2042 was shaky, and that the ensuing game was rushed out for the holidays. I just feel it as I p??la??y.

I still support the decision to forgo a story campaign, and I'm okay with the more hardcore Hazard Zone mode potentially not panning out long-term. Portal is as fun as everyone hoped and expected, to the point where Battlefield 2042 would be dire without it. As for the main Conquest and Breakthrough modes in All-Out Warfare, they're decent fun at best, and mildly frustrating at worst. Those staple unscripted "only in Battlefield moments" are still here?? �but they're not nearly as prevalent as they shoul?d be.

All told, I'm really mixed on this game. With more time and testing, I think 2042 could've achieved the best of both worlds and resonated with fans who didn't fully click with Battlefield 1 or Battlefield V despite their intense combat and immersive traversal. I suspect DICE will be able to make up a lot of ground ??in the weeks and months after launch (in terms of missing features, bugs, and hopefully some design changes), but that doesn't excuse the current state of the game. It also doesn't help the ear??ly players who have to try and work within these confines and quirks to have a consistently enjoyable experience.

Battlefield 2042 feels like it could become a cool game, but it's tantalizingly out of reach today. There's enough promise with the satisfying-when-it-works gunplay, large-scale chaos (that's starting to feel more controlled over time), and fantastic legacy Battlefield content in Portal that I'll stick around for a bit. It did??n't have to be this way, though.

_{[This review is based on retail builds of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Battlefield 2042 appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a lot to fix, and DICE hopes to have an update out 'at the end of next week'

It's been a tumultuous launch for Battlefield 2042, to put it lightly. This isn't a particularly easy fanbase to please in the best of circumstances, but this year's high-stakes Battlefield is having an even rougher go than normal, and depending on who you ask, it could take a long time �and a lot of critical updates �for 2042 to reach its big-battle potential.

Some players, like me, are struggling to find the fun on some of these sprawling maps but keep trying to capture those ridiculous Battlefield moments when we can. Others dipped their toes in with the trial only to quickly peace out. Today, after a week of early access, Battlefield 2042 officially launch??ed. So where are we at with ?some of these fixes?

DICE has a site up for known issues, though there's more work being done beyond what's listed there. A recent thread from the official @BattlefieldComm account spoke about other problems with Battlefield 2042 that are in the mix along with a rough ETA:

• Soldier Revives â€?"We're confident that we've identified the cause of the issue t??hat was preventing you from always getting off a revive, particularly when a playe?r is in close proximity to nearby geometry. A fix for this is on the way."
• Soldier Revives (pt. 2) â€?"Separately we're closing in on a possible server-side fix for players who in rare ci??rcumstances find themselves unable to respawn. If that server-side fix doesn't stick, we already have a further solution lined up for our upcoming update."
• UAV-1 Interaction â€?"We temporarily removed this whilst we could evaluate the best way to keep it balanced, and fun. That work is now complete and we'll be looking to re-enable this alongside the next update."
  
• Missing Loadouts â€?"A rare issue that could sometimes cause a data call to fail on our end now has a fix developed, and is presently in?? testing. We're keen to roll this one out to you all and make sure that you? don't have that frustration of needing to reconnect to a server."
• Vehicle Balancing â€?"The LCAA Hovercraft will be re-equipped with lighter armor, lowering its health, and we're tuning down some of its weaponry. The MD540? Nightbird will have similar tuning done on its weaponry too. We're keeping a close eye on early balance for future changes."

"We'll keep you updated here on further fixes, and changes we have coming in our next updates," said the Battlefield Direct Communication account. "These changes, and more, are presently scheduled for deploy at the end of next week."

Off the top of my head, I have struggled with "persistence data" errors (that prevent me from even reaching the main? menu), rubberbanding (that isn't strictly unplayable but really messes up the feel of longer-range gunplay in particular), bugged revives (that are the bane of my existence as mainly a medic), and broken loadouts (that keep me from quickly switching to gadgets and guns to respond to certain threats, ?like vehicles).

That's to say nothing of larger (potentially harder-to-resolve) game design issues that some players have expressed with Battlefield 2042. Funnily enough, the game runs quite well for me on PS5, though I've heard complaints about the PC version. For me, it's a flawed but sometimes fun experience at best right now, even without lots of bugs. I'm nervous about how DICE may (or may not) take?? players' wid??er feedback to heart.

I know I should stick with the classic 1942, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3 experiences in Portal, as they're the most reliably fun ways to engage with 2042, but I kind of can't change the fact that I want to like the main All-Out Warfare modes. There's something here �it??'s just that the awesome squad-based antics can feel so few and far between.

I'll say this much: the whiplash I experienced going from an average round of Battlefield 2042 to my first (immensely satisfying) Oddball match in Halo Infinite was eye-opening.

The post Battl?efield 2042 fixes are coming for buggy revives and loadouts appeared first on Destructoid.

It's not stupid if it works

While Battlefield 2042 players are busy voicing their concerns about the spotty state of the game after its first weekend of early-access availability, there's enough space to also share amusing clips and ease the pain with laughter while we wait for DICE to roll out updates. I haven't seen this trend in-game, but it seems that a certain "crazy enough to work" strategy involving tanks and elevators has begun to take root in Battlefield 2042.

Getting pummeled point-blank by a tank is nothing new for the Battlefield series, but the ways in which it can happen in Battlefield 2042 are fresh. With the ability to call in a vehicle air-drop, players have figured out that perching on top of skyscrapers with a tank is actually a viable enough strategy to? catch a few unsuspecting soldiers off-guard.

You migh?t expect to see a firing squad at t??he end of an elevator ride, but this?

//www.reddit.com/?r/Battlefield/comments/qv4p0n/this_game_is_something_else/

Here's what it looks like from the soldier's POV:

//www.reddit.com/r/Battlefield??/comments/qv7h94/elevator_going_up/

And that's not the only vehicl??e to watch out for �hovercraft can worm their way up too.

//w?ww.reddit.com/r/Battlef??ield/comments/qv5hdb/the_hovercraft_always_finds_a_way/

Skyscraper tanks aren't going to turn the tide of battle, and there are plenty of answers for a pesky land vehicle that intentionally gets itself stranded hundreds of feet up, but it's hilarious to see this plan come together. It's funny from the outside?? looking in at these poor souls, and frankly, I think it'd still be funny if it happened to me �for a time, anyw??ay.

Even though I'm pretty mixed on Battlefield 2042, I'm having fun here and there when it works, and I genuinely enjoy seeing players' wacky antics online. Maybe I'll take some cues from the community and try to pull off the soon-to-be-iconic wingsuit C5 drop.

I'm worried about the servers holding up on launch day (November 19), so I need to act fast. More than that, though, Halo: Infinite multiplayer is also calling my name.

The post Battlefi??eld 2042 tanks are sitting atop skyscrapers to pummel players as soon as the elevators open appeared first on Destructoid.

Uneven, to say the least

It's been a rocky (early access) launch for Battlefield 2042 for many players, which comes as no surprise. Even when it works, and you're not struggling with online errors kicking you back to the main m?enu, the results are mixed among fans, myself included.

But after the way the open beta went down, it's actually smoother than I was expecting.

We decided to turn down EA's review event for Battlefield 2042 in part because this is a multiplayer game with no campaign whatsoever, so I'm coming at you with around five ?hours of real-world playtime against other players and the AI. Last night's matches worked like a charm, a good chunk of today was spent just dealing with server issues, and I'm still very much figuring out how I feel about this game's design and long-term vision.

I mean, it's a Battlefield launch. Things can only go up from here. (I hop??e.)

Battlefield 2042 (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: November 12, 2021 (early access) / November 19, 2021
MSRP: $59.99 / $69.99

I'm liking the full version of Battlefield 2042 way more t??han the very content-limited and rough-around-the-edges be?ta �the difference was immediately noticeable.

There are still foundational concerns with DICE's new approach, but compared to the open beta, the gunplay feels much more reliable, the maps have more personality, and the sprawled-out skirmishes are more readable. It wasn't ??as hard to find the fun.

There are three main facets of Battlefield 2042: All-Out Warfare (with Conquest and Breakthrough modes), Portal (with player-customized gametypes and official recreations of three classic Battlefield experiences), and Hazard Zone (the squad-based "fight smart and get out alive" PvPvE mode). I'??ve spent the least amoun?t of time with the latter.

I won't beat around the bush here: the best part of Battlefield 2042 is arguably Portal. That might seem like a no-brainer to some of you, but I honestly didn't come in expecting?? that to be the case. Unlike the gargantuan maps in All-Out Warfare, these official and unofficial modes can feel more deliberate, manageable, and most of all, fun. They're a blas??t.

I've yet to mess around with funky user-made modes (much less attempted to create my own), but I keep coming back to Portal. DICE has leaned into nostalgia with classic Rush and Conquest gameplay on Battlefield 1942's Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein, Bad Company 2's Valparaiso and Arica Harbor, and Battlefield 3's Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals. If you have a soft spot for any of these games (or especially all three), you should have a riot with Portal. You don't need to dig into any obscure server list �they're right there on the main Portal menu, and they recreate the weapons, gadgets, and most importantly classes of those iconic games. This stuff looks and feels great. Now I wouldn't go dropping $60 or $70 on Battlefield 2042 solely for this slice �again, it's o??nly two maps per legacy game at this point �but Portal is already doing a lot of heavy lifting.

That's not to say the big new semi-futuristic side of Battlefield 2042 with 128-player battles is a total bust or anything. It's just not the hom??e run it could and really should b?e.

The specialist system �in which you pick a named character with a unique trait and specialty who can mix and match weapons and gear, rather than a strict all-or-nothing archetype �is still divisive. It doesn't feel entirely gameplay motivated so much as a way to inject a bit of characterization (and eventual monetization?) into the game even though most of us seem to prefer tried-and-true Battlefield classes and the ensuing teamwork.

The main issue I have with specialists as a general concept is that players have so many options with their equipment loadouts, it's hard to get your team to meaningfully specialize, and that has big ramifications. As o??ne example, I've tended to play as the two current medic-leaning specialists, including Angel, who's good with revives and ammo top-ups �but I can totally roll with a sniper rifle or anti-vehicl??e gadget if I want.

Although some specialists have flashier perks like a wingsuit or grappling hook, plenty of them are more muted. Some of them (there are 10 so far with the launch lineup) already blur together. And specialists, in general, can kind of just feel like one extra layer you have to get through on top of your loadout and weapon customization. The menu??s add up.

I love the new Plus System in Battlefield 2042 for on-the-fly, mid-firefight attachment switching, but I hate the way it feels to swap to a different specialist and/or alter their loadout for a given tactical situation after I've been taken out and I'm looking for a new spot on the map to drop into. There are enough quirks going on with the UI that you almost need to build up muscl??e memory before you can learn to quickly move through it.

That might sound like a cranky nitpick, but I think it's having an impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay, which is the whole draw of the Battlefield series. I think there's a snowball effect between the fuzzily defined player roles, the huge 128-player matches (on? PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S?), and probably also the newness of the maps.

Battlefield is at its best when you feel like you're making small yet precise strikes to chip away at the opposing forces, and the rest of your squad is backing you up by doing the same, and every other squad on your side is also working one of many obje?ctives. It's not about winning, exactly �it's this gut feeling that co??nscious progress is being made.

On the flip side, there are aspects of All-Out Warfare I have yet to fully wrap my head around. I'm tempted to point to one glaring issue or another, but I think it's far more nuanced. I don't think it's just a matter of wide-open areas leading to futile firefights and an overall sense of despair over how challenging it is to change the tide of battle with even a coordinated squad, but maybe it is that simple. Maybe, with time, we'll all learn how to synergize on these sprawling maps with cool weather spectacles as a chaotic backdrop. As is, I'm feeling wistful about Battlefield V and Battlefield 1??, and while these games usually do ta??ke time to reach their full potential, there are no guarantees.

There are glitches to clean up, gameplay tweaks to make, heaps of fan feedback to heed or ignore, and new content to create to keep the live-service pipeline flowing. I hope DICE is ready. On a purely techni??cal front, the PS5 version has been relatively good to me other than the early-access launch-day connection iss??ues which weren't much of a surprise.

At this point �and it's still too early to call �I too rarely experience that warm and fuzzy Battlefield feeling in Conquest on the 2042 maps. When I flipped over to Portal for a smaller-scale round of Rush with the Bad Company 2 preset, the contrast was undeniable. Suddenly, it just resonated again. Both teams were playing to Battlefield's strengths.

I haven't completely made my mind up about All-Out Warfare in Battlefield 2042, and I also need to invest more time in Hazard Zone (even though it's not really my scene), so we'll see how the next week goes. At this point, I'd recommend playing the trial if at all possible. There are ways for DICE to turn this game around, but at this exact moment, I'm not feeling super confident about 2042's long-term prospects. The best moments are still a blast �it's a joy to parachute of?f a skyscraper while helicopters, tanks, and even hovercraft sow chaos below �but this game isn't effortlessly clicking the way it should.

_{[This review is based on retail builds of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review in Progress: Battlefield 2042 appeared first on Destructoid.

Build your own Battlefield

Battlefield 2042 is arriving soon, with three different game modes in tow. Alongside standard multiplayer and the new Hazard Zone mode, Electronic Arts and DICE are also including the Battlefield Portal, a map customization tool for making your own versions of classic Battlefield battles. Today, a new explainer dives deep into what options and settings are available to tinker with in the Battlefield Portal.

Getting started with it is easy enough: log into the Battlefield Portal website using your phone, tablet, or computer, you can start creating there, even if you don't own Battlefield 2042. EA says that just having an EA Account in "good standing" will let you log in and play with the tools, and you can share it with your friends later using a share code??.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbKJ_S6kqr8

Battlefield Portal will incorporate three different Battlefield entries alongside 2042: 1942, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3. For Game Mode options, you'll ??also have Conquest Large, Conquest, Rush, Free-For-All, and Team Deat?hmatch.

Many different map options are available too, which will let creators break up large maps into smaller chunks or simply use the massive layouts that exist. Notably, only next-gen consoles and PC players will be able to play the Large Layout maps. Here's?? the full lineup:

For opt??ions you can tweak, some are straightforward. They include Game Time, Per-Squad Character limit, whether Aim Assist is on, whether you can Prone or not, and what kind of Vehicles are available. Rules and modifiers can go even further, though.

Dive even deeper, and you'll find the Rules Editor, which will let creators use a toolbar to edit functions within the game system. It's unclear ri?ght now what players will be able to do with this, though it's fun to imag?ine.

Other server options will be av??ailable once you put your created maps live. These are commonplace server tools for those who remember playing FPS games on servers: kick, ban, unban, restart map, next map, and so on. There's something heartwarming about seeing them in a mo?dern FPS again.

If nothing else, I hope I can make a map solely dedicated to driving trucks into tornadoes. Battlefield Portal will launch alongside Battlefield 2042 on Nov. 19, 2021.

The post EA outlines the rules, modifiers, and settings you can toggle?? in Battlefield Portal appeared first on Destructoid.

A hacker, a shield, a wingsuit, wallhacks, and crates

Battlefield 2042 recently held an open beta, and it was met with some mixed reception. Today, alongside a new batch of Specialists that will be arriving in Battlefield 2042, Electronic Arts and DICE are responding to some of the critique??s of the ?open beta.

In a new blog, the team discusses some of the common criticisms it saw of the beta.? It's taking a number of ste?ps, both for the map Orbital—which was the one playable map in the open beta—and in a broader sense. For example, it's doubling the number of Tanks available on Orbital on next-gen systems and PC. Those funky elevators are also getting a fix, too.

Some quality-of-life changes, like a grenade indicator and the ability to vault on moving objects, should help a bit with the moment-to-moment combat. It also outlines the ??????????????????????????branching process, as DICE reiterates that the version playable in the open bet?a was an older version of the game.

"We knew that the Open Beta build would therefore not showcase where we’re at today with polish and how the game plays, not benefiting from all the additional work that’s been done on the game since we branched in August," reads the blog. "In addition to what you’ve seen today from our full line up of Specialists, and many of the updates that you can read about and see here, expect more Battlefield 2042 updates?? over the next fe??w weeks that let you get a glimpse of the great progress that the teams have made."

The team also put out a heat map from the Battlefield 2042 open beta. I really have to say, I love how the rooftop point—or the "Party Roof," as I call it—is lit u??p like a bonfire.

As for those Specialists, Battlefield 2042's new approach to both classes and hero-like abilities, we got a look at five more today. This includes a hacker who can mess with the environment and enemi??es alike, a shield-toting titan of a soldier, the wingsuit operator we've seen a few times, a Support-class fighter with a wallhack-like scanner, and a character that can drop Loadout Crates. Being able to swap loadouts to adjust on the fly, like picking up a sniper rifle or some anti-armor weapons, seems han??dy for team play.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFvZSwHq3nQ

Battlefield 2042 is set to launch on Nov. 19, 2021 for the PS4, ??PS5, Xbox One, Xbox ??Series X|S, and PC.

The post Battlefield 2042 shows off more Special??ists, responds to open beta criticisms appeared first on Destructoid.

Head into the storm

Electronic Arts and DICE have already revealed two of the three major modes coming to Battlefield 2042 at launch. Today, they detailed the third Battlefield 2042 mode, Hazard Zone.

Hazard Zone is a squad-based multiplayer mode, played on the regular Battlefield 2042 maps against both?? other human squads and NPC forces. Teams pick specialists and loadouts, and then insert into the battlefield? to hunt for data drives.

The goal of Hazard Zone is to get as many data drives as possible and then extract, at o??ne of two of the possible extraction times. If the team doesn't make it, they'll get swallowed up by the encroaching storm, along with any data drives on them?.

EA has been adamant that Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone mode is not a battle royale mode. From its description, it sounds similar to Escape From Tarkov. Getting in, getting da??ta, and getting out is the name of the? game, and while killing other squads can help with that goal, it's also not the main objective.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkMiPwL8G1w

Secured data drives open up avenues for meta-progression through dark market currency.? This will let you bring in new and better gear, or even special gadgets, like a tool that lets you call in "reinforcements" to revive? a downed-and-out squad member.

Hazard Zone will have 24 player-count bouts on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S consoles will have 32 player-count maps. This mirrors the player count difference in the?? All-Out Warfare modes as well, where newer-gen consoles and PC boast 128 players to previous-gen's 64.

EA and DICE recently hosted an open beta for Battlefield 2042 that led to some mixed reactions from the community. While it had lots of chaos and commotion, early players also pointed out plenty of tech?nical is?sues.

Battlefield 2042 will launch on ?No?v. 19, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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I'm bracing for impact in November

After a short early-access period for pre-orders, it's time to jump into the Battlefield 2042 open beta while we can �it's playable today and tomorrow (October 8�) on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam, Origin, and the Epic Games Store.

??For those of you who have put any time into the open beta, or even watched streams, let's check the pulse: a??re you happy, bummed, excited, or worried? Where is your head at?

_{You can go with weapons and items for your Specialist that would fall outside of their traditional "class."}

There's nothing like a Battlefield beta to remind me how bewildering the first match can be until I've got the controls, loadout, and overall flow of th??e map down. My first session with Conquest mode on the Orbital map was a total disaster, the kind where I felt like no matter where I chose to go or who I decided to tag along with, it was the wrong choice.

If I'm being honest, that's been typical of my experience with the Battlefield series; it usually does take me a couple of hours to sink back into this style of shooter and really feel confident. Doubly so when we're talking about a beta that just throws you right into a live match on a single available map. It's been a while since I've touched Battlefield 3 and 4, so I feel even more out of the loop with this modern-meets-near-future setup coming off of Battlefield V's WWII. That's not necessarily a criticism �tornados, grappling hooks, robot dogs, and air-dropped vehicles can all be fun �I just don't think I'm feeling it yet.

On PS5, I had lots of wacky visual bugs and minor issues, and that doesn't help, of course, but more than anything, I can't shake the feeling that something is... off. Maybe it's lots of little things, maybe it's the whole Specialist system, maybe a bunch of us are just playing less than optimally. I can't quite put my finger on it! The early vibe is "kinda conf??using, kinda generic." I expected to roll into battle with my squad, feel like we accomplished something, anything, and carry that excitement into the next skirmish. Instead, I feel like we're all just scurrying around endlessly and I can't tell who's doing what or why. My best time so far was staying back and keeping people topped up as the Medic. That I can do.

Simply put, most of my time in the open beta blurred together. If I'm being too vague with these impressions, I apologize. But I feel foggy about 2042, and I don't think I'm alone.

_{If a game lets me top up my teammates' health with a gun, I'm gonna do it. Or at least try.}

After hearing such positive things about the Halo Infinite test weekends, I wish I felt better about the Battlefield 2042 open beta. I need to put more time into it, definitely. That said, I'm not blown aw?ay by this first hand?s-on impression, and I kind of expected to be.

And while this doesn't shift my overall outlook, the beta build was "branched from [the] Full Release client a few months ago," so it's not completely up-to-date, as expected. DICE has summed up the beta's known issues, if ??you're curious. I'm expecting a rough launch.

"Since the time we branched the build for Open Beta, we've implemented numerous improvements into the launch build of the game," EA said today.

"The shift to November also gave us extra time to improve visual fidelity and stability issues that you may experience? during the Open Beta. We’re on track for worldwide launch on November 19th, and early access on Nov?ember 12th, when players will have full access to All-Out Warfare, Portal, and Hazard Zone."

I think there's fun to be had in Battlefield 2042, but in this (very limited) open beta slice, I'm struggling to find it. Now I'm even more curious about Portal and Hazard Zone.

The post Did the Battlefiel?d 2042 open beta change your ??mind about the game? appeared first on Destructoid.

Impressions from the open beta

When it comes to online FPS games, I like to cause chaos. I like to find ways to bend rules, do the unexpected, and take out enemies in bizarre "what-if" scenarios. I'm happy to say that Battlefield 2042 enables a great deal of chaos.

The Battlefield series has, in the past, been good at allowing moments like those to happen, whether it's driving a buggy rigged with C4 into the Commander's radar array or sneaking onto the enemy's aircraft carrier and stealing their jets. And in Battlefield 2042, I found plenty of opportunities to ask "what-if" and find out, often to delightful results??.

We got the chance to go hands-on with the open beta content for a few hours, ahead of it going live on Oct. 6. Despite featuring just one map (Orbital) and one mode (Conquest), the best possible thing I can say about Battlefield 2042 is that even after a few s?traight hours of playing it, I sti??ll wanted more.

I haven't had the Battlefield bug for a while now, to be honest. I put more hours than I can remember into 1942 and Battlefield 2, but I dropped off the series for a long time after that. But then, it's also been a while since we've had a more modern(ish) Battlefield game. The series' last three games ventured into side concepts: two were historical warfare, and another was the cops-and-robbers-themed Hardline.

Battlefield 2042 isn't quite as futuristic as Battlefield 2142 (so sorry, no Titans), but it definitely looks to the future with some of its technology. You don't just play a soldier, but a specialist equipped with a signature gadget that gives them a little more identity within their own role. You can also pick your loadout from among the game's different weapons, so if you want to be a submachine gun-toting Engineer or a sniper Support, go for it. The quick-attachment system makes it incredibly easy to mod your gun on the fly, swapping out scopes and attachments to suit the battle. And each specialist's ability gives the develop?ers fun ways to develop identities and play styles within the class, and an avenue for expanding out the class roles in the updates to come.

The map, Orbital, is medium-sized by DICE's internal standard and focused around a rocket that will blast off into the stratosphere at some point during the battle. There are a bunch of other facilities to fight around, but the big rocket is always looming in the distance. Yes, this rocket is destructible. No, I wasn??'t able to grapple onto the rocket and ride it like a cowboy into space.

I mention that because it was one of the few times where it felt like Battlefield 2042 didn't "yes, and" my dumbest ideas. Throughout my few hours with the beta, I saw players parachuting off tall buildings to rain down on those below. Engineers would hold do?wn points by themselves with their trusty sentry gun and robot dog companion they can call in through the in-game airdrop option. Tanks slowly rolled across the field, and jets soared overhead.

I was queued with someone from another games site, and we declared B1 the "party roof," because the point—atop a tall, tall building with a helicopter pad that felt like a nod to Nakatomi Plaza—was constantly under siege from helicopters, fighter planes, and infantry landing from above and surging up from below. It was chaos, and I loved it. When we drove a truck into a storm later on, we both laughed w?ith sheer delight as it sent our pick-up soaring across the map and out of the battle.

The storms, by th??e way, are a sight to behold. I only glimpsed one during my time playing, but when it started roaring its way across the map, just about everyone on the server dropped what they were doing and took off into it. One of my fondest memories in gaming this year will likely be sailing around the edge of the storm in my parachute, letting the terrifying winds lift me up and carry me, and looking around to see half a server's worth of players float??ing around in the sky amid a tornado. It was beautiful.

I could talk a lot about what guns and tanks were available, or how well-designed the map is (I really did like this map though), or the cool UI touches like the augmented reality heads-up display glitching out around the storm. B??ut it was the little moments of player-induced creativity that really reminded me why I dig these games in the first place.

Spawning into a teammate's helicopter and manning a gun turret for them is just straight-up fun. Holding down a point and then turning towards a distant rumbling to see a tornado barreling towards you is exciting. I stopped and paused to watch the rocket take off ??every time I heard the sirens start to blare.

Everyone will have a chance to go hands-on with Battlefield 2042 soon, and it's what you would expect: it's more Battlefield, with a vaguely-ahead-of-modern-times twist. Being able to call in recon vehicles to help get to points faster is nice, and so is blasting the in-game radio as you speed through an underground tunnel, only to head-on ram an enemy jeep doi?ng the same.

My time with Battlefield 2042 was filled with these little moments of chaotic player intera?ction, and they were a blast, every single time. And now I'm just lookin??g forward to getting even more time to find out what else there is to see in the open beta.

The open beta for Battlefield 2042 will run from ??Oct. 6 through 9. The game itself will launch for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Nov. 19, 2021.

The post Battlefield 2042 let me drive a truck into a future tornado, and ?it ru??led appeared first on Destructoid.

Block and report players from inside the game

Developer DICE has already discussed ways in which Battlefield 2042 is building up the gameplay of its upcoming FPS. But today, the studio posted a blog addressing the social aspects of its game, and how it will be addressing community and conduct, including cheaters, within Battlefield 2042.

In a post about DICE's commitment to "Positive Play," the studio details how its addressing player interactions in Battlefield 2042. This ranges from some guidelines for how to treat other folks in-game, to improved tools for pinging peop??le who are detracting from the experience.

First off is the Community Charter, which outlines its expectations for players in Battlefield 2042. These include some "Golden Rule" topics, and not shar?ing inappropriate content.

What's likely to appeal to Battlefield players are improved tools for muting, blocking, and reporting players from within the game. DICE says that reporting a player is faster than previous Battlefield games. It should be easier now to report someo??ne and return to the fight, as well as options for muting some or all players, in text and voice chat.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdA6V5PIEFw

Even the Battlefield Portal, DICE's custom game feature for Battlefield 2042, will let players use admin tools to apply persistent ba?ns t??o players across the Community Experiences they've created.

DICE also says it will be investing in developing internal capabilities and? technologies to augment third-party anti-cheat solutions, so there will be "multiple layers of defense" against c?heaters. And for consoles, mouse and keyboard support won't be enabled at launch, though they will still investigate options for the future.

It's good to have a commitment to tackling cheaters from the get-go, as well as some streamlined options for reporting or avoiding players in matches. Hopefully those tools make the launch of Battlefield 2042 on Nov. 19 smooth. The open beta, meanwhile, is set to go live next week.

The post Battlefield 2042 will have a streamlined reporting pro?cess appeared first on Destructoid.