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 fee??ling 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 p??layer-feedback points, and a few more.

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

For high-priority maps like Kaleidoscope, where there's far from a silver-bullet solution, that means a rethink in multiple areas, which will take "substantial development time" to fully impleme?nt. 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 prevalent in my time.

M??ore than 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 redu??ce opportunities for enemy fire to come in from all around y??ou.

We’ll also review the player counts across modes such as Breakthrough, as well as the types and number of vehicles that can be used on specifi?c maps. For example, does it make sense to have (multiple) Jets on Kaleidoscope if that is our smallest map? It’s important 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 e??xperience."

Season One of Battlefield 2042 will start in "early summer," which is later than expected. Clearly, there's still much to be done even be??fore new content s??tarts 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... no?t like this.

The post New Battlefield 2042?? maps will be smaller in scale appeared first on Destructoid.

Enthusiasm for controversial market neutered

In a financial earnings call for the third quarter of its fiscal year, publisher Electronic Arts has spoken of its disappointment with the under-expectation sales of its beleaguered military shooter, Battlefield 2042.

"We did have a challenge in Q3 as the launch of Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations," s?aid CEO Andrew Wilson, in a call tra?nscribed by Seeking Alpha. "Battlefield 2042 was always an am?bitious game and our teams pushed to innovate across many dimensions including massive scale and 128-player matches, new modes, new dynamic gameplay, and more."

Wilson also referenced the "unanticipated performance issues" that have bothered the title during its launch period, while also noting that some of Battlefield 2042's general design decisions and?? new gameplay mechanics might not have resonated with the franc??hise's player base.

"Some of the design choices we made with the game also did not resonate with everyone in our community," said Wilson. "We are fully committed to realizing the full potential of this game and fully committed to our Battlefield fans. We have already implemented a series of ?major u??pdates to the game, and there is more to be done."

In additional comments, it appears that EA might be backtracking on its initial heated enthusiasm to enter the NFT market. Despite the controversi??al scheme seeming custom-designed for Electronic Arts range of sports titles, Wilson stated during the call that the company was "not looking at anything at this juncture."

"I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry and the games and experiences that we offer our players," continues Wilson."Whether that's part of the NFT and the blockchain? Well, that remains to be seen. And I think the way we think about it, is we want to deliver the best possible player exper?ience we can. And so we're going to �we will evaluate that over time. But right now, it's not something that we're driving audience."

Previously, EA had spoken of the NFT trend being a very important part of the gaming industry's future. But it seems that the publisher is choosing to pump the brakes on that future, at least for the time being. As to what might have led to this sudden change of heart �we may never know.

The post EA disappointed with Battlefield 2042 launch, cools off N??FT plan 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 10:00 a.m. Pacific on Monday, Decem??ber 20, so if you're c??urious, 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 and Breakthrough and a nift?y 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. C??ertain players appreciate the all-out chaos of 128-player matches, but more often than not, I just fin??d 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 Kaleidoscope maps �in update 3.1. In their place, there will be objectives to capt??ure at the bottom.

Here's ?a funny demonstration of the pre-patch Breakthrough 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-spo??tting radius and uptime. A??im assist 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 s??orts of launches again and again, but at least the teams hit 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

The post Battlefield 2042 update 3.1 throws out a few grueling rooftop capt?ure points and makes it easi??er for Xbox players to turn off cross-play appeared first on Destructoid.

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 improvements."

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).

There are tons of ??broader 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 o?n 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: the??re will be three missions that "you can track via the main menu." Every mission will have 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 pr?ogress" but "some improvements" will be made soon.

On that note, "one more small update focused on further balance changes and general bug fixe?s" is plann??ed for early December. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

The post Battlefield 2042 Update 3 is out Dec. 2 and these UI chang?es will go a long way appeared first on Destructoid.

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 (understand??ab??ly) 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 versi?on as an example.

From th??e deployment screen with a view of the?? map, press the Options button (aka the "start" button), then you'll want to enter the menu called "Squad and Players."

From here, there's a big list 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 version, but I believe it's just a matter of right-clicking y??our 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.

Why 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 would'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 the full article from DICE. That said, I'll run through the highlights, which touch on concerns with bullet spread/bloom/deviation, aim assist on consoles, the OP nature of the PP-29 and Hovercraft, XP gains in Portal Custom Experiences, vital missing HUD information fo?r medics (and folks in need of a medic), and mu?ch 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 exhaus??tive. Even DICE's own lis??t 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 "no??t 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 developers 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 con??tinue to monitor for XP Farm Servers and take appropriate actions to remove them from the pool when needed."

Apart from having more consis??tent gunplay with those bullet-spread adjustments, I'm most excited about some of the U?I touch-ups (the menus are more of a slog than they need to be) and the 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 fixes, small changes, and improvements" for all of the maps have a notic?eable 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 onc??e, and we have plenty we want to say around them," according to today's post. "W?e’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 f?eel are going to ??be challenging design issues to overcome.

The post Major Battlefield?? 2042 updates ??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 multiplayer-only experience without 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 that this would be a confident step forward f??or 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 heav?ily-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 gaming �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 onc??e a??gain feels like we've 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?? de??cent time, it can be so uneven.

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 f?reedom �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 when 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 �yo??u've gotta stick to the objectives and roll with your squad �but here, it feels like the o??nus is almost entirely on players to not be selfish.

Instead of naturally encouraging players to synergize and strategize, the game desi??gn 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 against 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 be enough room for ev?eryone'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 flaw??s 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 momentu??m 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 er??a where it pays to hold off getting big new releases, and even from that it'l??l-be-a-little-rough-at-launch mindset, this 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 bizarre bullet spread, or poor UI d??ecisions 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 under??stated 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 bi??g battles. But I don't think DICE 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 skept??ical 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 whe?re you're never more than 15 seconds from a cool setpiece moment or a satisfying shootout. 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 p?articular 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 of?f 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 wa??s shaky, and that the ensuing game was rushed out for the holidays. I just feel it as?? I play.

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 s?hould 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 tr?aversal. 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 early 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 didn'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 lau??nched. 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 that was preventing you from always getting off a revive, particularly when a player 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 po?ssible server-side fix for players who in rare circumstances 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 ro??ll 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 wea?ponry. The MD540 Nigh??tbird 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 strictl??y 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' wider 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 Battlefield 20??42 fixes are coming for bu?ggy revives and loadouts 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 s?urprise. Even when it works, and you're not struggling with online errors kicking you back to the main menu, 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 ga??me's design and long-term vision.

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

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 than the very content-limited and rough-around-the-edges beta �??the difference was imm??ediately 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 skirmish??es 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 amount 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 ex?pecting that to be the case. Unlike t??he gargantuan maps in All-Out Warfare, these official and unofficial modes can feel more deliberate, manageable, and most of all, fun. They're a blast.

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 only two maps per legacy game at this point �but Portal is a?lready 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 home run it could ??and really should be.

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 specia?lists 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 one 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-vehicle 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 o?n top of your loadout and weapon customization. The menus 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 tac??tical 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 muscle 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 objectives. It's not about winning, exactly �it's this gut f?eeling that conscious 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 take time to reach their full potential, there are no guar?antees.

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 pip??eline flowing. I hope DICE is ready. On a purely technical front, the PS5 version has been relatively good to me other than the early-acce?ss launch-day connection issues 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 b??est moments are still a blast �it's a joy to parachute off a skysc??raper 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.

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: are 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 the 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 alon?g 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 confusing, 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 hands-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 expect??ing 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 November 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 Battlefield 2042 open b??eta change your mind about the game? appeared first on Destructoid.

It's the standard PC edition playable on Origin

Straight to the point: Battlefield 1 is free-to-claim on PC until August 4 via Prime Gaming, and then Battlefield V will be grabbable from August 2 through October 1. (Yes, we'll post a reminder next month.) You'll get a standard-edition code that's redeemable on Origin.

There's a lot of fluff on the Prime Gaming page, so if you want to make a beeline for Battlefield 1 (or any of the other free games),? jump straight to the bottom.

Even if it's not my favorite Battlefield, I dug the frantic and paranoid feeling you'd get when charging into battle, and I mostly have fond memories of Battlefield 1 in general. What an intense game. As for the most recent entry, I liked Battlefield V well enough at launch, but it never came together the way it should've in the years that followed, and I don't expect to ever play it again, especially not with Battlefield 2042 looking the way it does.

I can't speak to Battlefield 1's?? current player population, but it's worthy of a nod, for sure.

As someone with an Amazon Prime membership and, as a result, access to free games and digital trinkets given out with Prime Gaming, I tend to gloss over these deals more often than not. I haven't formed a habit of checking in and claiming stuff I'm never going to touch like I have on other platform??s, you know? It's just not in my routine.

But that's a moot point �I already own ??both of these. I've had my fun.

As for what's next, we'll see more of Battlefield 2042 on July 22 at EA Play Live. They're showing the second o??f the game's three major?? "multiplayer experiences."

The post Battlefield 1 is free right now, and Prime Gaming?? will give away Battlefie??ld V in August appeared first on Destructoid.

A new mobile game is also in development

Electronic Arts confirmed today that two Battlefield games are in development. Alongside a new Battlefield for console and PC, there's also a standal??one mobile game on the wa?y.

In a blog post, DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson broke down the two games. The next Battlefield is currently set for this holiday season, later this year. While the blog notes all-out military warfare and game-changing destruction, the Battlefield staples, Gabrielson also writes that it's brought to life with "the power of next-gen consoles and PC." A reveal for the new Battlefield game is coming "soon."

The mobile game, meanwhile, is in development at Industrial Toys, working closely with DICE. The completely new Battlefield game will be a standalone game for smartphones and tablets, and is cu??rrently set for 2022. It's entering a testing period phase ahead of next year's launch, and more details are expected soon.

With two Battlefield games on the way, that's a whole lot of massively multiplayer destruction. It's been a little while since the last Battlefield, and with some new console hardware, I have to say I'm excited to see what DICE and the various teams? like Cri?terion, DICE LA, and Gothenburg are putting together. 

The post The next Battlefield is coming later this year, with a reveal coming ‘soon’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Battlefield 6 promises gameplay 'at an unprecedented scale'

The next Battlefield game is due out this fall, and to make the most of it – to try and do better than the likable but too often shaky Battlefield V – EA has tapped Criterion to assist DICE and DICE LA. As a result, the new main-series Need for Speed game is coming later than expected – in fisca??l year 2023.

The news circulated in a publicly-released letter to EA employees written by chief studios officer Laura Miele. "Criterion is one of the strongest racing studios in the industry, and the work they have accomplished on the next Need for Speed is truly inspired and will breathe new l??ife into one of our most storied brands," Miele said. "We're going to give Criterion the time to reach the game's full promise."

As for what's going on with 2021's Battlefield game, EA has "recently seen the first version of the reveal trailer for Battlefield and it's shaping up to be a truly amazing first look at this groundbreakin?g game."

"The project is tracking towards the franchi??se's earliest Alpha, the gameplay is at an unprecedented scale, and we are taking full advantage of the technology in the next-gen consoles," she said.

_{Stellar Entertainment released Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered last year. Maybe we'll get another Criterion remaster to help tide fans over? It feels like only a matter of time for 2012's Most Wanted to be revived on current platforms.}

Miele stressed that the transition to remote work played a role in the decision to call in an assist from Criterion, noting: "...it does take more time to make games from home, and we have to balance that need with team health. The best way to set our tea??ms u?p for success in this environment is to be focused and ensure our biggest projects have the resources they need to deliver for our players."

It's also worth reiterating that EA picked up Codemasters and everything that entails.

As Miele points out, "Codemasters has several launches coming in the next year, bringing players some outstanding new racing games in our [fiscal year 2022]." In the meantime, there's always room for more Need for Speed remasters; the last one, Hot Pursuit Remastered, launched in November 2020.

Best-case scenario, the next Battlefield and Need for Speed titles will live up to their potential even if the latter takes more?? time than expected. It feels like DICE needs a big win here on PS5 ??and Xbox Series X.

The post Need for Speed fans are in for a wait as EA taps Criterion to help fin?ish Battlefield appeared first on Destructoid.

Insert your favorite blinking gif here

I knew that Star Wars Battlefront II would get a significant boost from its free giveaway on the Epic Games Store, but now that the dust has settled on the deal, the final ta??lly is truly ridiculous.

In a tweet today, Electronic Arts confirmed that "more than 19 million players" took part in the promo. That doesn't mean they all played it (or ever will), but that figure bodes well for the inevitable Star Wars Battlefront III, to say nothing of the Epic Games Store's foothold in the PC?? game marketplace in general??.

(As a point of comparison, A Total War Saga: Troy was claimed by over 7.5 million people.)

"Thank you so much for the continued support, even after our final conte?nt drop," EA added.

Were you one of the new players? How brutal of a bloodbath was it out there with Battlefront vets?

The post Over 19 million people got Star Wars Battlefro??nt II for free from the Epic Games Store appeared first on Destructoid.

The Epic Games Store is giving out the cosmetic-content-packed Celebration Edition of Battlefront II until January 21

It's worth jumping through a quick hoop to claim a free copy of Star Wars Battlefront II right now.

The Epic Games Store is giving out the (usually $40) Celebration Edi?tion of the game until Thursday, January 21, so even if you already have the base edition on Origin, you may want to claim this anyway. You'll get a bunch of customization items: 25 Hero Appearances, 125 Trooper and Reinforcement Appea?rances, 100 Hero and Trooper emotes and voice lines, and 70 Hero and Trooper victory poses.

While it's best? ??known for multiplayer – which some people are still really into in 2021 – there's also an okay story campaign that's worth running through once. Maybe. Luke slices alien bugs at one point.

Battlefront II was deemed "complete" in April 2020. If it's been a while or you're new to the game, expect the battle-hardened community who stuck around to dominate matches. It's worth pointing out that you can square off with the AI, and that's definitely my pr??eferred low-stakes way to acclimate.

The next free Epic Games Store promo will be Galactic Civilizations III. You come in peace, bro?

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It's a shame this couldn't become the definitive WWII game

DICE's final content update for Battlefield V is rolling out tomorrow, June 4, right one cue.

The Summer Update adds two maps – one of which, Al Marj Encampment, is all-new – plus nine weapons, six vehicles, five gadgets, and three grenades. The other map, Provence, "has been extended to include the farm land, and areas around the outskirts of town, bringing tanks into this battlefield on 64-player Conquest, and Breakthrough," according to Battlefield community manager Freeman.

"Both of these maps feature the U.S. and German armies as the two playable factions, with additional changes having also been made to Twisted Steel and Pa?nzerstorm," he explained. "We'll be following up with a similar adjus?tment on Al Sundan later this month; in the interim this map won't feature in rotations while we make these changes. Twisted Steel and Panzerstorm will otherwise continue to operate as UK and German factions on Grand Operations and won't be adjusted in this mode."

Aside from th??e maps, her??e's a list of the new Summer Update content:

New Weapons:

• Sjögren Shotgun (Support)
• Chauchat (Support)
• M3 Infrared (Recon)
• K31/43 (Recon)
• Welgun (Medic)
• M1941 Johnson (Assault)
• PPK/PPK Suppressed (all classes)
• M1911 Suppressed (all classes)
• Welrod (all classes)

New Vehicles:

• A-20 bomber (U.S. Faction)
• P-70 Night Fighter (U.S. Faction)
• P-51D fighter plane (U.S. Faction)
• P-51K fighter plane (U.S. Faction)
• M8 Greyhound (U.S. Faction)
• Puma Armored Car (German Faction)

New Gadgets:

• Doppel-Schuss (Recon)
• RMN 50 Grenade Launcher (Recon)
• Pistol Flamethrower (Assault)
• Shaped Charge (Support)
• Kampfpistole (Support)

New Grenades:

• Firecracker Grenade (all classes)
• Demolition Grenade (all classes)
• Type 99 Mine (all classes)

New Soldier Characters:

• 14 New U.S. Faction Soldiers
• 2 New Japan Faction Soldiers

The Chauchat has landed. For the full list of changes and additions, hit up those patch notes. The exact timing is June 4 at 3:00 a.m. Eastern on Xbox One, 4:00 a.m. on PC, and 5:00 a.m.? on PlayStation 4.

This is the last major update, but it doesn't mean DICE is completely moving away from Battlefield V. Apart from "continued work with anti-cheat," the team is planning "more Community Game features."

As much as I'll always like BFV, it could never seem to c?atch up to fans' expectatio??ns quick enough.

Battlefield V - Summer Update Notes [Battlefield Forums]

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Better luck next time, Ahsoka

DICE is putting the final touches on Star Wars Battlefront II's Battle on Scarif update, and when it goes live on April 29, 2020, it'll seemingly be the last of its kind. In a blog post today, Battlefront II creative director Dennis Br&a??uml;nnvall spoke about the next "phase" of the game now that their "vision" has been "realized": ongoing server s?upport and maintenance, and a stark shift away from content updates.

They're pulling the bandage off. It's been a wild, meandering??, mostly-back-on-track ride.

"Looking beyond April, we're transitioning to a phase where the servers, in-game challenges, recurring events such as Double XP and more, and game support will carry this broad and rich Star Wars gaming experience into the future," Brännvall said. "This means that we're moving away from delivering regular content updates. I'm really proud of what we'?ve accomplished, and continue to accomplish, together."

This final major update includes a Scarif map from Rogue One, Supremacy and Instant Action support for the Age of Rebellion, and several new character appearances for Rey (with her yellow?? lightsaber), Kylo (with his reforged mask), and Palpatine (with the emperor's new clothes). DICE also has Darth Maul's "Old Master" appearance up for grabs if you take out 5,000 foes with the fan-favorite character.

"Given the massive difference in military might between the Rebels and ??the Empire – and Death Star II and Scarif not lending themselves t?o capital ships narratively – the battles in Age of Rebellion Supremacy will be fought throughout the ground phase exclusively," Brännvall noted.

"In return, we're enabling the ability to pilot starfighters on a selection of the Age of Rebellion Supremacy locations. Scarif and Crait are both joining the Heroes and Villains game modes and Co-Op will see ?the addition of the MC85 Star Cruiser, First Order Star Destroyer, and Scarif."

DICE recently announced that it's planning one more big content update for Battlefield V – likely coming in June 2020 – before the cycle starts anew on the next Battlefield game, which should arrive in 2021. With the way Battlefront II eventually turned out, Battlefront III has to be on the horizon.

It's been such an uphill battle since Star Wars Battlefront II launched in 2017 that I'm tired just thinking about what a sequ??el might look like ??and what it'll need to pull off to maintain any sort of goodwill.

I think they have i?t in them – I have to believe they do – but it won't be easy.

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The next game can't repeat these mistakes

Battlefield V has plans for "one more standalone update" likely c?oming in June 2020, and then that's presumably it. The end of a meandering, disappointing era. While we don't know the focus of the next content expansion, it's clear that DICE won't be covering the scope of World War II as fans had hoped.

The June update – assuming that window doesn't slip – will have "new content, weapons, and game tweaks," according to DICE senior producer Ryan McArthur. "We're still tackling the chall?enges from ?working from home and will let you know how things progress for us over the next month."

I like Battlefield V. I thought it was flawed but thrilling. I just wish more people got to experience the game at its best, and the post-launch schedule wasn't so hazy and slow-moving for so long. The move from Premium to free DLC was nice in theory, but the rate at which updates were delivered and their quality wasn't up to players' expectations. That's to say nothing of the whole time-to-kill (TTK) saga.

I hope the next Battlefield takes its time before launch so DICE doesn't have to put out fires after the fact. It could also stand to take some cues from Call of Duty. Infinity Ward and co. are successfully juggling Modern Warfare, Warzone, c?ontent updates, and battle pass sc?hedules. They're killing it.

A new Battlefield is expected to release between April 2021 and March 2022 – EA's 2022 fisca??l year.

For what it's worth, for players still sticking with Battlefield V, DICE will "continue" its work against cheating. "The members of our anti-cheat team are working daily towards making the battlefield experience as free of foul play as possible," McArt?hur said. "We're constantly fighting the battle."

Given how this all went down, I feel like it'll be a long, long time before they tackle World War II again.

The Future of Battlefield V: An Update?? with Ryan? McArthur [EA]

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Chapter 6: Into the Jungle releases February 6

This morning, DICE lifted the lid on Chapter 6: Into the Jungle, a Pacific-themed content update for Battlefield V that's set to r??elease on February 6, 2020. I feel muggy just watching the trailer.

The new map for Chapter 6, Solomon Islands, could be a ton of fun or a total sl?og depending on well your team adapts to dense jungle warfare. No one likes to be picked off from a hiding spot. "Defenders can stay hidden and use the terrain to hold the line," according to the developers, "but attackers will have several options: flank??ing, sending in infantry, or utilizing landing boats for a frontal assault."

More to the point, this map was designed by the team behind Locker and Argonne Forest. As community manager Adam Freeman put it, players can "expect a bit of a grind in ??certain part??s."

If you stick around for more than a cursory playthrough of the Chapter 6 content, you'll be able to unlock a few new weapons – the Type 11 LMG (Support), the Model 37 shotgun (Support), and the M2 Carbine (Assault) – as well as a pair of tank-tear??ing gadgets: the Lunge Mine and the M1A1 Baz?ooka.

Three Elite character avatars – the machete-wielding Misaki Yamashiro, the Zero pilot Akira Sakamoto, and the Tom Cruise-looking Steve Fisher – are also joining the war. Battlefield V players who grind all the way to Chapter Rank 40 before th?e deadline will earn the right to play as Yamashiro.

I see the potential of Solomon Islands, I really do, but the future of this game continues to feel up in the air. Battlefield fans who were deflated by recent time-to-kill (TTK) changes will need to wait unt??il Update 6.2 to see how DICE is going to "address the learnings based on your feedback and game data."

"Our 6.2 update is targeting a more expansive set of fixes and adjustments," said Freeman, "so bear with us as we work through the ??issues that you've highlighted t?o us so far in 2020."

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Watch the trailer if nothing else

Star Wars Battlefront II is trying its best to win over fans while excitement for The Rise of Skywalker is sky-high. Starting this week, the game's redemption tour will include new content – a jungle planet, crimson Sith Troopers, First Order Jet Troopers, the Ovissian Gunner, and the Caphex Spy – adapted from the movie. EA DICE even create?d a cool li??????????????????????????ttle cinematic to show off the December 17 update.

Curse you, Star Wars, and your way with music.

Along with those new characters, which will be playable as reinforcements, Star Wars Battlefront II is also adding alternate appearances for Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren based on The Rise of Skywalker.

A few other highlights from the patch notes:

• Added a system on Co-Op and Capital Supremacy that allows squadmates to signal in UI which capture po?int they are intending to go t??o.

• Added faction and era selection to Co-op, inclu??ding the option for matchmaking i??nto any game.

• The pla??yer?? Health Bar has been updated to showcase when a player's health is being blocked from healing or health regeneration.

• Polished the timings of the Damage Reduction Messaging animations?? when? evading.

• Weapon crosshairs are now d??immed when the player cannot fire (such as when deploying a?? weapon).

• Numerous hero and reinforcement character ability changes, as well as fixes for bugs related to Capital Supremacy, Galactic Assault, Co-op, Arcade, Kamino, and Yavin 4.

The first update launches on December 17, but the as-yet-unnamed planet won't join the game until Dec. 20. According to the official Star Wars site, BB-8 is rolling into Battlefront II in January 2020.

The game has had a significant turnaround since its troubled launch in 2017, and while I'v??e long since moved on, I'm glad that fans – at least some fans &ndash?; are happy with where it's at and where it's heading.

I should've bought my tickets for The Rise of Skywalker a long time ago.

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Update 5.2 is not going over well with the community

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to what makes a great Battlefield map, but I think we can all come together to agree on one conclusion: Wake Island slaps. It's an all-time great. Iconic??, eve?n!

After months of meandering, Battlefield V is adding Wake Island on December 12, 2019. Today's trailer explains what's diff??erent with this interpretation of the map and ends on a tease for a new jungle local??e.

That said, the Battlefield V community's current focus isn't on this long-requested map – instead, players are fixated on contentious changes to the game's overall TTK (Time to Kill) in update 5.2, which launched on December 5. As DICE put it in the patch notes, there's been "a rebalance of most weapons across Battlefield V, focusing on the damage?? that weapons do outside of their designed ranges."

"It's a night-and-day difference," said YouTuber Westie. "You can basically throw all of your muscle memory and learned behavior for weapons out of the window with this update. I would go as far as to say that this is not a weapon rebalance, but it's a weapon rework. It'?s completely different."

"Pistols are unironically some of the best guns now," said redditor BleedingUranium. Another player, eh_W4rhe4rt, uploaded a clip of an assault rifle losing out to a pistol that brings the point hom?e.

The tug-of-war tuning saga continues into eternity. This game can't seem to catch any bre??aks, can it?

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Could this be the game's turning point?

For a while now, Battlefield V has needed something for lapsed fans to rally around, and that something – Chapter 5: War in the Pacific – is coming in hot. Starting October 31, you'll be able to play as the U.S. Armored Forces and Imperial Japanese Army on maps lik?e Iwo Jima and Pacific Storm, with weapons like the M1 Garand and katanas, while fightin?g to call in reinforcements like the Rocket Barrage Tank.

The Pacific theater is almost?? here, and DICE's fingers a??re crossed that it can work wonders.

As part of the studio's ongoing free weekend trials, you'll be able to play Battlefield V for free with the War in the Pacific content beginning November 1, 2019. Unlike the prior events, which operated on a rotation of sorts, this particular trial will feature all of the multiplayer modes, not a limited selection. If there was ever a time to try Battlefield V, this has got to be it. You can play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

As for the iconic Wake Island map, it'?s coming slightly later in?? December. That's the ticket.

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Just in time for the Pacific theater

It's not too late to get into Battlefield V, even if you're only looking to dip your toes in for the long-awaited War in the Pacific update. DICE is hosting free weekend events for the game throughout the month of October, and honestly, that's ample ti??me to get your fill of WWII multiplayer mayhem.

If you're down, you can install Battlefield V on PC via Origin, PS4, and Xbox One. Not every game mode will be available for every free-play event – they're running on a week-by-week schedule.

• Free Weekend 1 (starting October 10): Rush on Operation Underground, Rotterdam, Narvik, and Mercury, among other maps.
• Free Weekend 2 (starting October 17): Conquest on Operation Underground, Rotterdam, Devastation, Marita, and Arras.
• Free Weekend 3 (starting October 24): Grand Operations on Twisted Steel, Narvik, Hamada, Rotterdam, and Panzerstorm.
• Free Weekend 4 (starting November 1): All maps and modes including Chapter 5: War in the Pacific with the U.S., Japan, and Iwo Jima. This is the one to show up for.

Any progress you make will carry over to the full game, including unl?ocks like the Captain Hadlow vehicle skin for the Stug ??IV (Week 1), the Trench Carbine (Week 2), and the anti-air Fliegerfaust (Week 3).

I don't think I'm the only one who tends to skip most free weekends – it often doesn't feel worth the download time or data-cap investment to play a game once or twice at most before your free access is revoked – but the fact that Battlefield V is doing four trials in a row makes? this a little meatier.

I'm also way into the idea of playing against folks who aren't as battle-hardened as dedicated BFV players who never left the game despite? its poor content sche??dule. I want to stand a reasonable chance.

Battlefield V Origin Free Weekend Trials [EA]

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Instant Action is back

Nearly two full years after it first launched, EA DICE is still working on Star Wars Battlefront II. Headi??ng into the fall, th??e developer gave us some idea of what to expect in the coming months.

The headliner is the addition of Instant Action mode. This mode is configured for single-player mayhem, essentially mimicking the large-scale multiplayer battles but with AI enemies instead of other real-life players. It's a way for everyone to see the grandiose spectacle that Battlefront II promises, but without the pressure of actual multiplayer competition. Instant Action will be implemented as p??art of the September update.

The other most notable inclusions also arri??ve in September. Four-player cooperative play is being added to the Clone War-era maps. That's a way for small groups of comrades to tackle objective-based PvE. Also, a new map, Felucia, is being introduced.

Looking a bit further into the future, there's a special event taking place sometime between October and December. Then, excitingly, some sort of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker content is in the works; that will release in December, presumably alongs??ide the movie.

The Latest Star Wars Battlefront II Roadmap [EA]

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We have to make it through Chapter 4: Defying the Odds first

Whether you've played Battlefield V or you're still biding your time, there's something DICE could do to draw attention: bring us into the Pacific theater already! I like BFV, I really do, but the game has long since moved onto t?he back-burner and without a major shakeup, it's hard to imagine returning.

The studio isn't quite ready to talk about Battlefield V's take on the Pacific yet, but today's trailer – a look at several maps coming with Chapter 4: Defying the Odds, the next spot on the game's content roadmap – ends with a clear teaser. There's a few short seconds of cinematic footage depicting the national flag of Japan? on a contested beachfront with a fleet of sh??ips looming in the background.

With the way things are scheduled, it's not coming in the immediate future, but it is coming.

More immediately, Chapter 4 will bring us a batch of maps including Al Sundan (June 27), a riff on the North African desert mission from the single-player story mode, and the Battle of Greece's Marita (July), which spans a rural mountainside town with lots of flanking opportunities. Battlefield V will then get a pair of close-quarter maps – Provence (France) and Lofoten Islands (Norway) – in August 2019.

Other content drops like "map, vehicle, and weapon updates" for Firestorm (June) and new guns like the S2-200 MMG and Panzerbuchse Anti-Materiel Rifle are also on the docket throughout the year. Fans of Battlefield 3's meat-grinding Metro can look forward to the Operation Underground map this Octo??be??r.

I hope DICE leans more heavily into the Pacific at E3 next week, even if it's just an extended tease. The description for today's Defying the Odds trailer ??promises "the awakening of a giant in Chapter 5."

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A not so disco inferno

In today's episode of Impulse, I'm joined by my good friend Justin Moore to discuss our brief time spent in Battlefield's first crack at the battle r??oyale genre known as Firestorm! After putting in a solid couple of hours this past week, we've come back from it feeling more disinterested th??an burned.

Firestorm certainty isn't bad, hell, it's a solid mode and great addition to Battlefield V -- I just don't think it'll be as hot as the name suggests. This mostly boils down to the fact Firestorm doesn't do much different from other games within the genre and it also handles other things far more?? poorly (such as matchmaking and the terrible looting system).

It's certainly a looker, though, as it's easily the best looking game within battle royale thanks to the Frostbite Engine. Combine this with vehicles, destructible environments, and objectives -- it does play to Battlefield's strengths.

Ultimately, it's still nice to have a game that takes a more grounded approach to the genre outside of PUBG and Call of Duty's Blackout. But, I can't help but feel like this mode would have been much more appreciated at launch and that Apex Legends easily stole the show this year when it comes to battle royale ??games.

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Room for one more?

Just days before Battlefield's take on battle royale enters the ring, DICE has released a gameplay trailer for Firestorm. It's pretty much what you'd expect, and that isn't a bad thing. There's item scavenging, obj?ective captu??ring, a plethora of vehicles, and plenty of opportunities for wanton destruction.

I can already tell I'm goin?g to want to squad up for Firestorm. Solo play seems i??ntimidating as hell.

Aside from the huge new map (the series' largest to date), there are a bunch of other wrinkles to the traditional Battlefield V experience. For instance: bac??k?packs. And armor vests, which you'll physically load with metal plates to improve your soldier's survivability against bullets and explosions.

Firestorm also has bunkers with powerful vehicles (that conveni??ently can't be accessed until you turn two noisy dials) and players can find and fire flare guns for supply drops ?or the devastating V-1 Rocket.

The trailer serves as a general overview, whereas the Firestorm site goes much more i??n-depth.

I'm curious to see how I'll get along with Firestorm given that Battlefield V, in general, can be finicky. When it's fun, it's thrilling, but when you're having an off day, it's a total slog. There's also the matter of timing and pricing. Can Firestorm build a big enough audience with Apex Legends living its best life?

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The chosen one? More like the over powered one!

Sure, Electronic Arts have won “Worst Company in America” in previous years (twice in a row, in fact), but I can't think of a worse year than 2017 for EA. Mass Effect: Andromeda was downrig??ht embarrassing on launch and straight-up shelved th??e entire franchise for the time being.

The faces of gamers everywhere grew tired as EA?? proclaimed single-player games weren't profitable enough for their own stupidly high expectations. Ultimately, this half-baked theory of theirs directly fed into the closure of Visceral Games and cancellation of their single-player Star Wars game.

It's not hard to see why, though, when executives over there are throwing around alleged quotes like “FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year.’ Where’s your version of that?” If that wasn't bad enough, following that came the shit storm to end all shit storms in the form of the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 lootbox controversy that broke mainstream news all over the world.

Ever since then, whenever I'm talking about games with friends or family -- if the topic of EA pops up -- I've noticed almost all of them have an absolute disdain for EA lately. Apex Legends seems to be the exception to ?that rule as of late, but it just seems ?like the core gaming community has no tolerance left for EA and I can't blame them.

Well over a year later, though, DICE have been committed to making Battlefront 2 a good game with numerous updates and fixes. So, in this episode of Impulse, Justin and I discuss the current state of Battlefront 2 and whether or not it's worth revisiting! From the release controversy, the cam?paign mode, the current multiplayer, and the new Clone Wars content -- we shoot the shit about it!

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Is this where the fun begins?

At long last, next week will be Anakin Skywalker week in Star Wars Battlefront II.

After updates slowly but surely added Grievous, Obi-Wan, and Dooku to the still-hanging-in-there multiplayer game, DICE can now let Anakin ??Skywalker loose on February 27. Our boy is coming home.

"My powers have doubled sin?ce the last time we met, Count."

"Good. Twice the pride, double the fall." #StarWarsBattlfrontII pic.twitter.com/GSevKHAMtb

— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) February 21, 2019

An official post outlining Anakin's abilities and stats described him as "one of the strongest" heroes in the game. "Anakin's ability to unle??ash a barrage of fast, devastating attacks is unlike any other Jedi and set him on another level." To compensate, he's not as powerful as other characters defensively.

He has four main abilities to channel his rage:

• Passionate Strike: Anakin unleashes a heavy strike, breaking his opponent's guard and dealing high damage.
• Heroic Impact: Anakin is more resistant to attack while holding the ability. When released, he pushes enemies away from him, the range and strength of his attack being multiplied by the damage he would typically be susceptible to.
• Pull Dominance: Anakin pulls enemies in front of him to a center point, leaving them open for attacks.
• Retribution: Anakin's powers intensify whenever he and any nearby allies are attacked, building towards the ultimate punishment of a swift and inescapable grip seizing all enemies around him.

The blog post also goes into his various voice lines (yep, they got the one about sand), and his outfits, including a standard Jedi Knight look and his robed appearance from Revenge of the Sith.

Along with the 501st? Battalion, Anakin Skywalker will go live on Feb. 27 for 35??,000 credits.

As DICE notes, "The 501st B??attalion clone legion armours will individually be available for 20,000 credits/500 Crystals (Phase II) or 5,000 credits/100 Crystals (Phase I). They can also be purchased in a Phase II bundle for 60,000 cre??dits or 1,500 crystals." Hope you've been saving.

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