Battlefield 4

BF4-Levolution

I know I’m quite late with this one, but it’s time to talk about Battlefield 4.

I’ll be honest with you by saying Battlefield 3 was a let down for me.  I think the engine felt clunky, the maps were awful, and I simply couldn’t continue playing for more than a couple of weeks.  I feel the exact opposite about Battlefield 4.

The new Frostbite 3 engine is gorgeous, and runs well on my 3+ year old system.  The maps are a huge improvement, although I do wish they could be a tad bigger.  I’m a fan of the maps where flying a jet let you go in a straight line for more than 2 seconds before the map being a tiny speck in the distance.  The new Levolution feature makes for great destruction.  Their marketing materials would have you believe that the maps are now so dynamic that no two rounds are alike, but that’s hyperbole.  Still, watching a dam explode or a skyscraper crumble always makes me stop and gawk long enough to get sniped.

battlelogThe vehicles, gadgets and guns haven’t left me wanting for anything, although I do feel like I will never have the weapons I want most because the progression system has gated so much.  I think the gunplay in Battlefield has come a long way overall.  Being able to customize all of my weapons with various unlocks definitely adds depth to the few I have unlocked already.

Battlelog has me going back and forth.  I love how integrated my profile feels, and how I can have a browser open on another monitor while watching it update in real time.  I really love changing my loadout before joining a server and exploring all of the unlocks with my progression alongside.  Having to always go through a web browser, however, becomes tiresome.  I miss the days of a real server browser in-game.

China Rising expansion came out for Premium members tonight.  If you’re not aware, Premium is their way of selling all of the DLC upfront for a small discount to suckers (like me) and granting 2 weeks early access.  I’ll post my thoughts in a comment when I log a few hours.

I know the only question on your mind right now is whether or not BF4 is worth buying.  Yes, I think it’s worth your money.  I give it an 8.5 and think that now is the best time to jump back into Battlefield since BF2.  With great maps, vehicles, guns, unlocks, and finally a better engine it’s easy to overlook a few of the shortcomings.

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  • I’ve been playing it since the open beta. I was blown away by the graphics, animation, and gameplay. The only thing that irks me is the vehicle combat. It’s annoying to be blown up by one and it’s just as annoying to be in one getting locked on by the 10 engineers craving your blood. That being said, I’m much more used to Planetside 2’s vehicle pacing, which I feel is a sweet spot. So I’m a bit biased in that regard.

    My absolute favorite maps are ones that focus heavily on infantry like Locker whatsitcalled. Dear Lord the first time I played that map and rushed the mid point with my team it was insane. There’s another infantry one in the China Rising update that’s pretty cool, but I kinda feel like my performance has gone down on the new maps.

    Also don’t expect too much out of commander mode on the PC. There is some strategy to it, but it’s literally just about UAVing and Counter UAVing the enemy commander. I don’t even bother ordering squads anymore, because out of the 20 games I’ve commanded, I can only think of one that had squads that listened. Though there is great joy in the event I get to launch a cruise missile.

    All in all I agree with your review, it’s a great game. And is a definite buy that lives up to the spirit of BF2. Now hopefully after 4 they go back to Sci-Fi and remake 2142. I can dream right?

  • Yea been playing this game for 2 weeks now, it is truly a great game, they just need to work on the stability…oh boy the stability.I think about 60% of my games crash out, and I don’t know how your load times are, but mine are pretty nasty.

    So an 800 meg patch came out last night, lets hope there’s some stability improvements when I play tonight.

  • @Sarnar I completely agree with you about the vehicles. I simply stay out of them or play engineer. Maybe I’m not very good at them, or maybe my luck is horrible. And yes, a new sci-fi BF could be awesome, but that’s what Battlefront is going to be!

    @Joy-energiser: My load times are RIDICULOUS. I thought it was my hard drive’s fault, though. My friend on a SSD has 10 second load times. I can easily wait 3-4 minutes to load into a map (feels like 10). I probably crash out of 10% of my rounds. My issues usually occur trying to get onto a server, but once I’m there 90% of the time it’s smooth sailing.

  • Battlefield’s always been notorious for long load times. I remember waiting up to 5 minutes for 2 back in the day. Without a SSD I get around 2-3 minutes. Friends with SSD’s say it takes around 30 to a minute. I haven’t had many crashes since launch.

    @Keen: You have premium right? China Rising adds an air superiority mode which is vehicle on vehicle. That may be a good way to get some practice. Right now I can only fly the scout helicopters competently for the 20 seconds it takes before 5+ lockons blap me.

  • The Patch did improve stability from what I found, so its getting better, now just need to get that ssd…