DICE is currently giving away two Battlefield expansions - Battlefield 1's Turning Tides and Battlefield 4's Second Assault - as part of its ongoing Road to Battlefield 5 campaign. Both are free on all platforms until July 17th.
Turning Tides is focussed on the 1915 British amphibious assault of the Gallipoli peninsula, and features new weapons, new vehicles, and four new maps: Cape Helles, Achi Baba, Heligoland Bight, and Zeebrugge. Second Assault, meanwhile, is described by DICE as a "love letter to the classic maps of Battlefield 3, redesigned with the power of the Frostbite 3 game engine". It includes five new weapons, a dune buggy, ten assignments, and a Capture the Flag mode.
Both expansions can be downloaded for free until next Tuesday, July 17th, on all supported platforms via their respective online stores - that's the Microsoft Store for Xbox One, the PlayStation Store for PS4, and Origin for PC. Helpful links can be found in DICE's blog post.
EA has made all five Battlefield 4 expansions free until next week.
China Rising, Second Assault, Naval Strike, Dragon's Teeth and Final Stand are all free to download for all platforms until 19th September (this coming Monday).
The promotion also includes new themed Community Missions to go along with each expansion. There are details on each on the Battlefield website.
Battlefield, a series famed for its multiplayer battles and not its ropey stories, will be turned into a television show. Anonymous Content, the company responsible for hit TV series True Detective, will be in charge, collaborating with Paramount and EA to make it happen.
Coming up to three years after its release, DICE continues to tweak and fine-tune Battlefield 4, with an all-new user interface that will make it easier for players to partner up in squads and to find maps and modes.
EA is giving away free DLC for Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline in the buildup to the next Battlefield title - which is planned to be revealed this Friday at 9pm UK time.
Cool offer alert: if you're an Xbox Live Gold member and you have an Xbox One you can play all of the EA Access Vault games for free this week. The Vault games are normally locked behind EA's £4-a-month EA Access subscription service.
EA has announced - and launched - Origin Access for PC. It costs £3.99 a month.
Origin Access is a similar offering to EA Access on Xbox One. Subscribers can download games from EA's Vault, play EA's PC games for a limited time before they're released, and save 10 per cent on Origin purchases.
15 games are available now (unfortunately no Star Wars: Battlefront). EA will add more games over time, it said:
Last year Battlefield 4 fanatic Jackfrags discovered a secret hidden megalodon hidden in DICE's multiplayer shooter, and now the dedicated sleuth has cracked what must surely be Battlefield 4's most cryptic Easter egg.
"Competition runs deep in the DNA of Electronic Arts."
EA is launching a Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) to be led by former chief operating officer Peter Moore
Moore's new title will be executive vice president and chief competition officer. "This group will enable global eSports competitions in our biggest franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, Battlefield and more," EA stated in its announcement.
EA chief executive officer Andrew Wilson noted that the CGD will be based around the following "three core pillars":
Featuring escaped monkeys that had viruses tested on them.
The Battlefield 4 Community Operations DLC, which contains a new map the community helped DICE create, rolls out tomorrow for free on Origin, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Community Operations coincides with the release of the Fall Update for the game but is separate to it.
Night Operations map live on PC and Xbox, PlayStation next week.
Battlefield 4's big summer patch and free Night Operations map roll out today.
While the patch is available to all now, the Night Operations DLC is a separate download, and comes out on PC, Xbox One and Xbox 360 today. European PlayStation 4 and PS3 users have to wait until 8th September.
Night Operations is a new night map, called Zavod: Graveyard Shift, which is a night version of Zavod 311. It supports Conquest, Rush, Obliteration, and the infantry focused game modes Team Death Match, Domination and Gun Master.
Battlefield 4 is getting a new map as part of its upcoming Night Operations DLC due this September, nearly two years after the game's October 2013 launch.
Battlefield 4's long-awaited Winter Patch rolls out today.
Reports indicate it weighs in at 1.34GB on Xbox One.
The Winter Patch is designed to improve netcode and soldier collision, as well as tweak the Squad Obliteration game mode so it becomes the lead competitive mode in DICE's first-person shooter. The new Squad Obliteration scales down the fast-paced objective-based gameplay of the original to a 5v5 competitive environment.
Given the time of year it perhaps shouldn't be a huge surprise, but I had completely forgotten that Battlefield 4 was due its fifth and final piece of DLC. After the 'big patch' finally shored up a game that has became the poster child for 'release now, fix later' (since replaced by Driveclub, Assassin's Creed Unity and Halo: The Master Chief Collection), it was all too easy to cast Battlefield 4 into the annals of history.
Frostbite has been trying to port Battlefield 4 to iOS as a tech demo to prove what it's capable of, and so far the engine developer seems pleased with its progress.
One year on - how the new patch impacts DICE's troubled shooter.
Battlefield 4 might be the strangest high profile video game release I've ever come across. An odd state of affairs, considering it's about nothing more leftfield than shooting people, blowing stuff up and working out what attachment to slap onto your newest, shiniest gun, but Battlefield 4 is strange for reasons that go beyond its premise. A year after its release, it has finally exited its own Early Access period.
Has all the DLC plus priority position in server queues.
Now that Battlefield Hardline has been delayed to 2015, there's no new Battlefield game out this year. So, publisher EA has put together a Battlefield 4 Premium Edition, set for release this month.
Big changes to everything from weapons to character movement.
It's been nearly a year since EA released first-person shooter Battlefield 4. The game launched in a terrible state that left many unable to play, and since then developer DICE has fought to improve matters with a raft of patches. But none are as important as the one due out today.
The hotly-anticipated Battlefield 4 "fall patch" contains a huge list of fixes, gameplay improvements and balance tweaks that were inspired by feedback to the Community Test Environment.
According to some players, the patch will do for Battlefield 4 what the Reaper of Souls expansion did for Diablo 3, in that we'll finally get the game Battlefield 4 should have been at launch.
With the full expansion to follow in the coming weeks.
Battlefield 4's final DLC, Final Stand, will bring drones, hover tanks, snowmobiles, a rail gun and more to EA's popular shooter in the weeks ahead, but in the meantime developer DICE is letting folks playtest its four new maps on PC as Community Test Environments.
DICE has outlined what to expect from Battlefield 4's next big update, due out in September.
The developer is using the Battlefield 4 Community Test Environment to get feedback on how to improve the game, live producer David Sirland wrote on the Battlefield blog.
Chief among the tweaks is a change to soldier movement so that it closely matches the one in Battlefield 3, but without compromising the visual fidelity. This change also makes it easier to get away from undesirable firefights, Sirland added.
Battlefield 4. It hasn't been pretty. Given the nearly weekly meltdowns DICE's game has endured since its launch, it's easy to forget those who forked out for a Premium subscription. Money paid up front for a promise of regular content drops seemed insignificant when the game just did not work.
Mercifully, right now, Battlefield 4 on PS4 is in a pretty decent place. While everyone's experience is different, and there will be issues until Battlefield 4 is dead in the ground, it's safe to say that it's now in a comfortably playable state. And, despite the obvious failings of DICE and EA over the course of the last 9 months, those who did pay for that Premium pass have actually been treated rather well.
When arguments rage daily about preorder DLC, season passes and cut content, Battlefield once again leads the way with high quality, regularly-spaced add on packs that not only deliver chunks of fresh turf on which to to wage war, but also offer new ways to play.
The Dragon's Teeth expansion for Battlefield 4 will be deployed as soon as next week, developer DICE has announced.
Premium members will be able to download the pack from 15th July, while non-Premium members can get access from 29th July, a new blog post has confirmed.
Those dates tally with a hastily-deleted message posted to and then pulled from the official EA Origin Twitter account last week.
EA tweeted to say Dragon's Teeth, the next expansion for first-person shooter Battlefield 4, would launch on 15th July 2014 for Premium subscribers - then deleted it.
A tweet from the official Origin Twitter account told followers of a 20 per cent off promotion for Battlefield 4 Premium, before mentioning you could use that to play Dragon's Teeth early on 15th July.
It then deleted the tweet and republished a new tweet without the date, but not before MP1st caught EA in the act.
DICE changes the way it makes games ahead of Battlefield Hardline.
EA has addressed what the boss of the company has described as the "unacceptable" launch of Battlefield 4 - and detailed the new processes it has put in place to prevent it from happening again.
In detailed interviews with Eurogamer, EA CEO Andrew Wilson and DICE general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson said the development teams behind the Battlefield series had learned their lesson the tough way after Battlefield 4 launched in a state many players labelled broken.
Battlefield 4 released late last year for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with a target of 60 frames per second and 64-player multiplayer on next-gen consoles.
A month ago, EA and DICE launched something called a Community Test Environment for Battlefield 3. Here "passionate fans" could help DICE test new features and give feedback.
The fruits of that labour have now begun to appear, as a netcode patch - making the game work better online - has rolled out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It's coming later this week on PS4 and Xbox One.
This is the first update developed in conjunction with the Community Test Environment, and would have been "difficult to pull off" (ooh err) without you.
As Visceral reveals Battlefield Hardline video is six months old.
Principle Battlefield developer DICE has vowed to continue to support Battlefield 4 despite the announcement of Battlefield Hardline, set for launch later this year.
Details of the next Battlefield game, apparently titled Battlefield Hardline, have been spotted online following a new Battlelog update.
Internally code-named Havana and in development at Dead Space studio Visceral Games, the police and thieves-themed spin-off has been rumoured for some time.
A logo and artwork for Battlefield Hardline were spotted lying on EA's server today, along with a set of "BFH" icons for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One (thanks, GetBlog). "BFH+" icons, presumably for those with Battlefield Premium, are also present.
EA will work with fans to improve Battlefield 4 via a new Community Test Environment, a sort of ongoing beta server that will help test new features.
First up on the list of fixes is the game's troubled netcode - the technical framework that runs basic functions like damage registration.
The Community Test Environment's arrival follows a seemingly-continuous set of problems that have plagued the game across multiple platforms since its launch last year.
UPDATE 4PM: Virtuix has been in touch to clarify that Omni treadmills will actually begin shipping in July. The September date is for people who pre-order one now. So, if you're an early adopter, you could be getting yours as soon as this summer. Can I come round and try it out?
For months Battlefield 4 developer DICE has hinted that its latest first-person shooter may contain a Megalodon (i.e. giant shark) Easter egg. This prompted thousands of fans - including the Captain Ahab-like YouTuber Jackfrags - to sail its seas in search of the elusive beast.
DICE has released a gameplay video of Battlefield 4 expansion Naval Strike.
The video, below, shows off the sea-to-sea warfare Naval Strike contains, as well as the new amphibious hovercraft vehicle and the four new maps all set in the South China Sea.
We also have release dates: 25th March for Battlefield Premium members and 8th April for everyone else.
DICE has explained how Carrier Assault, the new mode due out for Battlefield 4 later this month that pays homage to Battlefield 2142's much-loved Titan mode, works.
Instant death while sprinting, no registered damage...
It's been four months and still EA and DICE are fixing the multiplayer experience of Battlefield 4. And they want you to know they're committed to that.
Remember Battlefield 2142, the 2006 Battlefield spin-off set in the future? It had a mode called Titan that a lot of players remember fondly. Now, developer DICE is reimagining it for release as DLC for Battlefield 4.
The Battlefield 4 Second Assault expansion that launched as a timed Xbox One exclusive in November releases on 18th February for Battlefield 4 Premium members on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, DICE has announced.
It goes live for all Battlefield 4 players two weeks later on 4th March.
Second Assault includes four maps from Battlefield 3 updated with the Frostbite 3 graphics engine and with Battlefield 4 gameplay. The maps are Operation Metro, Caspian Border, Gulf of Oman and Operation Firestorm.
Charting the collateral damage of EA and DICE's catastrophic launch.
29th October 2013 A day that should have been one of pride for all at Electronic Arts and DICE, but one that has to surely go down in infamy. The day Battlefield 4 hit shelves, and set in motion a series of events that has shaken the company and its prized development studio, and punctured waning public faith.
Battlefield 4 developer DICE is launching a "Player Appreciation Month" running from 1st February to 6th March to give thanks to the hard working veterans who valiantly fought through Battlefield 4's buggy launch.
As such, Battlefield 4 players will receive such perks as a new Battlepack for every day they log in. These contain perks like bonus XP and soldier camos. Weekdays will net players bronze Battlepacks, while weekends come with niftier silver ones. Gold Battlepacks will be granted to those who fulfill Community Missions, like collecting a certain number of dog tags in a specified time. More details about these will follow on the official Battlefield Blog.
The February celebration will also include complementary shortcut bundles, offering all grenades and handguns from the base game to be used by new players. Premium users will receive additional weapon shortcuts on DMR's and shotguns.
UPDATE: DICE has released a new patch for the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 4.
You'll need to manually download the multiplayer update 3 from Xbox Live Marketplace, DICE warned. You won't be automatically prompted to do so.
The patch focuses on improving game stability and preventing crashes. "Accumulated, these fixes should help increase stability overall in the game," DICE said.
Guess that means Star Wars: Battlefront is on hold.
Battlefield 4 developer DICE has placed all of its expansions and "future projects" on the backburner while it puts all hands on deck to focus on the mess that is Battlefield 4's launch. Yes, that includes the Star Wars: Battlefront reboot it's been brewing up.
In my review of Battlefield 4's Second Assault map pack, I described its online service as patchy, but fighting its way back to full health. Well, in the interim, two consoles have launched globally and it seems like DICE's game has experienced an entirely different kind of levolution: its servers crumbling into dust under the mortar fire of people actually trying to play the thing.
Yes, despite multiple patches and updates, Battlefield 4 is a mess on every platform - a litany of crashes, misfires and save bugs. So will its map pack China Rising, free to those who pre-ordered the game and available to Premium players today, be enough to sate those who've spent hours screaming at black screens and menu locks in futile rage?
Three of the four included maps are genuinely new, with only Dragon Pass a remake - in this case of the Battlefield 2 classic, Dragon Valley. And what better place to start? Imposing mountains, golden-hued skies and lush greenery surround Dragon Pass. It looks like you're waging war on the fourth disc of Shenmue 2. Those mountains don't actually have an impact on the action, which is largely fought on and around a long, twisting road that naturally undulates through the valley, allowing just enough cover for infantry combat without the whole affair turning into a massacre.
Retail hardware, final code - the complete analysis.
After running our preview comparison of Battlefield 4 exactly one month ago, it was startling to see how great the advantage proved for one platform in particular; a shocking signifier of the form all future next-gen comparisons might take. The PS4 had the higher internal resolution, a considerable performance lead in motion, and the addition of extra effects such as horizon-based ambient occlusion entirely missing on Xbox One. But now, with the retail releases out in the wild, we can see to what extent this disparity is set in stone, and whether DICE's implication of further tweaks to the Xbox One release actually makes up any ground.
For the sake of absolute thoroughness, we can confirm any such change doesn't extend to the resolution issue. If you're buying the PS4 version, you're getting a 1600x900 image scaled to whichever output you'd prefer, while the Xbox One trots behind with a 1280x720 framebuffer that, to be blunt, has an impact on overall visibility on some of the game's bigger multiplayer maps.
In motion, it's the Xbox One version that suffers from the greater temporal aliasing - a flicker artefact on thin geometry and power-lines while panning - but also a general muddying of enemy outlines on the horizon. A post-process anti-aliasing method is in place for both versions, but it's simply not enough to pull the Microsoft release out of the muggy mire as far as image quality goes - it stands as a real shame.
Dice's super-popular multiplayer shooter Battlefield 4 launched with more than its share of online issues, causing many a game to crash. Now, to make up for this botched launch, the developer is going to offer double XP for any multiplayer match played between 28th November and 5th December.
After a launch that can only be described as patchy - in every sense - Battlefield 4's online service is slowly starting to find its feet. There's inexplicably still no way to play Conquest on PS4 in the US, and you still can't party up before entering a match (something Halo 2 managed to figure out back in the 1500s), but DICE's levolutionary online battleground is steadying itself for a headlong rush into the next-gen.
And that's exactly where EA showed off the first of two downloadable add-ons appearing before the end of this year: in a room full of quietly humming Xbox Ones, on 16 vs 16 matches between members of the traditional gaming press and the altogether more 'enthusiastic' YouTube community. This first pack of four maps, Second Assault - available only on Xbox One for now - will be very familiar to anyone who has toiled away on the crumbling terrain of Battlefield 3. It's a greatest hits of sorts, a four-strong collection of BF3's most popular maps, remixed and lightly resprayed for Battlefield 4.
So here we have Operation Metro, Caspian Border, Gulf Of Oman and Operation Firestorm, all with a little less Battlefield 3 blue and a smattering of BF4-style levolution (it's a horrendous word, but it's sadly the easiest way to describe the map-altering 'events' that BF4 pins its maps around).
Call of Duty made bonkers bucks this generation by being an annualised series developed alternately by two studios: Treyarch and Infinity Ward (and later Sledgehammer with Raven helping out).
"They've taken different approaches to the design of the hardware."
Call of Duty publisher Activision has dodged questions around the resolution of next-generation games and power comparisons between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
But neither sell as strongly as their predecessors.
As the autumn heavyweights enter the ring it's Ubisoft setting the pace, as Assassin's Creed 4 leaps to the top of the UK charts, leaving EA and Battlefield 4 with a cut eyebrow in second.
Full HD, full frame-rate captures that run on your PS3 or PC.
Wouldn't it be great if you could get a pre-launch taste of the next-gen visual experience using nothing more than your PlayStation 3 or PC? That's exactly what we aim to achieve with this new Digital Foundry series, Next-Gen Now. As 1080p60 captures finally start to roll in, we aim to deliver a selection of them to you in h.264 MP4 format, using an encoding profile designed to balance bandwidth with quality, allowing for smooth, high-quality playback of next-gen gameplay on a range of devices.
How Call of Duty and Battlefield changed the console war.
"The biggest thing in terms of the number of compute units, that's been something that's been very easy to focus on. It's like, hey, let's count up the number of CUs, count up the gigaflops and declare the winner based on that. My take on it is that when you buy a graphics card, do you go by the specs or do you actually run some benchmarks? Firstly though, we don't have any games out. You can't see the games. When you see the games you'll be saying, 'What is the performance difference between them?' The games are the benchmarks." - Microsoft technical fellow, Andrew Goossen.
Both current gen versions being played through this afternoon.
Battlefield 4's out - well, it is if you're in America, anyway - and it's kind of good. The multiplayer's excellent, while the single player's kind of weak - who knew? - plus the PC version is easily the best looking of the lot. Seriously, put that surprised face away.
The Battlefield series has always been a cartographer's dream. Whereas other shooter franchises are content with densely packed arenas in which players can scurry about like well-armed lab rats, head-shotting each other over each piece of cheese, Battlefield maps have always felt like, well, like maps. Actual places, theatres of war, where terrain and elevation can play a tangible role in victory - or defeat.
"Pricing can come down pretty aggressively over the next few years."
With the next generation of consoles nearly upon us, EA, one of the biggest game publishers in the world, has had its say on what it expects from the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Sony has gone on the record to say it will shift five million PlayStation 4 consoles before the financial year's end - 31st March 2014.
Microsoft has yet to gaze into its own crystal ball and predict Xbox One numbers, but in a financial call overnight, EA executives predicted a similar number for the console.
The "Battlefield 4 Multiplayer Update 1" is available to download now from the Xbox Marketplace, where it weighs in at 119.21 MB.
DICE is yet to explain exactly what the update does (we've asked EA for more information), but it relates to the shooter's multiplayer, and is important enough for the developer to recommend players download it.
Update 29/11/13: This article is based on near-final code we tested at an EA press event. The retail game has now been analysed in-house, so please refer to that article for a deeper understanding of the game.
Update 29/10/13: We've produced a short Q+A answering some of the questions about this article, specifically the accuracy of our captures.
The wait is, at last, finally over. Having followed a year-long trail of technical titbits on the Xbox One and PS4's silicon and circuitry, the debate over which platform "should in theory" come out top can now be met with some concrete results from actual software. This is courtesy of an exhaustive three-day bout of capturing both next-gen versions of Battlefield 4 - plus PC for good measure - in DICE's home city of Stockholm. Through this, an early triple-format Face Off preview of this year's most ambitious multi-platform FPS is now finally possible, with a set of initial results that may (or may not) surprise.
"You don't want people to feel alienated by crazy features and crazy changes." So said Battlefield's executive producer, Patrick Bach, just over a week ago. Few will have been surprised by his words, what with the military shooter genre not being known for its radical reinventions, but it's interesting that he felt he had to address the issue at all.
Battlefield 4 is, of course, pretty much exactly the game you expect. A rather thin single-player campaign hangs on the tail of a much more interesting and robust multiplayer offering in which players skirmish across vast maps, throwing everything from quad bikes to state-of-the-art jet fighters at each other in an attempt to gain that precious additional XP, that must-have weapon unlock, that next slot up on the leaderboard. It's Battlefield, and the fundamentals are no more likely to change than Manchester United is likely to field an ostrich in goal, just to be different.
As with many franchises that have endured throughout this hardware generation and beyond, what we're looking at is less a case of ongoing evolution and more a question of custodianship. The numbers on the end of each game's title suggest an escalating sequence, but that's an old model that is rapidly becoming obsolete. Like most online games, it helps to view Battlefield 4 as an update to an ongoing service rather than a distinct product in and of itself, where the aim is not to reinvent but to refresh and to sustain.
Let's hope the story is better than Battlefield 3's.
It's the 'our multiplayer game has a gritty story too' moment, as EA serves up a rousing video teasing Battlefield 4's single-player story campaign.
There's swearing, there's punching, there's shooting, there's this line: "I don't have a problem with women, I got a problem with LIARS!"
There's a ship breaking in half, there's shooting mounted guns on the back of speed boats, there's slow motion, there's "nobody gets left behind!", and there are steep odds:
"Elevators were never designed to act as a catapult or teleporter."
Battlefield 4's final version will boast a long list of improvements from the game's recent beta, developer DICE has announced.
PC players will be pleased to hear that DICE is working on the beta's sometimes low frame rate and stuttering issues, as well as its high CPU usage for dual, quad and six-core processors.
Console owners will get more controller layouts in the final game, including a "Legacy" layout similar to Battlefield 3. A fix to better find populated servers will also be included.
It's been a long console generation but the end is in sight with the release of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One set for this November. But the PS3/360 legacy lives on - the sheer size of their combined installed base means that publishers can't leave the old machines behind just yet. Hence the arrival of "cross-gen" games; titles developed for current and next generation consoles simultaneously. Battlefield 4 is, perhaps, the most anticipated of these releases, with the promise of delivering the full PC experience on both next generation consoles at 60fps. Expectations are high for the new platforms but what of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 experience? Does Frostbite 3 bring anything new to the table for these ageing consoles? How do these versions compare to Battlefield 4 running on a more powerful PC? And with the arrival of last week's beta test, can we extrapolate anything about the next-gen console versions from the PC game?
To begin with, the beta includes just one map, Siege of Shanghai, available in two variations according to the selected mode. In Domination the map is reduced in size to allow for a smaller player count while Conquest mode purportedly delivers the full experience. Unfortunately PS3 and 360 owners remain limited to a maximum of just 24 players per map. With Battlefield 4 it is more apparent than ever that this low player count simply isn't adequate for a full size Conquest map. Shanghai winds up feeling dreadfully empty with huge swathes of empty open space dividing skirmishes. The PC beta allows for a full 64 players - something DICE has also promised for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 iterations of the game.
But first, let's attempt to address a next-gen controversy surrounding the game. In the last few weeks, statements have been floating around suggesting that Battlefield 4 operates at 720p on the new consoles, or 900p on one but not the other, depending on which unsourced comment you read. With the PC beta in hand, we decided to take a look at the game running at various resolutions to determine what it might look like when operating at lower resolutions which are then upscaled back to 1080p. The PC version includes a resolution scaling option that allows you to maintain a desired output resolution (optimal for fixed pixel displays and for reducing input lag) while altering the internal rendering resolution. As it stands, BF4 is a demanding game on the PC and with the promise of 60fps, it's no surprise that compromises may have to be made. If the new consoles are able to deliver a level of detail on par with the PC version at 60fps, the drop in image quality could prove an acceptable trade-off.
DICE got the unlocks wrong in Battlefield 3, the developer has admitted. Speaking to VG247 at an event in Australia, creative director Lars Gustavsson accepted that the studio should be "slapped" for the way it stacked the deck against new players.
I want to see the skyscraper fall down, but I just keep missing it. One moment it's there, a gleaming, glass and chrome monument to capitalism right at the centre of Battlefield 4's Siege of Shanghai map. Then, inevitably, I get bored, killed, distracted, wander off in order to capture a flag, or - if I'm feeling particularly brave - commandeer a tank, and when I get back to check in on the towering building, well, the skyscraper's already gone.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete failure: I caught the dust cloud once. A huge, billowing mass of debris and particles that seemed bigger than the skyscraper itself, and also intensely evocative of real-life disaster footage. But the actual moment it falls keeps eluding me. Once, I was manning a gun turret in helicopter, circling the colossal structure as it (I think) slowly started to tilt, wrenched itself off its foundations and collapsed into the waters below. Sadly, the turret I was manning was on the wrong side of chopper.
It's pretty frustrating, really. I want to see the Siege of Shanghai's centrepiece, a terrifically huge, destructible structure, fulfil its gimmicky raison d'etre. But of course, my repeated failure to see it happen also brilliantly sums up what Battlefield does so well: its jaw-dropping blend of scale and spectacle. In how many other games can an entire skyscraper fall over and yet somehow I miss it, every single time?
"You may be floating if you jump on the bollards."
Yesterday saw the launch of GTA Online, but also the open beta for Battlefield 4. As expected for any multiplayer game getting its first whiff of real world interaction, there are issues and bugs cropping up and developer DICE has taken to the official forum with a list of known issues currently being investigated.
It includes important information for Xbox 360 players who are planning to jump on bollards.
There are problems with the Battlefield 4 beta on PC that are making it unplayable for some people.
They seem to boil down to incompatibility issues with AMD and Nvidia graphics drivers and cards, and manifest in crashes when players try to join game servers. Well known Battlefield 4 developer Johan Andersson attempted to solve these issues by tweeting links to drivers that do work. This worked for some people.
Others had success after downloading and installing some important Microsoft software.
Battlefield 4's beta will launch on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early October, developer DICE has announced.
DICE boss Karl-Magnus Troedsson took to the stage at today's EA Gamescom 2013 press conference to announce details of the game and its DLC Premium service.
Battlefield 4 Premium will include the game's five planned expansion packs, all available two weeks early.
Good news*! Companies signing up to Microsoft's Season Pass Guarantee - and the big names apparently are - will give you automatic access to Season Passes for Xbox One games that you've bought on Xbox 360.
Battlefield 4 developer DICE has shown off the next version of its social service Battlelog, which will tie deeper into the main PC and console game than before.
"Our job as game creators and executives is to be where the gamers are."
Just two years ago, during another typically sunny morning in Los Angeles, ex-EA boss John Riccitiello walked on stage at the Nokia Theatre to announce an “unprecedented relationship” with Nintendo.
Mixed opinions on the complex issue of second-hand sales.
Microsoft's stunning U-turn on its controversial Xbox One policies has delighted gamers and retailers - but are developers and publishers just as happy?
Respawn, Ubisoft and DICE on the "power of the cloud".
At E3 last week, in a behind closed doors presentation called Xbox 101, Microsoft engineering manager Jeff Henshaw - not a member of the PR team, he points out - tells a small gathering of journalists that Xbox One's 300,000 server cloud gives the next-generation console a unique advantage.
UPDATE: EA's strategy will focus on a "gamer-first" perspective.
UPDATE: EA has said it is still deciding on a used-games strategy based on what Microsoft and Sony have announced.
"We are formulating our strategy based on the information they released," EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said during an investor call today.
"In general, we'll definitely be looking at a gamer-first [perspective] so we can continue to have a relationship with used game users that is a positive experience."
UPDATE: EA has contacted Eurogamer to say the UK release date for Battlefield 4 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC is 1st November 2013.
"Battlefield 4 will also be available for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4," a spokesperson said, suggesting the next-gen versions may release after the current-gen versions.
ORIGINAL STORY: Battlefield 4 launches on 29th October 2013, EA has announced.
EA won't pay arms manufacturers for licensed digital replicas of their guns and war paraphernalia in its action games - Battlefield 4 - this year. But it will use them anyway.
Respawn Entertainment, the studio founded by the creators of the Call of Duty franchise, has insisted it is business as usual amid widespread layoffs at publisher EA.
A shop poster has added to the growing evidence that Battlefield 4 will see the return of Commander Mode.
The poster, revealed by BF4Central, is from Australian shop EB Games. It mentions the "brand new Commander Mode" - heavily rumoured to be a part of the game.
It also mentions Battlelog 2.0. "The next version of the state of the art gaming portal," the poster reads. "Track every shot, every opponent, ever detail of your online Battlefield career."
At long last, we have a clear visual on the next major Battlefield title, with developer DICE unleashing a full wave of Battlefield 4 details last week in its whopping 17-minute Fishing in Baku trailer. Visually, this extended cut of in-game footage succeeds in its mission to dazzle like few other games can, and crucially it shows us what results the latest Frostbite 3 engine can achieve on both high-end PCs and, presumably, next-gen consoles. This isn't just about first-person shooters, however: with Bioware also keen to chip in that this technology forms the basis of follow-ups to its Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, its advances represent much more as we look to the future.
Last week's GDC Battlefield 4 demo looked pretty spectacular, even when viewed via heavily compressed streaming video, so when we acquired a high-bitrate 1080p version of the trailer running at the full 60 frames per second, we knew we had to share it with you. The only problem: actually getting the footage to run smoothly on a webpage.
It transpires that there's a pretty good reason YouTube supports pretty much every type of video format you care to mention except 60 frames per second playback - across a range of browsers the Flash renderer appears to have massive issues sustaining any kind of update north of 30FPS, even if you're using a fast desktop PC. Our usual strategy for running non-standard video - encoding the files ourselves and plugging them directly into the Eurogamer player - didn't seem to work out this time.
However, after a weekend of testing across various hardware, we found a solution: Chrome offers a substantial performance boost in video playback - the 35-40FPS we saw on a five-year-old Core 2 Duo laptop running Firefox shot up to 55-60FPS on the standard-def encode embedded below. Factoring in mind how laggy streaming video can be in general, a move over to the Google browser could in theory yield dividends across a range of sites. Alternatively, in the case of these Battlefield videos at least, iOS hardware from the iPad/iPhone 4 onwards seems to run both SD and HD versions of the trailer pretty much flawlessly.
Frostbite 3, Wii U and why it's not just about pretty graphics.
Having just an hour earlier listened to Sony delve deep into the power of the PlayStation 4, it comes as a bit of a shock to hear Battlefield main man Patrick Bach tell me that DICE is moving on from technology during our meeting at the Game Developers Conference.
DICE shooter Battlefield 4 will be released this autumn for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A next-gen console release is certain. But it won't be coming to Wii U.
At GDC this evening EA unveiled Battlefield 4, powered by Frostbite 3, with a 17-minute gameplay trailer.
The DICE-made shooter is due out in the autumn, EA said.
The Fishing in Baku gameplay video is lifted from Battlefield 4's campaign, which starts with the evacuation of American VIPs from Shanghai and follows your squad's struggle to find its way home.
UPDATE: The teaser trailer for Battlefield 4 has leaked online.
The video, which looks like a TV spot, popped up on YouTube about an hour ago, ahead of the full reveal of the game at GDC later tonight. The video is below.
ORIGINAL STORY: Battlefield 4 screenshots have hit the internet ahead of the release of the game's debut trailer later tonight.
Has MS bought timed exclusivity for Battlefield 4 DLC?
EA was conspicuously absent from Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling. Now there's speculation that it's because Microsoft has signed a new partnership deal with EA.
Before you go bananas, this is unlikely to mean games will appear on the next Xbox and not PS4. It's more likely to concern timed-exclusive DLC.
CVG got wind of the partnership from a couple of anonymous sources, but neither had any more information on what it will be.
UPDATE: ex-DICE dev says Mirror's Edge 2 in production. EA remains quiet.
UPDATE: Ben Cousins, general manager of ngmoco Sweden and former executive producer of the Battlefield franchise, has tweeted to say Mirror's Edge 2 is indeed in development.
Mega-publisher Electronic Arts has excused its current sequel-laden line-up by saying there's a lack of "reward" for launching new game IPs this late in the console generation.
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau admitted that the drought of actual new games would continue until new hardware arrived.
"If you look at the market dynamics: as much as there's a desire for new IP, the market doesn't reward new IP this late in the cycle; they end up doing okay, but not really breaking through," Gibeau explained to GamesIndustry.biz.
"We are better than ever when it comes to supporting our game."
DICE reckons fans are worried about the recent Battlefield 4 announcement "for all the wrong reasons".
Last month EA quietly announced Battlefield 4 with confirmation that you'll be able to play its beta by pre-ordering Medal of Honor: Warfighter, out this year.
With the BF4 beta scheduled for autumn 2013, the game is expected to launch October/November 2013. Some Battlefield fans complained that it will be released too soon after the release of Battlefield 3 (which launched six years after Battlefield 2) and that the announcement suggests the end for Battlefield 3 support.
DICE responds to fan concerns over release "pacing".
Entry into Battlefield 4's "exclusive" beta will not be exclusive to those who buy Medal of Honor: Warfighter, DICE has reassured.
EA made Battlefield 4 official yesterday by confirming that beta access for the game would be granted to Warfighter conscripts.
"The exclusive Battlefield 4 beta will be available in Fall 2013," EA said. "Additional details regarding Battlefield 4 will be revealed at a later date."
Battlefield developer DICE has insisted there's plenty still to come for Battlefield 3 in a statement issued to fans following the announcement of Battlefield 4.
UPDATE: EA has confirmed that the Battlefield 4 beta will run in the autumn of 2013, suggesting a launch October/November 2013 time.
"The exclusive Battlefield 4 beta will be available in Fall 2013," EA said. "Additional details regarding Battlefield 4 will be revealed at a later date."
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau added: "Though Battlefield and Medal of Honor Warfighter each offer players a completely unique experience, they are united by their underlying technology base - Frostbite. These are two of the hottest shooters, coming together to deliver a one-two punch of action, intensity and shooter entertainment."
