All eyes are on EA now after some massive blows to their company with the negativity of SimCity and CEO John Riccitiello resigning from the company. But there has been one hope left for the company, in their major blockbuster First Person Shooter series Battlefield. All anticipating has been on Battlefield 4 in the past week, with a few teaser videos and snippets of information leading up to the new 17 minute long trailer, that was just recently released!
Before that, there has been a few leaked screenshots and images for DICE’s Battlefield 4 which are seen below. The first one depicts the night skyline of a new city which bears resemblence to Shanghai. The other screenshots were leaked earlier today but are actually from the new gameplay trailer.
The game made its world debut today with a staggering 17-minute gameplay demo. The demo begins as the player – Recker – opens his eyes to discover that he is trapped in a rapidly sinking car with three of his squad mates. Shooting the window is the only way out. Panic and fear are pushed aside as Recker makes a difficult decision – take the shot and recover the intel but risk that not everyone will survive. The emotional demo features a cast of characters unrivaled in interactive entertainment. Players will learn how to work together in both the Campaign and Multiplayer, issuing squad orders and comparing achievements in both experiences. Adventure and Competition will unfold through a series of beautifully crafted locations constructed with some of the best art and sound design in modern shooters. All of this is only possible with Frostbite 3 – a new standard for interactive entertainment in 2013.
And here is the meat of the story the 17 minute gameplay trailer titled “Fishing in Baku” . First thing though, make sure to watch the video in 1080p for the full effect.
Judging by the last moments of the trailer a new enemy will reappear in the game, China. Called the People’s Liberation Army, the faction returns from Battlefield 2, or at least seems to. Near the end of the trailer the country is mentioned and a female character seems to be of chinese descent. But note that this gameplay trailer is of the game’s single player aspect, while the multiplayer is still relatively unknown at this point. There is also a little feature seen in the top right of the trailer which seems to be a social aspect of the game. From the trailer we can assume it features the friends, trophies/achievements and notifications. Also there was a pop=up message detailing that the player has set a new score for the mission.
There has been many rumours and information about the new game so here’s some clarified information. Acording to B4Central Battlefield 4 will be running on a new next-gen engine called Frostbite 3 (Battlefield 3 used Frostbite 2). The new engine will be a complete upgrade and have more destruction physics where entire buildings can be destroyed in more detail (similar to Battlefield Bad Company 2 and more destructive since Battlefield 3’s destruction was scaled down), with new animations, lighting system, weather physics, rendering and textures. Frostbite 3 has been designed with next-generation consoles in mind so this new engine running on current generation consoles may seem unlikely but if so with much reduced effects.
Here is a selection of screenshots from the trailer:
Battlefield 4 will be the next installment in the long running franchise developed by DICE and published by EA. The game dates back to 2002 with the release of Battlefield 1942. The last game in the franchise was Battlefield 3 which released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. So there has been only a 2 year window for the next game to come out so execution and polish may not be the best. Though there has been many hints for a futuristic version of Battlefield, a la the sequel to Battlefield 2142, though it has been confirmed that Battlefield 4 will be set in 2020.
Battlefield 4 will be releasing in fall this year, though no platforms have been confirmed or hinted at. You can also pre-order the game on the game’s official site: http://www.battlefield.com/ There are currently two editions avaiable for pre-order: a standard edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition. The latter will have access to the beta of Battlefield 4 along with some exclusive premium expansion among other goodies. So far it is only available via EA’s online distribution service Origin.
Still, no dinosaurs have been seen 🙁
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