Register or log in to join the discussion!

Sam Machkovech-June 9, 2021 3:10 PM UTC

As part of this week’s dump of similar E3 game news and reveals, EA announced one of the most surprising games of the year: Battlefield 2042. But don't get too excited. The word "reveal" should be reserved because we don't know much about how the game works-we expect EA to use a slow news to make fun of fans, Xbox and PlayStation before the game is released on PC on October 22 .

At present, DICE game developers have confirmed that the game is indeed a well-known battlefield game, including large-scale team battles, the return of the popular goal-based mode, and the desire to provide the largest battlefield in the series to date. I stayed at Ars long enough and heard this promise three times. It is commendable that DICE tends to provide greater combat range in every major part.

The most significant change? The developers finally—finally—increased the maximum number of players on a single large map in the gaming PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 versions to 128 combatants. Since its first entry, the series has been known for the number of 64 players, and over the years, representatives of DICE have explained this limitation by saying that more players don't always mean more fun. But these announcements were mainly issued before a certain 100-player game genre changed everything. Last week, DICE showed several advanced versions of upcoming maps to demonstrate its design philosophy: to provide a discrete team that can divide and conquer throughout the process. Area instead of gathering so many players into the corridor of death.

But EA is not ready to give up the previous generation of consoles, which means that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the new game will be released with a maximum of 64 players per game. EA and DICE have not confirmed how cross-platform games will be played between the previous and next generation consoles or platforms compatible with 128 player maps, but this technical limitation on the value of the two generations of BF2042 will definitely split their player base in a certain way. Kind of.

Compared with other games in the series, this defect of BF2042 will be more serious, because the title will be released without any active content at all. On the contrary, EA and DICE suggest that fans who want to get rid of online battles should play against AI robots in a multiplayer mode that is alone or with teammates in real life.

In order to downplay the lack of battle, the developers of DICE stated that the plot gold nuggets will appear in the ongoing multiplayer game mode. But these plot points are arguably the craziest story in the series so far. In the recent version of BF2042, the climate crisis of the early 2030s forced millions of people around the world to leave their homes. Due to geopolitical reasons, no country regards these huge masses as refugees. Therefore, when the large-scale world war broke out in 2042, they became armed nomads and were eventually drafted into the army to fight as the army of the existing country (yes, I'm serious).

The developers of DICE followed up the story by showing some of the game’s high-tech weapons and vehicles, these war nomads presumably built on rafts and towns made of floating plastic waste after their climate collapsed.

But apart from the unsurprising tanks and helicopters, EA did not show many specific weapons or vehicles. We only saw four of the game’s ten new “expert” professions, expanding the traditional four professions of the series. Subdivision. It seems that some of the main combat abilities-such as the use of ziplines, grappling hooks and wings to bypass the game's huge map-each will be limited to a few experts, but how these abilities will be played is still unclear. Although the series will get the first ever paid "battle pass" in BF2042, it does not apply to experts or their abilities; EA insists that these additional paid content will be completely "decorative." In addition, like BFV in 2019, the future map content of BF2042 will become part of the retail purchase price, without the need to purchase additional DLC.

The rest of the event contained many announcements, leading to unanswered follow-up questions. Dynamic weather events will appear on every map, and we see tornadoes rolling up and carrying players across at least one of the seven launch maps of the game, but what other natural disasters might come to the combatants? Players can use a special ability to make calls when transporting tanks or fighter jets, but what other weird, call-of-duty-like abilities and gadgets can players still use? Destructible buildings will come back, but what will they look like, and will they be as big as fully collapsible skyscrapers? Two brand-new game modes have been teased, but EA slapped the two modes with a large number of "coming soon" stickers, accompanied by seven versions of the warning: "These are not battle royale."

Now, we have the above "movie" lens library, which can at least hint at the size and scope of the game's battlefield. Although we saw the so-called "real-time game screen" by EA and DICE in the demo last week, it will be publicly displayed later, and what we see does not look as beautiful as the screen above. As EA releases a small amount of BF2042 information in the next four months, we will see more information.

Listing image of EA/DICE

You must log in or create an account to post a comment.

Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list and send updates to your inbox every week.

CNMN Collection WIRED Media Group © 2021 Condé Nast. all rights reserved. Using and/or registering any part of this website signifies acceptance of our user agreement (updated on 1/1/20) and privacy policy and cookie statement (updated on 1/1/20) and Ars Technica appendix (effective on 8/21/) 2018). Ars may receive sales compensation through links on this website. Read our affiliate link policy. Your California Privacy Rights | Do not sell my personal information. Without the prior written permission of Condé Nast, you may not copy, distribute, transmit, cache or otherwise use the information on this website. Ad selection