With the recent news that EA and DICE are aimin♛g for Battlefield 6 to reach 100 million players, I can’t help but feel very🍌 concerned about what’s in store for the series’ long-suffering fans. Battlefield has long lost its way. There was hope that Battlefield 6 would be a return to the series’ form, but 🦄it seems like EA’s influence - and desire to make as much cash as possible - is getting in the way of what Battlefield is actually about.
Battlefield 1 Was Peak Battlefield
I’ve written about Battlefield 1 many t🤪imes before. It’s one of my all-time favourite games and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:probably the best FPS I’♚ve ever played. Th🌜e concept of a World War 1 entry was inherently ridiculous at first: not to downplay the severity and horror of one of the worst conflicts in human history, but 🐻the static trench-based warfare didn’t seem like it was going to make for a very good time.
It turns out I was wrong, because Battlefield 1 🦩was an absolute masterpiece. A brilliant, concise single-player campaign; atmospheric and cinematic battlescapes across a wide variety of distinct European battlefields, alongside an attention to detail that to this day hasn’t been rivaled. It had no silly cosmetics and no tacked-on Battle Royale mode. It was a game developed with passion and focus. It’s still the most-played Battlefield game of all time, peaking at around 30 million players by best estimate, about a third of what EA wants from Battlefield 6.
But what exactly is EA’s grand plan to make Battlefield 6 the best (and most popular) in the series yet? We don’t know, although I hope more than anything it doesn’t follow in the footsteps of Call Of Duty, but if the rumors of a Battle Royale on a scale comparable to🐬 Warzone are anything to go by, that’s exactly what we can expect.
Howeveꦑr🌟, it doesn’t have to be this way, even if it’s probably already too late to change course.
Battlefield Fans Just Want A Classic Battlefield Experience
When I say I want a classic Battlefield experience, I’m obviously talking with a hefty dose of nostalgia. Battlefield 2, and later Battlefield 3 and 4, were seminal games while I was growing up. It’s likely that without those games I’d probably be doing something else as a job. They were inspirational to me because they demဣonstrated what was possible in games. Huge cinematic experiences, with mechanics that pushed multiplayer games to a new level - massive destruction, team cooperation, and all-out chaos.
They were, at their core, very simple. Classes were distinct. If you wanted to use a sniper, you needed to play as a sniper class. If you wanted to revive people, you had to play as a medic. You didn’t se🌳e an AI Darth Vader or Nicki Minaj in a Humvee. There were no radioactive weapons and gacha mechanics. No £40 skins. It’d be a shame to see Battlefield 6 further abandon its classic and beloved gameplay formula in favour of modern cosmetic silliness.
The victory was about more than just a cracked-out teenager bunny-hopping around the map doing 360s. You could as easily influence the tide of battle by sitting next to an allied tank and repairing it for the entire game. A good friend of mine is an awful FPS player, but we can still enjoy Battlefield together, because he can just spend the entire game dedicating hi🐻mself to c꧑apturing points in Conquest mode. My guy will go 0-25 but sit comfortably close to the top of the leaderboard, because his input still matters.
Battlefield has always been a more casual alternative to Call Of Duty, and in modern times, to games like Tarkov and Apex Legends. It’s the sort of game a parent can play for a couple of hours once the🍒 kids have gone to bed; or one where you boot up and sit comfortably on the sofa and chill out on a Friday night with some friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been particularly angry when playing a Battlefield game. It’s just not like that. There’s more focus on teamwork. You don’t need to be particularly fast or great at clicking on heads (although this does help) in Bat✨tlefield. It also typically has a slower pace.
The Commodification Of A Good Old-Fashioned Time
Look, I don’t even mind that much if Battlefield wants to introduce a massive Battle Royale mode. If it’s done well, then I’ll likely play the hell out of it. Battlefield 5’s Firestorm wasn’t completely terrible, it was simply too late to the party and not nearly as compelling as its already very successful competition. The mishandling of Battlefield 5 deserves an article all on its own, but that’𝕴s for another time.
My issue is more about how much my beloved Battlefield is being twisted and warped by , shareholders, and the yoke of having to be the next big thing. This need basi🅰cally killed Battlefield 2042 before it even got off the ground, with the introduction of Specialists, which to this day, I view solely as an attempt to sell skins. Battlefront 2 experienced a similar fate at the hands of EA with its massive lootbox scandal that unfortunately saw a fantastic product preemptively binned by a lot of players before it could achieve true greatness.
It’s tiring to have your expectations bui♎lt up and then dashed over and over again. I just want a perfectly ༺ordinary Battlefield game built by a team that is well-supported, well-compensated, and well-looked after, working on a project that they are passionate about. Build it, and the players will arrive.
