Battlefield 1 - DICE, gas attacks, biplanes, cavalry, bayonet charges

Since we’ve migrated, we might as well start fresh on this topic. (The old one was incorrectly named Battlefield 5.)

First, the trailer:

Here’s a bunch of datamined stuff from the Battlefield 1 closed beta going on now.

The alpha is great fun. The game feels very complete, not like an alpha at all (except for balance tweaks, I suppose). I guess they need the whole summer to finish the single player campaign and polish, but this bodes well for a smooth release.

As expected, the primitive WW1 tanks and planes are way more pokey and vulnerable and a whole lot less ultra-killing-machines they were in BF3 / BF4:

  1. You must spawn on the plane or tank, you can’t grab one from the other team. It’s an explicit choice now. There are light gun trucks you can grab at captured points, but anything with wings or heavy, you must explicitly choose to spawn on it before it will appear on the map at all.

  2. Tank and plane have their own classes (for driver only, regular classes can spawn on the passenger slots) which are kinda weak on their own, and only that class can repair. It makes doing vehicle drivebys – grab a plane, ditch it behind enemy lines – much less attractive. And you can’t camp on tanks as mobile spawn points with a slew of engineers repairing the things as they go. Only the driver can repair.

  3. There are massive blind spots on the tanks and planes, in the rear. You can get a rear gunner on the plane, but the tanks are super mega directional now. Better watch your cornhole, bud!

  4. Wings and tracks can be damaged and affect your handling before you are even in danger of exploding.

Overall, vehicles are Ye Olde Super-Nerfed, which wouldn’t sound fun… except in the context of balance with infantry, it is, somehow. It is such fun to tear around the map in your biplane like the red baron pinging away at stuff, and chewing up the scenery and smashing walls in your ponderous “land boat” with two (front and partially side facing) gunner buddies is something else.

The “God’s eye view” where you spawn by zooming way way out and then zooming back down to your chosen spawn point is so supremely excellent that it makes me resent every other game that does not do it this way. It’s just a convenience, not even part of the gameplay per se, but it’s so damn nice.

The different weather effects on the map are excellent. Night, fog, rain – each gives the same map a different feel. And it looks like weather is built in on every map, since the alpha map cycles through random effects after each round. I’d much rather have ambient weather on every map than the one-and-done hard coded “levelution” events of BF4.

I need more time with the various classes to have an opinion about them, but it does seem extremely fast paced to me between the movement speed and the new high mantling ability.

Graphically it runs like a bat out of hell on my 1080, and looks good but not exactly mind-blowing… but they usually ship betas and alphas on medium detail.

Might as well put this here since it’s so early in the process.

[quote]
Paramount Television and Anonymous Content are heading for the battlefield.

The two entities are teaming to bring Electronic Arts’ popular video game franchise Battlefield to the small screen, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The two companies have optioned the rights to the game from DICE and EA, with Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta set to exec produce.[/quote]

[quote]
“Paramount TV actively seeks smart content from all sectors that will resonate with audiences and translate to compelling programming,” Paramount TV president Amy Powell said. “EA’s Battlefield has an incredibly dynamic narrative, coupled with a loyal fan base, which will allow us to bring this exciting and unique property to the small screen. We look forward to working with EA and Anonymous Content and thank Michael Sugar for his tenacity in bringing us this exciting project.”

“Battlefield has a tremendous built-in, engaged fan base, making it a highly coveted piece of IP primed for long-form adaptation,” Anonymous Content partner Michael Sugar said. “Together with EA and Paramount TV, we’ll develop the Battlefield TV series with the same commitment to robust storytelling that has made the game such a runaway success for nearly 15 years.”[/quote]

I like the setting. I play the WWI mod for Red Orchestra now, and its very challenging. No tanks or planes yet in that one, and it must be hard to play balance against the regular infantry.

Can anyone tell me if the pilots of the biplanes have scarves that flap in the wind? Can you go third person still in planes?

That’s my decision point.

You can go into third person mode in all vehicles. Don’t know about scarves though.

Scarves or bust.

I agree that without scarves in biplanes the appeal of this game is significantly diminished.

Snoopy or GTFO.

I wish they would create a mode called “realism” mode. While it looks cool, everything is just way too fast. Running, tank speed, rates of fire, reloads. It’s like they took a game and put it on fast forward.

there is a mode called Realism mode actually ;) removes the hud among other things.

Realism mode?

Well, I guess relative to non-realism mode!

Anyone found discounts on the digital all in pack?

Q1 2017 results for EA. Bookmark page 15. Sales expectation for Battlefield 1 is 15 million in the first year.

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/0x0x902862/EB2B27C5-AC60-4022-87CC-BA3C36B8C6E0/EA-Transcript-2016-08-02T21_00.pdf

[quote]
So, on the guidance, we talked rough numbers with people. We told people that typically a Battlefield title is about [15 million] in a year. Our guidance is slightly under that. And we hope that that excitement builds and it will clearly go through that number, but for right now, it’s slightly under that number.

And Titanfall did a little more than 7 million units last time. It was early in the cycle and one of the few titles out there. We think it will do more than that, but it’s probably closer to 10 million than it is to 15 million is built into our guidance. So closer to 9 million to 10 million on Titanfall and just under 15 million on Battlefield 1.[/quote]

I will repeat this till I am out of breath, I don’t understand how they think releasing these 2 games a week apart is a good idea.

Battlefield 1 Amazon Exclusive Collector’s Edition.

“Does Not Include Game”

That’s right. No game.

It does come with a steelbook to put the game in eventually, when you buy it seperatly… :p

Also sad it doesn’t come with a real pigeon. :(

Who buys this crap? There must be a market for it, otherwise they wouldn’t bother.

Gamescom trailer: