EA finally unveiled Battlefield 4 today; following simultaneous reveal events in San Francisco and Stockholm.
Journalists at the Stockholm EA studio and attendees of GDC were shown 17 minutes of footage, showing a section of the game’s prologue with Memento style pacing. where four squad soldiers are on the run from Russian militants in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku.
Powered by DICE’s impressive Frostbite 3 engine, EA has confirmed Battlefield 4 is set to launch in Autumn 2013, though were reluctant to confirm any next generation platforms, promising a PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release – and closing the door entirely on a version for Wii U.
In fact, EA was reluctant to talk about anything in any real depth. The announcement made big promises, but was short on any real detail. While the 17 minutes of footage were visually awe-inspiring, there’s nothing here that makes us want to look past either of EA’s recent modern-warfare shooters; Battlefield 3 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, we’ve certainly been burnt before, though it is of course still early days.
Huge environments, access to a variety of land and sea vehicles and the ability to direct your squad – which echoed a style not too dissimilar from Brothers In Arms from day’s gone bye. We also get an idea of what to expect from the dynamic weather effects and an upgraded Destruction 4.0 system – heralding a return to the wildly destructible environments found in Bad Company 2.
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“To be this early in development, and to already be so polished is a huge achievement for the DICE team and reflection of their passion and commitment to driving the franchise forward,” said Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President of EA Games. “Today’s demo was just the beginning, we have so much more in store.”
“It is thrilling to witness peoples’ reaction when seeing the game for the first time. It really makes you realise that we are at the beginning of a whole new era for gaming. As artists and craftspeople, we are focused on creating a dynamic, open design that brings people together with amazing, surprising unscripted moments that they’ll talk about for days. That’s the beauty of Battlefield.” Said Soderlund.
EA were also reluctant to reveal any firm multiplayer details, for the time being focussing wholly on revealing Battlefield’s “human” story. Though interestingly, they did reveal that a variety of multiplayer design elements would be making their way to the single player campaign, where the game “will now track players’ progress, adding an element of persistence and friendly competition to the campaign.”
We are can’t wait to see what DICE and EA show next as we welcome in a “whole new era of gaming.” With rumors circulating wildly about Call of Duty’s imminent reveal, and the future of the next generation imminent, it’s never been a more exciting time for fans of AAA FPS games.
You can see the full 17 minutes of video below.