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DICE explains Battlefield 4 'Carrier Assault' mode
Haven't played Battlefield 2142? If that's the case, the upcoming 'Carrier Assault' mode in the Naval Strike DLC for Battlefield 4 will feel like a fresh experience. Inspired by 2142's 'Titan' mode, Carrier Assault challenges opposing sides to sink their enemy's aircraft carrier. In a new post on the official Battlefield blog, lead gameplay designer Gustav Halling explains how the revamped mode works: "There are two ways of destroying the enemy carrier: either by full map control or assaulting the carrier as infantry. Each round is divided into 2 stages, starting with map control and ending with carrier attack. Both teams start on their own carrier and race to control the missile launchers placed on the map, by capturing the control points near them. This will automatically launch missiles towards the enemy carrier throughout the round, eventually destroying its hull and making it open for infantry attacks," he writes. Once access to the carrier is established, players can either drive a boat to the carrier to board it, or parachute down from spawn points above to destroy a series of M-COM stations within the hull. Alternatively, they can sit back and allow for the missile silos to reduce the carrier's health to zero. Halling says the inspired mode maintains the importance of map control, so a team that can't seem to break through to an enemy carrier can still succeed by defending their carrier and controlling the missile silo. Battlefield 4's 'Naval Strike' expansion will launch (as missiles are wont to do) later this month, first for Premium members and then for all. [Image: EA/DICE]
Battlefield 4 enlists platoon support on February 27
The chaotic, virtual warfare of Battlefield 4 is about to grow more organized with tomorrow's addition of platoons. Despite the thematically-appropriate name, these platoons are best thought of as the Battlefield 4 equivalent of officially supported online clans. Up to 100 soldiers can join a given platoon where they will share a unique name tag and emblem with their fellow grunts. A private Battlelog feed will be available to each platoon, alongside a public feed useful for kicking off fights with other other groups of virtual soldiers. Developer DICE also notes that each member will have the "ability to earn stats for your platoon and rank it up," though those ranks are ornamental and offer no tangible reward beyond bragging rights. Hoping to avoid another Battlefield 4 server crush, DICE plans to roll out platoon support gradually over the course of a week. Both Premium and Standard iterations of the game will receive the feature at the same time, though a Premium membership and a rank of at least 10 will be required to create your own platoon. [Image: EA]
Free Battlefield 4 'shortcut kits' now available
Battlefield 4 is offering a pair of shortcut kits to all players over the next couple of weeks, with those who ponied up for Premium membership receiving an additional two kits. Between now and February 24, all players can download the hand gun kit; from February 25 until March 4, the shortcut kit for the grenades will be gratis. Premium players will additionally receive the DMR kit through February 24 and the Shotgun kit through March 4. We've placed the details on how to unlock the kits for various platforms after the break. This is all part of this month's Battlefield apology tour. [Image: EA]
Battlefield 4 Second Assault out now for Premium members
The Second Assault DLC for Battlefield 4 is now available on PC via Origin as well as PS4 and PS3 for Premium members, and should arrive tomorrow on Xbox 360. The DLC first launched with the game on Xbox One, and is free with the $50 Premium service. Second Assault includes four new maps for the game: Caspian Border, Operation Metro, Operation Firestorm and Gulf of Oman. Each map is a "fan-favorite" from Battlefield 3, re-imagined in the Frostbyte 3 engine. The DLC will arrive on all consoles for non-Premium subscribers on March 4, as revealed last week.
Rock Band and Guitar Hero creator's next game is Chroma, a free-to-play rhythm-based shooter (yes, really)
Harmonix is charting new territory yet again. The studio that birthed both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and the only third-party game-development house that created a successful Kinect franchise (Dance Central), announced a new game today: Chroma. Unlike the studio's last several games, Chroma is headed exclusively to the PC (via Steam) as a free-to-play title. Also unlike Harmonix's last several games, Chroma is wildly experimental, blending first-person shooting with pulsing electronic beats and garish visuals. The music game studio is even working with an outside team, Hidden Path Entertainment: the same folks behind critically acclaimed shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. If you're still wondering what type of game Chroma is at this point, that's understandable: There's no such thing as a music-based first-person shooter. That is not a thing that exists (well, unless you wanna count Midway's terribly amazing Revolution X). So let's break it down: In Chroma, you play one of five classes (standard FPS fare, from basic assault to heavy "tank"), with weapons and abilities varying based on the class you choose. In the two game modes we played at DICE 2014, we were on a team with other writers battling for control of various points within a level or battling for control of a cart being pushed one way or another (think: Team Fortress 2). Pretty normal shooter stuff so far, right? The musical wrinkle comes into play whenever you shoot or jump. Fire a sniper rifle shot on the downbeat and connect? That's a one-hit kill. Jump on the downbeat? You'll go a little higher. Better yet, jump on a downbeat on a jump pad and chain your button presses to the beat to continuously jump from pad to pad (this all makes more sense in Chroma's stylized future-world setting, promise). You can fire most guns whenever you want, and jump at any time, but timing actions to the beat makes a world of difference. That is Chroma's bizarre, fascinating premise.
All of the DICE talks, awards are online
DICE presentations this year ran the gamut from mainstream to indie gaming, music to monetization, Kickstarter to managing an office. All of the talks, including the 2014 DICE Awards, are now available to watch and re-watch on YouTube, courtesy of Variety. Notable presentations include Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey discussing the future of virtual reality (and EVE Valkyrie), The Banner Saga composer Austin Wintory mixing music live on-stage, Keiji Inafune talking about the power of crowdfunding, Gone Home creator Steve Gaynor on the evolution of indie games, and Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail with lessons he's learned during his rise as an indie developer. And of course there's Insomniac founder Ted Price talking about ballz. The 2014 DICE Awards didn't break the streak of gaming award shows being really awkward, but the show did provide us a fun drinking game. It's simple, if you're of legal age and want to play along: Drink every time The Last of Us wins. You're welcome. [Image: DICE]
Necessary violence: The creators of The Last of Us defend its reliance on combat
PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last of Us was the most successful game of 2013. That's not just sales (it sold extremely well, to the tune of 3.4 million in its first three weeks), but also critical reception (an average Metacritic score of 95/100 and it swept game of the year awards across the game industry in 2013). Last week, The Last of Us earned development studio Naughty Dog a whopping 10 wins at the annual DICE awards show in Las Vegas -- considered the Oscars of gaming. With Naughty Dog's past creating hit franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted, The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley aren't strangers to success (these guys led development of Uncharted 2, another extremely successful game). Their latest work is a tremendous departure.
Battlefield 4 Second Assault arrives February 18
Confirming a rumor from earlier this week, developer DICE has announced that the Second Assault DLC for large-scale military shooter Battlefield 4 will debut on February 18. "In a week, you'll take a step back in time with Battlefield 4 Second Assault, featuring four fan-favorite maps from Battlefield 3 – Operation Metro, Caspian Border, Gulf of Oman, and Operation Firestorm," a DICE representative wrote on the official Battlefield 4 blog. "Reimagined with Frostbite 3 graphics and Battlefield 4 gameplay, Battlefield 4 Second Assault will be released on February 18 for Battlefield 4 Premium members on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, and for all Battlefield 4 players two weeks later on March 4." As Second Assault has been available to Xbox One users since Battlefield 4 launched on that console, there isn't anything left to reveal about the DLC. Instead, the remainder of today's announcement is focused on the game's next addition, dubbed Naval Strike. "In this expansion, you'll experience intense water-based combat as the Chinese armada takes the fight to the sea. You'll have access to new weapons, gadgets, and amphibious vehicles, and four all-new maps – Lost Island, Nansha Strike, Wave Breaker, and Operation Mortar." DICE has yet to reveal a release date for Naval Strike. [Image: EA]
Abandoning Olympus: Mega Man's creator on going indie
Keiji Inafune's been making games for nearly 30 years. He's the man behind one of gaming's most iconic characters (Mega Man) and several huge franchises (Dead Rising, Onimusha). After 23 years working at Capcom, one of Japan's largest game publishers, he suddenly quit back in 2010. "Settling down means death for a creator. As long as you are a creator, you cannot settle down," he announced on his blog. Just six months after being appointed Capcom's Global Head of Production (overseeing the company's entire gaming catalog, from Resident Evil to Street Fighter), he quit. With that, he set off on his own and created two new companies: Comcept and Intercept. When we talked with Inafune last week at DICE 2014, he spoke of his plans for Comcept in detail. "I was a publisher for 20 years, so you'd be right in thinking I brought some ideas from there into Comcept," he said. That means, first and foremost, retaining ownership of IP. That's a major component of going with Kickstarter for the latest Comcept game, a Mega Man-esque action game titled Mighty No. 9. The project sailed past its target goal of $900K and took in $3.8 million. Without a publisher, of course.
Battlefield 4 thanks players in February with daily Battlepacks, shortcut kits
DICE is thanking fans for sticking with Battlefield 4 through its launch mess with an entire month devoted to players. Starting on February 1, DICE will dole out special community missions and initiate daily giveaways throughout the month. Every day players log into Battlefield 4 in February, they'll receive a Bronze (weekdays) or Silver (weekends) level Battlepack, which provide random XP boosts and camouflage skins. Two shortcut bundles, which immediately unlock all grenade types and handguns, will also be made available during February at no cost; however, Battlefield 4 Premium owners will get two additional shortcut bundles that unlock all DMRs and shotguns. Finally, at some point in February, DICE will turn on the XP faucet through a double XP weekend event. DICE says it will continue to work toward improving the Battlefield 4 experience. The developer is actively working to improve the game's netcode, which will hopefully result in a more fluid online experience, and promises to share more details on that at a later time.
Next major Battlefield 4 update due for release by early February
EA DICE plans to roll out its next multiplatform Battlefield 4 update "at the end of January/beginning of February," the developer announced today. The next round of updates will introduce stability improvements across all supported platforms, along with fixes for lingering bugs in Battlefield 4's multiplayer component. Platform-specific patches have been issued frequently since the game's launch in October last year. EA DICE additionally seeks player feedback regarding proposed balance tweaks targeting DMR performance and anti-air defense. The developer will weigh the results of its feedback polls and will detail resulting gameplay updates soon.
Battlefield 4 patch on Xbox One addresses single-player save file issues
DICE began rolling out an update for Battlefield 4 on Xbox One today. The update offers similar changes to the game seen in the patches issued to the PC, PS3 and PS4 versions earlier this week, such as the damage dealt by the stealth jet cannons. Of the issues addressed in today's update, DICE fixed a map and minimap flickering problem players encountered during the Rogue Transmission and Operation Locker stages. Additionally, the patch "reduced the risk of single player campaign save file becoming corrupt," according to the full update notes, which can be found after the break.
Battlefield 4 PC update tweaks stealth jets, addresses stability
An update for the PC version of Battlefield 4 was issued this morning, bringing with it some stability, balancing and player spawning fixes. Among the more tangible differences players will notice are tweaks to the stealth jets in the game, which see a 25 percent damage increase to their cannons and some changes in their handling attributes. DICE also fixed an issue where the friendly marker didn't always show when it was supposed to, which resulted in players shooting their teammates. Looks like you're all out of excuses for shooting at your team, Doug. Head past the break for the full update notes.
Mirror's Edge co-story designer Rhianna Pratchett not working on reboot [update]
EA hasn't approached Mirror's Edge co-story designer and writer Rhianna Pratchett about returning to DICE's upcoming reboot, the author revealed this week. Pratchett, who served as lead writer on the recent Tomb Raider and as co-story designer and writer on Heavenly Sword, went on to say the Mirror's Edge story "didn't review that great," and that she considered herself a "casualty of the development process." Pratchett has spoken about her disappointment with the first game's story before. Talking to ActionTrip in 2012, she said, " DICE was a great company to work with, but Mirror's Edge was a challenging project and an important learning experience for me. Unfortunately, because of the timing when I was brought in and a large amount of the script being cut (due to the late decision to remove level dialogue) the narrative wasn't what I would've liked it to be. Thankfully, I got the chance to remedy this a little bit in the Mirror's Edge comic series with DC. The story in those was much more along the lines of what I would've liked to have developed for the game." Pratchett added, "I've been quite candid about what happened with Mirror's Edge, because I know some players were disappointed with the narrative in the game. The upshot of that is that I've probably blotted my copy-book with DICE. I'd love the chance to do it again under the right circumstances, and I have plenty of ideas, but I doubt that's going to happen." After years of speculation, EA finally unveiled the Mirror's Edge reboot at last year's E3 conference, and the game is currently in development for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It'll feature a new origins story for lead character Faith, although the publisher is keeping that under wraps for now. As for Pratchett, she's being kept busy with upcoming TV and film adaptations of her father Terry's work, including a movie of The Wee Free Men and a BBC series of The Watch. And how about the Tomb Raider sequel, hmmmmm? "Can't say, sorry." is the answer to that. Update: Following today's news, we got in touch with Rhianna Pratchett to ask whether or not she'd be prepared to work on the new Mirror's Edge game if asked, and what she'd want to do differently second time around. "A lot of it would depend on the time frame involved, the attitude of the team and what they were looking to do with the characters and world this time around," she told us, while noting she'd outlined some of what she'd do with a prequel with the comic series she wrote for the first game. Check out what Pratchett had to say in full after the break:
EA wants your opinion on Battlefield 4
Whether you love Battlefield 4 or despise its constant crashes and tendency to lose save files, EA wants to hear from you. The publisher has issued a survey to members of the Battlefield 4 community which first asks players to rate the likelihood that they would recommend Battlefield 4 to a friend, then asks for a short, personalized review of the open-world, first-person shooter. There's no tangible reward for participation, though given the number of vocal Battlefield 4 detractors we've seen since the game's October debut, the chance to release all of that anger directly at the people responsible for the game should prove tempting by itself. Despite this attempt by EA to take the pulse of its community, Battlefield 4 remains less than functional. The game's ongoing stability issues have improved since launch, but crashes and failures to connect to servers remain common. As a result of these problems, EA now finds itself the target of two class-action lawsuits alleging the publisher convinced players to purchase the unfinished game by filling its marketing materials with false and misleading information.
Battlefield 4 Premium double XP event today, AMD 'Mantle' update this month
A recently delayed Battlefield 4 double XP event for Premium members has been rescheduled. Originally supposed to take place on December 30, the new date for the event is ... today. It began at 8am ET this morning and will run for a total of 58 hours. If you've had your eyes on a particular unlock, now would be the time to log on. Here's hoping you can stay logged on. In other Battlefield news, the "Mantle" update for AMD-powered PCs has been delayed. It was meant to launch in December, but AnandTech reports that Electronic Arts and AMD now plan to release the update in January. Mantle is expected to offer a hefty performance boost for machines packing AMD hardware.
Double XP event delayed for Battlefield 4 Premium members
A double XP event for Battlefield 4 Premium members has been delayed, according to an alert posted on the Battlefield forums. Originally slated to take place yesterday, the event has been "postponed" and will "run at a later date." Unfortunately, developer DICE offers no further information regarding a specific date. According to the Battlefield 4 Premium calendar, January's Premium event should go down on January 27. Presumably, the rescheduled December event should take place sometime before then. The delayed event joins a host of problems – including buggy gameplay and persistent connectivity issues – that have plagued Battlefield 4 since it launched at the end of October. The problems reached fever pitch this month, with publisher EA finding itself the target of multiple lawsuits alleging that the company misled investors about the state of Battlefield 4 prior to launch.
Battlefield 4 connectivity issues continue across 'various platforms'
DICE posted an alert on its support forums for Battlefield 4 to warn players of ongoing connectivity issues across multiple platforms. This is the latest update in a string of problems the game has faced since its launch in late October, which has seen multiple patches go live in the past few weeks. The game's support forums note that the developer is "continuing to monitor some intermittent connectivity issues affecting some players across various platforms." Though no other information is provided in the alert, DICE's Battlefield 4 issues tracker mentioned that it is investigating a bug that is "accounting for a large amount of crashes" on Xbox 360. Among the other problems encountered by Battlefield players are reports that the game's China Rising DLC failed to carry over from PS3 to PS4, for players that made the switch to the next-gen system. As a result of its constant problems, multiple law firms have launched investigations into EA to determine whether the publisher intentionally mislead investors on the game's state leading up to its release.
Report: Battlefield 4 banned in China
The Chinese government has banned Battlefield 4 in the country following the release of the China Rising expansion, the Wall Street Journal reports. The game was banned over "national security" reasons. EA declined to comment when contacted by the Wall Street Journal. We have also reached out to EA and will update this post accordingly. The Battlefield 4 single-player campaign takes place during 2020, when a Chinese admiral initiates a plan to overthrow the government. The China Rising expansion features a variety of new maps, vehicles and an additional gametype, all set on the Chinese mainland.
Report: Battlefield 4 DLC purchase fails to upgrade to next-gen
A wholly new problem has found Battlefield 4, thanks to a report claiming that the PlayStation 3 version of the game's China Rising DLC is not being upgraded to its PlayStation 4 counterpart, despite EA's earlier, public claims to the contrary. China Rising is the first in a series of planned expansions for Battlefield 4 and was offered as a free pre-order bonus to anyone willing to put down cash early on any version of the game. At the same time, EA (and many other publishers) were involved in a promotion that would allow players to upgrade a game from its PS3 or Xbox 360 iteration to a next-gen counterpart for a small fraction of the game's purchase price. Though the official Battlefield Twitter account claims that China Rising should be upgraded alongside the game using the aforementioned promotion, a player using the name "buckethead232" has revealed a text chat with an EA customer service representative which directly contradicts that idea. "According to the latest updates, upgraded players have to purchase [China Rising]," the representative told the player, before adding that the only ways to get China Rising on either a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One are to pre-order a next-generation version of the game, spend $15 to buy the DLC piecemeal, or spend $50 for the Battlefield Premium service (which bundles all Battlefield 4 DLC). We've contacted EA for further information on this apparent policy change, though have yet to hear back. That's not surprising given that it's two days before Christmas, but we'll offer an update when and if we hear more.
