squads
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Call of Duty: Ghosts gets the squad together in new multiplayer modes
Call of Duty: Ghosts will introduce a new type of hybrid AI-and-human multiplayer experience called Squads. First, a player forms their own Squad, a group of soldiers with varying perks and load-outs designed to support a certain play style. This squad then levels up and progresses as the player unlocks XP throughout the various Squad-centric multiplayer modes. All of the XP earned in each of these Squad modes can then carry over to the multiplayer experience proper. Call of Duty: Ghosts launches on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC on November 5. PS4 and Xbox One installments will be available during those respective console launches.
Battlefield 4 ups squad count to five, DICE explains why
Battlefield 4 will feature five-man squads over the series' staple four-man grouping. "They've been asking for bigger squads," DICE producer Aleksander Grondal told Joystiq at E3, referring to the Battlefield community's insistance on larger squad counts. "We believe five is a good figure. It allows for more team-based gameplay, basically. You have more options and you can spawn in more places." In previous Battlefield games, DICE made a purposeful design decision to limit the number of players per squad. "It was a design choice back then – forgive me, I don't exactly remember why it was chosen four. You know, it feels like light years ago from previous games," Grondal joked, rubbing the tired from E3's first day out of his eyes. "But five is a little better; it gives a bit more flexibility and more interesting choices." Battlefield 4 launches on October 29 for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
ArenaNet details Guild Wars 2's squad mechanics and region-locking [Updated]
So what the heck is a squad as it relates to Guild Wars 2? I surely don't know, but ArenaNet's Jordan Massey does. Fortunately for all of us, he's explained it via the latest GW2 dev blog that's hot off the presses. Essentially, squads are ANet's answer to the problem of WvW communication. As Massey says, "team chat was too large because everyone in the entire map could talk in it, resulting in too much noise. On the other hand, parties [...] were too small." The squad, then, is a "one-to-many" command structure with its own chat channel that only accepts chat from the leader. Squad leaders also get squad map markers, which function much as normal waypoints. Massey also says that while the squad mechanics were designed with PvP in mind, they'll be quite helpful for larger PvE events. Read all about it at the official ArenaNet blog. [Update: ArenaNet has also clarified whether GW2 will be region-bound. The Facebook statements are after the break.]
