Battlefield 4's reveal - a fireworks display gone wrong?
Battlefield 4 is unwrapped at San Francisco's Metreon. The world awaits the next generation of DICE's lauded shooter series. Life-time fan Sam Clay braces for impact and waits to be blown away. His thoughts follow.
I flew across the globe to watch Battlefield 4 in a cinema, go figure - that was one expensive cinema ticket. However, after coming out of the movie with Rihanna ringing in my ears, I'm confused.
Define Battlefield 4? Very, very pretty. It's Battlefield 3 with make-up on.
Undeniably, it's the prettiest shooter ever. Call of Duty is now plummeting into the sewers of graphical prowess and hiding like a hermit. Sadly, visuals alone doesn't make it instantly a great game.
The demo suffered immediately from a similar problem faced Sony in its PS4 reveal conference. Killzone: Shadow Fall looked lovely, right up to the point the gun was taken out of the holster and fired needlessly into a bunch of random foes. Battlefield 4 did the same. We shot a bunch of people in a street and it looked really pretty. Same old, same old.
Sure, watching an apache helicopter's windshield shatter into a million pieces and come flying past the camera was enough for me to want to change my undies (in fact I actually did let out a yelp of sexual vigour), but the scene continued with some typical shooty nonsense of the type seen many times before, with grown men bleating the word 'f**k' loudly. Same old, same old.
And then there was probably the funniest thing ever witnessed in a game demo: a man driving his car turns up to save the day. I have a few questions to ask about this.
Why the hell is he driving around when there has clearly been a massive gun battle involving heavy military vehicles over head? Surely you'd drive away from the burning buildings and gunfire? I think I would.
Did the writers of this scene struggle to think of a way to get them out of it?
This poor man was then now left to die. I doubt he's got the number for a taxi company that's willing to pick him up from outside a burning building. Lost for words.
Apparently emotion is now driven by the power of the Frostbite 3 engine - with more power they can deliver a more heartwarming experience (as pointed out by Patrick Bach, the game's executive producer). One thing I want to say in reply to this statement: have you played The Walking Dead? That was pretty damn emotional. I don't think the game's engine was terribly powerful.
In short, then: was I impressed by it? Of course I was. Is it what I expected from a next-gen Battlefield? Probably not. Will I buy it? Well, that's a stupid question. I'll see you on the Battlefield.