On January 19th, the Battlefield Direct Communication Team released a rough look into the glass bowl that shows the future of Battlefield 2042. Update 3.2 goes live on the 20th of January, while the next “big” update 3.3 is expected to hit around the end of February, with the regular planned Season 1 starting around march. For a game released in November (!!) this is unexpected, to say the least. For me, nearly four months of no new content seems very long. For comparison: Battlefield 4 got its first DLC “China Rising” two months after release, so did Battlefield 3 with “Back to Karkand”.
The release of Battlefield 2042 started as a tragedy. Released shortly before the holiday season it was a buggy mess to start with. I am not going to start ranting about the desolate state of the game at launch, but I was glad that the devs started to kit the cracks in their game. And then came the Christmas time and with it came nothing.
Now, the tweets that I mentioned earlier shows me how I need to see the game. In fact, I am now convinced that all players need to stop seeing the game as a finished product. (Duh.) When the BF Comms Team said in their tweet: “Scoreboard will receive further updates beyond this refresh – this isn’t a one and done deal for us”, it clicked in my head. We are essentially acting as a part of the development of the game! We, the players, wanted a scoreboard. We get it now. And it is not final when they bring it into the game, so our feedback will bring them to change it further.
It is like they have no one in the dev team that knows about these things. Where did the people go that worked on previous games? Why do they press for changes in a way that do not work and that are not fun for the players? I hope that one day we will get the newest Battlefield to a point where it can be enjoyed. Where it is the promised “love letter to the fans” and I can love it as much as I love Battlefield 4. And my love for Battlefield 4 was (and still is) very strong!
The toughest and heart-breaking decision for me would be if they just drop the sword while it is being forged if you get my analogy. If they botch up the content as they did with Battlefield V and then, just as it gets on the right path, stop development.
I only pre-ordered this time, because I missed out on the release of Battlefield V, while my friends were playing it, and I did not want this to repeat.
My personal take-away from this release will be to not pre-order any new Battlefield game, as hard as it might be for me.
Playing God of War on PC in the middle of January showed me what I want from the games that I play. I don’t want to buy a game that is only half done. No one would go to a restaurant and order a chicken filet that is only half cooked. I know that a live service game as Battlefield is now, I cannot compare it to God of War. And I am not really comparing. But after nearly 10 years of playing games, with so many great games out there, I realise just now that instead of playing a half-done game, that the developers want me to play as an Alpha-version while selling it as a full release, I can play something else, not get angry at the state of the new Battlefield and just take comfort in hacking draugrs to pieces. BOY!
So, Battlefield still has a lot of work in front of it. And I just hope that the devs take it seriously this time and can keep Battlefield 2042 in service for longer, don’t drop it after just two years! If I have a wish, it would be this and I hope the gods hear me and grant it!
Thanks for reading, and as always, I would like to hear your thoughts on the topic!
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