WeView Verdict: Battlefield 4

I’ll admit that I was surprised with your collective thoughts on Battlefield 4, as they all seemed relatively positive despite the issues that apparently plague the game. It’s likely they’re a bit exaggerated, but it’s clear that there is a really good multiplayer shooter in there too.

It seemed to cause a big split between people saying to buy it for the fact it’s a great first person shooter and others saying to avoid it due to it being broken. So we’ll start with the good.

If you’re a fan of the FPS genre, then “Battlefield has to be the top dog on all consoles at the moment” said BrendanCalls, who admits he hasn’t played competing games such as Killzone Shadow Fall and Titanfall. Yet double-o-dave agreed, saying that it is great if you enjoy these games and that “once you discover the different game modes and tactics I can’t see how the likes of Call of Duty, Killzone or even Titanfall compare”.

Muskyy stated that it is “hands down the best FPS I’ve ever played” and Amphlett said “the multiplayer segment was quite choppy in the first few months but I found that the plus points significantly outweighed these issues”, highlighting the variety to be found:

Let’s say you want to pilot an attack chopper into battle, no problem. Then you decide to do a little sniping from the edge of the field, no problem. Want to go in all guns blazing? Then why not jump aboard a chopper as a passenger and get dropped off right in the middle of the action?

Broonba thought the same, and left some thoughts: “Even with the occasional lag, etc. the game is definitely 10 times more fun to play than Ghosts”. The game is also all that doug plays, taking over time he might otherwise have spent with Call of Duty and Thief.

When compared to previous titles in the series, such as Bad Company 2, Battlefield 4 “is much bigger, more serious and has a tonne of new and improved vehicles and weapons” according to Amphlett, while double-o-dave said “I like all the BF4 maps but can’t think of a single BF3 map I liked.”

It’s only better when it actually works, though, and according to Bilbo_bobbins it doesn’t work a lot of the time:

There are major problems with lag and rubber banding on the large Conquest maps, and also on Obliteration. DICE have known this for months too and they seem like they have no idea on how to fix it.

It was the same story for hornet1990 who said “matches where I don’t experience lag, being killed by enemies despite a massive chunk of rock or building between us, or zero health etc seem to have become increasingly scarce.”

Foxhound_Solid also encountered a single player save glitch towards the end, something which also happened with Battlefield 3, and for this reason doesn’t think there will be a story in Battlefield 5. “It is troubling in my eyes that a franchise as huge as this can be released absolutely broken to **** on one platform” said Yiddo, also pointing out the save glitch.

Issues don’t affect everyone, though – minerwilly said “Been playing online for almost 2 months now, and haven’t experienced any issues. Brilliant game and easily the best the PS4 has to offer.” It wasn’t the same for gazzagb, who concluded “I’d much rather recommend someone pick up Battlefield 3 or one of the Bad Companies.”

Nocure-fd said that the game “looks and sounds great, and I can’t find any major fault with it really”, but still said that you should avoid it for one reason: Planetside 2. The sense of scale is much better in that game, apparently, and it’s free to play. Why not both, though?

So, some extremely positive thoughts and then some negative ones which seem to hinge on the fact that the game still has some persistent and pervasive issues. That means seven Buy It ratings, one Bargain Bin It and five Avoid It scores.

After what feels like it has spent years in the poll, we’ve finally got Splinter Cell: Blacklist coming up tomorrow, which should be an interesting one. As for next week, you can get voting now with the poll below. We’re almost out of last generation titles (though ported to this generation too) as FIFA 14 joins.