BF1: Going to Flop

Battlefield 1 General Discussion
1

I think I speak for the silent majority who felt their hype level plummet into the ground after the BF1 reveal. Part of this apprehension comes from the Hardline and Battlefront flops – although Dice wasn’t directly responsible for Hardline, the fact that Battlefront showed similar tendencies to ultra casual, low-content gameplay design makes it hard to NOT worry about the direction EA is taking BF. But why did the hype level take a dive? For me, it was the World War 1 theme; right away, I thought that this choice was just a cosmetic, surface-deep excuse to make a BF game that had less depth, less content, and even simpler play mechanics that previous BF titles – the very fact that “Battlefield 1” was chosen as the title instead of “5” seemed to suggest that Dice/EA wanted to distance the game from the Battlefields that came before it because they knew it simply was not a successor, but a different kind of “Battlefield” game.

So, gameplay was revealed. And my fears have mostly seem to have been justified.

  1. Much less content– I feared that the WW1 theme was, essentially, an excuse to release much less game content than in previous Battlefields, especially BF4 which hit the peak of game content. There are 12 guns. TWELVE. BF4 has well over a hundred, probably more than 10 TIMES the amount of guns we’ve seen from the BF1 alpha. Yes, I realize it’s an alpha. Yes, I realize some weapons may be added in future DLCs. But I believe it’s virtually impossible to deny that there will simply be MUCH fewer guns than in BF4, and probably BF3 too…unless Dice can model, texture, and balance at least 50-60 more guns in the few months before launch. Instead of fighters, ground attack jets, scout choppers, attack choppers and carrier choppers, there are “bombers” and “fighters”. Instead of bombers and gunships, there are zepplins. Instead of APCs, IFVs, tanks, motorcycles, jet skiis, boats, hover tanks, etc, there is a carrier and a tank. Instead of Commanders, there is nothing. Instead of UAVs, sensors, laser desginators and UCAVs, there is…nothing. Instead of grips, laser dots, holographics, ACOGs, FLIRs, barrels, supressors, under-shotguns and grenade launchers, there is…nothing. Oh, maybe an optic for DMRs, and a choice of a few scopes for sniper refiles? It’s simply pathetic. Also, maps. We’ve only seen one, and it is the size of a BF3/BF4 tactical infantry-only map, yet has the all the vehicles you’d expect out of a full sized BF map. A legacy of being a console game?

  2. It’s a console game – that was understood by all the moment it was revealed that it would be a timed exclusive on the Xbox One. Small maps, less content and simpler game mechanics for the controller crowd. Not only has the hated 3D spotting being retained, this so-called WW1 game is throwing even more neon HUD junk all over our screen. Now we have ridiculous icons over each character to show their class. Spawn-in only vehicles.

  3. Not a WW1 game – it’s pretty obvious from just 2 minutes of gameplay footage that the game is about as far away from WW1 as I am from Mars. Fantasy guns with full-auto select fire, RPGs, command channel with constant HQ updates, real time 2D map, fully stabilized tank guns with full-view sights, LMGs, grenades everywhere. Soliders with commando helmets and face covers. Apart from the uniform textures and the sight of bi-planes and WW1 tanks there is nothing at all that places this game in the period of WW1.

And…Apple? Duff? Are you serious Dice?

The silent majority that doesn’t live off of forum hype will quickly get bored with this game, just as they got bored with Battlefront 3 and Hardline. BF1 is NOT turning out to be a true AAA flagship game.

2

Troll thread, move along folks, nothing to see, this guy has not done hes research to what he says

3

I think the only part I agree with is #3. It wont flop, to much hype. Player base might dive after launch but by then it still will have sold millions of copies :frowning:

4

I did have quite a few things to say in response to this but when you said “a tank” i just lost the will to bother with it. I think you will find this game has a lot more content than you think.

5

Such as? There is more than a tank and a personnel carrier?

6

That hurt to read, OP seems to have extremely limited knowledge of WW1 and BF1.

Don’t write nonsense like that if you don’t even know what you’re talking about, unless your purpose is to troll of course…

7

If I counted correctly, vanilla Battlefield 4 (before DLC), has like 77 weapons. This is just counting primary and secondary weapons, not battle pickups, gadgets, melee, and grenades. What we saw in the live presentation was just a small sample of the guns we’re getting. By release, we may get like about ten or so guns per class, and I’m sure we’ll have over 50 weapons among primaries and secondaries. However, getting in that 70-80 gun range that Battlefield 4 has would be even better yet.

We’re getting three classes of tanks (light, medium, heavy), and they’ll be optimized for one’s play style. Light for the lone wolves, medium for those with one or two friends, and heavy for an entire fireteam.

And the guns aren’t “fantasy.” Many of them may have seen limited to no actual service during WW1, but they most certainly existed at the time. As for RPGs? The “AT Rocket Rifle” is actually a 1.59-inch/40mm Vickers-Crayford Q.F. Mark II “Rocket Gun.” The “rocket” part is a misnomer since it actually fires shells. It’s basically a man-portable artillery piece.

8

If i could refund those couple of minutes of your life back, i would. Seriously.

Well said by the way.

9

Just want to point out that my favorite BF game and probably the best balanced of the entire series 2142 had hardly any guns as well. i think each class got to unlock 1 or 2 guns at most? and that game was so well balanced because of it.

but yes i agree with the fact that these games seem to have been very dumbed down for console and PC players from the past notice it. oh and these tiny maps need to go, sick of tanks being able to shoot a flag from another flag i hope its not like that in this one.

but lets just try the beta and see, i know beta saved me money on battlefront. hopefully dice does one for this game.

10

The “less guns, more balance” logic isn’t quite consistent with DICE’s games, honestly. Battlefield 4 has noticeably better weapon balance than BC2, Battlefield 3, and Hardline while still having more weapons than those.

Thanks very much! =3

11

I’m just going by the streamed gamplay. So instead of the MARP, 2 different tanks, 2 differnt IFVs, two different boats and AA vehciles of BF4, we’re going to get 3 ground vehicles in BF1? Is that right?

The guns are mostly fantasy, like the real-life semi-auto with twice the actual mag capacity and select-fire full auto added? Or the hip-firing 30 lbs machine guns? Or the post-war MP18? Actually, if they added a lot more than that, they’d have to resort to fully made up guns.

12

Screenshot from the customization screen. If they are going to fill all those slots there’s no need to worry about lack of weapons…
It’s pre alpha and even if the weapons are already done, they just might not want to show them yet.

https://twitter.com/BFBulletin/status/743033894530875392

13

I’m gonna respond just because I’m bored, and I’m the Great Wall-Builder of the ForumField.

Firstly - I’ve seen more people praising this game since the gameplay reveal than I saw people before the reveal saying “Man, WW1 is such a bad setting, this game is going to suck”. Not only on here, but on Reddit as well as the Battlefield main Facebook page.

Your (and others’) logic about Battlefront is completely unfounded, as DICE devs have already confirmed they wanted to make the game as different from Battlefield as possible - to prove not only to people that they can make a multiplayer FPS that’s NOT Battlefield - but to put to rest the thousands of people that kept saying “Psh, Battlefront is just going to be a Star Wars skinned Battlefield 4”. It was purposefully targeted at a younger audience, and even sported a T for Teen rating, unlike the past BF titles (except 1942). On top of that - the release date was pushed for by Disney, who wanted the game’s release to coincide with that of Star Wars Episode VII (the game was even featured at the Star Wars Celebration before it’s release).

And “Battlefield 1” as a title makes perfect sense - it directly correlates with the era of warfare the game is representing, World War ONE - and it definitely isn’t a direct sequel to BF4. But, judging the “distancing” of the game from past titles based on the title of the game alone is stupid, because Bad Company 2 is arguably one of the best BF titles of all time, and is the title that sprung the BF franchise into mass success.

Now on to your points.

  1. In terms of content - we haven’t even seen everything. NOWHERE in that gameplay did I see the anti-tank rifle, the dynamite, the Focker plane, or many other weapons confirmed to be in the game. The gameplay we saw was PRE-ALPHA, it’s entirely subject to change and there will more than likely be more weapons added on in the final release (on top of weapons and gear added in DLC) - By your logic, the game will only have one map, because there was only one map shown at EA Play.

You push off the fact that it was PRE-Alpha (not just alpha) like that’s not an important fact - but it is. There has already been confirmed weapons in the game that weren’t featured at all in the livestream at EA Play, as well as vehicles and gadgets. You’re assuming that DICE didn’t PURPOSEFULLY leave out those weapons because they didn’t want to reveal the entire game months before it’s release. You’re also leaving out the fact that EVERYONE that was playing in the livestream weren’t even rank 1 when the first match started.

The fact that you’re upset because there’s not technology in the game that didn’t exist even 50 years after when the game was set is beside the point. There are things that are made up for that were in previous titles. For instance - the recon’s “motion sensor” is now a flare gun that spots enemy players within it’s fired radius. The absence of rocket launchers has been replaced by a rocket “rifle” (which actually existed) and hand-held anti-vehicle grenades. C4 is now dynamite. You can get where I’m going.

What it sounds like is that you’ve been jaded by the OVER-INFLATION of content in BF4 that isn’t needed and wasn’t needed in the past to make a Battlefield game…well…a Battlefield game. Some of the greatest BF games of all time lacked things that you’re saying BF1 is going to lack. Hell, BF1942, the game that started it all and one of my personal favorite BF games of all time, lacks A LOT of what you just said is going to make this game terrible for lacking. The lack of content is bad only in your opinion, it is not a concrete excuse as to why this game will “flop” - there seem to be hundreds of thousands of people who love the way the game looks as it is now.

  1. “it’s a console game”? Well firstly, the gameplay showed off at EA Play and ALL the gameplay you can find online was played on PC. The only reason the game is an Xbox timed exclusive is because a HUGE majority of BF players are console gamers, and Microsoft forked out the most money to EA to make it a timed exclusive for their console (just like Sony did to CoD).

BF1 literally features the same gunplay as the past 3 main BF titles, just in a WW1 setting - how is the “simplified” for the controller crowd? The only difference between controller users and M&KB users is Aim Assist - everything else is a shared experience, and M&KB still reigns supreme (not to mention the fact you can use M&KB on consoles and it’s becoming INCREASINGLY popular among console gamers).

And lastly - again, the game is in PRE-Alpha, so the hud is subject to change just like anything else. Again, by your logic, the announcer voice that pretty much everyone and their mom hates will stay in the game and DICE won’t change the game based on player feedback at all.

  1. Not a WW1 game - And you expected it to be? You expected them to slow down the game by a huge margin just to make the game “realistic” in terms of WW1 weaponry and “feel”? This is Battlefield, not Verdun. Liberties are taken to make a game that Battlefield fans will like, a game that gives you the Battlefield experience of exaggerated “all-out war”. It’s not a WW1 game and wasn’t intended to be - it’s a Battlefield game set in WW1, just as every BF game ever made is just that - a game set in a specific era of warfare that focuses on EXAGGERATED forms of warfare.

If you’re suggesting BF1 should have the opposite of all the things you listed - that sounds like the making for one of the most boring, monotonous, and slow BF games of all time, and that’s coming from someone who has played these games since the beginning.

On top of that, Apple and Duff? YES, Apple and Duff - in case you didn’t know, that’s the pneumonic alphabet they used in that time period. Apples, Butter, Charlie, Duff, Edward, etc. It’s a part of the “realism” you were arguing for, and you literally just ignorantly argued against it.

Lastly - the vocal majority seems perfectly fine with the game, says it looks awesome, and can’t wait to get their hands on the beta. Hell, out of everyone I regularly play with, I’m the only one that hasn’t pre-ordered it yet.

Your supposed “silent majority” (if they’re silent, how do you know they’re the majority) that dislike the premise of this game and seemingly don’t know what the term “Pre-Alpha” entails can dislike the game all you want - but it won’t flop. It will sell millions of copies just like Hardline and Battlefront did, and will more than likely keep more fans than either of those games did - after all, you’re comparing two games that are completely separated and are related in no way to the main DICE line of BF games, to a main DICE BF game - literally their largest franchise of 15 years, and the one they take the most care of. So far, all of your arguments seem completely unfounded.

14

Means absolutely nothing. For example, how many of those slots are real? If real, how many guns are going to be duplicated? All of them?

15

Which semi-automatic rifle had select-fire during the stream? I do know that select-fire Winchester M1907s did exist, and they were issued with either a 15-round or 20-round magazine.

16

2nd

17

It’s pre alpha. They will not show the entire game in one short stream. There are also horses and motorcycles confirmed so far, very likely some vehicles we don’t even know yet as well.

All the weapons are authentic to WW1 era. One thing you have to realize is this:

gameplay and balance > realism

Everone using bolt action rifles wouldn’t be good at all. There will be a ton of prototype stage weapons and other weapons that existed at the time but weren’t used that widely.

Also, MP18 was used in WW1.

18

Even if they’re duplicated - there were EIGHT light machineguns in retail BF4, and there are 16 total LMG variants in that picture (duplicates included), so 8 LMGs in all.

19

And another dull, uninformed post - because judging the outcome of the FULL game by three rounds of PRE-ALPHA gameplay is just stupid of you.

Did you ignore the fact that there are several types of armored cars, as well as jeeps that are going to be in the game. Or maybe you missed the concept art including armored motorcycles with LMG side gunners? There’s also SIGNIFICANTLY more mounted and ground-structured weapon emplacements in BF1 than in previous BF games, and for the first time since 1942, an actual manual fire AA gun!

Again, there’s a lot of content already confirmed to be in this game via devs, artwork, and trailers that wasn’t included in the alpha gameplay - ignoring that or not researching in to it to correct yourself makes you look like a fool, as this information has been available nearly since day 1 of the reveal.

20

I respect the opinion of the OP, but I disagree with his conclusion.

I got to play the “pre-alpha” at EA Play on Monday. I played 3 rounds which were 15 minutes each.

The game was quite fun to play. It was new, yet familiar. I got the sense that I was only getting a small taste of what is in store for this game.

BF1 is going to do well. That is my prediction. Keep an open mind and try the beta, whenever it comes. If you don’t like it or are skeptical, by all means, don’t buy it. There are plenty of other games you can play instead.