Only in Battlefield. A slogan derived from the amazing destruction and events that happen in the game, ‘Only in Battlefield’ describes how the players feel. These events and moments that inspire and amaze players continues in the new installment in the series, Battlefield 4.

One fact that every gamer should know: every new release comes with bugs. Modern video games are so complex that glitches are bound to happen, no matter what developers do to avoid them. However, Battlefield has had an overload of bugs. Especially on PC. Developers of games always work on ‘patches’ after the game is launched in order to fix bugs, but Battlefield has already had at least 3 patches, and still there are problems everywhere. Game crashes, framerate lag, stat loss, dimension swapping, and even more affect every Battlefield player. According to IGN, the publisher, EA, is delaying the map packs (downloadable extra maps, weapons, and content, not free) after the new release, China Rising, because of their effort to push DICE, the developer, to fix the bugs. One speculation that is circulating across the internet is that EA pushed the release date too fast for DICE to make a better game, thus resulting in bugs, which now EA seems to be blaming on DICE. It is good that DICE is trying to fix these bugs already, but EA seems to be covering its tracks and not taking the blame that they could deserve. Along with all of the hate that EA already receives from the gaming community, they are now also being targeted by gamers as the reason DICE didn’t perform as expected on release.

Otherwise, the game is very enjoyable. The ‘Levolution’ moments featured in every map are well-done and don’t crash the game (unless the user has a bad PC) even though they use a massive amount of CPU power. The gameplay is smooth (if optimized) and the game is not very hard to play. There was a problem with netcode with the initial launch, but that was mostly fixed, making each moment in game more synced between players. The graphics have been visibly improved from Battlefield 3, with a noticeable rise in framerates when the graphics are optimized for the system they are performing on. This improves the experience visually and allows you to experience the beautiful maps that DICE has created in the game. Also, in Battlefield 4, they have added teamplay to the specialization system, changing it to a point-based tier of ‘field upgrades’ that can be interchanged for different groupings of specializations. Field upgrades are unlocked by performing activities designated by the squad leader, like taking out a high value target, or taking an objective. This adds to the gameplay, and gives useful perks to players who are playing with their team. The gunplay is impressively good, and most guns require a certain amount of skill to conquer recoil. Of course guns like the SAR-21 are like lasers and don’t have any recoil, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their disadvantages. There will always be ‘better’ guns, and guns that are just plain better at winning gunfights, but in the end, it all comes down to which of them feels more powerful. And that’s a good thing in a video game, because it means someone can be good with any gun, no matter what it is. It means there is balance, and DICE certainly has improved the balance in the game. On the other hand, the vehicular warfare is less balanced. They have separated the jets from Battlefield 3 into two categories: Attack Jet and Stealth Jet. The Attack jets are ridiculously overpowered, and are better at air-to-air combat than the Stealth Jets, whose role is to dominate air-to-air combat. In other words, the attack jets are better at everything, while the Stealth Jets are useless. The helicopters in the game are also ridiculously overpowered. The Attack Helicopter is less overpowered, but still has the gunner, who, if skilled, can clear areas easily. The Scout Helicopter, on the other hand, is broken. It has the option for twin 25mm cannons, which are two of what the Attack Helicopter’s gunner has. They are incredibly overpowered, and kill infantry and vehicles with too much ease. The biggest problem with the Scout Heli actually lies not in the pilot, but the passengers. If a Scout Heli has two engineers sitting on the sides of the chopper (hanging partially out of the chopper with the ability to use all weapons and gadgets), the chopper can be repaired faster than it can take in damage. Any skilled player with the portable AA has experienced this. The land vehicles perform admirably, with all vehicles now experiencing a limited ammo capacity, which affects air vehicles, but affects land vehicles just as much. Tanks now have a limited number of shells, so they can’t constantly bombard the map with explosions. This is a useful balancing tool, but with the Belt Feeder upgrade, all vehicles can constantly reload their rounds almost as fast as they could in Battlefield 3. The balancing has been obviously improved throughout the game, but there are still discrepancies in each category of play.

Battlefield, as a series, has progressed graphically, expanded its gameplay, and improved exponentially as a game. But it seems in every game, the same problems exist. The Assault class was overpowered in Battlefield 3, but now it seems that Battlefield 4 has adopted the Recon class as the ‘overpowered’ class. Starting with C4, the ability to use carbines, and motion sensors, this class has become a stealth machine. Another problem lies in the teamwork. Most people on Battlefield play solo. In a teamwork-based game, this is not a positive aspect. It is much more difficult to find a ‘crew’ on PC to play with, because people on PC talk much less than on consoles. the VOIP system in-game is okay, but without friends to Skype with, you run into the problem where you have to be the ‘lone wolf’ and fight full squads of enemies by yourself. Another issue is the ‘try-hards’. Players that have put an egregiously large amount of time into the game, and are so good that they are unbeatable. It’s understandable to see why they play so much because they love the game, but it’s simply not fun to play against them. The game becomes unenjoyable and frankly rage-inducing. Other issues exist, but these major issues seem to pop up in every Battlefield game, and should be noted before playing.

Given the amazing graphics, great gunplay, amazing moments, but incessant glitches and recurring problems, the game still earns a rather good score. EA is most likely at fault for the buggy gameplay, and some of those problems are more pet peeves than anything. The game is still enjoyable. I would recommend this game to anyone, and hope that console players, especially those playing on Xbox One and PS4 (they now can handle the same workload as PC), have a good time as well. This game has its faults, but it still is an extremely well-made and gives a gratifying experience.