Best Friends for ever?

If you read my christmas list, you probably know that I wanted to play BF4 for a while now. I play a lot of FPS, and the battlefield series always interested me from the off. It was the one game I had always missed out on. Especially this iteration, which has just built on the success of its predecessors, updating the graphics, gameplay and most notable introducing big “levolution”. Well it seems someone read my christmas list, and got me the game!

I had significant problems running the game at first. Not only would I get kicked from the servers at random intervals, I would have random freezing as well high incredibly high ping. At first I was worried that this was due to my machine not being top of the line, but after trawling the internet, I found that other users, some with the best gaming gear, were having the same problem. After some searching, I found solutions and got what seemed like an entirely new game. Previously I could only run the graphics at low setting, now I was getting a good 60fps with medium settings. The fact that DICE seemed to rush out BF4 before it was ready probably lead to several problems, that you may encounter if you get the game.

Nobody really buys FPS games to play the single player, so I will gloss over that campaign. The multiplayer however is paramount, and where BF4 needed to impress. With several different game modes, enough variations have been thrown in to keep things interesting and cater to different moods.

The gameplay of the game itself is exceptional, and I feel all the different classes and guns are mostly well balanced. Furthermore the mechanic of unlocking new weapons and attachements for your guns (meaning you can make your own individual configurations according to your style), introduces a bit more longevity into the game as it gives the player more of a reason to keep playing. However sometimes the game does feel a bit grindy to get certain guns and accessories. The last thing I would love to mention is the implementation of counterknifing, how sick are those animations?

The graphics of the game are outstanding, and while I could not personally run them on the ultra setting, even on medium I get some very beautiful and detailed maps. Keep in mind though that you will need a beast of a machine to get anywhere near the top graphics levels.

Now to levolution, the games biggest selling point. Basically the premise is that the maps would change radically completely redesigning the playing field, and you as a player could initiate most of the alterations. Imagine skyscrapers falling down, tropical storms blowing in or dams breaking. It sounds epic, and to be honest it usually is. I mean the tropical storm in Paracel storm completely changes the feel of the map, making you feel like you are really fighting a war on some island resort. However, I don’t really believe that the levolution is really as much as DICE made it out to be. Yes it is cool, but really necessary? Does it really change much about FPS in general? No, and therefore I would have wished that BF4 would have introduced some awesome new feature that would have really changed things up.

I was given this present for Christmas, which is great because it was all gain, no pain. However if I had spent the £40+, then I would have felt a bit frustrated. Sure its a good shooter, but not for the price they are asking. If you are still unsure if you want to go for BF4, wait a bit for the price to come down, DICE to iron out any last wrinkles and then you will get one heck of an awesome game.