Electronic Arts and Dice proudly showed off their latest foray into the first person shooter genre with Battlefield 4. I was at the EA press confrence and watched Dice play multiplayer on the PC with 64 players all lined up on stage. The gameplay looked awesome and I couldn’t wait to get my turn and play the game on the show floor. The map being played during the demo was of a city in Shanghai and pitted US forces against Chinese. Battlefield 4 offers all the same features the other games in the series have, including large teams, the ability to use vehicles and it even brings back the role of the Commander. During the demo, players fought their way through the streets to a broadcast building that both sides needed to capture. A small group of US forces moved to the top floor of the building, capturing a control point and then jumped off the ledge and parachuted to the ground moments before the building was destroyed. Once the show floor opened up, I made my way to EA’s booth and made an appointment to play the game.

I was jazzed about the demo I saw the other day and couldn’t wait to play myself. Unfortunately things disn’t turn out the way I planned. I pulled up to the PC, picked up an Xbox One controller because I didn’t want to use the mouse and keyboard and started playing. I started off in a helicopter which I hear is tough to play with. Not knowing this before hand, I thought I was going to tear everyone a new one but instead immediately crashed upon takeoff. Next, I was lucky enough to spawn on the ground and had to run across the battlefield to get to the action, which was difficult to find. Once there, I was run down by a tank.

Battlefield 4 allows the player to choose their spawn location from captured control points. I respawned at the top of the broadcast building which my team controlled and jumped off the ledge to get to the streets below like in the demo. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to open the parachute and dropped kicking and screaming all the way down. After respawning again, I finally managed to encounter the enemy and start fighting. The controls were very responsive and accurate as I was able to kill three people during my demo session. I managed to jump into different vehicles including a tank and drive around in search of enemy contact. All in all, the gameplay demo was fun and I enjoyed my time with it including jumping off the top of a building and falling to my death twice. Battlefield 4 is scheduled to be released on October 29, 2013 in North America, October 31, 2013 in Australia and November 1, 2013 in Europe. The game will launch for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Related Link(s):

• DICE Official Site
• EA Official Site
• Battlefield 4 Official Site