Here, I'll be posting everything I've been able to find about the newest addition to the Battlefield franchise, so as not to run too many articles. This is gonna be a big one, so be warned.
That out of the way, let's jump right in.
images via Gamespot.com
In a Twitch livestream earlier today, DICE revealed to the world Battlefield 1, the 2016 entry in the Battlefield series.
Battlefield Devs Senior Producer Alex Grondal, Design Director Lars Gustavsson, and YouTube Entertainer (?) Westie took the stage to announce Battlefield 1 and talk about the Battlefield series as a whole. By the way, you may want to skip to about an hour, hour fifteen before it gets to Battlefield 1.
Battlefield 1 is called so because it is set to take place in "the genesis of modern warfare." Battlefield seeks to take the player "on a journey around the world" including not only the known western fronts, but the "Italian Alps, Fortress under siege, the Deserts of Arabia" and likely more.
GameSpot was allowed a behind-closed-doors look at the game's new multiplayer scene, in which Battlefield 1 looks to continue massive 64-player battles across "Land, Air, and Sea." This includes battles between biplanes, tri-planes, battleships, and of course a large seelction of infantry weapons. Battlefield seems set to shatter the mainstream misguided ideas about World War I weaponry.
"There's this common misconception that World War I was just muskets or something," Berlin said, laughing. "But it wasn't. It was a time of new weapons--bolt-action rifles, automatic rifles, semi-automatic rifles. The freedom we have is massive."
DICE also built the melee combat from the ground up, with plenty of melee weapons to boot, including sabers and shovels. Everything else we know on the new multiplayer can be found at gamespot.com.
Moving on from that, lets talk about the single-player. Battlefield 1's single-player aims to "more accurately reflect Battlefield's open sandboxes" of multiplayer. Seeking to move away from the tight corridor and close quarter combat of previous Battlefield installments, Lead Designer Danny Berlin has said that Battlefield 1 will give "much more choice that [its] done before."
Battlefield 1 will be available October 21, 2016, but Xbox One players will be able to access the game early via EA Access, while players on other platforms can gain access through the Deluxe Editions available, for pre-order on PlayStation Store, Xbox One Market and PC through EA's Origin service.
It's only just been revealed and already there are multiple editions for Battlefield 1. That Deluxe Edition I mentioned earlier? It'll cost you $79.99/£64.99.
"Be the first on front lines--snag the Early Enlister Deluxe Edition today and get the Hellfighter, Red Baron, and Lawrence of Arabia packs full of themed weapons and gear; five extra Battlepacks stuffed with great items; and access to the full game on October 18, three days before release," reads the official Battlefield 1 website.
The Early Enlister Deluxe Edition includes the following:
- Hellfighter Pack
- Red Baron
- Lawrence of Arabia
- 5 Battlepacks
- 3 days Early access starting October 18
For those looking to spend a little more, there's also a $220 Collector's Edition, which includes:
- 14-inch tall statue of cover art character
- Exclusive Steelbook
- Exclusive Cloth Propaganda Poster
- Messenger Pigeon Tube with Exclusive DLC
- Exclusive Patch
- Deck of Playing Cards
EA and DICE sure love that word "Exclusive." According to GameSpot, it'll be a year until that DLC is made available separately.
And that's all for now. That's everything I've found, at least the most important stuff, on Battlefield 1. I'm sure there'll be more news about this very soon, but for now I think it was a very successful reveal event. DICE is set to shake things up with this one, showing us a new side of World War I nobody ever bothered to look at, save the scribes and historians who committed it all to paper.
