Last week I was: playing way too much of the Battlefield 6 open beta.
This week I've been: slogging my way through the Road to Battlefield event in Battlefield 2042, remembering why it's my least favourite game in the series.
The most significant difference between most playtests I've been part of is often simply a matter of content. Rather than iterating on core features, some betas often feel more like a demo designed to sell pre-orders versus actual playtests for unfinished games, with the primary goal of improvement. None of this is helped by these so-called betas often running a mere month or two before release, as was the case with the likes of Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised when Battlefield Studios recently released a fairly large blog about its learnings from the Battlefield 6 beta, going into what's being changed over the next few weeks, and it's a lot of meaningful tweaks to the core gameplay that prove it wasn't just a marketing stunt for a change—despite it also scheduled just two months before launch.
The equivalent beta feedback blog for Battlefield 2042, for example, focused on very specific or technical improvements, like "increased the number of tanks that you’ll experience on Orbital", "less funky behaviours with [elevator] doors", a grenade indicator, and shortening (or removing) some vehicle exit and entry animations—though there was also a slight tweak to movement, as has been the case with BF6. Fixing buggy elevators is all well and good, but it's ignoring the elephant in the room that most players had (and still have) with BF2042.
Of course, there are your usual balance changes that even the more demo-like betas achieve: the overpowered M87A1 shotgun has been nerfed, and the "super bullets" bug is being investigated. However, we're also seeing quite significant tweaks to weapon control, including "a general pass on recoil and tap-fire characteristics" as well as "changes to encourage more controlled tap-firing and burst-firing". These directly respond (and hopefully resolve) much of the concern about weapon feel during the beta, and potentially even my worry about overtuned attachments.
Both maps and modes are being tweaked where needed to provide better flow, and player counts across the board are being monitored—the one benefit to non-persistent lobbies is that player counts are flexible and able to be tailored for individual map and mode combinations.
However, the biggest changes come to the movement mechanics, which "have been adjusted to create a more balanced and traditional Battlefield experience." Momentum has been reduced from slide-jumps, your accuracy is reduced while using movement mechanics, and overall, these tools are more situational.
Obviously, we haven't had hands-on with these new changes made in response to the beta, but on the surface, these are targeted tweaks to core mechanics that will make the game feel even better than it already did. Plus, these newly announced adjustments, and others (including the remaining maps), are planned to be put to the test in upcoming Battlefield Labs events, for those special few with access, so feedback is still being taken on board.
It turns out it wasn't just an opportunity for EA to spill the beans, let us give it a quick whizz, and build hype (and pre-orders) for the main event. It's incredibly simple, I know, but I won't lie: I wasn't expecting such drastic changes this late in development, not least because most betas rarely have such an impact.
In fact, I'll be very interested in seeing what comes out of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta, as that goes live just over a month before the game is out in the wild, and feedback from its worldwide debut hasn't exactly gone over well so far, to say the least. Can you tell I'm not very hopeful?
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