I have finally played the best version of Battlefield 6, and of course it's big maps with lots of vehicles

I can check one worry off the list for Battlefield 6: the large maps are, in fact, pretty large.

This week I played a few hours of Mirak Valley and Operation Firestorm, two maps that Battlefield Studios has been talking up as representative of Battlefield 6's scale. Even though I've played dozens of hours of multiplayer at this point, this Battlefield 6 demo felt personally make-or-break: EA's focus on small maps (and one medium) in the open beta was a letdown, and it helped fuel the impression that it's more interested in converting Call of Duty players than winning back Battlefield long-timers.

That's still probably true—Battlefield 6 is following Call of Duty's model so closely that it's got the same gunsmith system, the same small-scale modes, and the same battle royale spinoff in the works—but Mirak Valley and Operation Firestorm are the best evidence yet that this is still Battlefield to the core.

Mirak Valley is a spacious, intimidating war zone. The middle lane is a gauntlet of villages and battle-worn trenches that collide at the center in a massive construction site overseen by a precariously placed crane. Sure would be a shame if somebody knocked it over...

Nice.

Mirak plays like a Battlefield 3 map out of time, which paired nicely with Operation Firestorm, a pitch-perfect reimagining of a 2011 classic that sees coalitions literally fighting over oil (though not in the Middle East this time). Firestorm is dusty and mean, concentrating the action in larger buildings while stragglers hop around complex scaffolding rigs.

For snipers, the long ladder on that skybox-piercing tower is still irresistible. In one Breakthrough match that was mostly bots (the few dozen press and creators in my playtest were scattered across multiple servers), my squadmates spent most of the round lobbing mortars from the tower's peak. Firestorm was my favorite of the two, but nostalgia is surely playing a role.

Surrounding patches of civilization on both maps are expanses of flatness and rolling hills that give vehicles something they sorely needed, but never got in the open beta: space. It's remarkable how much better balanced this game feels with more room to mess around. As nature intended, tanks are the alpha predators on land, bulldozing through most solid objects and locking down Conquest flags from a football field away. HQ spawns are far enough from the main action that I could hop into the seat of an Abrams and take a breath before conspiring engineers conjured an RPG barrage.

I'm realizing that scale is more crucial for Battlefield balance than I thought it was. Large maps are more than just a consequence of adding vehicles into the mix—they establish pockets of action that are just as fun to observe as they are to join. They also build narratives: The squads that charge into the meat grinder at the central flag on Mirak are playing a totally different game than the tank driver who burns 15 minutes trying and failing to shoot the same helicopter out of the sky.

The gaps between the action are where Battlefield lets you goof off and get away with it. It's a beautiful thing that you can disappear among that crowd of 64 and just try weird stuff, like blanketing every road on the map with mines, sneaking up on snipers in the hills, or trying for the rarest kill in the game (burned to death by the EOD bot's blow torch). It took scale to bring these familiar angles of fun out of Battlefield 6, and now that I've experienced it, I don't wanna go back to the cramped streets of New York or Siege of Cairo.

I've never been more confident that Battlefield is at its best when you're one grain in a larger sandbox. It's a shame, then, that Battlefield 6's map pool is biased so heavily toward close-quarters, frantic action. Mirak Valley, Operation Firestorm, and Liberation Peak are the only "full-sized" maps with tanks, jets, and helicopters at launch.

Maybe the balance will shift toward large maps over time? Leaks suggest another large map, designed after the California-based battle royale mode, is coming down the pipeline after launch.