‘Battlefield 4’ Can Be Played Free For 168 Hours; DICE Details September Update
Electronic Arts announced Thursday that PC players can try Battlefield 4 out for free for a week as part of Origin’s Game Time program. At nearly the same time, DICE announced the September update that is meant to improve the “core gameplay” to the military shooter.
From now until August 14, gamers can download Battlefield 4 to their computer for free. Once downloaded, they can begin playing the game whenever they want until they’ve used up a week’s worth of time – 168 hours.
EA is running a similar opportunity for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but it’s time is limited to 48 hours.
Lock N’ Load – #BF4 is now FREE for a limited time on @OriginInsider: http://t.co/UTYBLHYUiL https://t.co/BpKKg4ROUd
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) August 8, 2014
Meanwhile, Producer David Sirland posted a lengthy article on the Battlefield Blog covering what is coming in the September update to Battlefield 4 on the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The game has undergone playtesting on over the past couple of months to improve the game. DICE is focusing on “core gameplay” elements to address complaints and concerns that players have complained about since the game was first released last October in a barely playable state.
DICE focused this update on improving basic mechanics like movement, balance, and the dreaded “netcode.” The next update will focus on ways to improve teamplay in Battlefield 4.
Here’s the list of improvements posted by Sirland.
Game Mode Improvements
General improvements and tweaks have been made to the following game modes: Rush, Obliteration, Obliteration Competitive, Capture the Flag and Carrier Assault.
Visual Recoil
Close and medium range optic reticules do not move with the gun any longer, however both bullet spread and bullet drop are still present.
Soldier Movement
Changes have been made to soldier movement so that it closely matches the one in Battlefield 3, but without compromising the visual fidelity. This change also makes it easier to get away from undesirable firefights.
Additionally, we’ve dampened third person hit reactions where the soldier previously moved his head around a lot when getting shot at.
HUD Triage
Focusing on clarity, and de-cluttering the HUD/UI to only show what is important – we have added several options and functionality to make your screen much less cluttered (and give you a lot of choice in making it the way you want).
Revive Mechanic Improvements
A special effort went into making revives easier to use, more robust and easier to understand. Additions include a “fully charged” paddle sound, UI indication on revive time and better networked ragdolls.
“Netcode” Improvements
Making ping differences, trade kills and kills behind cover less of an issue by lowering the time allowed to damage on the client side.
Automatic High Frequency Update setting enforced with the intent of release to all platforms, including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Improvements to bullet damage times from client to client, “dusting” and de-syncs.
Vehicle Balance
Identifying and tweaking the top vehicles in need of buffs and nerfs.
Weapon Balance
We’ve focused on maintaining a consistent Time To Kill (how long an average engagement lasts for). With the changes to visual recoil, the third person hit reactions and improved “tickrates” has been sped up somewhat as we still need to balance this with damage and recoil changes.
Suppression systems has also been re-tuned and made clearer.
Are you going to try Battlefield 4 for free? If you’re a Battlefield veteran, what do you think of these changes listed by DICE? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via Battlefield]
