Five Innovations Battlefield Gave the World
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With the launch of Battlefield 3 almost here, IGN pays tribute to this outstanding series for the fresh ideas it has brought to combat gaming.
While many of the greatest innovations in the Call of Duty series find their roots in the first Modern Warfare game, the evolution of DICE's work on Battlefield has been much more gradual. The series honed its grand-scale approach to multiplayer warfare over a period of years, culminating in this month's release of Battlefield 3.
With the big Modern Warfare 3 vs. Battlefield 3 holiday showdown bearing down on us, we thought it would be a good idea to explore some of the elements introduced by each series that even now continue to create ripples in the realm of FPS games.
Here we look at some of the greatest innovations that were introduced or streamlined by the Battlefield series...
Class Warfare
Battlefield 1942 was the first game in the series to embrace the concept of different soldiers having different roles. Tribes had already gotten there first, but BF1942 built a more rigid framework around the idea with five discrete classes, or "roles," each with their own unique weapons and equipment load-out.
It's simple, intuitive stuff. The roles of Assault, Scout, Medic, Anti-tank and Engineer are easy enough to understand, with each one favoring a different play style. This in turn creates a greater sense of team unity, since the most effective operators on the battlefield know how to help fellow teammates' weaknesses with the strengths of their own selected class. It's been a constant in all of the Battlefield games released since, and as one of the most popular early examples, it continues to serve as a source of inspiration for many games makers.
Open-World War
Battlefield 3's Open-World War
Battlefield has also always embraced the idea of giving each theater of war an appropriate sense of scale. Each game's various multiplayer maps are individually huge, offering plenty of room for ground, air and water vehicles to operate and do battle amidst the infantry soldiers on the ground.
The large maps and abundance of vehicles necessitate larger armies, and so Battlefield went for big-team warfare as far back as 1942, with lobbies that supported as many as 64 players. These three components combined foster a much more epic feel, an always-there impression that a much larger, and quite varied, war is raging all around you.
Merit-Based Multiplayer
Most of the earlier online team-based first-person shooters took a fairly simple approach: shoot at the other team to score kills and, eventually, win. Occasional objective-based modes mixed things up a little, but it always boiled down to constantly staying on the offensive. The Battlefield series is one of the first to actively encourage players to stay out of the active fight and instead focus on aiding the team in a key support role.
This was really a natural outgrowth of BF1942's roles. Suddenly you had these soldiers on the virtual battlefield that simply weren't built for in-your-face combat. The Medic in particular is almost purely a support role, with limited offensive capabilities. The series did and still does reward non-combat actions, which goes a long way toward creating the feeling of a more realistic experience.
Leave No Man (Or Woman) Behind
Team-based online shooters are generally at their best when the group of players that you're fighting alongside come together and function as a military unit. The Battlefield series actively promotes this idea by breaking teams down into squads and allowing downed players to re-spawn in the midst of their group.
This is a tremendous help for maintaining that team-oriented play in Battlefield's larger lobbies. A full team of 32 online players has a hard time functioning together, but break that team up into eight squads of four and you're looking at a much more manageable grouping of comrades-in-arms that you need to coordinate with. Players will always have the option of simply ignoring the squad and going it alone, but Battlefield's built-in squad mechanics continue to be one of the more effective recent FPS innovations.
Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 Engine
The most recent major step forward for Battlefield came with 2008's story-driven spinoff, Battlefield: Bad Company. All of the series typical multiplayer trappings carried over, but Bad Company introduced the idea of near-total environmental destructability. Any house or other dwelling can easily be reduced to its skeletal frame with a few well-placed explosives. Suddenly, cover is no longer the sanctuary it once was, since a grenade can tear through much of the environment with ease.
The feature has been a Battlefield constant since Bad Company, appearing again in Bad Company 2 and yet again in Battlefield 3, now just a few weeks from its October 25 release. It continues to be refined and updated as well, thank to the significant number of enhancements offered by DICE's Frostbite 2.0 engine.
While many of the greatest innovations in the Call of Duty series find their roots in the first Modern Warfare game, the evolution of DICE's work on Battlefield has been much more gradual. The series honed its grand-scale approach to multiplayer warfare over a period of years, culminating in this month's release of Battlefield 3.
With the big Modern Warfare 3 vs. Battlefield 3 holiday showdown bearing down on us, we thought it would be a good idea to explore some of the elements introduced by each series that even now continue to create ripples in the realm of FPS games.
Here we look at some of the greatest innovations that were introduced or streamlined by the Battlefield series...
Class Warfare
Battlefield 1942 was the first game in the series to embrace the concept of different soldiers having different roles. Tribes had already gotten there first, but BF1942 built a more rigid framework around the idea with five discrete classes, or "roles," each with their own unique weapons and equipment load-out.
It's simple, intuitive stuff. The roles of Assault, Scout, Medic, Anti-tank and Engineer are easy enough to understand, with each one favoring a different play style. This in turn creates a greater sense of team unity, since the most effective operators on the battlefield know how to help fellow teammates' weaknesses with the strengths of their own selected class. It's been a constant in all of the Battlefield games released since, and as one of the most popular early examples, it continues to serve as a source of inspiration for many games makers.
Open-World War
Battlefield 3's Open-World War
Battlefield has also always embraced the idea of giving each theater of war an appropriate sense of scale. Each game's various multiplayer maps are individually huge, offering plenty of room for ground, air and water vehicles to operate and do battle amidst the infantry soldiers on the ground.
The large maps and abundance of vehicles necessitate larger armies, and so Battlefield went for big-team warfare as far back as 1942, with lobbies that supported as many as 64 players. These three components combined foster a much more epic feel, an always-there impression that a much larger, and quite varied, war is raging all around you.
Merit-Based Multiplayer
Most of the earlier online team-based first-person shooters took a fairly simple approach: shoot at the other team to score kills and, eventually, win. Occasional objective-based modes mixed things up a little, but it always boiled down to constantly staying on the offensive. The Battlefield series is one of the first to actively encourage players to stay out of the active fight and instead focus on aiding the team in a key support role.
This was really a natural outgrowth of BF1942's roles. Suddenly you had these soldiers on the virtual battlefield that simply weren't built for in-your-face combat. The Medic in particular is almost purely a support role, with limited offensive capabilities. The series did and still does reward non-combat actions, which goes a long way toward creating the feeling of a more realistic experience.
Leave No Man (Or Woman) Behind
Team-based online shooters are generally at their best when the group of players that you're fighting alongside come together and function as a military unit. The Battlefield series actively promotes this idea by breaking teams down into squads and allowing downed players to re-spawn in the midst of their group.
This is a tremendous help for maintaining that team-oriented play in Battlefield's larger lobbies. A full team of 32 online players has a hard time functioning together, but break that team up into eight squads of four and you're looking at a much more manageable grouping of comrades-in-arms that you need to coordinate with. Players will always have the option of simply ignoring the squad and going it alone, but Battlefield's built-in squad mechanics continue to be one of the more effective recent FPS innovations.
Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 Engine
The most recent major step forward for Battlefield came with 2008's story-driven spinoff, Battlefield: Bad Company. All of the series typical multiplayer trappings carried over, but Bad Company introduced the idea of near-total environmental destructability. Any house or other dwelling can easily be reduced to its skeletal frame with a few well-placed explosives. Suddenly, cover is no longer the sanctuary it once was, since a grenade can tear through much of the environment with ease.
The feature has been a Battlefield constant since Bad Company, appearing again in Bad Company 2 and yet again in Battlefield 3, now just a few weeks from its October 25 release. It continues to be refined and updated as well, thank to the significant number of enhancements offered by DICE's Frostbite 2.0 engine.
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October 25....
