After the huge success of Battlefield 1 in 2016 and a break in 2017, the Battlefield franchise will return in 2018 with a brand-new game called Battlefield V (or Battlefield 5 if you're not into the roman numerals style). This time players will go back to WW2 with a range of single-player and multiplayer missions that will take them through the war and immerse them in the time.
Battlefield V will be out on October 19 2018 – just one week after Call of Duty Black Ops IIII hits stands. While the two have always gone head-to-head in sales and often comb the same fertile battlegrounds for inspiration, the two could not be further apart this time around – Battlefield V will take on WWII while Black Ops will press on with its near-future take on high-tech warfare.
That means, if you're after classic military conflict with biplanes, mortar shells and good ol' boots on the ground gameplay, Battlefield V is the only place to get it.
Update: EA has just unveiled the official Gamescom trailer for Battlefield V – called Devastation of Rotterdam. In the clip, we see a mix of gameplay and pre-recorded content, interspersing the game's beautiful scenery and destructive vehicles between the shots. Check out the trailer for yourself:
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next instalment in EA DICE’s first-person shooter series
- What can I play it on? PS4, Xbox One and PC most likely
- When can I play it? Early Access players will get access on October 11, those who pre-order the Deluxe edition will get access from October 16, and the standard version launches October 19.
Battlefield 5 release date
EA has now confirmed that Battlefield 5 will have a staggered release. EA and Origin Access players will be able to play on October 18, those who pre-order the Deluxe edition will have access from October 16 while the Standard edition will launch last on October 19.
Battlefield 5 trailers
During E3 2018 we were treated to a brand new multiplayer trailer for Battlefield 5 which you can watch below:
The game’s launch brought us a new trailer to pore over, which was much needed after that incredibly short 12 second teaser.
The biggest trailer so far is a loud and chaotic look into all the things you can do in the game and looks like an insight into the new co-op mode Combined Arms. This trailer shows players being dropped behind enemy lines in a team of four, fighting for their lives to survive. It shows new gameplay elements like lying on your back and back peddling while shooting, jumping through windows, and reviving each other.
The first trailer for the new Battlefield was very short indeed – just 12 seconds long in fact. You can watch it for yourself below. It doesn't really tell us much but the costume for the character we see and the Union Jack and German Balkenkreuz icons at the top of the screen do seem to suggest a WW2 setting.
Battlefield 5 confirmed features
Battle Royale is coming
During EA Play, it was confirmed that Battlefield 5 will be joining the Battle Royale fray with a mode of its own. Not much is known about it at the moment but the development team are trying to do something different and put their own distinct Battlefield spin on it.
Getting deep into Tides of War
EA has laid out its long term plans for Battlefield 5's online mode Tides of War in a recent blog post.
In this mode, which EA has stressed will be completely free, players will create companies made up of completely customizable soldiers, weapons and vehicles. All of these will be available across the multiplayer modes in the rest of the game.
It will be possible to have one company per faction, two of which will be available at launch (Britain and Germany).
Soldiers will belong to one of four classes – Medic, Scout, Assault or Support – and these can be further customized and specialized into an Archetype as players gain experience through gameplay. For example, your basic Support Soldier can then become more focused on engineering. More Archetypes will be added over time.
EA has said that Tides of War is to be "an evolving journey featuring a new narrative every few months. Each chapter of Tides of War will focus on a particular aspect of the era, with unique gameplay experiences to drive players forward,” EA said. “We will use content, soldiers, visuals, and narrative to immerse our players deeper into the gameplay.”
No lootboxes
It's a controversial subject for EA games at the moment, but it seems that Battlefield 5 won't have any lootboxes. Speaking to Polygon, EA Games said that all items will be unlocked through gameplay and that cosmetic items will have no impact on gameplay progress. There will be an option to buy an in-game premium currency with real money, but this currency will only go towards purchasing cosmetic items. It can also be earned through grinding.
Single-player War Stories will feature
As was rumored (and probably widely hoped) Battlefield V will keep its single-player mode and build on War Stories from Battlefield 1. Locations will take players across the global front and will include the freezing cold of Norway, the dry heat of North Africa and the expanse of the French countryside.
One story that’s been teased via a very short trailer is the story of a Norwegian resistance fighter who is trying desperately to protect her family during the 1943 German occupation. As was the case in Battlefield 1, War Stories will be a mode that tries to inject a good deal of emotion into the Battlefield experience. We were told by developers working on the game that the team have taken feedback from players following Battlefield 1 and tried to make improvements for the single-player mode this time around.
There’s a new co-op mode called Combined Arms
A new multiplayer mode and it’s not a battle royale? Say it ain’t so! Combined Arms is an interesting addition to Battlefield V – a mode that sits somewhere between the focus and intimacy of a single-player experience and the chaos and scale of a large multiplayer mode. Combined Arms will take up to four players and ask them to work together closely as a team behind enemy lines.
You’ll be given objectives, but this is a high stakes mode where you don’t want to leave any man behind. It’s all about working together as a team to do as well as you possibly can.
For those that do love the classic big online multiplayer experience, however, that will return and you’ll be able to play through modes like Conquest, Death Match and Domination that you’ve come to know and love.
You can create a Company and customise it
In Battlefield V you’ll be able to create your very own company of soldiers and customise them, from their appearance to the weapons they use and the vehicles they have access to. T’ll be possible to choose both your own and their gender, change faces, apply war paint, and change clothing.
You’ll also be able to visually customise vehicles and weapons with skins and parts as well as level them up in a way that suits the how you like to play.
Customization options aren’t exactly ‘historically accurate’. There are many costumes which you find during the second world war, of course, but you also have the option to wear some cool leather jackets, style your hair in creative ways and go practically bare chested onto the battlefield.
New ways to revive
Reviving other players and being revived is a much more personal affair in Battlefield V. Anyone within a squad can revive another member and they have to physically approach them to do so. Though Buddy Reviving is back, though, Medics will have some advantages. If a medic revives a player, they’ll be much faster and able to fully restore their health, while an ordinary squad member will be slower and only able to partially restore health.
If you’re trying to restore a squad member lying in the middle of the option, you’ll be able to drag their body into cover to heal them where it’s safe for both of you.
As far as health regeneration goes, that won’t be automatic and you’ll have to find supply stations or get help from your squad.
You can build fortifications
This is an interesting one. In Battlefield V you’ll be able to restore destroyed buildings on the battlefield and use them for cover as well as use items like sandbags, barbed wire and trenches to create your own fortifications. Now, you won’t be able to rebuild an entire house in full, but you will be able to turn it into a serviceable bit of cover when things get dire.
Towing the big guns
A new feature that could keep predictable maps a little more interesting is the ability to tow big guns anywhere you like. You can pop them onto a vehicle and keep them moving or take them from one stationary position to another. Either way, you’ve got a feature that could cause some serious chaos in the right (or wrong) hands.
Premium Pass is being replaced by a live service called Tides of War
You won’t have to buy new modes or maps anymore – Battlefield V is stopping player segmentation with an ongoing live service.
Called Tides of War, this online mode will allow players to journey and progress with their personalised Company through World War 2. There will be an evolving narrative with new gameplay, new items, and new events added over time.
It appears that Tides of War content updates will be split into chapters, with each chapter lasting a few months and featuring time-limited experiences, participating in which will allow players to earn special rewards which will include new weapons, vehicles, dog tags and emblems, and soldier and weapon skins.
Grand Operations is an ever-changing, narrative multiplayer experience
A part of Tides of War will be Grand Operations, a mode which builds on Operations from Battlefield 1. Grand Operations is a large, live, events-based multiplayer experience which will see players play long missions over several in-game days, with each day taking players to a new map within the mission (this could be around an hour of your real life overall).
Grand Operations will have an overarching narrative and player action on one day will impact the next day. We were told, for example, that if players are tasked with taking out as much enemy artillery as they can on day one, the degree of their success will affect how many resources, vehicles and soldiers they have when they start their offence on day two.
On day three, one team could achieve a decisive victory but if things seem evenly matched, players will be pitched into a day four death match. In this final day it’ll be high stakes gameplay with no respawns, no Buddy Revives and a fight to the death.
Each Grand Operation will be active for a limited time and players will be able to earn unique rewards for taking part in them.
It’ll also be possible to earn currency to get new items in Tides of War by completing daily orders and longer-term special assignments through the game’s other multiplayer modes.
What we'd like to see from Battlefield 5
A campaign mode as good as Battlefield 1’s
It can be hard to get a campaign mode on a first-person shooter right, and most of the time we don’t expect very much from them. Perhaps that’s why we were so pleasantly surprised by what Battlefield 1 had to offer.
It was short and it wasn’t sweet, but the episodic emotionally-charged missions that took players across the different conflicts of WW1 hammered home the tragedy and global scale of the conflict. We really hope that if the next Battlefield is set in WW2 it follows a similar pattern – we wouldn’t object to it being longer, either.
Keep the lootboxes cosmetic
We hope the reports that Battlefield 5’s lootboxes will be cosmetic are true. At this point it seems futile to expect that games don’t include some form of in-game spending, so we’d like to see EA opt for the version that’s least likely to rub players the wrong way. Cosmetic items are harmless, don’t disrupt gameplay and feel genuinely optional.
Take advantage of the setting
Another of the great things about Battlefield 1 is that it stayed true to the kinds of weapons and vehicles that would have been available during the First World War, but that was also kind of limiting. If the next title is set during WW2 we’re looking forward to seeing things opened things up a bit more – we could see naval battles and aerial dogfights, as well as land-based combat.
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