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Tomorrow marks the day Electronic Arts and developer DICE unveil Battlefield 4 to the press in an event we were invited to in San Francisco. The day after, a gameplay trailer will be released online, giving the world the a look into the the first next-gen Battlefield experience.
After Battlefield 3 impressed the industry with its Frostbite 2 visuals, expectations are sky high, especially considering BF4 runs on the same engine and takes place in the same setting, likely with similar lineups of weapons and vehicles. What will Battlefield 4 do to truly differentiate itself from its predecessor?
A leaked list of unconfirmed Battlefield 4 details may provide part of the answer, indicating that the game may include 64-player on the next-gen consoles, something BF3 suffered for greatly compared to its PC version, and the return of Commander mode, where a player on each team can issue orders to squads and call in support.
EA has been steadily launching brief teaser videos, showcasing land, sea and now air (see up top) components to Battlefield 4, something that we found odd considering these are crucial elements of nearly every Battlefield game and don't tease anything new. More to the point, the artwork and videos thus far are almost too reminiscent of the marketing behind the previous games, again fueling criticisms that BF4 doesn't appear to be doing much different. That being said, Battlefield 3 blew us away and sold itself of in-game footage, and we expect nothing less from what DICE has to show us this week. After all, when GameStop executives saw BF4 footage in February, they were extremely impressed.
While details are still scarce the official Battlefield 4 website reveals a few small teaser images which seem to indicate a different setting for the game's campaign. BF3 takes place in the year 2014 along the Iraq-Iran border, but Battlefield 4 appears to take place in Shanghai, China's largest city. The tank image on the right is a Chinese Type 99 tank, whereas the helicopter image is of a Russian Mi-28. Take from that what you will but the leaked details did say there are three factions: "US, Russia, and an unnamed 'Eastern/Asian' faction."
The bar along the bottom increases as more users sign-up and/or login, but appears to be set to release when EA planned to unveil the gameplay trailer anyway on Wednesday.
Fans who pre-ordered Medal of Honor: Warfighter, yet another modern-set FPS based on the Frostbite 2 engine from EA, have early access to the Battlefield 4 beta but according to the Russian Origin site, all Battlefield 3 Premium subscribers will get access as well. According to the pre-order posted OXM nabbed a photo of, Battlefield 4 will release this fall as expected.
Battlefield 4 likely releases this fall for the PC and current/next-gen PlayStation & Xbox.
Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes and let me know if you're excited about BF4!