After a brief period of reliability in the day or so before Thanksgiving in the US, Battlefield 4 has again succumbed to repeated and consistent issues on every platform. PC players are reporting crashes, while Xbox One and PS4 players are once again suffering from crashes to the homescreen of their respective platforms, as well as general matchmaking problems for the Conquest game type. More than a month after its initial release, Battlefield 4 is still barely playable for many players, and EA and DICE can’t seem to fix the problem (though EA has informed us a new patch is going live on PC tomorrow, delaying our appraisal of that platform for at least a day or two). As such, it’s difficult for us to recommend a game that otherwise may be the strongest multiplayer shooter of the year.
Battlefield 4 review update two
It’s difficult for us to recommend a game that otherwise may be the strongest multiplayer shooter of the year
Battlefield 4 melds elements of its predecessors, but their baggage weighs it down
DICE has failed once again to make Battlefield 4 a serious single-player contender. But its emphasis on ambitious, team-based multiplayer does wonders to wash the taste of that failure away. Battlefield 4 takes the elements that have made each installment work and glues them together successfully - even if some rough edges show here or there.
Battlefield 4 was reviewed at an EA-hosted review event at EA Redwood Shores on provided PCs with AMD 8-Core CPUs and crossfire'd AMD 7970 video cards. Additional time was spent in singleplayer and multiplayer on Xbox One and PS4 development kits. You can find additional information on Polygon's ethics policy here.
Update: 12/02/2013
Battlefield 4 review update two
After a brief period of reliability in the day or so before Thanksgiving in the US, Battlefield 4 has again succumbed to repeated and consistent issues on every platform. PC players are reporting crashes, while Xbox One and PS4 players are once again suffering from crashes to the homescreen of their respective platforms, as well as general matchmaking problems for the Conquest game type. More than a month after its initial release, Battlefield 4 is still barely playable for many players, and EA and DICE can’t seem to fix the problem (though EA has informed us a new patch is going live on PC tomorrow, delaying our appraisal of that platform for at least a day or two). As such, it’s difficult for us to recommend a game that otherwise may be the strongest multiplayer shooter of the year.
Update: 11/27/2013
Battlefield 4 review update: Xbox One and PS4
Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases of Battlefield 4 have been off to a rocky start. As recently as this week, both were beset by issues accessing Conquest mode and hard system crashes to their consoles respective home screens. Arguably worse, pronounced lag on all servers and gametypes has hampered basic gameplay — even running in a straight line has been frequently interrupted by stutters.
After a PS4 client update yesterday and general server updates on EA and DICE’s backend, the gameplay experience for Battlefield 4 on both next-gen consoles has improved considerably — for now. Spending a couple of hours each with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 releases today, multiplayer has been smooth and stable, even with full servers. The question, of course, is whether EA’s servers can withstand one final regional console launch this week as the PS4 arrives in Europe, bringing with it a new crop of players eager to join the fray.
For now, though, the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Battlefield 4 offer an experience comparable to last month’s PC release, and warrant the same recommendation. But we’ll keep an eye out for renewed server/game issues in the coming weeks, and more cautious players wouldn’t be remiss in waiting a few more days to see how the holiday weekend affects online play.
