Playstation

With the release of the next gen consoles so close together the fight was on for who would take the first person shooter title. And to be fair whoever takes this title will probably make more money in a weekend than you or I will make in 10 life times.

So it’s definitely worth playing for.

The contenders being,
1. Call of Duty : Ghosts
2. Battlefield 4

If you look back a wee touch you will see what I have to say on Ghosts in my other 10 second review. (I suppose I really should include Killzone as a further Contender. Personally it isn’t for me though).

So here it is my ten second review. As the norm in this situation this only refers to my experiences with the single player campaign. As far as the multiplayer goes it is very much a similar story to that of FIFA v Pro Evo. Everyone has their preference and all the writing, reasoning or arguing in the world will never change that.

As far as Battlefield 4 goes the story is decent, not gripping but decent. Who the hell Jun Jie is I have no idea and I doubt I ever will. Character development is there and attempted but Hannah, for example, is far too hard to warm to yet all the rest of squad are quickly kissing her ass. Irish is likeable but too much of a pain in the ass to be truly liked and you (me) doesn’t even mutter when spoken too. Come on Sergeant, don’t be rude!

Graphics are as you would expect, great. He old blip, rip or glitch appears but that is forgive able in this early stage of this generations cycle. Sound is great, animations are quality and the details on the guns is as far as I am concerned best in class.

Gameplay is average. The missions, in fact the whole game, is relatively short, although there are three different endings which adds to the ‘lastability.’ The game being short (about 5 hours) I don’t necessarily see as a bad thing. Think bad to the days of Golden Axe and Streets of rage. You could sit down and have a complete play through. That option still exists with Battlefield. And of course let’s be honest. The majority of players are getting this for multiplayer. Single player campaigns are now unfortunately considered a bit of an afterthought.

One afternoon and you could rip through this and have some fun doing so.

But there are some bad points. Some parts of the game especially in the latter (two) missions are ridiculously frustrating. You will just die from an explosion and hell knows from where. Restart and boom, same explosion and same untimely death. By the 10th death incident this Ground hog day is unbearable.

Then take the crashing. On my first run through I was about 60% through the game when it crashed, corrupting the save and meaning a complete fresh start. Heartbreaking. I have no problems with repeat play throughs but it should be because I want too. Not because the game just shit itself. I was lucky and in my next play through it crashed another 4 times but the game saves were not corrupted and each time I only had to retrace a few steps.

However it is unforgivable for games to be so buggy that they are crashing systems and corrupting saves at this stage of the gaming calendar. Maybe in 1979 it would have been more acceptable but come on DICE these are the basics.

All in all Battlefield 4 is a decent game that can easily be picked up and enjoyed. It’s doing nothing ground breaking on the single player FPS campaign stage but it is still holding its own. Iron out the bugs, remove the ridiculous frustrations and you be edging towards a winner.