Post by sfscriv on Jun 4, 2010 19:32:53 GMT 1
Battlefield Brings the Rain
By Thomas McDonald
Games Magazine
June 2010
By Thomas McDonald
Games Magazine
June 2010
Readers are welcome to use the following sentence to judge the credibility of what follows. To wit: The Battlefield series has always been better than the Call of Duty series.
If reviews and sales are any indication, that’s certainly a minority position. While Electronic Arts napped, Activision took over the military shooter genre, thanks to the Call of Duty franchise. EA finally woke up, rummaged around under the bed, and pulled out Battlefield (one of the smartest an most entertaining military shooters ever created) and Medal of Honor (the granddaddy of WW2 shooters). It made a decision to take on Activision by returning to fields it had left fallow far too long.
EA will fail, of course: not at making great games, but at knocking CoD from the top spot. Activision played a long consistent game with CoD: steadily building a franchise, maintaining a stream of fresh content, ratcheting up the hype, and never falling off the pace of new releases. The games are also very good. Modern Warfare 2 is a strong piece of game design, albeit on with several notable flaws.
Activision will win because CoD has become the Doom of modern military shooters: fast-paced run-‘n’-gun with snap targeting and not a lot of subtlety. It offers grand, dramatic set pieces and an increasing visceral audio-visual experience. It simply appeals to more gamers.
Battlefield, on the other hand, has always offered something quite different: an all-aspect warfare element favoring precision and methodical pacing rather than the frenetic action that finally tipped into overkill with Modern Warfare 2.
The battlefield of Bad Company 2 is a remarkable place, filled with smart enemies, complex goals, cover that can be shattered in an instant, and a dazzling suite of weapons, vehicles, and aircraft. It offers a far broader array of roles and challenges, but extracts payment with a steeper learning curve that appeals to a smaller demographic.
No, Bad Company 2 will not make MW2 levels of money, but EA shouldn’t count that as a failing: It’s made a vastly superior game.
If reviews and sales are any indication, that’s certainly a minority position. While Electronic Arts napped, Activision took over the military shooter genre, thanks to the Call of Duty franchise. EA finally woke up, rummaged around under the bed, and pulled out Battlefield (one of the smartest an most entertaining military shooters ever created) and Medal of Honor (the granddaddy of WW2 shooters). It made a decision to take on Activision by returning to fields it had left fallow far too long.
EA will fail, of course: not at making great games, but at knocking CoD from the top spot. Activision played a long consistent game with CoD: steadily building a franchise, maintaining a stream of fresh content, ratcheting up the hype, and never falling off the pace of new releases. The games are also very good. Modern Warfare 2 is a strong piece of game design, albeit on with several notable flaws.
Activision will win because CoD has become the Doom of modern military shooters: fast-paced run-‘n’-gun with snap targeting and not a lot of subtlety. It offers grand, dramatic set pieces and an increasing visceral audio-visual experience. It simply appeals to more gamers.
Battlefield, on the other hand, has always offered something quite different: an all-aspect warfare element favoring precision and methodical pacing rather than the frenetic action that finally tipped into overkill with Modern Warfare 2.
The battlefield of Bad Company 2 is a remarkable place, filled with smart enemies, complex goals, cover that can be shattered in an instant, and a dazzling suite of weapons, vehicles, and aircraft. It offers a far broader array of roles and challenges, but extracts payment with a steeper learning curve that appeals to a smaller demographic.
No, Bad Company 2 will not make MW2 levels of money, but EA shouldn’t count that as a failing: It’s made a vastly superior game.
