Battlefield 4: Tale of a Broken Game

DICE clearly is lost in the wild when trying to find answers on how to fix Battlefield 4

Since its launch on October 29, Battlefield 4 has been called a number of things, most of which have been of the negative variety. The game has featured glitch after glitch and bug after bug that has nearly rendered it unplayable for most of its month-and-a-half on the market.

Players have had to deal with crashing and the corruption of data which leads to having to start games over from the very beginning. Something that will always leave a bad taste in the mouth of the player.

The team at DICE has said, on more than one occasion, that they are working endlessly to get the gaming working at the high standard it is held to. The company has even gone as far as to state that it was delaying other projects, like future DLC releases — though, they still released the China Rising DLC which caused even more server issues–, in order to make things right with this game.

That’s all well and good, but when your game has had as many issues as Battlefield has – I mean, just look at them all, and these are only the top ones – you should be expected to talk about the problems, and why you feel they happened, especially when you had time between platform launches to make sure things were going to be squared away with the game. It all just sounds like a case of laziness on the part of the developer if you asked me.

We tried to get answers from the people in charge of the game, but when Gamesided asked for an interview on the matter, we received numerous no comments. Eventually, we did get a statement from a representative stating that no one could do an interview with us. Hmm…

Many would love to ride a jetski, but the game doesn’t work long enough to allow it.

I find it a bit odd that when things aren’t going right, a company refuses to answer questions about the product that they are charging consumers $60, or more if you purchase the premium membership, for a game that many haven’t been able to fully enjoy. However, if the situation was reversed, and the game was a game of the year candidate, one could only assume that they would have no problem answering questions about it.

It would be different if it was an isolated incident, and these problems were easily, and quickly, fixed, but that’s just not the case. The game has caused players, including myself, nothing but problems since day one and it’s getting to be a bit nonsensical. Sure, you can get a game or two in online, or maybe complete a single-player mission, but then, the game likely crashes. And if it happens while you’re in the middle of a mission or the game is saving, your single-player data is likely to have been corrupted which means it will have to be erased.

When trying to play the game on PS4, Xbox One and PC, we have been able to play for an average of about 15-20 minutes before the game crashes on us one way or another. About 1/5 of the time, the end result of the crash is the loss of data requiring the campaign to be started from the beginning.

Joe Jordany, a Battlefield 4 user on Xbox One, reached out to Gamesided to lament his major issues with the game since making the ₤120, roughly $197 US, purchase.

“Midway through an online game, I’ll constantly get disconnected from my session,” Jordany said. “The game exits to the dashboard when loading, and I lost all of my save data (over 50%) in the campaign.”

Fellow player Steve Coleman also purchased the premium subscription to the game, and now says that he regrets not getting Call of Duty: Ghosts instead.

“I’m very much frustrated,” said Coleman. “I have contacted their twitter page, but I am constantly ignored. To be honest, it was the biggest mistake buying this game ahead of Call of Duty: Ghosts. I would just like my money back because I have been just ignored enough and have given up on that game.”

Again, we’ve tried to get comment from DICE and EA, but each requested has been either ignored or refused.

Battlefield 4 is a broken mess of a game with more problems than anyone could imagine. And though they seem to be finally getting – slowly – sorted out, one has to wonder just how damaged the reputations of the developer and game itself have become.