Battlefield 4: DICE says it needs to 'step up its single-player game'

Series' exec producer says studio and fans are "more worried about" campaign than multiplayer

[NastyLeftHook0]

Great, I know shooters can be more than just multiplayer with single player tacked on. Remember the ps2 days? single player was the whole of the game! remember gems such as timesplitters and moh frontline?

Im glad dice are taking this into concideration. bravo.

[piroh]

well, it´s true i remember Black on PS2, but still i will miss co-op since i have friends. maybe they add it through DLC

[NastyLeftHook0]

black was such a great game, and turok also comes to mind, those weapons were classic.

[r21]

Black was amazing on the PS2. One of the best SP FPS campaigns out there. Hell, it even tops any FPS campaign this gen can make!

[ProjectVulcan]

BF3's campaign was the weakest part of the game. Certainly needs more attention even if people are going to play most of their time online.

I rue the death of the single player experience in many games these days.

Bioshock Infinite- no multiplayer mode.

Heaven.

[crzyjackbauer]

i think BF3 single player wasn't that bad
i mean c'mon after a while COD single player gets a bit dull you shoot guys, jump of a bridge, shoot stuff, jump off a helicopter, boom, boom boom jump off a cliff and repeat

BF3 was a bit more serious
the jet mission and tank missions were something that was never seen on any COD
i had a good time with it, i didn't expect it to blow my mind, after all the bad publicity they had on the single player i think they were a bit harsh on it but thets just my opinion

[LOGICWINS]

MOH Frontline was AWESOME! It was my first FPS for the PS2.

[solar]

tacked on SP is for the console players. no doubt in my mind. no other reason for it in a BF title.

[Rearden]

"Step up"... by including even more scripted quicktime events...

[lastdual]

Yeah, the demo looked pretty, but all the scripting just made it feel like a bad military flick.
On the bright side, they did have one decently open environment that appeared to give you some freedom, though not as much as Bad Company 1.

[Irishguy95]

There was any quicktime events....just cutscenes.

[KONAAs]

if ur talking of scripted events *cough* COD *cough* yes no one complains of it, SP is only to get used to the controls, its all about MP

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

That is horrible coming from the developers that completely ruined BF3's multiplayer with all the patches and nerfs... there's things that were useful at launch but now no one uses them because they nerfed them to the point where they're useless. Multiplayer should be the focus since that's where a majority of people will spend their time.

[KONAAs]

dude stop complaning they can still be used, just because u cant get the one shot kills anymore dont cry about it, bf3 has the most balanced MP out,

[R6ex]

Single-player part is all that matters to me.

[Intentions]

I don't understand how they can fail single player for Battlefield 3 [and maybe BF4]. When they didn't really fail Bad company in terms of story :S.

[Conzul]

More complex and interesting stories drive away sales from idiots. To make money, EA needs to pander to the 'MURICA! Fck yeah! - crowd. And as we all know, EA is about squeezing as much money as possible out of something.

There's a reason why COD makes so much compared to Spec Ops: The Line

[KONAAs]

BC1 and BC2 have a good story because of the characters, they made the story funny, less serious, like when Haggard, single handedly invaded Serdaristan and he runs after the truck i think he yells "theres gold in them trucks" that part craked me up, on when they talk of his cousin that had a hot voice but was ugly then sweatwater tells him if it was the cousin he dated, lol

[madpuppy]

BC1 to me was classic, I could forgive some of the annoying aspects of the game because the characters are so great, BC2 on the other hand, fixed some of the annoying gameplay flaws from 1 but, changed the characters personalities a little too much for my tastes,
Sweetwater is all excited and full of hero worship, and what they did to Haggard is criminal, the killed his funny and made him all serious, angry and professional.

And what for? because a few douche bag reviewers criticized the characters and expected a little more seriousness in the game?

IGN D-bag: "Sadly it's that same light-hearted appeal that hurts the action in BF: BC a bit. War is intense yet the characters in Bad Company are constantly joking around and making fun of one another during battle. The comedy bit just doesn't quite fit in with the incredible level of action on screen. "

[venom06]

yeah... scripted events like what's in CoD that get "glowing reviews" year after year despite being the same crap as the one before it and not that much different from Battlefield... stupid hypocritical people ... When CoD does it, is glorious and awe-inspiring, but when BF does it, its a bad thing??? GTFO..

Even if they "step their game up", the hypocrtical, double standard having CoD fanboy reviewers will still find something wrong...

[Mustang300C2012]

That is is their own fault. Battlefield has always been a multiplayer only game since 1942. Simply put the single player games of Battlefield our not their best skill. Sorry but. COD is bought for both single and multiplayer just like Halo and they have been known for it since the first game. EA tries to go after COD adding single player and it isn't memorable.

[coolbeans]

To be honest, I don't find the CoD/BF reviewing system to be hypocritical. When it comes to the scripted, blockbuster moments seen in every modern military FPS today, CoD commercialized that template. Plus, I'm able to get a lot of enjoyment out of each component, be it SP, co-op MP, or competitive Mp.

Look at Bad Co 1, for example: large open terrain with destructible environments. Look at that transition to a typically-claustrophobic BF3 (save for vehicle missions) telling you to do X,Y,Z when indicated and you can tell who it's borrowing from.

[Psychotica]

Yeah, improve single player. Meaning multiplayer modes against bots..

[SonyPS360]

Did you time travel here from 2002 or something?

[Psychotica]

No, from just the other day after playing Gears of War Judgment and playing Combat Training on Black Ops, and playing Counter Strike:Global Offensive. All with multiplayer bot modes..

[Heisenburger]

How about scrapping single player all together and giving us actual destruction like in BC2?

I had my copy of BF3 for about a month before I traded it in. And I certainly didn't trade it because the SINGLE player was lacking.

Imo BF3 was terrible(at least on consoles of course).

I will not buy into the hype. If it's more like BF3 than BC2 I will be passing on this..

I really REALLY want to be excited for BF4. I miss BC2 so much.

[Skate-AK]

Frostbite 3 and BF4 will support destruction like BC2.

[Brucis]

Thank you sweet baby Jeebus. When I saw how little and scripted the destruction was I almost felt betrayed. Blowing all the walls out around a camper or just bringing the house down was so much fun in BC2. Glad to see it's back, or at least better than BF3's.

[Heisenburger]

:) Thanks man.

Great news!

[SonyPS360]

Scrap single player so we can get destruction like in BC2, which had a strong single player.

lolwut

Also, serves you right for getting the console version of BF3.

[Heisenburger]

Aww.. Someone had a bad day...

*sniff sniff* Poor baby.

[Jek_Porkins]

Ya think? I mean I couldn't even finish the Battlefield 3 campaign it was so generic. I know people here at N4G hate COD, but at least those stories are entertaining and have characters you move along in the series with.

[ScytheX3]

glad theyre doing this but at the same time hope multiplayer doesnt suffer because of it, doubt it will but just hoping =p would be nice to get both a solid campaign and multiplayer, and hell even coop missions =)

[Number-Nine]

I would rather have them add more variety to MP.
TDM, Rush, and Conquest wasn't enough.

I would also like larger squads. 6-8 people making it easier to have a squad full of friends.

[spacetoilet]

Forget single player, the multi was GARBAGE compared to BFBC2. The Ironic thing was, when BC2 came out, I was pining away for prone, bf2 etc... but when BF3 came out, I soon realized that BFBC2 online (PC anyway) is so much more fun, the engine is better, you can destroy things and the hit detection may be laggy but isn't cheap like COD,

[thechosenone]

"DICE needs to step up it's SP game"

said by nobody, ever. lol

@Brucis

maybe you didn't understand my comment but DICE is mainly know for their MP, no one even cares about the SP in BF3 so why would they waste time/resources on a MP centric game? They need to forget about SP all together and just focus their talents on MP, that's their bread and butter.

[Brucis]

>said by nobody, ever

Did you even play the campaign and talk to people who did as well? People weren't impressed. At all.

Edit in response: Because they have shown they can do decent campaigns with Bad Company, there's nothing wrong with having something if it is done well. They can do it, so there's no reason not to. People didn't care about the campaign in BF3 because it was bad. It wouldn't have been the main focus for gamers if it was good, but people would still enjoy it.

[coolbeans]

Given was the Bad Co. campaigns provided, I contend there's a legitimate number of people who care about the SP.

DICE is a more MP-minded developer, certainly; but if BF4's going to have an SP, then I'm sure many will agree they need to improve from their last outing in that department.

Plus, they already announced there would be no co-op so resources are less scattered already.

[Brucis]

I'm glad DICE is willing to admit it's faults with the campaign, most devs these days would just go "stop being entitled, our game is perfect". Hopefully one of the things they do is take out the color tint and reduce the sun's brightness, because goddamn is that sun bright.

[ghost04]

I agree the singe player is way too scripted, some parts I understand, but I like being able to play a game the way that I play, not being forced to do something specific! It feels too claustrophobic your confined. As for the mulitplayer, I didn't care for it, probably because I was so use to COD, I hard a time figuring out who was friendly and who was foe, next thing I know I'm dead. I think it's because COD places their username in "big red letters" over the enemy even from a distance you can spot them easily.

[thebudgetgamer]

It can't be that hard as they pulled it off with both Bad Company games.

[coolbeans]

I'm annoyed at seeing so many on here think DICE never pulled off an adequate campaign when the Bad Co. ones are pretty solid (1 had problems, but 2 improved). Good level design with a mixture of comedic (if sometimes annoying) squadmates who poked fun at the gun-ho war games of today.

[glennco]

BC1 anyway.

[coolbeans]

Eh...I thought BC1's campaign often lacked when it comes to open-world direction. So much of that open expanse served no purpose but to funnel you (chiefly) one way to X objective.

Bad Co. 2 did better when it comes to the varied landscapes too.

[RTheRebel]

Russia And China bad, America good such a hard story to work with.
@_@

[aLucidMind]

You forgot "Germans bad"! It makes it sooo much more difficult =p

[coolbeans]

I think the writers catch a glimpse of US news and can't always convince themselves of the "America good" part.

[LordHiggens]

No, DONT EVEN BOTHER WITH IT, just concentrate on the multiplayer that's all. Don't waste assets on SP you'll just disappoint everyone.

[Jsynn7]

If they flesh out the single player with with more substances and longer campaign times, it'll make people take the BF seires a lot more seriously than CoD. It'll make it look like they care about the single player experience just as important as the multi-player experience. BF4 is gonna be awesome and may be that much closer to being the more popular military FPS in the genre.

[leogets]

couldn't give a rats ass about single player ,u buy battlefield for the unpresidented mp experience. bottom line. single player is only use full when ya bored and ya connection has gone down

[madpuppy]

let me guess, you don't like single player (story mode) 'cause it be remindin' you of the stories your mama watches on the tv when you are gettin' home from yer skoolin'. :P

ah, I'm just messin' with ya, :)

[NateCole]

Well SP is not really important for BF for me at least.

[ufo8mycat]

No - DICE needs to completely remove it.

If there is 1 game that should be MP only, its Battlefield.

Spend more time improving the MP, as that IS the strength of this series.

No SP + Amazing MP > Average SP + Above Average MP

GET RID OF IT

I always prefer SP over MP. All the greatest gameplay experiences of all-time are SP, but this game doesn't need it.