I was immediately taken aback by how slowly bullets travel. War zoneįew games transcend the era they were created in, and there are definitely some awkward, 2013-ass design decisions that feel outdated now.
With the volume cranked up to an appropriately overwhelming notch, BF4 is one of the few FPSes that significantly benefits from a fancy pair of headphones or a high-end sound setup. The screech of a jet flying by one ear and out the other is intimidating the first and tenth time it happens. Soundscapes are busy, bassy roars of machine guns, tank treads, and desperate soldier callouts. That, and incredible audio, is why BF4 still feels really good in action. This is the first time I'm playing it on PC, so it was especially nice to crank every setting up to max and enjoy what're still very attractive maps and weather effects at competitive framerates. Remember this AC-130 jumbo jet that lets you pick off vehicles from above like ants in a magnifying glass? There's so much crammed in here that I forgot about most of it. The sheer variety of vehicles, turrets, missile launchers, and random doohickeys you can unlock creates improbable scenarios and guarantees memorable moments.
Every match still feels exciting and dynamic, like there are always ten other stories unfolding on the other side of the map that you'll never see. I was a little nervous to return to an almost eight-year-old FPS that I loved at the time, but Battlefield 4 holds up remarkably well. I'm pretty excited about it, and judging by BF4's recent surge in popularity, a lot of other folks are too.
DICE is finally returning to the games it does best later this year with Battlefield 2042, the first modern-day game in the series since 2013's Battlefield 4. Don't get me wrong, Battlefield 1 was cool and Battlefield V was… also a game, but Battlefield feels incomplete without helicopters, jets, and some sort of M4 that I can slap a scope on. It was a beautiful mess, and the kind of calamity I'd sincerely missed in the years since Battlefield left the modern-day setting behind.