Battlefield 2042 – Syndication Server

March PS Plus games add Battlefield and tease Uncharted, more

Sony announced the March PS Plus lineup for the basic tier and teased Uncharted and bigger releases for the future

Sony announced the March PS Plus lineup for the basic tier and teased Uncharted and bigger releases for the future during the February State of Play. All subscribers can download Battlefield 2042 in its updated glory, along with Minecraft Dungeons, and Code Vein starting March 7, 2023.

Battlefield 2042 might have launched in a rough state, but several seasons and substantial updates later, and it’s finally in a position to take advantage of its unique strengths and gigantic maps. Minecraft Dungeons is a gentle introduction to action-RPGs and dungeon looters, a nice way to fill the time before Minecraft Legends releases in April.

Then there’s Code Vein, Bandai Namco’s take on Monster Hunter and God Eater, with stylized anime heroes and vampires because of course.

Sony also teased some bigger plans for the service. Premium and Extra subscribers will eventually get Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Rainbow Six Siege, and Tango’s Ghostwire Tokyo at some point in the future. Legacy of Thieves includes Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy, but not the first three games.

None of these have a release date, but Tchia, which launches March 16, 2023, will be available for Premium and Extra subscribers on day one.

What other games will launch for the Premium and Extra tiers, Sony hasn’t yet said.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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EA Dice is bringing Battlefield 2042 to Xbox Game Pass in Season 3

Battlefield 2042 is coming to Game Pass in season 3, with a wealth of new updates and improvements

Battlefield 2042 is coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the multiplayer game’s third season, EA Dice announced in a new blog post. If you don’t have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and still want to try the game for free, you’re in luck. EA Dice is offering limited-time free trials on Xbox, Steam, and PlayStation.

Xbox: Dec. 1, 2022, at 12:01 a.m. PT through Dec. 4, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Steam: Dec. 1, 2022, at 10 a.m. PT through Dec. 5, 2022, at 10 a.m. PT.
PlayStation: Dec. 16, 2022, at 8 a.m. PT through Dec. 23, 2022, at 8 a.m. PT.

The new season doesn’t have a release date yet.

When it does launch, Battlefield 2042 season 3 will introduce a new specialist and substantial reworks for the Breakaway and Manifest maps, in keeping with the dev team’s previous philosophy of improving every map.

You can catch a glimpse of the changes in the season 3 update teaser below.

As always with new seasons, some classic Battlefield weapons are coming out of the vault in waves throughout season 3. First up is Bad Company 2’s XM8 and Battlefield 3’s A-91, with more weapons set to follow in batches as the season goes on.

EA Dice also said that production work on significant new updates for season 4 and beyond is already underway. Battlefield 2042 might have launched in a rough state, but the team said they plan on supporting it for a while yet to come.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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New Battlefield 2042 update overhauls another map

The latest Battlefield 2042 update makes some much-needed changes to the Orbital map and improves server hosting

EA Dice pushed the latest Battlefield 2042 update, and it adds some welcome changes to the multiplayer game‘s Orbital map, including substantial reworks for the assets and tweaks to certain key locations to help improve the action. The update is live now on all platforms and also adds the option to create and host persistent servers, a handy improvement for those who want to keep the same group of teammates over time.

Orbital’s improvements include more buildings and areas to defend in the industrial zone, new cover options in the form of ruined tanks, relics of past conflicts, and a reinforced Radio Tower region. The Launch Pad zone is now a makeshift base and has added natural cover as well, and the Cryogenic Plant now plays a bigger role in combat encounters.

On the server side, you can host persistent servers that stay functional even when no players are active within them and join without the server host being present. However, as of the Battlefield 2042 2.2 update’s release, only owners of the premium battle pass can create and host a persistent server. EA’s patch notes didn’t mention plans to make this feature available for non-premium players in the future.

The new update also features a handful of weapons from the series’ vault, including the MP412 REX from Bad Company.

You can check out the full set of patch notes on EA Dice’s website.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Battlefield 2042 might be on Game Pass soon

Curious details on the Xbox store page suggest as much.

It’s looking like Battlefield 2042 could head to Xbox Game Pass in the future.

As noted by XGP, the Xbox store page for Battlefield 2042 now includes Game Pass logos in certain regions. Previously, the much-maligned shooter offered timed trials for subscribers, but that was about it. Neither EA nor Microsoft has made an official statement regarding Battlefield 2042 potentially being on Game Pass, so take this with a pinch of salt for now.

Battlefield 2042 is still recovering from its dreadful launch. Between fan backlashes, key project leads at DICE leaving for greener pastures, and stiff competition, there’s no question that Battlefield 2042 was a historic low point for the franchise. EA leadership reportedly considered free-to-play options, so the game coming to Microsoft’s service is pretty believable.

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For all of Battlefield 2042‘s woes, many still think it’s not a lost cause. GLHF‘s Kick McKeand thought it needed several big patches before it was great, especially with all the missing features from past entries. Not everyone believes saving Battlefield 2042 is possible, but there’s no hurt in trying.

Loads of titles get somewhat of a second chance on Game Pass. Recent additions include This War of Mine, along with Assassin’s Creed Origins and others.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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EA reportedly denies blaming Halo Infinite for Battlefield 2042’s shortcomings

A new statement adds slightly more context.

Battlefield 2042’s launch was rough for a laundry list of reasons, but EA claims it isn’t blaming Halo Infinite.

Earlier this week, Xfire reported that EA held a company-wide meeting, and Battlefield 2042’s failure was the primary focus. One of the key talking points was Halo Infinite’s sudden multiplayer beta release and how that impacted Battlefield 2042’s reception, specifically how Halo Infinite was a more “polished” game. That last bit quickly became the subject of ridicule online, but EA VP of communications John Reseburg states that further context from the meeting is missing.

“These stories are not accurately capturing the discussion and the context, which was an in-depth and very humble internal conversation about the recent Battlefield launch,” Reseburg said via PC Gamer. “It was about key learnings and actions we are taking, not blaming external factors.”

Here are our favourite Only in #Battlefield highlights 🏆
I got another, we saw it, quickscope, bye bye Condor.
Share your clips with the hashtag #OnlyinBattlefield to be featured 👀 pic.twitter.com/XcwrjubXxK

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) December 28, 2021

Conversations like these always require loads of context, Of course. Yet the notion that Halo Infinite had an impact on Battlefield 2042’s launch isn’t far-fetched at all. Microsoft claims Halo Infinite had the strongest release in franchise history, which is in stark contrast to everything we’ve seen from Battlefield 2042. EA hasn’t made its disappointment much of a secret either.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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EA reportedly blames Halo Infinite and more for Battlefield 2042’s launch failures

Engine problems and challenging work environments were among the issues as well.

Whispers of EA’s apparent disappointment with Battlefield 2042 have been circulating since last month, but we may finally have more context for what the company believes went wrong.

A report by Xfire states that during a recent company-wide meeting at EA, several key executives spoke on what went wrong with Battlefield 2042, including chief studios officer Laura Miele.

“It’s really important to acknowledge when we have misses,” Miele said. “This is certainly the case with the Battlefield launch, which failed to meet the expectations of our players, and also clearly missed our own expectations.”

Miele reportedly went on to outline several factors that set Battlefield 2042 up for its difficult launch. The Frostbite game engine, which every modern Battlefield title utilizes, went through a massive overhaul, adding 18 months to Battlefield 2042’s development time.

“Add up all of this new innovation, all of this ambition for the new project, and then you add a global pandemic halfway into the project, where the game teams had to work from home,” Miele continues. “we ended up with more new variables in development than we have ever experienced before.”

The discussion reportedly encompassed Halo Infinite’s surprise multiplayer beta launch on Nov. 15, 2021, and how that game hurt Battlefield 2042’s reception considerably because the latter came out mere days after and was far more “polished” than EA’s first-person shooter.

Most would agree that Halo Infinite’s brilliant multiplayer couldn’t have come at a worse time for EA. After all, one was free-to-play and crisp as can be, while the other was drowning in negative attention.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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EA reportedly ‘very disappointed’ in Battlefield 2042, considers free-to-play options

An industry insider claims DICE’s shooter is in for a change.

To say that Battlefield 2042 was disappointing for fans would be an understatement, and they may not be alone in that sentiment.

On Thursday, industry insider Tom Henderson said on Twitter that publisher EA is “very disappointed” with Battlefield 2042’s sales and reception. Not that anyone would be happy about being one of Steam’s worst-reviewed games of all time.

Henderson also reports that the publishing giant is considering making Battlefield 2042 a free-to-play title. Similar to other successful online first-person shooters like Valorant, Halo Infinite, and Call of Duty: Warzone — a stunning consideration since mainline Battlefield games always come with an initial retail cost.

EA is reportedly very disappointed with how Battlefield 2042 has performed and is "looking at all the options" when it comes to the title, this is including looking at Free to Play in some capacity.

I'll have more on this tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/WWuDpstyqS

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 20, 2022

DICE is doing its best to turn things around by issuing bug fixes and plans to add much-requested features like a scoreboard, but those efforts may not be enough to satisfy the brass at EA. Curiously, Battlefield 2042 was one of Steam’s best-selling games last year, so it’s probably a success to some degree.

However, as of this post, the game only has roughly 5000 active players on Steam, according to SteamDB. A dismal number for a AAA multiplayer first-person shooter that only came out months ago.

Time will tell if this report is accurate, but these claims are hard to believe nonetheless.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Battlefield 2042 is finally adding a scoreboard

Hooray for features from 20 years ago!

At long last, Battlefield 2042 is getting a scoreboard.

DICE announced Wednesday that scoreboards will come to Battlefield 2042 in update 3.3, which arrives sometime in mid to late February. There’s no definite date yet, but given how rough Battlefield 2042’s first couple of months has been, the developers probably don’t want to rush this. After all, fans remind DICE of missing features often.

Back at launch, we said Battlefield 2042 was a few patches away from greatness, and that certainly still holds true even now. Even after all the blowback from fans, DICE is committing to get the game ship-shape — releasing a screenshot of the work-in-progress scoreboard to prove it, which you can check out below.

Scoreboard Refresh

In Update 3.3 we will refresh our existing Scoreboard UI with a new panel that showcases how players are stacking up across the server

Here’s your first look at our Work in Progress 👀 pic.twitter.com/kmRTdl2WUx

— Battlefield Direct Communication (@BattlefieldComm) January 19, 2022

“Scoreboard will receive further updates beyond this refresh – this isn’t a one-and-done deal for us,” DICE said on Twitter. “Expect to see us iterate on this further once it’s live in-game, and we look forward to your feedback once this new Scoreboard goes live in February.”

DICE also claims that features such as matchmaking preferences in All-Out Warfare and cross-platform voice chat are still in the works, though the studio did not comment on when fans might expect those.

Battlefield 2042 has received a ton of patches since launch, some being less helpful than others. Shame they had to remove the skyscraper-scaling hovercraft, though.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Xbox Live Gold subscribers get Battlefield 2042 for free this weekend

So are The Sinking City and Star Renegades.

As part of Microsoft’s Free Play Days promotion, several games will be free to try out this weekend.

Beginning Jan. 7 through Jan. 9, Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will have access to the following titles:

Battlefield 2042
The Sinking City
Star Renegades

Head over to the Free Play Days page here, add them to your account, and voila! Your weekend now contains roughly 60 percent more explosions, gunfire, and ludicrous glitches. DICE patched out hovercraft climbing, unfortunately.

Keep in mind that these games are not free to keep, as once Jan. 10 rolls around, you’ll have to buy them to keep playing. Think of this promotion as a trial period of sorts, which is probably for the best in Battlefield 2042’s case, as most people aren’t having fun with it.

Our review for Battlefield 2042 thought the core premise was fine enough, but it was severely lacking in polish. Since last fall, DICE has issued many patches to make the game better. However, as is often the case with Battlefield titles, this installment might not be totally up to snuff for several months.

Despite Battlefield 2042 apparent rough shape, trying it out for free can’t hurt.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Battlefield 2042 lets you repair penguins

Even flightless birds need a touch-up.

Ah, penguins. One of mother nature’s finest creations is the bird that can’t fly and spends most of its life underwater. The folks over at DICE seem to agree with that sentiment, too, because Battlefield 2042 lets you repair these flightless wonders with a blowtorch.

A first spotted by VG247, user dunaike on Reddit made this incredible discovery after landing a helicopter among a raft (what a group these birds is called) of penguins. Upon noticing one little fellow was suffering from injury, dunaike did what all animal lovers do in this situation: took a blowtorch to it.

Incredibly, this fixed the penguin right up. Check out the video below to see it for yourself.

Ok, I get it! The game has a lot of problems. But can we all agree that repairable penguins are a great feature? from battlefield2042

Somehow, DICE needs to make helping penguins a focal point of its planned Battlefield universe.

It’s nice to see the Battlefield 2042 community take a break from tarring and feathering the game to have fun for a change. The critique isn’t unwarranted, of course, and the developers are hard at work issuing patches.

Hopefully, penguin-repair isn’t a bug because this absolutely should not be removed from Battlefield 2042. Scaling buildings via hovercraft sadly has been scaled back, so DICE better not take this away from us too.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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