Battlefield or Call of Duty, Battlefield or Call of Duty? No matter where you've drawn your own line in the sand, provided you've actually bothered to, you can't deny the tremendous drawing power of either FPS, and competition among the two titles is as fierce between the developers as its is between its fans.
Battlefield 4 is DICE's latest offering to the FPS fisticuffs, and with one week left to go before launching, the developer is ramping things up, releasing a trailer for the game's campaign mode. It's the sort of high energy thing you'd expect: guns, 'splosions, and all manner of high-risk near death situations. Well, that and some puppy punching. Canine combat. Mongrel mayhem! That enough for you?
Animal cruelty probably isn't the best term to describe the brief aspect of the trailer. After all, it's not like your squadmates are advocating dog fighting Micahel Vick style, but it's the first term that comes to mind.
Battlefield 4's nearest competition, Call of Duty: Ghost, caught some interesting attention when it introduced the Ghost squad's canine compatriot Riley earlier this year. Players can interact with the pugnacious pup to a limited degree, and be used to sniff out enemy soldiers, alert gamers to nearby dangers, etc.
You can see the Battlefield response to this below, right around the 1:35 mark.
I can just about smell the tofu from the PETA office now. On a related note, someone slow down that small piece of footage and set it to that depressing Sarah McLachlan jingle, I guarantee it'll go viral.
As pooches are often adored and doing them harm typically doesn't bode well with the audience, expect someone to turn this into a big thing.
Battlefield 4 stars a new protagonist to the series, that of Sergeant Daniel Recker, a member of the elite Tombstone Squad. He and the squad learn that an Admiral is in the midst of planning a coup to overthrow the current Chinese regime, with Russia ready to back him up.
You don't have to be an expert in foreign relations and politics to realize this would cause one hell of a domino effect that would see the whole planet embroiled in war.
Battlefield 4 is currently scheduled to release for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on Oct. 29 in North America and Nov. 1 in Europe, with versions for PS4 and Xbox One arriving in Q4 2013.