This hasn't been a year that EA will remember particularly fondly, with the heavily anticipated Battlefield 4 experiencing multiple problems, and the company being voted the worst in the U.S. However, it seems like the company is looking to move ahead irrespective of the problems and has acknowledged that it needs “to do a better job” with bug testing in the near future.
EA Studios EVP Patrick Soderlund was recently interviewed by The Guardian, where he looked to respond to the ever-growing criticisms that have been flowing in concerning the major stability issues that have arrived alongside the game.
“Listen, we have to do a better job of getting games into the market that are as bug-free as possible. What I would say is, games are becoming more and more complex – even though we'll run a beta and we'll do massive amounts of testing, there are certain things, especially in an online-focused environment, that you won't catch,” Soderlund stated.
“I wish I could day that we will, but I don't think we'll ever catch everything. I think we've got better at it, but I certainly think we're not where we need to be in terms of getting games to market that offer a friction-free experience.”
Acknowledging all the problems and the criticisms related to it, Soderlund stated: “What we need to do, and what we are doing is, when we launch a game, we have to work very quickly to work course-correct to fix issues and then to get fixes into the hands of the consumers. I have to say that gamers have been good with us – they realise that we work hard, I think we've had eight or nine server updates since the launch of the PC side.”
“We try and do an update every second day to improve the game experience, and there are patches in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360. I bet we'll have to do the same thing on the next-gen machines. But our commitment to making the best gameplay experience on a continual basis is there.”
“We devote a lot of time and effort toward making the game better as we go. But I think we need to do a better job as a company in making sure that what comes to market is in as good a shape as it possibly can be,” he added.
Speaking about supporting the game and ridding future releases of bug-related issues, Battlefield 4 has now received a major update that looks to implement a variety of fixes and improvements to the game’s online service, although it does take away a few functionality away from the game.
For example, the game’s second screen Battlescreen app has been temporarily disabled for users on Xbox One, although the option of using the Smartglass app still remains.
Check out the entire Battlelog below.
Announcements:
- Added support for China Rising content (being released for Premium users on December 3rd)
- BattleScreen has been temporarily disabled in the Battlelog tablet app for Xbox One - the Smartglass app can be used in the meantime.
- Live Scoreboard has now been re-enabled for PC servers - we will be rolling it out slowly for console servers soon.
- We will be retiring the Group Chat VOIP on Battlelog.com from February 28th, 2014 - notice message is now present in group chats.
Features & Improvements:
- Added Air Superiority to the Play Now tab in multiplayer.
- Added an info panel to Loadout to show additional attributes for the selected item.
- Added expansion pack icons to Loadout.
- Added support for Air Superiority Battle Reports and Live Scoreboard
- Bigger item images are now shown for weapons and vehicles on the stats and unlocks pages.
- Expansion pack icons remain visible in Assignments, even if you have access to the expansion pack.
- It is now possible to track Battlepacks from the Battlepacks page.
- Join as Commander button on tablet is now disabled if there's no free Commander slots.
- Popup windows in the tablet app are now scrollable to be compatible with any screensize.
- The invisible mode setting is now permanently stored, so it won't ever reset.
- Various minor improvements
- When quickmatching in Tablet Commander, the amount of Commanders on the found server no longer includes yourself.
Fixes:
- Better error handling in Loadout.
- Better handling when joining as Commander on tablet, and the Commander slots fill up on the server.
- Better handling when setting custom region in the Server Browser filter, so it now works as intended.
- Fixed an issue in BattleScreen, where enemy indicators were looking in the opposite direction.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the "away" state to kick in in the Com Center.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the "Use system language" setting in the tablet app from working.
- Fixed an issue where an error message was displayed, when launching BattleScreen in Smartglass on compatible devices.
- Fixed an issue where news post comments got a negative Hooah! value if a sub-comment had been hidden.
- Fixed an issue where the default avatar wouldn't show in the in-game notifications.
- Fixed an issue where the plugin installation guide couldn't always be closed.
- Fixed an issue where you can add more emblem layers than allowed.
- Moved service star counter to the right to not overlap with the expansion pack icon.
- No longer possible to track already unlocked vehicle accessories.
- Now properly checks the Premium entitlement for Xbox One users.
- Removed an empty "Misc" category on the Assignments page.
- Various fixes for BattleScreen in the Smartglass app.
- Various fixes for the Tablet Commander menu pages.
- Various minor fixes
- When trying to access BattleScreen on web for Xbox One, the correct info popup is now shown.
Also, apart from releasing an update for the Battlelog, DICE has also confirmed that a new patch for the PC version of Battlefield 4 will arrive next week that will look to remove a blur effect on soldiers that’s caused by Commander EMPs, while also fixing the 'one-hit headshot' bug. A specific date for the patch, however, is yet to be confirmed.
Check out the entire list of patch notes for Battlefield 4's PC update below:
- Fixed a common crash that would occur when exiting from the Single Player Campaign to Main Menu
-Fixed the "one-hit kill bug" where occasionally damage from a single bullet was applied multiple times
-Fixed the audio bug where audio sometimes randomly dropped out while playing on certain multiplayer maps (typically Golmud Railway and Hainan Resort)
-Removed the blur effect on soldiers that appeared when Commanders were using EMP attacks
-Tweaked the network and computer performance screen to show proper values. Players can now test their computer and network connection and get recommendations if they need to adjust something to improve their gameplay experience
