Battlefield Hardline Beta and the State of the Franchise

Hardline takes itself seriously? Give me a break. Something tells me you didn't even play the game once. It has cops rolling around in ridiculous muscle-cruisers blasting dubstep and rap about smoking weed while mowing down robbers with giant gattling guns. This is WAY more tongue-in-cheek than Bad Company 2.

I honestly might be enjoying this more than Bad Company 2. BC2 was fun but it disgraced the Battlefield franchise with its arcadey consolized crap (no prone and such). This has the fun of BC2, as well as the versatility and tactics of a Battlefield game. They lightened up on the destruction-gimmick crap (which the Battlefield franchise has never really been about).

@silversix_: That's the most lazy and willfully ignorant statement about BF3 and BF4 possible that doesn't carry any weight to people who have been playing the series for the past few years. Battlefield 4 in its current state (not how it launched), is probably the finest Battlefield to date. Most refined mechanics, best balanced, excellent diversity in the maps, the most amount of gamemodes, and a renewed emphasis on teamplay, all while DICE and EA have shown their ability to support a game well after launch if they put their minds to it. The next major patch coming in a few weeks is refining the game even more and adding in tons of quality of life features that will just make the experience better. Which is good because Hardline is going to flop hardcore and Battlefield 4 will live on.

Vicersal was making a cop drama game and had worked on Battlefield titles in the past and some EA executive decided to merge it with the Battlefield series as DICE was given the go ahead to make Mirror's Edge 2 as well as Star Wars Battlefront. A lot has changed at EA since this decision was made, but it's still a product of EA's legacy of terrible management. It has no right being a Battlefield game. The series should just take a break while the whole modern military craze kind of dies down and DICE is off making other games.

The Battlefield series needs a break. It's suffering franchise fatigue and the BF4 fiasco was proof of that. EA has diversified their shooter lineup with Titan and Battlefront and doesn't need to be pumping out a modern military shooter each year. Battlefield 4 is great and could easily last a few more years if they just keep making DLC for it. A large expansion pack with 5-10 new maps, vehicles, and some game modes for like $30 would keep the game going for another year strong with ease. They don't need a sequel right now. The work they've done to BF4 is proof that the team is committed to it and isn't slowing down the support.

EA needs to rethink their strategy here.

@soethi6: eww 720p on the Xbone? lol wow..

I was very critical of the first Beta.

"BF4 Mod" and all that jazz.

But after playing a bit of this new Beta, it's honestly pretty decent and different enough from BF4.

Just enough, though.

I can see why someone would buy it, but i won't.

Bad Company was the series peak.