Battlefield V

The French chapter looks kinda neat from a conceptual perspective. I've never seen video games really tackle the subject of colonial troops in a war in which the two biggest colonial powers in the world actively participated.

Sure beats Blandy Mc Whiteguy with his generic crew cut.

Also, if you get your video game opinions from reddit, I think it's safe to say that's more of a 'you' problem tha a problem with the game, given that site is just 4chan in a nicer business suit and larger population of screeching clueless outrage babies.

Edited by math792d on Oct 20th 2018 at 1:12:28 PM

You know, if you see somebody describe anything by unironically using "SJW", that's usually a good indication that anything they say can safely be disregarded.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Oct 20th 2018 at 1:47:16 PM

Ooh, is that supposed to be set during Operation Dragoon? Landing in southern France, mishmash of American and pre-war French gear, unfortunately overshadowed by its more famous cousin Overlord.

Aaand yeah, you really can't talk about the Senegalese Tirailleurs without bringing up how they got completely screwed over by the guys in charge.

I'm also kind of disappointed with the inclusion of a Wehrmacht campaign. I get that you can't tell the story of World War 2 without including the Natsies, but I feel like having a scene set in Berlin as a tanker feels too Hollywood.

So I've been having a think about what I would do if I wanted to make a Wehrmacht mission set. And not just cop out by saying Spec Ops: The Rhine and calling it a day, and by not just having it be you running around committing war crimes, because there are enough fascist edgelords out there on the Internet who'd turn it into a meme.

Instead, I propose a mission set on the banks of the Elbe, playing as a freshly-drafted conscript to the 12th Army, trying to hold a bridge long enough to get refugees from Berlin and the surrounding area into Allied territory. Maybe occasionally have some people in 'official' uniforms in between the masses trying to cross the bridge for cheekiness, but otherwise playing it straight as a 'desperate defense.'

Alternatively, for maximum 'pointless struggle,' have the Wehrmacht level be a forty year old man with bad cardio who was just drafted into the Volkssturm in the Battle of Berlin. Go full Downfall.

No, Barbarossa where you get constantly stuck in the mud or are on fire. Or run out of fuel.

Battle of the Bulge, wherein your Tiger tank runs out of fuel right after you get in sight of the climatic objective

That last idea actually has a lot of potential. Could make for a good stealth mission, having you avoid both the Allies and Soviet troops razing the city. Maybe at the beginning you'd be conscripted to fight against the Soviets, and witness first-hand how they're virtually raping and killing the entire city as payback. After you barely escape with your life, you're forced to sneak past the Soviets at night towards the Allied frontlines, where you begin to hear some stories from other German survivors about how they're less brutal towards surrendering Germans... only, for you to witness firsthand that the Allies are plenty pissed too, and don't mind blasting you for agitating them in the slightest.

The final mission has you exiting Berlin and camping out with the remaining Wehrmacht troops in a hilly forest, with the intention of that location being your last stand against the Allies. There will be no winning that final mission: true to the Battlefield titles, you can only spawn in as long as there are fresh troops in the field, but with the Allies having infinite numbers on their side, its only a matter of time before your position is over-run, and the last solider dies.

BUUUT... they're going with the War Stories approach again. It wasn't terrible for BF 1, in all honesty, but it wasn't great either. Only the British Tanker and American Pilot campaigns were exceptional, with the Middle-East campaign re-hashing the Sinai Desert map TWICE and that Aussie naval assault on an Ottoman castle being the least creative and oddly prone to back-tracking.

Edited by SgtRicko on Oct 24th 2018 at 1:25:28 AM

The maps available on release will be:

• Hamada - Takes place during the North African campaign, said to be the largest map in the game.
• Aerodrome - Smaller, more hectic North African campaign map, takes place around a German airfield under attack, with the titular Aerodrome being the center of action.
• Narvik - One of the maps available during the open beta period. Involves a British paratrooper assault on a German-occupied naval yard in Norway.
• Fjell 652 - Takes place on an icy peak, and is supposed to heavily involve infantry versus aircraft.
• Rotterdam - Another map available during the open beta period. Heavily involves urban combat with both heavy armor and infantry.
• Devastation - A smaller urban map (still taking place in Rotterdam) centered around a large library and cathedral. Has vehicles, but is supposedly infantry-focused.
• Twisted Steel - a giant metal bridge in France has been severely damaged by bombing, and you can either cross through the chaos or try and pass through the shallow muddy swamp on its flanks.
• Arras - Another French battle, this time in some large open farmlands, scattered forestry for infantry to use as cover, and a town with a church in the center that has an excellent view of the battlefield.
• Panzerstorm - An armor-focused map in Belgium. Won't be released at launch; will come with the Tides of War Chapter 1 update.

Notice how all of these maps take place during the early years of the war, before the Americans and Soviets were involved? My guess is that the supposed Chapters hinted at will gradually proceed into the later years, with the final Chapter a couple of years down the line finally involving D-Day and American involvement in the European theater.

We're finally starting to see some early reviews from those with the EA Access program, and the results are... good?

No seriously, several Youtubers apparently think the multiplayer works great and fixed most of the issues people had with the open beta. Still has a bunch of out of whack un-historical inconsistencies, plus the campaign is just more of the same from BF 1's War Stories, but with more polish... oh, and the lack of any American or Soviet presence so far. Most seem to think the worst of the damage was done by the horrible PR campaign that set the wrong tone for the game.

Some examples below:

Jackfrags: Battlefield 5 Review and New Gameplay

Downward Thrust: Battlefield V Review

AKA ART: Is Battlefield 5 Worth Buying? - A PROPER Review

Drift0r: Battlefield V: REVIEW (Criticism & Opinions)

I haven't posted any of the major gaming review websites yet since only a few of them have posted up reviews, but they're mostly first impressions or reviews of either the campaign or multiplayer only.

Clearly BFV is compensating for the fact that Battlefield 1 forgot to put the French into their World War One game at launch, and had the Americans instead.

Now, the Americans must go a campaign cycle without representation. Oh, woe is them

Edited by math792d on Nov 11th 2018 at 2:32:29 PM

What will BFV do without its back-to-back world champs

Not be about Normandy for a change?

Besides, both the British and French are still in the game, so it still has two back to back world champs

Edited by math792d on Nov 12th 2018 at 8:33:09 PM

I have to ask has Poland or the Dunkirk evacuation been in any WW 2 game (Or heck even the Winter War)?

Edited by Invincibleasshole on Nov 13th 2018 at 9:41:01 AM

Company of Heroes 2 technically puts you in command of a ZWZ/AK squad in one level, and Soviet forces fighting elsewhere in Poland in several others. If you're looking for another under-represented theatre, then check out the old strategy title Codename Panzers, which focuses on Yugoslavia.

Granted, Company of Heroes 2 is basically Enemy at the Gates: The Video Game in terms of how it treats the Soviet Union's fighting during the war.

As an educated person who majored in Economics at UCLA with a minor in German Studies, I'll have you know that the Soviets only had one rifle for every two men.

(But only because the rest had SMGs)

Why does every American campaign have to be about Normandy, anyway? The whole Italian front is hardly ever covered, and nobody talks about the Philippine or New Guinea campaigns.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Nov 13th 2018 at 11:55:33 AM

I remember one of the older Cod games having a Pacific campaign, but its portrayal of the IJA was roughly on par with Company of Heroes 2's depiction of the Soviets.

As for the Italian Peninsula, it might be because that campaign hit a roadblock, as opposed to the Normandy campaign 'bleeding over' into the campaign in Germany itself, etc.

Or because the US Army of 1942-43 wasn't quite the well-oiled machine of 1944, and that depiction might be less popular with Yanks, so publishers don't take the chance.

Edited by math792d on Nov 13th 2018 at 11:45:03 AM

Why does every American campaign have to be about Normandy, anyway?

Cuz Saving Private Ryan

It's practically a miracle the Pacific front's been done a few times too by comparison.

Man video games are lazy.

Well, to be fair, there's plenty of other fronts in more obscure games - Slitherine Software alone's dripping with the stuff in the games they've published or developed, or at least these games' DLC. That being said, there's a reason those are obscure, as they're generally of the far less-sexy hex-based simulation-strategy games sort (and of course, that makes fulfilling these less mainstream fronts much easier when you don't have to worry about the risk of your thousands in 3D art budget spent on these fronts not jiving with enough people).

Hey what the fuck I only shot three dudes in this campaign I want a refund.

Hearts of Iron obviously covers the whole war, but the AI in that game has some fairly serious problems with casualty calculations. As in, it's not uncommon to see 2-3x the number of war-dead that the actual war did.

Also, it's infested with Wehraboos and Kaiserboos.

Man, the gunplay in this game feels really different than BF1 (my first real Battlefield experience). I guess I'll have to just get used to it.

But I'm rather unhappy that the Assault and Medic classes seem to have swapped weapons, with Medics getting SMGs and Assault getting Semi-Autos (though Assault Rifles are quite nice to have ). Forgive me for my naïveté regarding earlier BF games, but if they wanted a Medic class that went up close and personal, they should have just made Assault medic and had a dedicated Engineer class (that is presumably less OP than previous games as I've been informed).

Edited by SantosLHalper on Nov 14th 2018 at 9:41:25 AM

Call of Duty: Big Red One had missions set in the Italian front. Sicily to be precise.

As for the Philippines Campaign, which one? There were two. The first one didn't go so well for the US (we lost) and the second was simply overshadowed by other things.

Edited by MajorTom on Nov 14th 2018 at 6:47:22 AM