7) Battlefield 4 – 2013
The sheer scope and freedom of this next-gen titan just about makes it one of the finest shooters ever made – on paper. You can hijack a jet in mid-air, take enemies out with a sniper rifle from the other side of a two mile map, collapse entire Chinese skyscrapers, utilize seemingly endless amounts of military tech, and all with 63 other people from around the globe at once. That is to say, you could do those things, if only you could get into a match. Around about the time of Battlefield: Bad Company, I’d read the words “cannot connect to EA Online” so many times that I ended up accidentally saying them at my wedding, instead of the more traditional “I do”.
The real shame, of course, is that Electronic Arts have had several years since that game’s release to get it right, and they consistently haven’t. A quick glace at the Battlefield 4 Facebook page will show up a near endless stream of red-hot bile, being spewed forth by people who spent $60 (or in Premium cases, $100+) on what is effectively a drab menu screen.
Even now, after several patches (and grovelling apologies), there’s still plenty of nonsense occurring on the field. Soldiers floating around with completely static legs, or getting killed by people who themselves appear to have 0% health, for example. Not to mention the various sound issues – especially upsetting as Battlefield 4 has the most glorious audio you’ll ever hear. But DICE have five platforms of this game to work on, so I do kind of feel sorry for them. And I do still love the game, especially as I equip my rocket-launcher whilst quad-biking towards a- YOU HAVE LOST CONNECTION TO THE SESSION.
