Battlefield 4: Most Wanted Features

Battlefield 3's just about done‚ having seen the release of End Game just last month and it's all we'll have to play with until Battlefield 4 comes out later this year. Websites, ours included, are projecting an October 29 release date for the game. It's not official, but it's what a leak from Microsoft's Xbox website seems to indicate. Given that the previous title was released on October 25, 2011, there's good reason to believe that they'll be keeping up with tradition by putting it out by the end of October.

In any case, the game's many months away and we've nothing but time on our hands to think about how they'll improve the game‚ not just in its single-player campaign, but in its multiplayer. IT goes without saying that the single player campaign will no doubt receive only a fraction of the attention of its multiplayer component.

So here are what the fans want. 

Post-Game Menu

All of the previous Battlefield titles, BF3 included, have not done much with the post-game menu. Whereas other games allow players to vote on their next map or check out their rank and progressions, the post-game menu shows nothing but a list of scores following a rank up. Most, if not all of these features have been standard to first person shooters including Call of Duty and even free-to-play titles like Blacklight Retribution.

The post-game menu in Battlefield 4 should offer the following features:

- A score board

- Ranking, class/weapons progression, next unlocks

- Information about the next map and gametype, server info

- Cross-team chat in post-game lobby

- Voting on maps in the rotation

Class and Weapon Customization Interface

As it is, the in-game user interface offers you everything you need to modify your character class, but there's a few things that could be done better. Instead of hitting the 'next' and 'previous' buttons to select your weapon, they should be selectable from a drop-down menu with all of your guns and other equipment showing. 

More Primary Weapon Customization

Having the ability to modify your weapons with more than just a silencer and a scope would add more variety into the game and provide players with the incentive to unlock even more stuff as they rank up their weapons. It would also incentivize players to stick to weapons they like. As it is, there isn't much incentive to unlock every sort of scope for a weapon, but other mods would make it a lot more attractive. 

More Secondary Weapon Customization

What's the point of having three versions of a single handgun when you can have a single handgun (as it were) with various modifications instead? 

Saved Camos

You can unlock camos for your character classes in Battlefield 3, but your choice of camo doesn't save, forcing you to select it each time you log back on. What gives? 

Simple Map Display

As it is, the map looks like a completely illegible clusterf***. Clean it up. Battlefield 2 did it right by keeping it simple.

Voice Over IP

There's nothing more game-breaking than having the inability to communicate with your teammates outside of a third party service. This needs to be done in-game.

Fire and Phosphor

You should be able to burn a path through the map with a flamethrower or flush out buildings with an incendiary or phosphor grenade. 

Better Team Balancing

The game needs to take your KPM (kills per minute) into account when balancing the teams. Players with high KPM shouldn't be grouped together on the same team when the teams are already imbalanced. 

Health and Ammo Indicators for Other Players

Depending on whether you're a Medic or Support, the game should show you how full on health or ammo players are, so you can resupply them with a medkit or ammo pack. 

Larger Maps on Consoles

The console versions of Battlefield 3 suffer compared to their PC counterpart for the sole reason that they offer smaller maps with fewer players. Considering that Battlefield 4 is headed for next-gen consoles, there's no reason why the game shouldn't be able to support as many players as it does on the PC. 

Dynamic/Randomized Weather and Time of Day

Maps would be a lot more interesting if they offered some variation on the time of day or weather effects. 

Improved Revive System

Your teammates shouldn't be able to revive you while your body's being shot up by the enemies. Not only is this infuriating when it gets you killed the instant you get back up, it also makes no sense. 

Slide to Cover

At the present, it's possible to vault over cover. It only makes sense if they added the ability to slide into cover, as well. 

More Tasks for Squad Leaders

As it is, squad leaders only have the ability to designate targets to defend or attack. Give them more purpose on the battlefield by allowing them to set up stationary defenses for squad mates and teammates to use. 

Eject Animation from Jets

You wanted realism, right? Make it so that ejecting from an airplane or a vehicle takes a few seconds, so players won't be able to cheaply escape a fight by bailing out without so much as an indication that they're going to do so.

Battle Recorder

You should be able to record your battles and save them for posterity or upload them to YouTube.