The big showdown last year between the big shooters of Call of Duty Vanguard, Battlefield 2042 and Halo Infinite had its fair share of winners and losers with 2042 probably being on the wrong end of most comparisons. None of them walked away from the battle unscathed but as history has shown the damage done to the Battlefield brand was considerable. At least here in Australia, a physical copy of the game often sells for less that ten dollars. After a one day only sale offering it for a fiver on Xbox I dove in and grabbed a copy.

I still had a couple of hours left from my EA Play trial but my experience from that time was mixed where the recommendation was to play the old generation versions. Time and numerous patches appear to have changed it enough that my time playing with friends has felt a lot different and more importantly enjoyable. One thing that can’t be understated is just how much fun it is to be able to jump onto a map and face off against bots. Not only do you get to try out everything the map offers but the bits do a decent job of putting up resistance, even going so far as to commandeer vehicles to take you on. Playing that way can help give you a feel for what facing off against real opponents might be like and what impressed me again was how I felt more often than not in a position to be competitive. That you can also unlock equipment is a huge benefit too.

My main issue with the Battlefield series has always been that casual players like me are at a massive disadvantage against veterans who’ve unlocked better equipment and have recent knowledge of the vast maps. Might also be I prefer shooters where you can just jump in an be in fight within seconds… short attention span? However in a few games I’ve played again I’ve felt that it’s been easy to jump into game modes that allow you get into a fight quickly and that the default loadouts would let me put up a fair fight. The aim assist and weapon handling fell like they have been tweaked again (?), giving console players a little more to work with. It’s felt like 2042 has teetered between being more like Call of Duty or going back to Battlefield – I still prefer CoD over BF any day but this time around it’s feeling pretty good. Whatever is the case, the has game let me drop in and let me feel like I can actually do something apart from being a bullet sponge and I think that’s a win.

Anyway, that’s been my gaming surprise of the week and it’s got me away from the endless battle passes of other games which is a bonus. 🙂

Battlefield 2042 is out now on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.