14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at DICE says that the future setting of the Battlefield 2142 series might offer more creativity, but for the moment, the studio is happy to explore the possibilities of modern-day combat.
The Official Xbox Magazine asked Lars Gustavsson, a creative director at the company, about the way Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 used its own storyline to open up more gameplay possibilities.
The developer explains that, “Yeah, it gives them a lot of creative freedom. And I think that’s what people loved when we did Battlefield 2142 – when they got to unleash their creativity. ‘This seems cool: let’s do it!’”
The new Call of Duty: Ghosts, a direct rival to Battlefield 4, will also use a near future setting, which means that the team at Infinity Ward can deploy a new range of weapons and even aliens in one game mode.
Lars Gustavsson adds, “At the same time I think that we’ve been really happy working with a contemporary setting, in being able to have a great foundation to build on and then just add a plethora of extra goodies to it. The contemporary with all the hi-tech stuff that’s already out there, to just keep on evolving it.”
Battlefield as a series has always tried to position itself as the more realistic of the big first-person shooter franchises, aiming to give players a taste of the experience that soldiers feel when fighting modern wars.
Battlefield 2142 was not the best received title in the franchise and DICE is probably unwilling to try and revive the timeline given the strong competition it is currently facing.
Battlefield 4 is now available in the United States on the PC and current-gen consoles and will be out in three days in Europe.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be released on November 5 all over the world.