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Release Date

INow EA has announced a more specific Battlefield 4 release date: the game launches on March 17, 2015, on multiple platforms.

Battlefield Hardline is the first Battlefield game in a long time not to be developed solely by DICE — Hardline is developed by Visceral Games, known for the Dead Space series.

The Battlefield Hardline release date was revealed during EA’s earnings call today, where CEO Andrew Wilson said that the delay was not only to ensure proper game quality at launch, but also to “deepen the cops vs robbers” aspect of the game. Wilson said:

“We should go deeper with that fantasy and really deliver against that to a greater degree. What we’ve done is given the development team that time to go back in and really look at how to truly deliver on that cops and criminals kind of gameplay as it exists in a Battlefield world.”

What do you think of Battlefield Hardline so far? Will you be picking up the game on launch day in March? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

EA wins lawsuit over Battlefield 4’s awful launch

Battlefield 4 launched a year ago, and it was pretty clear that things weren’t as they should have been. We all know the story by now, about Battlefield 4’s awful launch and how long it took to make the game playable.

But while we as gamers complained a lot, there were people with a lot more at stake. Investors who put their money into EA saw the stock drop after Battlefield 4’s buggy launch, and sued EA. And it was easy to see why: just before Battlefield 4 launched, EA executives unloaded $5 million worth of EA stock.

Back in December 2013, a group of investors sued EA over false and misleading statements, saying that EA propped Battlefield 4 up to be one of the best games of the year, when in fact, it turned out to be a failure at launch. The investors felt that EA misled them to believe that Battlefield 4 would be a huge success.

In the end though, while the Battlefield brand has been hurt a lot, BF4 still sold millions of copies, and overall, EA’s stock is one of the better performing video game stocks over the past year.

The lawsuit has been ruled in EAs favor by US District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco, who said that EA wasn’t misleading investors, they were simply making “inactionable statements of opinion, corporate optimism, or puffery”. In other words, EA was being very optimistic about Battlefield 4, but did not outright lie to investors.

They certainly lied to gamers.

DICE explains what’s new in the Fall patch (video

The recently released Battlefield 4 patch — the Fall 2014 patch — seems to have done some great things to the game. Overall, the game seems more responsive to many gamers, and finally, after a full year, it’s actually possible to get consistently good gameplay.

DICE has now released a new video that showcases the major changes in the new Battlefield 4 patch. The video shows the new HUD display, the new revive features, the aim and sight fixes, and more.

The patch has been out for a week now, and so far response has been very positive. DICE took their time and spent a few extra months working on it, which seems to have paid off.

Battlefield 4 Final Stand details

DICE has revealed some brand new stuff about the Battlefield 4 Final Stand expansion: the very last Battlefield 4 DLC. As we’ve learned before, Final Stand will feature some very advanced, sci-fi-like weapons and gadgets. And much like BF2142, which is what Final Stand is kind of based upon, Final Stand will include plenty of winter maps and snowy settings.

Final Stand, as expected, will include four new maps: Operation Whiteout, which is set in Siberia, Hammerhead, which is set around a submarine base, Hangar 21, a military installation, and finally, Giants of Karelia, a large map set around a weapons factory.

In terms of weapons and gadgets, the new HT-95 Levkov tank and the Rorsch MK-1 heavy weapon are the big attractions. As for gadgets, the new Target Detector will automatically spot enemies, while the DS-3 decoy will give a false reading on enemy’s mini-map.

Battlefield 4 Final Stand is released as part of the Community Test Environment, where players can try and test the game before it’s released later this Fall.