If you have played Battlefield V from the beginning, you will probably agree that the game is fun but it's not without its flaws. In fact, it seems as though with every patch released for the game, there are almost as many new bugs added as there are ones that are squished in each patch.
The latest patch released for the game, which came about just last week, is no exception to that rule. First off, the beginning of Chapter 4 for Battlefield V's Tides of War multiplayer campaign was supposed to include the addition of a new map, Al Sundan. Well, the update does, technically, include the map but it's only for Squad Conquest and Team Deathmatch. Where is the Conquest version of the map?
Al Sundan for Conquest was intentionally held back from last week's release. DICE said that it was intentionally held back from Conquest because the team ran into a stability problem when playing on the map. Alright, fair enough. An update made today by the Battlefield UK community manager, @PartWelsh, says that they have fixed the stability issues!
Ah yeah, it seems as though a new issue has popped up for Al Sundan's Conquest variant. Now it won't be released until at least mid-July, though you can still try it out in Team Deathmatch or Squad Conquest.
If that were the only problem, it may not be that big of a deal. However, last week's update also introduced some horrendous issues when it comes to hit detection. I don't just mean hit detection on infantry. I'm talking about hit detection on pretty much everything. Vehicles, namely airplanes, are the ones that are most affected by this new and frustrating issue. This can include visually seeing impacts and explosions hitting vehicles yet the game says you did no actual damage. Tanks can be damaged from rockets and explosives that visually cleared and sailed past the armor.
It's not good.
Additionally, players have noticed that some enemies will appear as nearly invisible. Players will often just see a helmet, gun, and small bits of a uniform "running" through the environment. I have witnessed this one first hand on a few occasions now. The image at the top of this article comes via one of the numerous videos on Reddit showing the bug. You can see the invisible soldier's helmet floating on the inside-right side of the crosshair with his gun just below where his head should be.
Players have also noted an increased in performance issues since the last update. Namely, there have been a huge increase in people reporting increased and more frequent stuttering during gameplay. These are in addition to the hitches nearly every player experiences when the Tides of War assignments are updated or completed during a round. That one has been around for longer than the last update, I can say that with certainty.
The kicker to all of this is that DICE has acknowledge many of these issues. They know about the invisible soldier bug. They know about the decrease in performance. However, no fix or rollback has occurred. As it stands, the current hope is that they will be able to get a hotfix out before the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend.
That means for most players still sticking with the ever more broken game, there are multiple days left dealing with invisible player skins, horrendous hit detection, and more.
I could easily talk at length about the lackluster user interface. For instance, the last update introduced the ability for players to select any of their vehicles to use during a round. Previously, you were limited to just three planes or three tank types. The problem is, the loadout screen you access from the main menu still only shows you three tanks and three planes, not your full selection. That means that the best place for you to customize your loadouts is while you are in a server. Players still cannot swap out old assignments for new ones during a game. I won't even attempt to tackle the issue that players also have with the Epic skins that are being sold, nor with the €29.95 "Chapter 4 Premium Booster Pack" that was just announced. Those are their own cans of worms.
I feel like there is no exaggeration here when I say that Battlefield V is, in its current state, far worse off than it was at launch (numerous launch bugs are still in the game today, btw). It's a damn shame too, because despite the bugs that have come and gone over the many months, this was one of the more enjoyable Battlefield titles in a while. However, it's become increasingly hard to ignore the deteriorating state of the game.
