You ever get a sense of déjà vu? It is once again time for a new Battlefield game and that means there will be some bugs included. I mean, every game has them these days and they aren't completely unexpected. However, when it comes to Battlefield, there may be a bit more worry from fans who remember the release of Battlefield 4.
History may be ready to repeat itself when Battlefield 2042 launches. DICE has already posted a list of known issues and it's rather long. Keep in mind that the game isn't even in the hands of players yet and there's already a long list of bugs. It's probably a safe bet that players will find even more issues that DICE did not encounter.
With the early access unlock time quickly approaching (November 12 at 3AM (ET)), it may feel like a true "early access" experience for those that have paid a premium for the game. Hell, DICE has already had to disable a piece of gear for a Specialist! Other issues include the fact that players can become stuck in world geometry. Sometimes the rank displayed at the bottom right of the main menu can be incorrect. Also, weapon skins that you have unlocked may still show an incomplete progress bar. You'll have to restart the game to fix this one.
The Breakaway map has rubberbanding issues in some circumstances. Breakthrough has an issue where players cannot spawn at B1 when it's contested. Discarded has "visual flickering" on PC, PS5, and Series X|S.
Even more serious is an issue with the Manifest map. DICE warns that the visual flickering is so bad near the map's Weather Station location that some players with photosensitive conditions should be warned about it.
This sounds like a real mess. The Gold and Ultimate editions of Battlefield 2042 can begin playing on November 12. Everyone else who bought the basic version of the game can begin playing on November 19. If you haven't bought the game yet, you may just want to wait a while for DICE to fix these bugs. We're potentially looking at another Battlefield 4 situation, if not worse.
Without further ado, here are the current issues as detailed by DICE.
Specialists
Dozer - SOB-8 Ballistic Shield
Matchmaking
Xbox - EA Play Trial
Maps
Breakaway
Discarded
Manifest
Misc
Bots
Soldiers
Ranger
Audio
Vehicles
User Interface & Messaging
Progression & Unlocks
Weapons & Gadgets
Recon Drone
XDR Holo Sight
Vehicles
Misc
MD540 Nightbird
Gameplay
Hazard Zone
Battlefield Portal
Dozer - SOB-8 Ballistic Shield
- NEW 11/11 @ 06:02 PM - We have temporarily disabled Dozer's SOB-8 Ballistic Shield, it's presently behaving outside our intended designs and we're working to assess what changes we can make. This change takes effect across All-Out Warfare, Hazard Zone, and Battlefield Portal. We will continue to update you of any further developments regarding this on @BattlefieldComm and within this thread.
Matchmaking
Xbox - EA Play Trial
- NEW 11/11 @ 05:26 PM - We are investigating an issue that is preventing players on Xbox from starting their EA Play Trial, and are seeing signs of players being presented with screens that their Trial has concluded. In order to preserve your time from ticking away while we investigate this issue, please do not keep your game open and ensure you close it fully.
- 11/1 @ 06:07 PM - We have identified what is causing the issue and are actively developing the fix so that we can ensure Xbox players can start their EA Play Trial
Maps
Breakaway
- All Platforms - We have identified some server instances of rubberbanding when the big silos on Breakaway are destroyed*
- All Platforms - On the mode Breakthrough, players will be unable to spawn on B1 while it is contested*
- All Platforms - Bridge destruction states have a tendency to desync if the player joins at a late stage in the round*
- All Platforms - On the mode, Breakthrough, players will be unable to spawn on B1 while it is contested*
Discarded
- PC, Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 - There are some rare instances of visual flickering while playing on Discarded*
Manifest
- PlayStation 5 - Within the Weather Station on Manifest, while the building is in a destroyed state there are rare instances that can cause severe flickering of our lighting systems, which has the potential to trigger those with Photosensitive Conditions*
Misc
- All Platforms - We are aware of some miscellaneous issues causing players to become stuck within world geometry*
- Several of these are being fixed for a patch after launch, please continue to report any scenario where you get stuck in the maps!
Bots
Soldiers
- All Platforms - In some situations, Bots are unable to revive downed players*
Ranger
- All Platforms - We’re aware of Ranger malfunctioning when ordered over some obstacles, and we are working to improve this.
- All Platforms - Ranger can become non-responsive to “Go To†orders if the player is far away from Ranger, and we are similarly working to improve this.
Audio
Vehicles
- All Platforms - The Lock-on sound effect for helicopters can continue after the Helicopter has been destroyed*
User Interface & Messaging
- All Platforms - There is currently no error message to indicate to the player that the game is still installing*
- All Platforms - Subtitles are not present on video tutorials even if the subtitle setting is ON*
- Battlefield Portal - Loadouts have a slight tendency to not save when entering or leaving a match*
- Battlefield Hazard Zone - When starting a second round, unlocks from the previous round are triggered during the intro sequence*
- All Platforms - When returning back to the main menu after a match, Specialist’s textures may be slow to load*
- All Platforms - The "Vertical Sync" option does not have any effect when activated while using a 144hz monitor*
- All Platforms - "View Profile" option is not present in "Search EA ID" between same-platform Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5 players*
- All Platforms - We’re aware of a unique situation where accounts that have access to Battlefield 2042 across multiple platforms may cause Cross Play Friends to not appear*
- All Platforms - The attackers playercard doesn't load after getting killed by another player*
- All Platforms - Sprint/Boost hint text is currently misleading*
Progression & Unlocks
- All Platforms - The rank displayed in the bottom right of the Main Menu does not always update with the player's actual rank achieved after an Online session.
- We’re working to resolve this issue and will follow up with further updates at a later time.
- All Platforms - Weapon Skins are unlocked but will show an incomplete progress bar until the game has been restarted*
- Restarting the game will fix this for you, however a fix has been made for an upcoming update.
- All Platforms - All Locked Character / Weapon / Vehicle skins are missing their Mastery Rank target*
- All Platforms - The “Fly Not Ye Cowards†Playercard Art unlock objective is currently incorrect, you will need to visit two locations on El Alamein, in the same life, to unlock this*
- All Platforms - EMP Mine is currently incorrectly labelled. We will be renaming this to EMP Grenades at a later date.
- All Platforms - Some skins are applying over weapon charms.
- We’re working to fix this as soon as possible.
- All Platforms - The Mastery bar won't show for hardware items until T5 is unlocked*
- PlayStation 5 - The Med-Pen Mastery Badge is not currently tracking progress after Rank 25*
- PlayStation 5 - Captain Caspian Playercard Background is not unlocked after completing its criteria*
Weapons & Gadgets
Recon Drone
- All Platforms - Players are currently unable to deploy the OV-P Recon Drone while prone*
- PC - The OV-P Recon Drone is not currently locking onto enemy targets or vehicles*
XDR Holo Sight
- All Platforms - We’re aware of some instances of flickering when ADS with the XDR Holo Sight*
Vehicles
Misc
- All Platforms - On rare occasions, vertical aiming in a vehicle can be inoperable upon vehicle entry*
- All Platforms - Some vehicles may not have controller vibration when used*
- All Platforms - We’re aware of some vehicles not having RTAO (Ray-traced Ambient Occlusion)*
MD540 Nightbird
- All Platforms - Rockets from the MD540 Nightbird that impact the ground can sometimes appear as being frozen*
Gameplay
- All Platforms - Parachutes sometimes remain open, even after the player has landed.
- This will be improved upon in an upcoming update.
Hazard Zone
- PC - We’re aware of players experiencing an issue with mouse input when it comes to selecting a Specialist within Hazard Zone
- While we are working to resolve this in an upcoming patch, players can bypass this by selecting their chosen Specialist with the spacebar.
- All Platforms - Players are currently unable to revive downed teammates if they are inside the MV38-Condor (at Extraction Point)*
- All Platforms - We’re aware of some rare instances of the Extraction Streak not updating after multiple extractions have taken place*
Battlefield Portal
- Battlefield Builder / Web - We're aware of messaging taking place upon the creation of an Experience that suggests you were "Unable to Create" the Experience. This is incorrect, the Experience is created, and refreshing your page will resolve this. - We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.
So... EA wants DICE's vision to be launching a product in time for the holiday season (before CoD: Vanguard hogs all the demand), and then hotfix it later to not suck as long as it doesn't have "showstopper" problems? Isn't that like, post-launch crunch at this point because selling an inferior product is profitable as long as it's a AAA brand? And we're just consumers with lower standards? Hmm... Least shareholders agree with this vision of theirs.
I mean, if DICE provides this list AND delays it again, I think it would leave us with a better impression, as we would then see why it's not an arbitrary delay decision. Instead, they admit it will launch with all these problems? And the asterisks don't make any sense! The footnote on EA's blog says "presently targeted for fixes in future updates" and yet items without the asterisk are also being worked on to be fixed ASAP. So what's the difference? No asterisks are developer fixes, and the other with asterisks are patch update fixes?
This is far worse than the Battlefield 4 launch.
Damn... I really wanted to play this, but not at full price. Least not with everyone saying it sucks. At least EGM thinks it's perfect for whatever unknown reason.
...Watch that DICE accidentally provided the broken build for Early Access, and then rectify it on launch with the actual Gold build? Hah.
The support twitter for Battlefield did say the connection issues seem resolved about 5 hours after you tweeted how bad it was.
And the Reddit thread in question for those that haven't seen it: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...2042_and_what/
Then there's also this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...nd_need_to_be/
And this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...news_you_cant/
And this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...his_sht_again/
And this: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/qsygwp
And this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...still_in_beta/
And this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield...nvoted_the_pc/
And most everything currently being posted to r/Battlefield2042
This game should not have been released for many, many months.
Needless to say... WRONG. Sigh, all to make it in time for the holiday season, and to prevent Activision-Blizzard from hogging all demand with Call of Duty: Vanguard (which apparently also has laughable weapon bloom). Got to keep them EA shareholders happy I guess.
And you were not kidding, the subreddit is FLOODED with pissed off players. What the bloody Hell was EGM's Michael Goroff playing to give a perfect score? Was it a review event with catering and hotel accommodations?
Damn I can't wait for November 19 to come to see what the Steam reviews will be. Metacritic is already review bombed.
Also worth noting, Shawn Zipay IS a hardcore Battlefield fan (this website is partially Battlefield focused coverage in case anyone forgot), and yet this is the honest advice we're getting. I'm not paying full price for this. I'll wait until it's fixed and discounted. And then uninstall when EA gets DICE to make the microtransactions/advertisements/sponsorships patch after the media gushes over the polished build.