games

i dunno what my favourite game itself is (current or all time), but I'll gladly shit on the battlefield franchise because there is no greater example of a continuous, slow motion, generational bag fumble culminating with 2042 killing the last vestiges of good favour DICE ever had.

while there are a few nonsensical chud criticisms of the franchise in the last decade (V getting bombed before release because customised woman skin existed), the consistent elimination of game mechanics specifically on the tactical/team management side to try and chase the COD/Fortnite moneybag through simplification and monetisation left everyone eventually realising that the only thing moderately 'battlefield' about 2042 was conquest being a mode and vehicles being usable. but the downward spiral started years before.

everyone knows about EA enshitification, given that they've cratered almost all of their non-sports IP at this point (and even the sports fans hate the games but keep buying that garbage), so i'm not going to write an essay on what we already know. but my boomer-ass contention is that the removal of the commander position in BF3 is like one of the core blunders for the whole franchise, the attempts to re-add it were half-baked in 4, and it subsequently killed the overarching layer of (optional) tactical teamwork that actually kept more players invested.

BC2 not having it can maybe be forgiven, as Bad Company was specifically console-focussed, still had decent squad-order mechanics and the destruction physics in Frostbite at that point were amazing. But then they nerfed the destruction, the commander role, the squad orders, the fucking class system, the availability of vehicles and even making the maps boring flat fields with fuck-all assets left anyone playing 2042 thinking "what are we actually doing here? what's the point?"

honestly, if BF1 wasn't the absolute marvel of sound design (and arguably graphic design & tech) or untapped setting that it was, the franchise would have died over a decade ago. the "love letter to fans" PR and overpromising for 2042 didn't help things. we've basically been watching EA and DICE uppercut themselves over and over for 15 years at this point, and no amount of begging for them to stop has worked.

it honestly makes me sad, which is so lame... but 1942, Vietnam, 2 and 2142 were just so engrossing for my formative online gaming years that i can't help it