SA gamers hungry for Battlefield 4: DICE interview

Battlefield 4’s colossal booth at rAge 2013 was justified as the game is undoubtedly one of the biggest releases this year.

MyGaming caught up with Daniel Matros, producer at DICE, to discuss Battlefield in the South African context, and the history and future of the franchise.

We asked about the importance to DICE and EA of emerging markets, and specifically South Africa.

“It’s like any other market that’s hungry for a competitive game. A lot of players in South Africa play casually, once a week or so, but you also have a huge competitive audience in South Africa, so its important to focus on these regions,” said Matros. “And myself being here shows that DICE is sending love and EA did an amazing job at rAge too, so SA is very important to us.”

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 was looking gorgeous running on the Alienware rigs at rAge, and MyGaming had to ask about the game’s biggest hook this time around – Levolution.

“Levolution is a dynamic element in the map that reshapes or changes the environment in the game. It can be anything from a ship crashing into an island, a dam wall breaking and flooding the map or even some smaller micro moments, like putting down gates to stop the opposition getting to a flag, or putting down barricades to stop tanks moving in the streets,” said Matros. “Every multiplayer map of a large scale, like in the Obliteration or Conquest mode, features a levolution moment.”

DICE recently spoke about the “Battlefield moments” which are created by the game’s diverse gameplay options, so MyGaming asked whether the team at DICE is constantly surprised what gamers manage to do.

“We are always surprised, there’s no script, so we’re always amazed at what the community accomplishes,” said Matros. “There were some of the coolest moments in gaming created by Battlefield 3, like the one where the guy jumps out his jet mid-air, shoots the other with a rocketlauncher, and jumps back into his jet… I mean c’mon… that’s a work of art. We’re always excited to see that stuff.”

Battlefield 4 Paracel Storm screenshot

After some hands-on time with Battlefield 4 and noticing small interactive elements in the maps (such as opening and closing shipping crate doors), we asked Matros whether there were some other small details of the game that were being overlooked.

“The smaller tactical manoeuvres are something new that’s cool, such as the ability to cut power to elevators or changing the environment to make claiming a flag much harder. So I think it’ll be interesting for us at DICE to see how people overcome these obstacles that other players throw at them,” said Matros.

“From Battlefield 3, we really learnt what people like, and who our players are. We learnt that players like infantry maps and larger vehicle maps, so we’re trying to create an experience which caters for every player, and that’s the sweet-spot we’re aiming to hit.”

The Battlefield franchise has tackled the past (with 1942 and Vietnam) and the future (with 2142), but MyGaming asked Matros which period he would personally love to see in the BF series.

“Battlefield 2142 was my absolute favourite game, because it was so different during the time it came out, so from a fanboy perspective, I’d love to see Battlefield 2143 come out,” said Matros.

With the legacy that each Battlefield game creates, MyGaming asked whether the team finds it hard to move on from one project to the next, such as leaving Battlefield 3 behind.

“Yeah, it definitely is [difficult], but all the changes come naturally. We have to satisfy the 20 million Battlefield 3 players, but also bring new players to the series, so it’s hard to follow, but we’ve got to keep innovating.”