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http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2016/05/06/world-war-1-ww1-battlefield-5-teaser-drops-a-hint-ahead-of-reveal/#1dfc0f5516ee

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/after-battlefield-4-comes-battlefield-1/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/06/battlefield-1-title-art-leaked-ahead-of-official-reveal

So am in.

Hey, I was just saying how a WWI setting would be awesome!

WW1 is perhaps the most nightmarish war in human history. Never understood why it never got more attention from game developers.

I, personally, think it's because the US didn't play a big role in it.

It's an alternate version of WW1. Not the real WW1

I think because the combat of it was incredibly brutal* (comparatively) and the static nature of trench lines. WWI often isn't seen as dynamic overall. I had a history professor that always wanted to teach WWI but no one signed up for it, the students always signed up for WWII.

*Mission 1: Run Into a machine gun!
Mission 2: Don't die from mustard gas!

WWI also doesn't capture the imagination quite like WWII. It's not really in living memory anymore, and it wasn't recorded in as much audio and visual detail as WWII. But, we'll see what the game is like soon enough, I guess.

And suddenly what little interest I had in Overwatch vanished- this sounds fascinating and so weird! WWI had so many peculiar experiments in personal gear.

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
It's an alternate version of WW1. Not the real WW1

I don't think this was confirmed?

Either way, Battlefield 1 = Battlefield won, eh?

Definitely on board for this I think, I'll take WW1 over modern/near future stuff any day, a period of history that is overlooked in mass media far too much... not that I expect this to be particularly 'historical, but it's nice to see the conflict get some non-academic attention and it should offer some very different gameplay to the more recent stuff.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
It's an alternate version of WW1. Not the real WW1

I don't think this was confirmed?

Either way, Battlefield 1 = Battlefield won, eh?

The trailer confirms it, did you see how fast that tank was going?

Meh, we'll see. It's not BF1944 so I won't be getting hyped for it, and I certainly won't be preordering it, but it might end up playable.

Kind of excited about this. Might be the first Battlefield game I buy since 2142.

I would love me a WW1 themed steampunky Battlefield game, Stosstruppen Vor!

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
It's an alternate version of WW1. Not the real WW1

I don't think this was confirmed?

Either way, Battlefield 1 = Battlefield won, eh?

Anyone with even a 30 second briefing on WWI could tell you this is clearly an Alternate history game.

I want to point out moments in the trailer, but I'd basically be quoting the whole thing.

The cool thing is that they're building on things that WERE in the war. Like the German wearing the plate armor and walking forward with the machine gun mowing down Brits. Germans really did give armor to some of their machine gun crews, in some cases very similar to Medieval armor, although it was mainly meant to stop shrapnel as mg mests drew hellish amounts of grenades and artillery. They even had helmet plates to make them bulletproof (that's what the lugs on both sides are for) however, this armor and helmet would be extremely heavy, and to try to walk forward with even a rifle would be very difficult, to walk with a water cooled machine gun would require Herculean strength.

Other obvious signs are the various weapons and equipment you see some soldiers wearing, and the vehicles, especially the Zeppelin towards the end. All are late WWI equipment and my money would be that many of the Germans you see in the trailer are Stosstruppen or stormtroopers given they're using pistols and vicious close combat weapons. These were shock troops armed with flamethrowers, shortened rifles, pistols, and rudimentary smg's in a desperate attempt to break the trench stalemate. That club you see in the first scene is typical of the fighting, brutal, cheaply made, and absolutely horrifying to see in action.

My guess would be that this game takes place in 1919 onwards. Either the Americans stayed out of the war (and knowing EA, that's pretty unlikely) or the German's counteroffensive in 1918 worked, when Russian pulled out and allowed hundreds of thousands of Germans to reinforce the Western front.

This could be awesome, alternate history WWI has a lot of interesting potential and if done correctly could be a lot of fun.

Time to make a DKOK army!

The real question is: Can I be the Red Baron in a steampunk plane with rockets?

 Nostromodamus wrote:
WW1 is perhaps the most nightmarish war in human history. Never understood why it never got more attention from game developers.

If anyone hasn't, I'd strongly recommend listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast, specifically the more recent ones called 'Countdown to Armageddon 1-5'. Aside from being just a fantastic listen, it gives a very evocative look into WW1 and events surrounding it. Could not recommend it more. Granted if this game is an alternate reality it will have limited application but I assume most wargamers have at least a passing interest in war and I found this particular series amazing.

AAA 1914.

Also, when Im hiking I listen to Audiobooks. I highly recommend "The Guns of August." Just about the gestalts of WW1. The first month of war and mobilization and assassinations. Won the Pulitzer. Its no Black Library though... hahaha.

This was pretty interesting. Also, it proves that the machine-gun toting German could work.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:


The cool thing is that they're building on things that WERE in the war. Like the German wearing the plate armor and walking forward with the machine gun mowing down Brits. Germans really did give armor to some of their machine gun crews, in some cases very similar to Medieval armor, although it was mainly meant to stop shrapnel as mg mests drew hellish amounts of grenades and artillery. They even had helmet plates to make them bulletproof (that's what the lugs on both sides are for) however, this armor and helmet would be extremely heavy, and to try to walk forward with even a rifle would be very difficult, to walk with a water cooled machine gun would require Herculean strength.

Got my fingers crossed for this as an equip-able outfit:





These look pretty cool though.



Not sure about the practicality of this helmet.

 Kojiro wrote:

 Nostromodamus wrote:
WW1 is perhaps the most nightmarish war in human history. Never understood why it never got more attention from game developers.

If anyone hasn't, I'd strongly recommend listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast, specifically the more recent ones called 'Countdown to Armageddon 1-5'. Aside from being just a fantastic listen, it gives a very evocative look into WW1 and events surrounding it. Could not recommend it more. Granted if this game is an alternate reality it will have limited application but I assume most wargamers have at least a passing interest in war and I found this particular series amazing.

Hardcore History is amazing, love that podcast. Blueprint for Armageddon is probably the best overview of WW1 out there anywhere.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
WW1 is perhaps the most nightmarish war in human history. Never understood why it never got more attention from game developers.

Mostly because it's hard to make a terribly fun game out of it. Most parties involved in the war spent years wasting millions of lives trying various different actions and accomplishing largely nothing. Offensive action on the western front for example shifted damn near nothing until the last ~6 or so months of the war and was ultimately decided by one side starting to starve to death and a brand new, fresh, and gigantic power entering the war on the other side at the same time. Eastern Europe had much more going on but not really in a way that's conducive to making a videogame about. Likewise, on a tactical level, bolt action rifles and largely fixed-in-place heavy machineguns engaging each other with empty killing grounds between doesn't make for the best FPS experience.

Also it's overshadowed by WW2 which has far more "excitement" and movement, there's just more stuff to make a good videogame with there.

WWI seems to lend itself to more narrative gameplay than action.

Still, very excited about this. Never loved the battlefield franchise, but this may cause me to jump in!

First Battlefield game I've been interested in in a long time.

Does the series still do that annoying browser thing, or is it all operated through a game client?

You mean battelog? Yeah that's still there.

Hmmm. Slightly disappointed they went with WW1. Whilst unique and with some potential I wonder will it have the "meat" or just sheer pewpew value of bf2142/3/4?
Unless they really arcade it up, I cant see the tanks or guns being as much fun as modern stuff, I mean most guns were rifle-esque in ww1 right? And tanks were big, very pondorous and slow to fire.
Naval aspect? No gunboats etc and there wasn't really any such thing as APCs or MRLS or obviously choppers then.
I wonder if this is a deliberate attempt at two fingers to the cod series and more futuristic direction it has been going of late. Dice could easily have updated 2142 which was fantastic at the time.

But it has horses

We shall see I guess!

I love it. WW2 has been done to death, and the current modern & futuristic trend is getting boring.

Trench warfare with destructible terrain? Feth yes! I've got my fingers crossed for terrain deformation too (creating new craters with explosives) like Bad Company 2 had. I loved creating the moonscapes with C4. I used to knock down entire forests just so I could get a better sight line.

Struggling to take a trench because the other team is too damn good? Obliterate the feth out of it.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
I love it. WW2 has been done to death, and the current modern & futuristic trend is getting boring.

Trench warfare with destructible terrain? Feth yes! I've got my fingers crossed for terrain deformation too (creating new craters with explosives) like Bad Company 2 had. I loved creating the moonscapes with C4. I used to knock down entire forests just so I could get a better sight line.

Struggling to take a trench because the other team is too damn good? Obliterate the feth out of it.

Yeah, I reckon the gameplay here could be very diverse and fun. While the prevailing image of trench warfare is sitting around doing nothing and occasionally getting shot to bits, in the 15-20 minute segments of a battle we'll actually be playing, things can be very dynamic- Artillery bombardments giving you a constant changing battlefield, all kinds of weapons to contend with, lots of variety in terrain and cover from wide open spaces to cramped underground tunnels/dugouts, very clearly defined attacker and defender roles. I think it could be a real breath of fresh air to the FPS genre.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
You mean battelog? Yeah that's still there.

Damn.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Mostly because it's hard to make a terribly fun game out of it. Most parties involved in the war spent years wasting millions of lives trying various different actions and accomplishing largely nothing. Offensive action on the western front for example shifted damn near nothing until the last ~6 or so months of the war and was ultimately decided by one side starting to starve to death and a brand new, fresh, and gigantic power entering the war on the other side at the same time. Eastern Europe had much more going on but not really in a way that's conducive to making a videogame about. Likewise, on a tactical level, bolt action rifles and largely fixed-in-place heavy machineguns engaging each other with empty killing grounds between doesn't make for the best FPS experience.

Have you ever played a WW1 shooter?

Try Verdun out. It's the freshest FPS I've played in years and it's all western front 1914-18. It's so much more than "bolt actions and fixed mg's".